[Wine] The perils of GMAX

[Bryan Baldwin]

On 07/19/2010 11:41 AM, A Nonny Moose wrote:
> I guess it is like playing a piano.  [b]No more surface playing[/b].  I just pulled a pile of documentation to read when going to sleep, or trying in this heat.  I am convinced that I need to delve into the WINEPREFIX and other system variables in greater depth.
>
> Is there any reason I couldn't set myself up with a script to create all this stuff, then call the relevant program?  I think it might save a lot of typing since I am going to test the blazes out of this package.  Naturally, I can set up the redirects within the scripts as well to grab whatever happens.
>
> I get your point about running from a user console.
>
> Oh, and a 61 page PDF manual.  I only took a quick look, but it seems very thorough.  Congrats to the author.

Scripts are a great way to control WINE invocation. It only gets a 
little complicated when you are launching a program that takes 
arguments, such as the name of a file you wish to open with the program 
running through WINE. Its also handy to deactivate compiz fusion before 
starting a 3D game, then starting it up again afterward.

Another caveat I've discovered are programs that do not launch correctly 
unless WINE is invoked in the installation directory of the program. 
Scripts can also be used in launchers you create on panels on your 
desktop or desktop panels. Here is an example script with comments:

---Start Code---
#!/bin/bash

# Simple script to launch Tomb Raider - Legend with WINE

# Stop composite desktop panel
killall -KILL avant-window-navigator

# Switch to non-composite window management (GTK desktop)
metacity --replace &

# Change working directory, tra.exe will not launch otherwise!!!
cd ${HOME}/wine/trl/drive_c/Program\ Files/Tomb\ Raider\ -\ Legend/

# Set WINEPREFIX, disable debugging for performance, lanuch game;
# backslashes allow commands to stretch over multiple lines!
WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/wine/trl \
WINEDEBUG=-all \
wine trl.exe

# Switch back to composite window management
compiz --replace ccp &

# Start composite desktop panel
avant-window-navigator
---End Code---

You don't have to use all of the stuff I've included here. The most 
important part is the launch command starting with WINEPREFIX. Note that 
if you are having problems with your program, you will need to omit the 
WINEDEBUG setting and launch the program from the terminal to get 
debugging info with which to file a bug.

If you start using WINEPREFIX and shell scripts to launch programs, the 
next thing you are going to notice is that you won't get the program 
icons for launchers you make from the scripts. This can be done manually 
by ripping the icons from the Windows binary file and copying them to an 
appropriate directory. I keep them in their own folder in my home 
directory. Then you can assign the correct icon to your desktop launcher.

To rip the icons, you need the icoutils package from your distribution's 
package manager. The command to rip the icons is:

$ wrestool -x <filename>

Where filename is the .exe file that launches your program. BEWARE: 
wrestool will rip ALL resource files embedded in the binary, so I 
recommend unpacking them in a controlled directory, e.g.

$ wrestool -x <filename> -o $HOME/icons

Where "icons" is a folder in your home directory. After you do this you 
will have to view each file manually to identify the proper icon for the 
program. Sometimes the icons are pretty low-res, so you may wish to find 
alternatives on the Internet. Not all programs keep their icons as an 
embedded resource either, so look around the installation path for .ico 
files or folders, too.


	Bryan