Windows programs with hardware and special drivers

[Shachar Shemesh]

Mark Knecht wrote:

>Hi,
>   Just a question. Can Wine run today, or will Wine ever be able to run, a
>Windows program that comes with a specific piece of audio hardware and
>supplies it's own driver for controlling that hardware?
>
>   I'm upgrading a piece of audio equipment that used to be a PCI device but
>has become a 1394 device. Would my Windows software have any chance of
>installing it's driver under Wine and have it share the Linux-1394 drivers?
>Under Windows this driver is able to share a 1394 adapter with other
>applications and with Windows itself, so it appears to be fairly well
>behaved.
>
>   I understand that Wine may not support 1394 today. I don't know. I'm
>really just asking for the future.
>
>Thanks,
>Mark
>
>  
>
Hi Mark,

I'm not sure I understood your question correctly.

If your application merely comes with a hardware device, and this device 
has a 100% standard driver (and the application is actually using the 
device through the standard interfaces), and this device also has a 
Linux driver, then there is no reason for Wine not to correctly run this 
application. Basically, you need to configure your Linux box to support 
the device through the Linux driver, and then install the app and let it 
understand that the driver is already installed.

If, on the other hand, the application requires this particular audio 
device, and this particular driver, there is a good chance that it 
communicates with the driver in interfaces that are beyond the standard 
interfaces. I'm afriad that, in that case, the chances of this app ever 
working on Wine are not high.

Wine does not, and is not planned to, support hardware drivers designed 
for Windows.

             Shachar

-- 
Shachar Shemesh
Lingnu Open Systems Consulting
http://www.lingnu.com/