How to get Windows applications to run
From ArkWiki
Contents |
General
Ark Linux includes [Wine], a Windows emulator that can run many, but not all applications and games.
If you're lucky, an application will "just work", by clicking on the .exe file.
If you're less lucky, we need more information to see why it is failing - often it is just a matter of copying a DLL to /usr/share/wine-c/windows/system32. To get more information, open a command line session (run the Command Line Interpreter in the "System" menu), and run
wine filename.exe
That will show you what is going on when it fails.
Below you can find some workarounds people have come up with to get specific Windows applications to run.
CorelDRAW, Corel PhotoPaint
Installation
The installer needs some DLL files that are located in the Setup directory on the CorelDRAW CD. Copy those DLL files to /usr/share/wine-c/windows/system32 before running setup.exe -- after that, the installer will work.
Running it
The installation process installs some DLL files to /usr/share/wine-c/Program Files/Corel Graphics 11/Config/Redist. Copy them to /usr/share/wine-c/windows/system32.
At this point, it should work (if you're using a version of wine that is 20070710 or newer). If some applications start, but crash after showing the splash screen, launch winecfg, use "Add application" in the Applications tab to create application specific configs for the CorelDRAW components you'd like to use, and in each of those, go to the Libraries tab, Add an override for "wintab32" to "native".
That's all, CorelDRAW and PhotoPaint (and probably other components) will work perfectly at this point.
StarCraft
StarCraft works out of the box, but its copy protection can produce unexpected behavior. If you're running StarCraft off a loopback mounted CD image, make sure you have a CD (any CD will apparently do) in the CD drive.
Unfortunately, this prevents you from running Starcraft on a machine that doesn't have a CD/DVD drive.
World of Warcraft
This is a popular game among many people. With the power of Wine, it can be played on Linux-or any computer running Wine. Keep in mind, you need to have 3D video drivers to run WoW.
Installation
It can be installed by copying the installation folder (usually C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft) over to your Ark desktop, or (recomended) by copying all the installation disks to a single folder on your desktop and running the installation from there. Also, there are two DLL files that are needed. These are msvcp60.dll and mfc42.dll. Download them from http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?mfc42 and http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?msvcp60 and unzip them into /usr/share/wine-c/windows/system32.
In most cases, World of Warcraft will not require any tweaks after this (though on some computers, a tweak might be necessary to make the graphics and/or sound run correctly).
Improve Graphics Performance
To improve your graphics performance, open 'regedit' (Kmenu>Run, type regedit), browse to HKEY_CURRENTUSER>Software>Wine. If there is NOT a key called OpenGL, add it. Add a String Value to the OpenGL Key called DisabledExtensions and set it's value to GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object.
Adjust Wine's Sound Settings
Click Kmenu>Run, type:
winecfg
and click the Audio tab. You can check/uncheck different options here to see if you can get WoW's sound working, though the recomended option for WoW is OSS.
Graphics and Sound (Config.wtf)
Another thing to try is to insert another tweak into one of your WoW config files. It is called Config.wtf. Go to /usr/share/wine-c (you'll notice that this folder looks a lot like a Windows C:\ drive) and locate your World of Warcraft folder (probably within Program Files), enter the WTF folder, and open Config.wtf. Add the following to the end of the file:
SET gxApi "opengl" SET SoundOutputSystem "1" SET SoundBufferSize "100"
You can adjust those values to your liking and see if they work; if not, take them out.
If you're having trouble with the graphics, add:
SET ffxDeath "0" SET ffxGlow "0"
You may also find and edit the following (this is there, don't add it; also be careful editing because this can cause problems!!!):
SET gxResolution "1280x1024" SET gxRefresh "85"
Also note that if you edit this file, a backup will be created. WoW will try to load both the backup and the original, and these two different versions will cause a conflict within WoW since one will have the above items and the other will not. Delete the backup. If you forget what lines you added/edited, you can come back here and use this page as a reference to remove or edit the above lines if you need to.
Other Sites for WoW on Wine
For more info on tweaking Wine to run WoW, you may visit:
http://www.blizzplanet.com/content/459/ http://wiki.kaspersandberg.com/doku.php?id=howtos:wine:worldofwarcraft http://www.wowwiki.com/Linux/Wine http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=9262
External page for Wine tweaking
If this page does not does not provide you with the information you need, you may visit Frank's Corner. This site includes a large database of Wine tweaks for programs commonly used by Windows users. The URL for Frank's Corner is http://frankscorner.org/.
