wine users - Jul 2008 - Photoshop CS2 Crash under Wine, "Unable to continue because of a hardware or system error. Sorry, but this error is unrecoverable."

I recently came across a post (circa jan-feb 2008) where a user had encountered
a fatal and unrecoverable crash when starting Photoshop for the second or
subsequent time.

I've noticed that this issue has happened to many people, myself included
while installing it on someone's system today, and that, while there is a
short-term workaround (noted below), nobody has yet posted an actual permanent
fix for the problem. I worked one out this afternoon, and thought I'd share
it with you all, in order to prevent frustration for anyone out there I can
help.

Here is my synopsis, as detailed as I can make it:

Problem: Adobe Photoshop CS2 crashes upon startup with an unrecoverable hardware
error. This error occurs on the second and subsequent starts.

Symptoms: After loading plugins, tools, brushes, etc., the program halts with
the error message "Unable to continue because of a hardware or system
error. Sorry, but this error is unrecoverable." Clicking OK results in hard
crash.

Affected systems: Windows (any), and in Linux or Mac while running under Wine or
Crossover Office. Who cares about Windows, let's discuss Wine and Crossover
under Linux.

Diagnosis: This problem is related to a settings file that is created and
modified each time Photoshop runs and exits.

Quick Fix: You can force Photoshop CS2 to start by holding down CTRL+ALT+SHIFT
while starting the application in Windows or Linux, or Command+Option+Shift in
Mac OSX. You will be presented  with a dialog box that asks if you wish to
delete the settings file. Selecting Yes will delete the file, and allow the
application to start as normal.

PERMANENT FIX: The permanent fix is actually very simple. The problematic file
is the General Settings file, "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Prefs.psp", which
references the default fonts Adobe expects to be installed. If for any reason
these fonts, or any other files, are not installed or not functioning as
expected, the application will terminate to the desktop.  This settings file is
located here:

In Wine:

/home/[USER PROFILE]/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/[USER PROFILE]/Application
Data/Adobe/Photoshop/9.0/Adobe Photoshop CS2 Settings/Adobe Photoshop CS2
Prefs.psp

In Crossover Office:

/home/[USER PROFILE]/.cxoffice/[CS2 INSTALLATION BOTTLE
NAME]/drive_c/windows/profiles/crossover/Application
Data/Adobe/Photoshop/9.0/Adobe Photoshop CS2 Settings/Adobe Photoshop CS2
Prefs.psp

Naturally, replace [USER PROFILE] with the user name you are working under, and
replace the CS2 INSTALLATION BOTTLE NAME with whatever you named the bottle you
installed Photoshop CS2 under in Crossover.

Now, if you've encountered this error, you've already run CS2 twice, and
the settings file has already been created and corrupted. Although deleting it
will allow you to start CS2, it will again store a corrupted file when you exit
the application, and next time you start the application, you'll repeat the
same fatal error as usual.

So, having located this file, perform the following steps:

(1) Rename or delete the corrupted file
(2) Start CS2. It should start just fine. 
(3) IMMEDIATELY after it has started, change the permissions on the newly
re-created settings file (Adobe Photoshop CS2 Prefs.psp) to READ ONLY. You can
do this in your file browser, or, if you are at the command line, use the
following command:

chmod -w ./Adobe\ Photoshop\ CS2\ Prefs.psp

(4) Rejoice. Your work here is done.

Now, whenever CS2 exits, it will no longer overwrite the fresh, working settings
file, and you will always be able to start it without the annoying error and
subsequent crash.

Chris McKay
http://www.Linux-Disks.com
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Chris MacKay wrote:
> ... fatal and unrecoverable crash when starting Photoshop for the second or
subsequent time.
> ... while there is a short-term workaround (noted below), nobody has yet
posted an actual permanent fix for the problem.
That sounds like
http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9623
Did you follow the procedure in the appdb howto,
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=2631
or in the wiki
http://wiki.winehq.org/AdobePhotoshop
to install Times32?

Incidentally, if you have times32 installed in Linux, the
windows install is a no-op!  winetricks has a workaround
for this;
  wget http://kegel.com/wine/winetricks
  sh winetricks corefonts vcrun6
before installing Photoshop CS2 should cure what ails you.
Please give it a shot.
- Dan