Difficulty installing Office 97

[John Harris]

Thank you for your help. I am using my Microsoft Office 97 installation CD In an effort to install two Office 97 programs: Word and Excel. I am using Wine 1.6.2. The distribution is Zorin.

In the directory of Word component programs, I right click on Setup.exe and then select Wine. The cursor then shows the symbol of a vigorously spinning disk, but the physical disk drive remains silent. After several seconds the spinning disk symbol is replaced by an ordinary cursor. And that't it. No further progress.

A guess would be there is some copy protection thing going on. I have the program registration Key at the ready, but I am not being prompted to enter it. The disk seems inert, although Linux has been able to read the list of files it contains.

From searches I know that Office 97 programs other than the database mgr have been loaded and run without difficulty under Wine. But I seem to be stalled at square one.

Thank you for your insights.
John

[dimesio]

Post terminal output. http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#get_log

[John Harris]

Thank you for your interest. John


a@a-desktop:~$
a@a-desktop:~$ cd '/media/a/OFF97SBE/WORD'
a@a-desktop:/media/a/OFF97SBE/WORD$ wine setup.exe
modify_ldt: Invalid argument
modify_ldt: Invalid argument
modify_ldt: Invalid argument
modify_ldt: Invalid argument
modify_ldt: Invalid argument
err:module:attach_process_dlls "krnl386.exe16" failed to initialize, aborting
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"C:\\windows\\system32\\winevdm.exe" failed, status c0000005
a@a-desktop:/media/a/OFF97SBE/WORD$ ^C
a@a-desktop:/media/a/OFF97SBE/WORD$

[dimesio]

http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-bf26e32 ... a60a433f88

[John Harris]

Thank you for your help.

The security issue makes me a little uneasy. I wonder if in this case there is possibly another way.

Office 97 is a suite of 32-bit programs. If I correctly understand this problem, these 32-bit programs can no longer be installed in the conventional way. This is because they were each published with a 16-bit installer, and 16-bit programs are no longer supported.

I found some workarounds intended for 64-bit Windows machines here:

http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic. ... &t=10988 In the specific case of Word 97, there is on the CD a 32-bit installer called ACMSETUP.EXE, and a related program called WORD97.STF. Here is their suggestion:

"Many Microsoft setup programs from 95 to 97 have a 16-bit loader stub. Instead of running this file, locate and run the 32-bit ACMSETUP instead.... "

"When running the ACMSETUP pass the "/T" parameter followed by the name of the included ".STF" file. (Or alternatively rename the .STF file to ACMSETUP.STF)."

So they are suggesting for something that looks like this:

ACMSETUP.EXE/T WORD97.STF

In the context of Wine and Linux, I am not sure how I might "pass the /T parameter" since we are speaking a different language. Is this /T meaningful to Wine or Linux?

The alternative they suggest is to rename the WORD97.STF file to ACMSETUP.STF, but the CD is read only and copy protected.

Thank you for your insights,

Michael

[dimesio]

ReactOS and Windows may no longer support 16 bit programs, but Wine still does, and the 64 bit Linux kernel will allow it if you enable that feature with the command I pointed you to in the wiki.

In the context of Wine and Linux, I am not sure how I might "pass the /T parameter" since we are speaking a different language. Is this /T meaningful to Wine or Linux?

Command line switches can be used the same way you would use them on Windows. There should be a space between ACMSETUP.EXE and /T.

The alternative they suggest is to rename the WORD97.STF file to ACMSETUP.STF, but the CD is read only and copy protected.

AFAIK, Microsoft did not copy protect discs; they used registration keys, and later, online activation. You should be able to copy all the files to an ordinary directory on your hard drive (not an iso) and install from there.

[John Harris]

Thank you for your insights.

Using the 32-bit installer I attempted to install Word 97 from the CD once again. The installation progressed nicely, accepted the registration key, and copied lots of files to the hard drive, but in the end it reported that it had failed. Here is what I found on the terminal after the installation halted.

a@a-desktop:~$ cd /media/a/OFF97SBE/word
a@a-desktop:/media/a/OFF97SBE/word$ wine acmsetup.exe /t word97.stf
fixmeDde_OnRequest returning fake program groups list
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
fixme:storage:StgOpenStorage STGM_PRIORITY mode not implemented correctly
a@a-desktop:/media/a/OFF97SBE/word$

Thank you for your counsel. Michael

[dimesio]

There's nothing obvious in the console output. Were you still only trying to install Word and Excel? Because the Office 97 installer reports failure at the end if you are also trying to install Access, but Access is the only part that doesn't install--Word and Excel will work despite the failure message.

[John Harris]

Well, Voila. You are right. Word works! After the Word 97 installer insisted that the installation had failed, it never occurred to me to actually try to run the program...

Next I will try to load Excel using the same technique, that is, by ignoring the 16-bit installation stub and running the 32-bit installer, acmsetup.exe. The form of the command was as follows:

wine acmsetup.exe /t word97.stf

This is mainly a nostalgia project, and an effort to learn Linux and Wine, but there are a number of features in Word 97 that seem superior to more modern versions. Elegant simplicity is one.

Many thanks for your patient and intelligent help, DiMesio.