Windows PortableApps under WINE

[Mike Walsh]

Afternoon, boys & girls.

I've always used WINE in Puppy. Despite Linux having an equivalent for pretty much anything that Windows offers, there's still the odd occasion when you want to do something for which there is no direct equivalent. Either that, or you're so used to using a particular application in Windows that's it's more hassle than it's worth to learn the Linux equivalent.

In the last couple of years, I've discovered that many of the apps/programs offered at PortableApps.com will happily run under many versions of WINE. I can't speak for the more recent offerings (I use those compiled by version2013), since, like many people, I've settled on the one version of WINE that works for me. In my case, this happens to be WINE 1.7.51.

(Don't forget, this is something that requires a wee bit of experimenting. WINE functionality often 'breaks' between versions; regressions are not at all uncommon, although the WINE Project are steadily getting better at this, release by release).

I thought it might be handy for some of you to know which portable apps are known to definitely work with WINE & Puppy.....bearing in mind that this can be a bit of a lottery, and use of the WineHQ database is strongly recommended.

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The Portables I've tried that work for me under 1.7.51 are as follows (and do bear in mind that I've only begun to scratch the surface here; there's a lot more available than I've listed here, many of which I, personally, don't have a use for.) There's a huge section of portable games, for instance...

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Graphics

IrfanView - image editor and viewer.
LaZPaint - as above.
PhotoFiltre - editing & processing of photos.
Dia - good for doing diagrams.
Fotografix - very simple version of Photoshop.
SmartDeblur - used for deblurring/sharpening of images. I know Geoffrey uses this one, and has re-built a version that gets rid of certain annoying start-up features.
PicPick - very similar to our native Linux app, 'HotShots'.

Documents/word processing

Jarte - the well-known basic w.p., based on the Windows 'Notepad' engine. Actually chock-full of neat little features.
SumatraPDF - another well-known, very basic PDF viewer.
Notepad++ - again, based on the Notepad 'engine'.....basically, a way more full-featured version of Notepad.

Multimedia

SMPlayer - the portable version actually works OK under WINE.....so long as you don't push it too hard!
VLC - ditto, as above.....although not quite as stable.

(EDIT - 25/01/20: Just to add for the above pair of media players, that with a much more modern and capable processor/RAM combo, both actually work extremely well.....and in fact VLC is probably more stable than SMPlayer in this scenario!)

TAudioConverter - an exceptionally easy-to-use converter for audio formats.....which works well, and quite quickly.
AVIScreen Classic - a very neat, easy-to-use little screen recorder app.

Odds & ends

Telegram - the portable will often work where the Linux native version won't, due to glibc requirements.
7-Zip portable - needs no introduction.
PWGen - this generates random passwords. It does have its uses!
PopMan - I've found this one just today; it's a very lightweight email notifier/viewer. Works nicely, too; it can all be accessed/controlled via its tray icon.

(EDIT:- Just tried out, literally a few minutes ago (18:30), 'VirtualMagnifyingGlass'. Self-explanatory, of course.....but works really, really well. Again, runs from a tray icon; you can change its appearance, change the size of the area you want to magnify (and add/remove a border for the magnifier), invert colours, zoom up and down via the mouse wheel.....all sorts of nifty tricks. And everything works as it should.

Not bad at all.....and extremely useful.)

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The one thing to remember about these things is crucial; you do NOT 'install' these as you would normally do with Windows apps running under WINE - Mikeslr will back me up on this one. You run the 'installer' (really just an 'archiver'), which merely unpacks them into a location of your choice. I keep mine in a remote folder, called 'PortableApps', sym-linked into /root of each Pup, and referenced/started via custom Menu entries I've made up for them.

You can also just drag the .exe file of each app onto the desktop, then rename & tart-up with an icon, if so desired.

This is only for starters. I'd love to hear from anybody else who's got any other portables running/working successfully for them. We could expand this into an index for these things!


Mike.

[mikeslr]

...
The one thing to remember about these things is crucial; you do NOT 'install' these as you would normally do with Windows apps running under WINE - Mikeslr will back me up on this one. You simply run the installer, which unpacks them into a location of your choice. I keep mine in a remote folder, called 'PortableApps', sym-linked into /root of each Pup, and referenced/started via custom Menu entries I've made up for them.
...
Mike.

Correct-a-mundo.

I keep mine on /mnt/home in a folder I simply named 'xp-apps', without the quotes. I like a clean desktop --no icons beyond "Save" -- but don't like having to spend a lot of time file-browsing to folders. I guess I could just have book-marked it. But I hadn't thought that far when I created the attached xp-app.pet. Shows up in the filesystem section of the Menu with a suitable icon. I still, then, have to browse into the specific folder of the desired portable and click its executable.

You can edit this line in /usr/share/applications/xp-apps.desktop

Exec=roxfiler /mnt/home/xp-apps

to point to your containing folder.

The thing is, I don't often use any of the portables I've accumulated. About the only one I do use is Avidemux and for that I created its own 'menu-pet'. Linux versions of Avidemux are probably just as good, and are available as 64-bit. But I'm used to XP Avidemux's GUI.

There's a post somewhere --IIRC in this Section of the Forum-- which discusses creating your own Menu listing for Applications running under Wine. I think that since it was written Mike Walsh put me on to the fact that it is only necessary to include in the pet a file (1), /usr/share/applications/APPLICATION_NAME and (2) an icon if a suitable icon is not already on your system.

The one for my AvidemuxXP reads:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=AvidemuxXP
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/avidemux.png
Comment=Video Editor
Exec=wine.sh /mnt/home/xp-apps/AvidemuxXP/avidemux.exe
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=AudioVideo;
GenericName=avidemux

Note, I run Wine portable. If you run 'regular' Wine, you would just delete the ".sh" from the Exec argument. Boldings are for emphasis/clarity, not done in the actual argument.

Rather than mention the Window portables I've accumulated and rarely use, I'll just provide this link to what may be the most comprehensive list of available portables, with links to their download locations: http://www.lupopensuite.com/bestapps.htm. About every year someone publishes a "Best Portable Apps" and "Essential Portable Apps".

I don't recall WineHQ providing reports about portable apps. But it's always good to check there. If the install version runs, its almost certain that the portable version will. IMHO the portable version should be preferred even if it is not the latest. Portables are designed not to write to Windows Registry, so that don't write to Wine's 'false' Window Registry, which I think is somewhat more fragile. If a portable doesn't work --and not all do-- you just delete its folder.

That also means it's safe to explore. If there's a window program you like and it's available as a portable, the worst that can happen is you've wasted your time.

However, I wouldn't recommend using cleaning programs, registry cleaning programs or similar applications which could make drastic changes beyond that which they are supposed to do under Windows. Nor use any Window's program's 'delete' module. IIRC, intending to delete one file while running 7-Zip, I deleted an entire directory. Wine isn't Windows. Of course, if after checking WineHQ and finding reports of their successful and safe usage, that's a different story.

mikesLr

Edit: pet revised to use defaultfilemanager rather than rox

[Mike Walsh]

Just tried out another one from the PortableApps.com site, in the 'Graphics' section. If you've got WINE installed, and want a full-featured screen-capture-cum-editor-plus-lots of-other-extras, then give PicPick a try.

I thought our native HotShots was good.....but this thing knocks spots off it, for ease of use, and features. It works 100%, and this is from late last year; the current, up-to-date version.

You've got your various screen-capture options; a full-featured editor; color picker & color palette; a magnifier (not as good as VirtualMagnifyingGlass from above, but you can't have everything); a pixel ruler (for measuring images); cross-hair, for finding the centre of things; a protractor.....and even a whiteboard. And it all works.....perfectly, too!

Since I run the same version of WINE in all my Pups, I've a sneaking suspicion I know what I'm going to be using from now on; I'm that impressed with this.

Thoroughly recommended.


Mike.

[mouldy]

Can somebody give me heads up on Jarte? I am running portable wine 2.16. I have tried Jarte v.3.0, Jarte v6.2 and the portable Jarte 6.2. Tracking down copy of v3.0 wasnt easy but the wine people claimed it worked best under wine. It didnt do any better than the others.

All will pop up the Jarte screen, but when I type something the column moves but nothing shows on the screen. I can even save the "blank" file I typed and it will show in LibreOffice. Hey great way to practice touch typing without being tempted to look at what you typed as you are typing it, but not useful otherwise.

Thinking it maybe a font thing, wont let me change fonts or it crashes. Since this thread is about using portable apps including Jarte, lets stick to that one. Though if I solve this sure any of them will then work.

Using Slacko64 v.6.9.9.9 kernel 4.9.30 With the 32bit SFS library compatibility file.

[mostly_lurking]

@ mouldy:

I downloaded Jarte 3.0 via the web archive (as well as later versions; just change the date in the URL from "2008..." to something else). It ran on Wine 1.7.51 - the version Mike Walsh mentioned - and 2.3 on a 32bit Wary Puppy. Earlier Wine versions produced too many errors.

The text was indeed invisible, until I changed the word wrap mode from "wrap to page" to "wrap to window". This option can be found in the status bar at the bottom. I had no crashes when changing fonts. I found the program to be generally rather slow and buggy... but maybe that's just me and my system, considering that Mike Walsh seems to have had a better experience with Jarte.

[Mike Walsh]

Hallo, mouldy.

M_L's quite right. I'd discovered that little 'quirk' myself, sometime a couple of months ago. I'd fully intended to add the info to this thread, but, good intentions being what they are, it kind of fell to the wayside and got forgotten....

Once you've changed that option via the bar, lower-right, it becomes a very functional little word processor. The thing I especially like about it is the ability to change the mouse behaviour to 'hover to select' (or 'Clickless operation', as Jarte refer to it). It considerably reduces the amount of clicking required.

Do let us know if that does the trick for you. Jarte has for quite a while been on my list of those WINE apps that just 'work'. Of course it's going to be a bit on the 'slow & buggy' side; it's a Windoze app!

'Nuff said.


Mike.

[tlchost]

If there is interest, I will create and maintain an online database of windows apps which run under wine...

No interest seen...offer rescinded.

[mouldy]

Ok with portable 6.2, yes changing wrap setting let whats printed be shown. But I cant change font without it crashing. I will try installing the 3.0 version when I have spare time and see if it does it too.

Not a big deal, after all I have geany and LibreOffice. I had just recommended Jarte to elderly windows user who went from XP to win10 and lost her MS Word, and got to wondering how it would run in WINE.

[mouldy]

Ok, went ahead and tried v. 3.0. It is more stable. Still little trick to changing font in Jarte, have to assign it to a brush. And then go back and make sure wrap to window is selected, as it seems to like to revert to 'wrap to page' as default. But yea no problem after than.

So went back to v. 6.2 portable. Same worked on it. 3.0 is more stable but 6.2 portable is perfectly usable. I am sure there are other little quirks show up running windows apps on WINE but thats just par for the course. Once you know the quirks you can avoid them or find a workaround.

[ETP]

For anyone interested in running Windows PortableApps (XP > 10 ) in conjunction with Portable Wine
I posted about it here on 23rd April 2018:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 462#989551

There is no need to install anything in the Pup itself or to create individual app launchers. It is simply a
matter of dragging the wine-portable-3 icon onto the desktop and then editing it as described
to launch the existing Windows Portable Apps menu itself on the Puppy desktop.

[mikeslr]

Hi All,

Textroom is a distraction-free simple wordprocessor (ala focus writer). I've discussed it here, http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 135#994135 and a review can be found here: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/10/tex ... ction-free

mikesLr

[davids45]

G'day,

I'm trying to set up some 64-bit Pups and having a little success, but not with 'normal' wine64 (from version2013).
Attempting "wine64 xxx.exe" in the terminal to try to run anything fails, and the then needed library files for a fix are very confusing - 32-bit or 64-bit versions or both seem wanted, and have to copied somewhere?
My too-hard-basket is starting to overflow with static wine64.

Does Portable Wine work with 64-bit programs and in 64-bit Pups?

Are the portable-friendly Windows programs restricted to just those on the website or can I "install", really or pseudo-ly, my own Windows programs. That is, I just start these programs' setup-exes and things will work, like in all my 32-bit-wined Pups?

David S.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, David.

Now; whether or not the following information will be of any use to you, I can't say.....but I'll go ahead and post it anyway. You never know..!

Less than a week ago, I installed Xenialpup64 7.5 for the first time as a 'permanent' Pup. (I'd looked at it from time to time over the course of its development, but too many things didn't seem to work for me.)

The very first thing I did, straight after the 'create save-file & re-boot' routine, and after updating the PPM, was to install, from Xenial's 'Quickpet', the 32-bit-libs compatibility SFS. Almost the very next thing that occurred to me was to install WINE.

We all tend to have our preferred versions of WINE. For me, it's usually version2013's 1.7.51 - quite long in the tooth nowadays, but it's what works best with my collection of Windows .exes & Portables. But on this occasion, having been in the middle of browsing Quickpet, and spotting WINE, I simply clicked on it without thinking....

It wasn't until later when browsing the Xenial repo at Ibiblio that I realised it had installed 32-bit 2.02.....not my usual choice at all. But this is the thing, David; WINE configured itself, and my apps installed, all without a murmur. And everything just 'works'.

Back when I installed Tahr64, some 2 ½ years ago, trying to get WINE working at all, never mind 'behaving itself', turned out to be an absolute flamin' nightmare. I did eventually get everything 'playing nice', after doing the rounds of the Linux blogs & tech sites, but it was with some trepidation that I approached the Xenial64 install, because for me, WINE is a 'requirement'. Period.

Perhaps that's your answer; to attempt the same route I took.....and simply install 32-bit WINE after first installing the 32-bit-compat-libs. And don't forget, immediately after loading that SFS, remember to run

Code: Select all

ldconfig

...in the terminal (and wait for the return of the 'prompt'.)

It seems to have worked OOTB for me. Of course, it's entirely possible I simply managed to get everything in the correct order, this time.....but installing, and setting-up, Xenial64, was so uneventful as to be almost hum-drum. Which is, in itself (of course!) a tribute to the amount of careful work that's gone into it by PhilB and the rest of the Woof-CE team. Credit where credit's due, I always say.

Which 64-bit Pups are you trying to get set-up? And are you specifically wanting to run 64-bit Windows apps..?


Mike.

[davids45]

G'day Mike,

Thanks for burning your midnight oil for me and sending the interesting reply.

I too have Xenials in my 'good' 64-bit Pups. Tahr64 is also there and most of the others are Slacko64-based on my 64-bit Pup partition. Can't yet find a true Bionic64 Pup.

Werewolf, FatDog and Lighthouse look nice but are a bit too different for an 'old dog' like me. I might keep one of each nonetheless as long as they can use my all-applications sfs. Plenty of space still on my 30GB '64-bit-only' partition.

I must admit to being a bit puritanical wanting everything for the 64-bit Pups to be 64-bit. Then again, look what happened to the Puritans (in Britain, anyway, and ignoring the possible 'What did the Romans ever do for us' comparison ('Life of Brian' wisdom) ).

I'll try you solution to my 64-bit Windows-less 'brick wall' and give my head a rest from its bashing .

Thanks,

David S.

[davids45]

G'day Mike,

Tried to follow your guide for installing 32-bit wine successfully in a 64-bit Pup using the 32-bit compatible library files but when I've tried the terminal 'ldd config' nothing happens other than a error message about 'config'.

No luck yet running wine in a 64-bit Xenial Pup, either as a new download version of wine (pet) nor any of the several wine+programs sfs I use very happily with my many 32-bit Pups.

Now you've pointed this out to me, I do have similar but unused 32-bit library pets for tahr and slacko 64-bit Pups - I should try these in case one works in the particular Pup.

I'm still curious to know if Portable Wine is usable in a 64-bit Pup?

Thanks for your help.

David S.

[mikeslr]

I'm still curious to know if Portable Wine is usable in a 64-bit Pup? David S.

Yes. I run Wine-Portable, from here, http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 245#989245 under Xenialpup64 and Tahrpup64. I think I've also run it under Slacko64 --but I'll boot into it and check.

Previously I ran under Xenialpup64 and Tahrpup64 a version of Wine-Portable I built using one of version2013's wine 2.16 pets. And before that I ran shinobar's original version, wine-portable-1.6.2-2 under Tahrpup64.

Remember, all wine-portables employ 32-bit versions of wine. In order to function under a 64-bit Puppy, you must load the appropriate 32-bit compatibility application and configure it (ldconfig). [32-bit compatibility applications are packaged as SFS. But, as I always run wine, I repackaged it as a pet and installed it. Needs about 500 Mbs if you're using a SaveFile].

Edit: I'm back after booting into Slacko64. The attached screenshot shows my loaded SFSes and Installed pets. Note that the 32-bit compatibility SFS is loaded and that wine-portable-0.1 has been "installed". The latter is how Puppies recognize wine-portable when you register them. [Hence, you can only use one version of wine-portable at a time, and must use PPM to uninstall any prior version as all are cataloged as "0.1"].

InfoCentral_portable is actually a pet which creates a menu entry under Wine_portable. . It functioned as expected. Some of the portable windows programs I "installed" to /mn/home/xp-apps ran. Some did not. Among them was a new version of Avidemux portable. This version ran from 64-bit "Ubuntu" Puppies, and older versions of Avidemux ran, IIRC, from Slacko64. I know it runs under Slacko 5.7.1. And Avidemux 2.6.8 runs under Slacko64. So, go figure. In other words, for a portable windows program to function all 'the stars must align' -- the PuppyOS, the 32-bit Compatibility layer, the version of wine, and the program.

Note, for Puppies which lack Rox-App Right-click options, Wine-portable can be registered by browsing into the Wine-portable folder and executing "Register".

mikesLr

[davids45]

G'day mikeslr,

Thanks for your report on Portable Wine being OK in (some) 64-bit Pups.

From Mike Walsh's post, I tried my existing 32-bit wine+programs links sfs in a Slacko64 and, with an sfs of the Slacko 32-bit compatibility libraries also loaded, I have my desired Wine programs running in a 64-bit Pup with minimal effort. Compared to trying to work out the 64-bit Wines which wasn't going down well, if at all.

I'm yet to venture into other 64-bit Pup breeds and am concerned that the structure of the working-well slacko-32-bit libraries pet/sfs is very different to the Tahr and Xenial versions in the pet/sfs I have. I may need to update these.

So portable-wine may still be a 'Plan B' to get 64-bit Pups set up the way I want in some 64-bit Pups.

David S.

[Mike Walsh]

Morning, David.

I look at it this way, mate; I know, for a fact, that by installing the 32-bit_compat_libs SFS package, followed by installing one of version2013's WINE packages, that it will work.....for me, at least.

So I stick with what works. I've never been that puritanical that I turn round and say that so-and-so must be done in a specific way. I don't care that it's not, strictly speaking, the 'correct' way to do things. From my reading on the subject, 'twould appear that WINE64 is not yet fully 'sorted'.....and is very much still a 'work in progress'.

No fault here accrues to version2013; his packages work flawlessly, as always. It's more than likely to do with the way the entire WINE infrastructure is implemented in the 64-bit Pups.....and for that, I place the blame squarely at MyCrudSoft's feet.....especially with that dozy 'SYSWOW64' stuff. Arrgh!

Cogito, ergo sum. If it works, I'll use it; I'm not proud!!


Mike.

[mikeslr]

Hi David,

Basically, I agree with Mike Walsh. And your idea of putting wine-portable on the back-burner is probably what I would do if I were in your shoes.

My main Puppy now is Xenialpup64 and before that it was Tahrpup64. You might guess from my screenshot I venture into Slackopup64s only occasionally. Slackware has the reputation of being more stable, conservative in its development, but with Ubuntu (and its spin-offs) being the most popular more applications are created with it (or its debian base) in mind. That may also apply to those working on updating Wine and whose work serves as a base for Version2013's wine pets.

I started using wine-portable before SaveFolders existed. I wanted to see if Dragon Naturally Speaking could be run under any Puppy. A version had been run under Ubuntu (Tahr?). Installation took about 10 Gbs. Kind of big for a SaveFile. Well, I could not get Dragon to run. But since I had wine-portable setup I decided to see what "installable" XP programs could run. At some point I measured the amount of programs installed into Wine-portable's false C:drive at 32 Gb. Also kind of a lot if I had been using a SaveFile.

Although there are some Windows programs I run because I can, there's only one I actually need. From time to time I consider just installing a wine-pet. Hence the other version of the InfoCentral Menu pet I mentioned.

But like 't'other Mike suggests, if it works for you, why do something else?

mikesLr

[Mike Walsh]

@ mikeslr:-

Mike, mate, I'm glad someone else agrees with me on this one. All my life, I've abided by two principles:-

1.) I always take the 'line of least resistance'. If there's a 'hard' way of doing summat, and an 'easy' way of attaining the same outcome, I will invariably take the latter course of action...

2.) At the same time, I've always believed that if something's worth doing, it's worth doing it to the very best of your ability. That way, if it's implemented as thoroughly and correctly as possible, there shouldn't be any need to have to go back and 'put things right'.

Which is why I always like to do my research first....and my approach to computing has been the same as that of any other endeavour to which I've embarked upon. Do it once.....and do it properly to start with!

(Well, whadd'ya know; I've hit the 4000 post mark. Yay!)


Mike.