Attempted installation of PE6 under WINE on a Linux machine (which for most is likely to have a 64bit architecture). This example was done on Ubuntu 14.04 on a Lenovo Edge laptop, the versions were WINE:1.6.2 and WINETRICKS:20140302. Efforts on earlier versions on other computers did not succeed. With thanks to bpowell, who wrote the first version, to which I have added. I hope this is of use to some. Running PE6 under WINE would be a major step forward, and mean that PE could be run on hardware with no costly software licenses at all (think of all those with xp licenses that are considering Windows 8.1).
Unfortunately, this process did not run to conclusion for me but did get dotnet35sp1 installed. More remains to be done to get a version of PE working.
- WINE HQ has information that might help.
- I suggest you make sure you have the latest OS version and updates and the latest non-beta version of WINE, NOT the one in the distro unless that is very recent.
- 64bit WINE is not complete so you must force a 32-bit architecture prefix. Prefix your commands with: WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/win32/
- Everything is done as a user, not as ROOT.
- Don't use the WINETRICKS GUI, which is confusing, except perhaps afterwards to see what got installed, and did not work for me.
- You will see many error messages along the way, just ignore them! They will not help, mostly they seem to refer to incomplete functions in WINE.
In a terminal window:
1 CREATE THE WINE INSTANCE
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Install a recent WINE and WINETRICKS version. From your home directory prompt, start by creating the folders for a new 32bit Wine "instance" on your linux machine in the win32 directory. This creates a win32 directory within your home directory and populates it with a 32-bit system:
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/win32/ winecfg
2 install dotnet35sp1
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Run
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/win32/ winetricks msxml3 dotnet35sp1
which will also install a bunch of other versions and other things. This will take quite some time and many scripts will be run, windows pop up, files be downloaded (you must have a decent internet connection as you will download many hundreds of megabytes), and several WINE restarts will be required that you will be asked to OK. If it all goes horribly wrong, start again with a clean WINEPREFIX installation, otherwise it may get in a muddle.
3 Verify the dotnet installation
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Download the verification utility from:
blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2008/10/13/8999004.aspx
Extract into a folder, and run the executable under WINE
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/win32/ wine ~/Downloads/netfx/netfx_setupverifier.exe
select the dotnet35sp1 option, and run it. Hopefully the tests will be passed.
4 Install gdi+
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Download gdi+ from Microsoft, and install thus:
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/win32/ wine ~/Downloads/WindowsXP-KB975337-x86-ENU.exe
So far, so good. But then ...
5 install the PE6 editor
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WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/win32/ wine PICAXEEditor6.exe
This ran and then started PE6. In my case this then failed and went into an error reporting loop about threading models. I then had to restart Ubuntu to kill that loop, as kill and pkill did not do it. I then reran the installer, which seemed to work and this time did not launch PE6.
Then I created a launcher with this command:
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/win32/ wine ~/win32/drive_c/Program Files/Revolution Education/PICAXE/pe6.exe
This then failed with a message 'Syncfusion.Windows.Forms.Diagram.MeasureUnitsConverter' threw an exception. So far, this is a showstopper for me.
6 Install the PE5 editor
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If PE6 won't work, then maybe PE5 will. Sadly, not for me this time. I encountered the wave32.ocx/ mfc40.dll/ vcredist_86.exe error and no amount of file copying and regediting did the trick.
7 Next steps
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Further research and work on the PE issues. The PE5 issue is allegedly solved, but not for me. The PE6 issue has been mentioned but I need to do more research on what that is about.
Any input that moves this on is welcome! I can't believe this is a hard problem to solve, for either version, once the appropriate knowledge is available. My aim is a reliable script that steers the whole process and 'just works'. What could possibly go wrong?