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

mount /tmp on tmpfs? compile and runtime tmpfs overloads

I located (via yaourt) a large wine client -- a few hundred megabytes and half an hour to compile on an older laptop. But two wine compilation problems appeared during the install: 1) wine doesn't compile because its PGP key is unrecognized by yaourt, 2) wine doesn't compile because the system runs out of available RAM.

First the PGP problem: when the PGP rejection error notice is generated, one can see the key in the notice. Users can then copy it and add it to their keyring. The reason for the confusion is that yaourt relies on the user's personal key ring, which is a different key ring than pacman's dedicated keyring. So accept the key into your personal gpg ring...then restart the install and yaourt will accept the app.

$ gpg --recv-key [key]

...or you can examine the key owner's information with --fingerprint [key].

memory

Now we have the application, we have several ways to check the memory parameters.

$ free
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 2034884 330740 1301548 45624 402596 1512420
Swap: 50426196 0 50426196

$ swapon
NAME TYPE SIZE USED PRIO
/dev/sda2 partition 48.1G 0B -2

$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
dev 1010468 0 1010468 0% /dev
run 1017440 592 1016848 1% /run
/dev/sda1 258030980 27348180 217575600 12% /
tmpfs 1017440 2972 1014468 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 1017440 0 1017440 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 1017440 8 1017432 1% /tmp
tmpfs 203488 0 203488 0% /run/user/1000

$ cat /etc/fstab
/dev/sda1 / ext3 rw,relatime,block_validity,barrier,user_xattr,acl 0 1

/dev/sda2 none swap defaults,pri=-2 0 0

Where do these additional entries not in fstab originate? Can they be controlled? It appears we need some strategy for our tmpfs to go onto swap space once RAM is full so that the system doesn't lockup.

memory during compiling

During application compiling, tmpfs is used for parking files spawned or used by make. The tmpfs space is in RAM, viewable inside /tmp, and it allows compilations to progress quickly. However, compiling larger applications can require so much /tmp space, that RAM becomes filled. Once RAM is nearly full, make aborts complaining of a lack of space. Although tmpfs is supposed to overflow into SWAP space it does not. How can we compile these larger programs?

As noted, /tmp naturally resides in RAM. At the expense of 1) time, perhaps 25% longer compilation, and 2) the risk of thrashing one's hard drive, one can mount their /tmp directory on the hard disk. The important thing then is to refer this directory back to RAM after compiling the project. /var/tmp is the answer, but how to get it to connect with RAM?

# nano /etc/fstab
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs size=25G 0 0

This is all that's necessary. Checking...

$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 1016196 5752 1010444 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 26214400 8 26214392 1% /tmp

Now we can compile wine. We still have /dev/shm for regular RAM, but with spillover into 25G HDD swap if needed. Since I won't need this regularly, I will comment it from /etc/fstab once I compile wine.

Latitude D520 Arch install

Problem: your grandparent or a teacher's assistant needs a work-a-day laptop, but you're not a first responder, professional athlete, or an investment banker. If you can carry one (5lbs), 2007 Latitude D520's are available on EBay for about $60. They are 64bit 2 core processors. Load 'em up with 2 Gigs of RAM, Arch Linux and IceWM: within an $80 budget, you've got a laptop that'll do common functions without much lag. It'll show movies, edit photos and audio. High CPU tasks like rendering Blender output, or other video editing, takes ages (so just avoid video editing).

CD (10 mins)

Download an ISO and check the MD5. Put in a fresh disc. I found it's best to burn using root -- some systems bark, even with group permissions configured, at cdrecord at user level. I typically add "eject" as a simple completion notification, but it's not needed.

$ cdrecord -scanbus
# cdrecord -dao -eject dev=0,0,0 install.iso
$ md5sum /dev/sr0

base CLI (runlevel 2) configuration :: 20 mins

There's no UEFI or other boot complexities on older systems. But if you have a newer system, get rid of UEFI. Format the disk with "fdisk -t" to create an MBR. 0x04. The only real question is whether to make multiple partitions. The instructions below include multiple partitions. If multiple partitions aren't desired, just make two primary partitions in cfdisk: a linux (83) SDA1 and a linux swap (82) SDA2, and jump from the step mounting on /mnt to the step with mkdir /mnt/etc

# mkswap /dev/sdb3
# swapon /dev/sdb3
# free -m [check swap is on]
# mount -rw -t ext3 /dev/sdb2 /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/home
# mount -rw -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt/home
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount -rw -t ext3 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/boot
# mkdir /mnt/etc/
# genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware
# arch-chroot /mnt
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/[zone] /etc/localtime
# mkinitcpio -p linux
# passwd
# pacman -Syu grub
# mkdir /boot/grub
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
# grub-install /dev/sda
# exit
# reboot

useradd :: 5 mins

User 500, name "foo", home directory of "foo", using bash shell.

# useradd -G wheel,lp,audio -u 500 -s /bin/bash -m foo

aur :: 30 mins

Used to be so simple, so I'm including it again here in case it returns some day:

# nano /etc/pacman.conf
[archlinuxfr]
SigLevel = Never
Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch

# pacman -Sy yaourt

However, even in past, one had to have base-devel installed, and to add oneself to the sudoers file. Unfortunately, editing sudoers is done through the visudo command, which uses those stupid vim commands:

# visudo
foo ALL=(ALL) ALL

However, yaourt hasn't been maintained since 2018, so the (only) way to get it is to build it from scratch out of AUR source, as in olden times. The AUR website has aur source. Be sure you've got wget installed (# pacman -S wget), retrieve the package, untar it, morph it into a pacman version ("makepkg"), then install it using pacman with a "U" flag. The "U" flag has pacman looking into the current directory instead of out over the Net. Prior to building any AUR helper (yaourt, aurman), you'll need to first build "package-query", also from the AUR.

Also there is a wikipedia page and reddit conversations. In spite of its weaknesses, I continued to use yaourt. I downloaded aurman, but was unable to compile it.

$ mkdir pkgs
$ cd pkgs
$ wget https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/package-query.tar.gz
$ wget https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/yaourt.tar.gz
$ tar xzvf package-query.tar.gz
$ cd package-query
$ makepkg -s
# pacman -U package-query[version]tar.xz

And then the same with yaourt thereafter.

dhcpcd timeouts/limit journalctl size :: 5 mins

If you're having dhcpcd timeout problems, they can show up in pacman and curl, and are usually due to IPV6. This ipv6 request mod has to be re-accomplished after every dhcpcd package update.

# nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf
# custom to stop ipv6 service request timeouts
noipv6rs

Systemd will log GB's and GB's of data if not limited

# nano /etc/systemd/journald.conf
SystemMaxUse=200K

X install :: 20 mins

These Dells have the Intel integrated graphics 945GM; the correct xf86 driver is the Intel VA driver.

# pacman -S xf86-video-intel
This driver now uses DRI3 as the default Direct Rendering
Infrastructure. You can try falling back to DRI2 if you run
into trouble. To do so, save a file with the following
content as /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf :
Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "DRI" "2" # DRI3 is now default
#Option "AccelMethod" "sna" # default
#Option "AccelMethod" "uxa" # fallback
EndSection

# pacman -S xorg-server xorg-apps xorg-xinit xorg-xrandr

If you scroll down this Arch page discussing Xorg, we can see that we'll want the mesa for Open GL and lib32-mesa for older apps. Also, Intel chips, as we know (scroll down to about item 13), do not support VDPAU, viz:

"Intel Embedded Graphics Drivers do not support VDPAU. VDPAU stands for video decode and presentation API for UNIX*. VDPAU is an open source library and API originally designed by NVIDIA that provides an interface to support hardware-accelerated video decode."

... and so Intel sez libVA is correct. More specific to Arch, there's additional information in their video acceleration page, if you like to read. The only problem with the VA-API is it can't decode MP4 and FLASH containers, but it does all other common formats, and all codecs, including H264 and the new VP8 and 9. I just use MKV and AVI containers and set the VLC codec to VA (instead of its default VDPAU). In spite of inefficiencies on the Intel hardware, some may wish to overlay VDPAU functionality onto their Intel chip, which is an installation beyond this post. If a person does that, any mistakes will defeat X working properly -- no harm, just revert to runlevel 2 and reconfigure until Xorg is working well. FYI, one of the tweaks I've seen for VIDPAU overlaid onto VA, is adding "export VDPAU_DRIVER=r600"in one's ~/.xinitrc file. Anyway, back to pure libVA...

# pacman -S libva libva-intel-driver libva-utils libva-mesa-driver

... then check the install with "$ vainfo".

window manager :: 10 mins

On an old system, I don't waste memory with display managers, instead I login and "startx" from runlevel 2. I like Ice Window Manager, a light interface with simple text configuration, wallpaper, and menu files (look inside ~/.icewm ). Efficient on older systems: perhaps 150M usage after logging-in, connecting to network, and starting X. In Arch, the template files are inside /usr/share/icewm/, including the themes. See the main Arch file.

# pacman -S icewm
$ cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc .xinitrc
$ nano .xinitrc
exec dbus-launch icewm-session
$ startx

I also looked here to get the names of additional drivers, for example to solve the pesky touchpad problem. I couldn't stop the Dell touchpad with synclient TouchPadOff=1 until I # pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics.

wifi digression :: 60 mins

Some of these old Latitudes have the dreaded Broadcom 43 series card. For example, if users run lspci and the wifi readout line is this or similar...

Network controller: Broadcom Limited BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)

... then it's unlikely the typical fix for older cards, # pacman -S wireless_tools will have effect. It's also unlikely anything will appear in either of these two verification steps...

# iw dev
# cat /proc/net/wireless

If this is the case, the easiest move is installing yaourt and building a b43 driver, but take note:

"BCM4306 rev.3, BCM4311, BCM4312 and BCM4318 rev.2 have been noticed to experience problems with b43-firmware. Use b43-firmware-classicAUR for these cards instead."

During that b43-firmware-classic^AUR install, the following warning was displayed...

Please add $VISUAL to your environment variables
for example:
export VISUAL="vim" (in ~/.bashrc)
(replace vim with your favorite editor)

...and you may also encounter

~/.config/aurvote must have username and password. Run: aurvote --configure

...if you installed the yaourt rating app but hadn't configured it. You can use any username and pass you like. Reboot after this install, and something like this is normal:

# iw dev
phy#0
Interface wlan0
ifindex 3
wdev 0x1
etc..

QT or Gtk

I try to stick with one or the other to keep a smaller install and shorter update. Sometimes both become necessary. I prefer GTK (except gvfs), but VLC requires QT. QT is about 400MB, and typically pulls in PyQT. But since I'm a fan of VLC ... QT became my baseline API.

# pacman -S qt4

However, you're going to see that udiskie (to avoid gvfs) brings in about 80MB of shit, including basic Gtk.

sound

I avoid PulseAudio as much as I can. See my post from 2016. ALSA is now built-in, so that all that's required is alsamixer in order to control the sound levels (unmute, etc)

# pacman -S alsa-utils

Done.

rc.local

A consolidated place for random startup shit too lazy to configure individually. It's like an initrc in X, but for runlevel 3.

# nano /etc/rc.local
#!/bin/bash
wpa_supplicant etc
dhcpd etc
exit 0

# systemctl enable rc-local.service should make it happen next boot, but you also have to create the service file before enabling it.

# nano /etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service

# This file is part of systemd.
#
# systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.

[Unit]
Description=/etc/rc.local Compatibility
ConditionPathExists=/etc/rc.local

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/etc/rc.local start
TimeoutSec=0
StandardOutput=tty
RemainAfterExit=yes
SysVStartPriority=99

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

various chromium issues

You hate to have to use a browser as immense as Chromium. Installing a mainstream browser usually becomes inevitable however, and most of them are worse than Chromium.

What choice do we have but to use gigantic proprietary browsers when website designers are too lazy to create something that works well with lighter browsers? For example, light browsers like Dillo, NetSurf, and so on, have properly functioning cookie capacity, and NetSurf carries simple JavaScript and SSL, yet sites like Yahoo mail, or EBay will disallow access with mislabeled complaints that cookies are being "rejected", or even that correct passwords are "incorrect". These are the result of lazy website design. Anyway...

Here are some installation notes and the three main hassles I've experienced with Chromium (plus safety further down).

Three hassles

These are the big three:

1. AMD GL settings
2. Flash settings
3. Sound settings

Additionally, be sure "gnome-icon-theme is installed. Note that the file ~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences allows some settings; I the pepper-flash path can go in there, other things that would have to be added to a start-up line instead. Anything in the file is overwritten if the user signs-in to Chromium (not to various Google accounts).

1. AMD/GL settings

After # pacman -S chromium, the initial startup from command line is bound to throw similar errors to these, if you're running an AMD processor:

$ chromium
[6391:6391:0621/175259:ERROR:url_pattern_set.cc(240)] Invalid url pattern: chrome://print/*
[6417:6417:0621/175259:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(340)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process
[6417:6417:0621/175300:ERROR:gles2_cmd_decoder.cc(11539)] [GroupMarkerNotSet(crbug.com/242999)!:D0CCF6C427020000]GL ERROR :GL_INVALID_OPERATION : glTexStorage2DEXT: <- error from previous GL command

The first fix is in Settings->Show Advanced Settings -> System. Deselect "Use hardware acceleration if available". I also deselect "Continue running background apps when Chromium is closed", but for other reasons). Now restart Chromium without the GPU:

$ chromium --disable-gpu [6391:6391:0621/175259:ERROR:url_pattern_set.cc(240)] Invalid url pattern: chrome://print/*

The print error is probably not worth the trouble, since it's a complex flag issue.

2. Flash settings

The place to turn off Adobe flash and turn on Pepper Flash is inside chrome://plugins. At this point, it should happen automagically, since Google has unwisely allowed Adobe to partner in some way. What is identified as the flash player is not the flash player but PepperFlash if you've installed it. Still, PepperFlash must be downloaded separately, it's not yet apparently bundled.

3. Sound settings

Assuming you want ALSA and not that PulseAudio crap, then be sure to #pacman -S alsa-tools alsa-utils

Safety

1. One site was suggesting removing the RLZ tag from omnibar/omnibox searches (omnibar/omnibox is the URL bar that has morphed into a search bar in Chromium). I don't consider it a threat, but it's good to understand it superficially. One explanation is here. If you don't want it, add another search engine option, calling it whatever you want, but a URL lacking "RLZ". For example:

   {google:baseURL}search?&safe=off&num=100&q=%s

   You can see this also provides 100 returns per page -- you may want less.

yaourt - tarball installation

Most like to use yaourt and it's typically easy to install it from the French repo. But documentation is lacking if it has to be installed from the tarball.

the repo site...

Append these lines to /etc/pacman.conf, and then request pacman to retrieve yaourt...

# nano /etc/pacman.conf
[archlinuxfr]
SigLevel = Never
Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch

# pacman -Sy yaourt

...but some require the tarball

It appears the method above is the common install method, since I could find very little good information for those forced to use the tarball (eg, on my friend's system). Here is the official page which was little help, and here is the only site with details I could follow nearly verbatim.

packagebuild note

Installing yaourt uses packagebuild. The sites I found describing packagebuild, were adamant about running it as a user and it even has a warning prompt inside the program. They say it will ask you for authentication at the right time, blah blah blah. This cost me a lot of time. Permissions are a critical step in Linux, as we all know and I found that packagebuild did not prompt me in a helpful way for authentication. In my view, it's much better to manually level up or down manually when using packagebuild, the same way we we do with "make" and "make install".

what worked

Here is what (finally) worked: