OK, I think I've cracked it.
After a lot of heaving and grunting I managed to reinstall Dragon Naturally Speaking into a fresh user account with the help of sidenet.
This time I carefully documented the steps I took so as to be sure it was reproducable.
What worked:
wine-20050524; sidenet-1.8.1; Dragon NS v7 prefered En. and v7 pref Fr Ensoniq 1371 pci "soundblaster"
wot wont: winecfg based wine releases ; more recent sidenet on previous above wine. muse5.1 cmipci (too quiet)
Required natives: comdlg32.dll only.
That it in a nut shell , here's the log:
INSTALLATION NOTES FOR NATURALLY SPEAKING 7 PREFERED ====================================================
installed wine is 20050524
new user account with no wine
su <username> cd ~
untar sidenet 1.8.1 chown <username> users.
## cp some prev download files from other user space , save time on sidenet.
cd wine-config-sidenet ./setup #sidenet : option [3] select y to IE6 MSinst DCOM98 fonts
sidenet runs OK, reboots, displays sid-site in ie6: success!
bash# ~/.wine $ wcmd WCMD Version 0.17
D:.wine>ver WCMD Version 0.17
D:.wine>path PATH=c:\windows;c:\windows\system;c:\windows\command D:.wine>exit
cd ~/.wine/dosdevices ln -s /mnt/dvd h:
wine h:setup
installshield says req reboot , ok restarts
into reg code entry dlg OK.
#file select dlg crashes , rerun and accept default folders.
installation runs cleanly and exits , then throws following to console:
bash # ~/.wine/dosdevices $ fixme:ddeml:DdeConnectList (1,0xc000,0xc000,(nil),(nil)): stub fixme:ddeml:DdeQueryNextServer (0x1,(nil)): stub fixme:ddeml:DdeQueryNextServer (0x1,(nil)): stub fixme:ddeml:DdeDisconnectList (0x1): stub err:wineboot:runCmd Failed to run command (0) err:wineboot:ProcessRunKeys Error running cmd #1 (0)
#ignorable.
bash # ~/.wine/c/Program Files/ScanSoft/NaturallySpeaking/Program $ wine natspeak.exe
"cannot find windows/system/comdlg32 "
OK exits cleanly.
#find comdlg32.dll and put in system.
wine natspeak # straight in !!! enter user general training.
#NS cannot control the volume level although it thinks it does. #use alsamixer or similar to ensure capture is on MIK and capture level around 80% (YMMV)
84 vol gives 22 quality rating but message says too high , basic training sticky. req reduce vol to 82: fine
Able to complete general training and begin dictation into DragonPad. Excellent results.
HTH, Have fun .