I can not yet see how the lowest common denominator end-user can use this transparently (i.e. for example from the Ubuntu user interface shell). Just clicking on an installation CD puts everything into ~/.wine. I guess in some instances (e.g. installing add-ons or updates on programs) one needs interaction. Can wine handle multiple instances of the server for the different directories, when applications from different start directories are running in parallel ?
If this is not the officially documented, I think one cannot expect an end-user to do this.
Joerg-Cyril.Hoehle@t-systems.com wrote:
Hi,
Jan Hoogenraad wrote:
Each debugging request for wine states that I should remove all winetricks.
AppDB should request something similar: minimal use of winetricks.
However I have no way to tell, and no way to safely remove them.
IMHO one solution to your problem is to learn to use different .wine prefixes.
Both developers and AppDB users want a repeatable process to make the app run (or crash). If you install all your software into a single .wine hierarchy (like you'd do on MS-Windows), then you cannot tell anyone what you did to make the app work in Wine. All you have is "I started with Wine-0.9.48, upgraded to wine-1.1.6 at some time, now to wine-1.2rc2, used "winetricks X" and Y, perhaps I used "winetricks directx" but I can't remember for sure, I installed apps A, B and C (they may have installed more components) and I edited the registry a few times. Given all that, app Z works fine in on my machine."
This is a mess much like a typical MS-Windows installation. With Wine, you can do better than that.
What people want to hear from you is as follows:
- Create a fresh .wine prefix with wine-X.Y;
- Install Indeo Video codecs via "winetricks indeo" because I found out that the app expects them but does not install them itself;
- Install the app from CD;
- From a DirectX install into a separate .wine-* prefix, solely copy d3dx9_36.dll into system32/ (or the app's directory)
- Change setting Y in winecfg, e.g. native d3dx9_36;
- App Z works (or crashes like that ...).
That is a minimal instruction set.
I have like a dozen .wine-* directory hierarchies. I never use .wine itself except for regression testing, such that I can rm -rf ~/.wine and create a fresh one at any time.
That's why I don't need an uninstaller. rm -rf ~/.wine-xyz or rm -rf ~/wineapps/... *is* the uninstaller (.wine-xyz/drive_c/Programs/Apps/ symlinks to $HOME/wineapps such that the apps live independently on a particular .wine prefix).
Regards, Jörg Höhle