Installing an .exe file as root

[markdcinci513]

I know that it's HIGHLY discouraged to ever do anything in WINE as root, but I have the Visual Link Spanish course. In order to install it, there are buttons that MUST be clicked on in order to get through the setup. Unfortunately, the only way to be able to click on these buttons is to run it as "sudo wine setup.exe". I did this just the other day with no problems, and have done it before. However, I had to reinstall my Ubuntu 14.04 LTS yesterday due to some other issues that couldn't be corrected, and now when I try to install Visual Link Spanish setup.exe as "sudo wine", I'm getting an error "./wine is not owned by you". How do I fix this?

[dimesio]

Install to a wineprefix that root owns. You will then have to run the app as root, always.

A better question would be why you cannot install this as a normal user in the first place. Clicking buttons in a Windows app should never require root privileges.

[markdcinci513]

I have absolutely no idea why this program works that way. But it will only allow me to click the buttons if I install as "sudo wine". Otherwise, I can't click the buttons and install the program. Is there any other way to bypass "WINE is not owned by you" besides installing to a wineprefix that root owns? And how would I do that should I decide to go that way?

[markdcinci513]

I have absolutely no idea why it won't let me click on the buttons unless I install the program as root. And I never actually run WINE as root, I just need to install this one program. I can't figure out how because no matter what I try, I get the error message "Wine is not owned by you".

[dimesio]

Running as sudo is running as root, and once you do that--which you already said you did to install the app before--you mess up the permissions in the wineprefix. That could be the reason the installer doesn't work as a normal user. Check the permissions on the wineprefix and everything in it.

Also, you didn't mention what Wine version you're using. If it's not the latest development release, upgrade, and try installing to a clean wineprefix as a normal user. If you still can't click the buttons, post terminal output.

[markdcinci513]

OK, I purged WINE and reinstalled. Version is WINE 1.7.34. Now, how do I install to a wineprefix? I have absolutely no idea! I've never done that before.

[dimesio]

http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#wineprefix

[markdcinci513]

I followed your link, and I ran "WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/path/to/wineprefix winecfg". I got this response - wine: chdir to /path/to/wineprefix
: No such file or directory

[dimesio]

As it says in the FAQ item I linked to, you have to substitute the actual path to the wineprefix for "/path/to/wineprefix" in the command.

If you have nothing in the default wineprefix (~/.wine) that you want to save, you can just delete that and recreate it as 32 bit.

[markdcinci513]

I actually FOUND the answer after almost 2 complete days of searching. Instead of making the setup.exe file executable by using chmod a+x, you have to use chmod +rwxrwxrwx /path/to/file.extension. Then it allows you to take COMPLETE control of the setup.exe file, and you can install it without having to install as "root". It will then allow you to click on the buttons and install the application. WOO HOO!!!