wine users - Feb 2009 - Program won't load fonts when run outside of installed dir

I'm trying get a couple pieces of software we use at work so we can replace
a bunch of aging Windows machines with Linux boxes, but I'm having a little
trouble.  I'll start with the potentially easiest problem first.
 
One of the programs I'm trying to use is Lightspeed Virtual Terminal.  It
runs fairly well with just a couple of glitches.  If I go to the directory it
was installed to, either in the terminal or the file browser, and run it with
the "Wine Program Loader" menu option, or 'wine lsvt.exe' it
opens normally.  However, if I try to create a link or a launcher for it, it
doesn't load the fonts and comes up looking awful.

How can I fix this?

Tofystedeth <wineforum-user at winehq.org>
>Sent: Feb 6, 2009 7:38 AM
>To: wine-users at winehq.org
>Subject: [Wine] Program won't load fonts when run outside of installed
dir
>
>I'm trying get a couple pieces of software we use at work so we can
replace a bunch of aging Windows machines with Linux boxes, but I'm having a
little trouble.  I'll start with the potentially easiest problem first.
> 
>One of the programs I'm trying to use is Lightspeed Virtual Terminal. 
It runs fairly well with just a couple of glitches.  If I go to the directory it
was installed to, either in the terminal or the file browser, and run it with
the "Wine Program Loader" menu option, or 'wine lsvt.exe' it
opens normally.  However, if I try to create a link or a launcher for it, it
doesn't load the fonts and comes up looking awful.
>
>How can I fix this?
>
Use a laucher which calls a Unix script that sets the directory and then calls
wine lvst.exe.  This is how programs are supposed to be run with Wine.

James McKenzie

On 2009-02-06 (Friday) 14:38:43 Tofystedeth wrote:
> I'm trying get a couple pieces of software we use at work so we can
replace
> a bunch of aging Windows machines with Linux boxes, but I'm having a
little
> trouble.  I'll start with the potentially easiest problem first.
>
> One of the programs I'm trying to use is Lightspeed Virtual Terminal. 
It
> runs fairly well with just a couple of glitches.  If I go to the directory
> it was installed to, either in the terminal or the file browser, and run it
> with the "Wine Program Loader" menu option, or 'wine
lsvt.exe' it opens
> normally.  However, if I try to create a link or a launcher for it, it
> doesn't load the fonts and comes up looking awful.
>
> How can I fix this?
	Short answer: You are always supposed to run a Windows program 
from where it was installed. So, when creating a launcher use something like
"wine
start  /unix /path/to/your_program.exe" to start your program. If you want
to
create a link then link to script with "wine start /unix
/path/to/your_program.exe"
inside. Also you need to set WINEPREFIX environment variable in your script and 
convert with winepath all Unix paths in argument list for Windows program or it
will
not find files you want to open with it. This means, for example, that you
cannot
drag'n'drop file from Konqueror onto Windows program and expect it to
open it.
Please read long answer below if you want to solve all of above problems once
and for all.

	Long answer: personally I dislike to write "wine start /unix ..." or
"wine ..." or to cd to
directory where a program is installed and think about current WINEPREFIX
environment
variable everytime I want to run Windows program; also I dislike that I cannot
drag'n'drop
in Konqueror a file onto Windows program (well, actually I can but result of
such operation
will not be useful) or can't use Unix path to a file I want to open it with
Windows program.
Writing program-specific script for each Windows programs isn't and option,
especially
if you are using more than a few of Windows programs.
	To solve these problems I prefer to use support for misc binaries in the Linux
kernel.
Using it you can run any Windows executable directly (in other words you will be
able to run
Windows executables exactly the same as you run native Linux executables - for
example
you can type in your terminal "/path/to/your_program.exe" and hit
enter and your_program.exe
will run). If you want to use support for misc binaries to run Windows programs
in Linux I
recommend you to create wrapper script /usr/local/bin/winestart with the
following content
(actually this script is useful even if you don't want to use support for
misc binaries).


#!/bin/sh
# Copyright (C) 2009 L. Rahyen
# License: GNU LGPL version 2 or later
if [[ -z "$WINEPREFIX" ]]; then
{
  APATH="$@"
  if [[ -n "`echo $APATH | cut -d/ -f1`" ]]; then
  {
    APATH="`pwd`/$@"
  } fi
  WINEPREFIX="`echo \"$APATH\" | sed
's/\/\.\//\//g;s/\/dosdevices\/.:\//\/drive_c\//;s/\harddiskvolume0/\/drice_c\//'
|
  awk '
  {
    n = split($0, a, "/drive_c/")
    printf("%s",  a[1]);
  }
  '`"
  export WINEPREFIX
  if [[ ! -d "$WINEPREFIX" ]]; then
  {
    unset WINEPREFIX
  } fi
} fi
ARGS="$1"
shift
while [[ "$1" != "" ]]; do
{
  FILE="`winepath -w \"$1\" | sed 's/ /\\ /g'`"
  if [[ -e "`winepath -u \"$FILE\"`" ]]; then
  {
    ARGS="$ARGS $FILE"
  }
  else
  {
    ARGS="$ARGS $1"
  } fi
  echo "$ARGS"
  shift
} done
wine start /unix "$ARGS"


	Then save it and make it executable by running "sudo chmod +x
/usr/local/bin/winestart". Then run this as root:

echo ':DOSWin:M::MZ::/usr/local/bin/winestart:' >
/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register

	Make sure to put this command somewhere in your startup scripts (if you 
already have it there then change it accordingly); otherwise after reboot you
will
need to run it manually again. If you get "write error" then you
already have DOSWin
registered and you need to unregister it by running:

echo -1 > /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/DOSWin

	...then run "echo ':DOSWin:M::MZ::/usr/local/bin/winestart:' >
/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register"
again.

	Now you can run (for example) notepad like this:

~/.wine/drive_c/windows/notepad.exe

	And even if you run your program in non-default Wine prefix it will run 
correctly. For running next few examples you need non-default Wine prefix so
let's
create one (unset command in second line is there just in case if you have
non-empty
WINEPREFIX environment variable):

WINEPREFIX=~/.my-wine-prefix wineboot
unset WINEPREFIX

	Now you can start notepad like this:

~/.my-wine-prefix/drive_c/windows/notepad.exe

	Or like this:

cd ~/.my-wine-prefix/drive_c/
windows/notepad.exe

	...And in both cases winestart the wrapper script will detect that you are 
running notepad in non-default Wine prefix and will run notepad in
~/.my-wine-prefix
Wine prefix (instead of using default ~/.wine). Obviously instead of notepad.exe
you
can run any program you want (usually you can find your Windows programs in
drive_c/Program\ Files directory).

	Another example:

~/.my-wine-prefix/dosdevices/z:/$HOME/your-program.exe

	Or:

cd ~/.my-wine-prefix/dosdevices/z:/$HOME/
./your-program.exe

	Both commands will run your-program.exe in ~/.my-wine-prefix Wine prefix. 
However if you explicitly specify Wine prefix using WINEPREFIX environment
variable
it will override auto-detection. For example:

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine ~/.my-wine-prefix/drive_c/windows/notepad.exe

	This will run ~/.my-wine-prefix/drive_c/windows/notepad.exe in ~/.wine Wine 
prefix. Overriding auto-detection is useful sometimes for testing (for example
you
can run a program installed in ~/.my-wine-prefix using ~/.wine Wine prefix where
it
wasn't installed to see how well (or how bad) your program will work without
installation).

	Support for direct execution of Windows executables will work with all file 
managers and shells so you can run all your Windows programs like native ones. 
Make sure to remove all associations in your file manager(s) with Wine (*.exe
files)
so file manager(s) can run Windows programs directly. Also you can specify in
your
launcher(s) Windows programs without prefixing them with "wine " or
"wine start /unix"
and/or specifying Wine WINEPREFIX environment variable (so in many cases you can
use hard or symbolic links instead of launchers).

	Few more examples... Let's create a simple text file:

echo Text > ~/text.txt

	Now let's try to open it with notepad (or any other Windows program you
like):

cd ~/.my-wine-prefix/drive_c/windows/
./notepad.exe ~/text.txt

	Notepad will successfully open ~/text.txt!

	If you are using Konqueror run it and go to
"~/.my-wine-prefix/drive_c/windows/".
You should see notepad.exe. Run another instance of Konqueror (or split
Konqueror
window you just opened); make sure that you can see two Konqueror windows 
simultaneously. In another Konqueror window go to your home directory and find
text.txt.
Now drag'n'drop text.txt to notepad.exe - Notepad will open text.txt for
you.

	As you can see this script and support for misc binaries is very useful when
used
properly. I hope this information will be helpful. If something doesn't work
as you expected
let me know.