Unexpected folder structure in Wine 1.2.2 (Linuxmint 11)

[GH68]

I am trying out Linuxmint 11 and downloaded Wine 1.2.2 from the repository. I have installed a few applications in Wine and to my surprise my previous start-up scripts (which I for different reasons use) don't work. It was easy to find the explanation, but it was even more of a surprise to me: it turned out that on the C: wine drive instead of "Program files" the directory "Program" has been created. All applications have now been installed in "Program". Has anyone experienced this besides me? What is the best way to deal with this (if it matters at all), should I rename this folder or should I just update my scripts? I suppose that if I rename there is a risk that some file references within my already installed applications may fail, but on the other hand it is inconvenient to have a non-standard setup, e.g. if I download a script from someone else. I'm happy for any input!

[dimesio]

I am trying out Linuxmint 11 and downloaded Wine 1.2.2 from the repository. I have installed a few applications in Wine and to my surprise my previous start-up scripts (which I for different reasons use) don't work. It was easy to find the explanation, but it was even more of a surprise to me: it turned out that on the C: wine drive instead of "Program files" the directory "Program" has been created. All applications have now been installed in "Program". Has anyone experienced this besides me?

Sounds like something is wrong with your distro's Wine package. Report it to them.

[GH68]

I'm trying to find out if anyone else running my distro has the same problem. Nevertheless, my question remains: should I rename "Program" to "Program Files" or not? I tried that for one user as a test, but when I tried to install a new application it still suggests C:\Program, even if C:\Program doesn't exist anymore. Thus, somewhere there must be a setting of the default installation directory somewhere in Wine? Is anyone aware of that and how to change it?

[dimesio]

I'm trying to find out if anyone else running my distro has the same problem. Nevertheless, my question remains: should I rename "Program" to "Program Files" or not? I tried that for one user as a test, but when I tried to install a new application it still suggests C:\Program, even if C:\Program doesn't exist anymore. Thus, somewhere there must be a setting of the default installation directory somewhere in Wine? Is anyone aware of that and how to change it?

When you create a new wineprefix, without anything installed, does the Program Files directory get created? It should, and if it doesn't something is wrong with your Wine build.

[GH68]

Thanks for the hint, dimesio. When I create a new wineprefix, the directory "Program" is created instead of "Program Files". After some more investigations I have found that the application install directory is determined by a setting in regedit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> System -> CurrentControlSet -> Control -> SessionManager -> Environment -> ProgramFiles. In my setup, this key has the value Program. I suppose I could have changed it before installing any applications and that I can do this now and reinstall my applications. But how do I change this globally, i.e. that a new wineprefix gets it right and that a new Linux user gets it rigth. This key must be populated from somewhere but wherefrom?

The Linuxmint distro is based on Ubuntu and the Wine package actually comes from the Ubuntu 11.04 distro. Unless the distro tampers with it somehow during the installation it seems very odd that I seem to be the only one being bothered about this issue considering the size of Ubuntu?

[dimesio]

Thanks for the hint, dimesio. When I create a new wineprefix, the directory "Program" is created instead of "Program Files". After some more investigations I have found that the application install directory is determined by a setting in regedit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> System -> CurrentControlSet -> Control -> SessionManager -> Environment -> ProgramFiles. In my setup, this key has the value Program.

That key doesn't exist in any of the wineprefixes on my system, and the Program Files directory was correctly created in all of them. This is on openSUSE, with the distro packages.

The Linuxmint distro is based on Ubuntu and the Wine package actually comes from the Ubuntu 11.04 distro. Unless the distro tampers with it somehow during the installation it seems very odd that I seem to be the only one being bothered about this issue considering the size of Ubuntu?

Are you using an actual Ubuntu package, or does Mint repackage it?

One thing I do notice is the package you're using is very old; it's not even the newest stable release. Try upgrading to the latest development release (1.3.26) and see if you have the same problem.

[GH68]

The Wine package is retrieved from the Ubuntu repository (not repackaged by LinuxMint) and I now upgraded to 1.3.15, which is the most recent version available in the repository. I played around a lot, but now I can make a long story short:

The name of the Program Files directory is language dependent. When logging on to Linux using English when first configuring wine, the directory will be called "Program Files" but with Swedish it will be called "Program". This is consistent with my Swedish WinXP installation. I suppose this can be regarded as an "improvement" of Wine, since it didn't work like that before. I even tried German, and then it is named "Programme".

Thanks again for spending the time trying to help me!