[Wine] re: Help installing application

[L. Rahyen]

On Saturday July 7 2007 17:05, M Thompson wrote:
> Hello!  Rahyen: the commands you gave me were right on.  I just failed to
> execute them properly - sorry still learning:)
>
> To answer your questions:
>
> (1) My printer is supported by linux.  I can even print photos just not
> very good quality.  I am trying to see if this software will help (I had to
> use the software on XP too to get the best quality-ridiculous I know).

	Just for a note: everything WINE can do is to pass PostScript to CUPS. That 
means if your program just adjust some PostScript related settings and use 
Windows printer in usual way this may work. Otherwise it will not because 
anything else require direct access to Windows USB device - this isn't 
supported yet (there is exception though like access to usb-tty, tty and lp).

> (2) When I run wine notepad and try to print.  Nothing happens.  I have
> attached  var/log/cups/error_log but I have no terminal output to offer. 
> Is there a command I could run when I try to print?

	Okay, before we will waste time for printer setup under WINE make sure that 
your program have print dialog which looks somewhat the same to one you seen 
in the notepad. Specifically, you interested in "Print to file" option. If 
your program doesn't have this then there is chances it want to talk to 
device only. If there is such option then try to use it, WINE will create the 
file in current directory (most likely current directory will be your home 
directory if you didn't change it with cd command).
	If your program require to use device directly and you don't print very much 
you may try to connect your printer to lp port (LPT in Windows). If you want 
to try this then execute (just copy and paste it to the terminal, don't 
change anything):

ln -s /dev/lp0 ~/.wine/dosdevices/lpt1

	I assume that you have only one lp port on your computer. If not you may need 
to replace "lp0" with other lp device where your printer is connected.
	Now check your permissions:

echo "test" > /dev/lp0

	This should give you no errors. If you havn't permission try this:

sudo chmod a+rw /dev/lp0

	Or, if sudo isn't supported by your configuration:

su
chmod a+rw /dev/lp0

	Please note that these command will make your lp0 world writable! If this is 
not what you want you must add your user to corresponding group to have the 
access (this is "clean" way; if you don't know what I did said and how to do 
it then execute "man chmod" in a shell and read instructions).
	Of course if "chmod a+rw /dev/lp0" did work you don't need to execute the 
commands above - your distro already have right settings of permissions for 
you!

	If your printer don't support lp port above will not help. And even it 
support lp performance of printing will be very slow but quality shouldn't be 
affected. Personally I never tried to use lp port with color printer (but 
many printer still support this, even my modern color laser printer has 
support for lp port).

> (3) I really would like for this software to work but it is definitely not
> necessary although I may try  VMWare or QEmu.  Wine was just the first I
> researched and decided to try.  Honestly, I am trying everything I can
> think of before I just give up and buy an HP all-in-one (if I can find one
> that works PERFECTLY in Linux - no offense).

	Oh no, don't buy HP! It has somewhat bad support under Linux and even worse: 
even perfect driver will not help you if you have HP because its quality is 
very bad. I have some stupid things from HP and really dislike 'em! I 
recommend you to buy something from Lexmark or Epson. Both companies have 
good Linux support (but of course you should use Google before the purchase 
to check how well it works and how good its support is in practice) and good 
quality of hardware. Personally, I have expensive Epson color laser printer 
and it works perfectly for me under Linux.