wine -- can we do this better?

Wine works but has been useless to me since its creation. Each app requires a custom installation -- that's fine -- but when we start the actual app with the "wine" command preceeding the EXE file, Wine "updates"(overwrites) the custom settings, and one receives the same suboptimal performance as if customization hadn't been accomplished in the first place. Because it's been entirely eliminated. It's essentially a repeat of the old problem we used to have with Python when running "pip" instead of a package manager. But Wine doesn't ask first.

Summary of iRoot steps

See backstory below for the steps regarding this USB connected device.

1. Download PC version from website.
2. Enter the ~/.wine and delete all files
3. Prepare Wine and .NET using winetricks

   $ mkdir .wine/Win7
   $ WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/$USER/.wine/Win7 winetricks dotnet452 vcrun2010 corefonts wininet

4. Unzip the downloaded installation file somewhere, eg ~/.wine/Win7install.exe
5. Install the iRoot program using wine.

   $ WINEPREFIX=/home/$USER/.wine/Win7 wine explorer /desktop=somename,720x480 "/home/$USER/.wine/Win7/iRoot_1.8.9.21144_cid1005.exe"

6. Connect the tablet via USB and be sure screenlock is off, and data transfer enabled.
7. Run the program, using wine. You could make an iDesk icon or menu entry with same info.

   $ WINEPREFIX=/home/$USER/.wine/Win7 wine explorer /desktop=somename,720x480 "/home/$USER/.wine/Win7/iRoot/1.8.9.21144/Root.exe"

Summary of audio editor steps

1. $ mkdir .wine/Win7/audio
2. $ cp audio.exe .wine/Win7/audio/audio.exe

3. $ WINEPREFIX=/home/$USER/.wine/Win7 wine explorer "/home/$USER/.wine/Win7/audio/audio.exe"

backstory

For me, there are four applications with operating system complexity inside Linux use: Linux itself, LaTeX, Wine, and Blender. Plus perhaps the only slightly lesser issues of ALSA audio and CUPS printing. This time it was Wine, due to the need for two Windows PC apps, one for audio editing, another (iRoot) for rooting a cheap tablet. The former was straightforward, but the tablet rooting app was apparently developed using the .NET framework, and requires a USB connection to the tablet. As is well known, even in Windows proper, .NET dependent USB connections are horrible. Then add Wine complexity. The plan was to work through the errors to get a good Wine installation, then do the same thing for a good application installation.

part 1 :: wine (12+ hrs)

Strategy: follow someone else. Bracing for turbulence and a lost weekend, I downloaded the iRoot PC app and began Googling. The closest I could find was the Garmin Nüvi PC application for updating maps. It is .NET framework dependent, with a USB connection. Chris Titus has a helpful video (11:45) and a helpful web page on the Garmin. I followed his steps, only with the iRoot app, but wasn't successful. It's important to be specific about failures, the USB device was detected but then...
... and the tablet did not appear in the iRoot app, in spite of being detected beneath the hood.

directory structure

Unless two applications can run on the same version of Windows, each application requires a separate installation of windows. I put them in folders as seen here.

That is, although I keep wine and winetricks in the system, I completely eliminate all their files inside of /home/foot/.wine/. I then add directories for each version of Windows required. Based on my iRoot application, and Chris Titus' stuff above, I knew I wanted to work it into Windows 7.

$ mkdir .wine/Win7
$ WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/$USER/.wine/Win7 winetricks dotnet452 vcrun2010 corefonts

installation errors

During the .NET (dotnet452) portion of the installation, several files are downloaded from Microsoft. A status box (left) also appears, and displays the error that I lack "Windows Modules Installer Service" (C:\Windows\servicing\TrustedInstaller.exe). I sought this executable afterward, but could not locate it. Based on the terminal, it appears the lack of this file prevented a certain level of software use.

0060:fixme:service:QueryServiceConfig2W Level 6 not implemented

I hoped to perhaps remedy this via the cleanup tool, once the Win7 was in, the next step.

$ WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX="/home/$USER/.wine/Win7" winetricks win7

registry cleanup

This doesn't have to be run, but I was curious about it. With Windows 7 in, I placed the cleanup tool just inside the Windows 7 installation, in /home/foo/.wine/win7/drive_c/. It should look like this:

I had read about the (.NET framework cleanup tool) and wanted this operating. Cleanup would also have to be placed in any other installed folders -- XP, 10, whatever -- in which a person wanted to check their .NET install. The prefix is the OS folder, and then I gave it a 720x480 desktop to run inside, in case the Cleaner requires one.

$ WINEPREFIX="/home/$USER/.wine/win7" wine explorer /desktop=cleaner,720x480 "/home/foo/.wine/win7/drive_c/cleanup_tool.exe"

As it ran, the Cleaner, among many thousands of errors it revealed, noted the lack of level 6 implementation. Here are some of the error notifications...

Level 6 is not implemented.
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Components key is not present.
No product/patch data was found.

part 2 :: application (12+ hrs)

First run indicated some missing pieces from my installation

0054:err:wininet:open_http_connection create_netconn failed: 12029

... it appeared the program needed to dial home. So, I added the missing wininet.

$ WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX="/home/$USER/.wine/Win7" winetricks wininet

Here's more of the garbled mess that popped up. The program itself indicated a bug.

dead ends

A collection of various things I tried and which were apparently irrelevant.

lack of Windows Module Installer Service

During .Net (aka. "dotnet452") installation, if the installer is unable to find the Windows Module Installer Service,then it provides an error window. There is a noticeable effect downstream from this.

For example, error messages will appear if one attempts to attach a USB device via USB. This is because Level 6 of the .Net installation was not met. The USB device will successfully be detected, but the device will not be able to send file information or be written to. The complaints will take a form similar to...

0060:fixme:service:QueryServiceConfig2W Level 6 not implemented

The situation has been encountered by others, for example as documented here.

linux library checks - AUR

One of my dead ends was checking the Linux libraries. Mine turned out to be fine, but I read of them being a problem for others and having similar problems. Eg, a Battlenet article noted some missing Linux libraries had led to fails. The only one I thought might be mine was hal, so I checked for it...

$ ldconfig -p | grep hal

... returning nothing. Hal is in the AUR,so it has to be built.I'd want the 32 bit version. My luck, yaourt is no longer functioning.

$ yaourt -Ss hal
package-query: error while loading shared libraries: libalpm.so.11: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
$ ldconfig -p | grep alpm
libalpm.so.12 (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/lib/libalpm.so.12
libalpm.so (libc6,x86-64) => /usr/lib/libalpm.so

... so it's annoying as heck. Time to move to yay, I suppose; yaourt getting just too unmaintained -- I'm not going to create softlinks to libraries and such. Buh-bye...

yay build

# nano /etc/sudoers
foo ALL=(ALL) ALL

... otherwise the build will fail. Then...

$ cd Downloads
$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
$ cd yay
$ makepkg -si