https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41577
--- Comment #23 from proveit@tutamail.com --- All right, so I tested RO (using the new installer) on a different computer but with the same version of Wine (2.0 rc6 development branch).
It worked. I just did ./winetricks vcrun2008 (didn't even use -q). I did not use IE8.
There are at least 2 possible explanations: 1. The crash was due to the lack of IE8 or an alternative. Gecko was installed on this new computer for sure, and served as the needed alternative to prevent the crash.
2. As Bruno said, "The problem in this bug is that it happens randomly and once the patch finishes upgrading correctly you won't be able to reproduce it anymore."
#1 will be easy to rule out once I check whether the problem computer crashes. If it has gecko on it and still crashes, then gecko isn't the solution. If it doesn't have gecko, I will have to install it manually. I now know that it's supposed to go in ~/.cache/wine instead of /usr/share/wine/gecko as this wiki page incorrectly states: https://wiki.winehq.org/Gecko
#2 is more complicated, but I can narrow it down by doing multiple installations on the problem computer. The problem is that you can't just rerun the patcher to get around the crash. Even if Bruno had the same problem as me (intermittent), once it crashes, it won't resolve itself and I have to wipe the Wine prefix and start over.
I should have more results soon, but I should note that the original bug was with the old installer, and winetest's testing confirmed the bug. We may be able to get around the problem by using a newer installer, or a different version of Wine, but the bug is there for people who have to use the old installer for some reason. I hope they fix it.