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Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 4:50 am
by toconvertvid
I'm slowly trying to replace Windows (7) with Linux Mint (Xfce flavor). theWord is one of a few irreplaceable Windows applications that I use. I want to ask those who use it via Wine in Linux:
  • 1) How difficult is it to get it up and running in Wine?
    2) How well does it run in Wine? (Use the 5-star system if you will.)
    3) Has an update to Wine ever "broken" theWord for you?
    4) Have you ever had an old version of TW work well, but then had an updated (beta) TW version not work?
Thanks.

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 5:42 am
by DarrelW
I initially ran Linux Mint 17 then since I do a lot of audio recording switched to Ubuntu Studio 14.10. I run the latest version of Wine and have never had an update of Wine break any of my windows apps. With both Linux Mint 17 and Ubuntu Studio there is NO set issues with Wine - just install it from the repository, install TW using the setup.exe file, and you're off to the races! I give it 5 stars! I also run the latest TW beta. The ONLY programs I have not been able to use is Jonathan Koehn's Bible program (and he has not got back with a fix yet!) and a guitar program called Guitar Pro 6 (and that has to do with it not working well with Jack).

Darrel

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 2:45 am
by toconvertvid
Thanks Darrel for sharing your experience with TW + Wine + Linux. Any others?

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 3:29 am
by mathetes
Everything works fine under WINE. I'm running Debian Stable. I do find, though, that TW responds slightly quicker under a virtual machine when scrolling through the Bible text. It's not enough of a lag under WINE to be a hinderance, but when you do a comparison, it is noticable.

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 3:10 pm
by RubioTerra
I have used theWord under Wine on Linux for some time. It runs like a breeze but I've encountered a few quirks:
  • You won't have clipboard monitor. Well, this isn't minor... but a great loss.
  • Occasionally there are some renderings/drawing issues with windows borders. Usually hitting Ctrl+F6 twice fixes it.
  • I remember having problems minimizing theWord window and trying to restore it. I wouldn't restore and I had to close it and reopen. I think this is related to the use of skins.
  • I remember some popups problems too. They would disappear right after they appear, making them unusable. Maybe this is fixed in Wine now, I don't remember seeing it for some time.
These are really occasional minor issues. Overall, theWord is perfectly usable and dependable under Wine.

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 4:42 pm
by therapon
I have used TW with Kubuntu since 2007, Ubuntu 6.10, Wine 1.3.something. Present system: Kubuntu 14.10 64-bit, Wine 1.7.38, desktop cube with 4 virtual desktops.

Like the previous poster, I've had issues all along with popups; they work fine until you do a Shift-mouseover. From then on, the popups mostly flash and disappear until you restart TW.

Another issue: if Print Preview is active and you click outside the preview window, the main window comes to the front but doesn't get the focus. It acts like it's stuck, not responding to mouse or keyboard input. If you Alt-Tab to the preview window and close it, all is fine.

My typical setup is with 5 docked views and a floating view. If a user-editable book view (where I enter my sermon notes) has focus, when I rotate the cube then come back to TW, the floating view ALWAYS has the focus. It used to be I could enter notes, rotate the cube then come back and keep typing. Now I have to click in the view where I left off typing first. It is not related to 32-bit or 64-bit Wine, I've tried both ways.

I have also had issues with the clipboard (not the clipboard monitor) and trying to copy/paste between TW and non-Wine applications. I haven't been able to figure out the pattern. One example I know of is Firefox. Keyboard shortcuts and context menu items for copy/paste do not function as you would expect. What works is to select the text in Firefox, copy to clipboard (shortcut or mouse is fine), select the entry from Klipper (KDE's clipboard manager), then paste into TW (shortcut or mouse is fine). The reverse also functions the same way, going from TW to Firefox.

I thought for a while some of the issues might be related to the video hardware/driver combination in my laptop (Intel i945) but they have persisted on a new laptop (nVidia K1100M). I have experienced the popup flashing issue on both Gnome and KDE, I'm not sure about the other quirks. I have also done fresh installations of both Linux and TW and nothing changes; the issues persist. I don't know what you might get for results on Xfce; the only way to be sure is try it.

My current laptop has enough horsepower to handle a Virtualbox WinXP guest with performance equal to or better than Wine. TW runs flawlessly as you would expect; the only downside I have found is the Vbox shared clipboard only handles plain text. That is far easier to deal with than the constant irritation of things I listed above.

therapon

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 3:00 am
by toconvertvid
I should have stated in my initial post that I am dual booting, Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) & Linux Mint 17.1 Xfce (64 bit).

I just installed Wine, and TW. When installing TW, I selected the Linux partition to install on. To my surprise some of the installation files were installed on C, the Windows drive. I thought I had messed up my Windows version of TW, but fortunately it's okay. But the problem is that in Linux I can't access the folders that some of TWs files got installed in. I understand that normally you can access the Windows drive within Linux, but I had a problem a few months ago, and the only way to fix it was to edit the fstab file. I can't really explain it because I don't really understand it. Here is what I have in the fstab file:
  • UUID=01D0644E534B12C0 /mnt/Win7 ntfs defaults,noauto 0 0
    UUID=0E52132052130C59 /mnt/SysRes ntfs defaults,noauto 0 0
I don't want to delete this from fstab, so to make this short, is there a way I can install ALL of TWs files on the Linux partition? I'm sure this has to be possible since most Linux users that use Wine are not dual booting.

EDIT:
I solved this by doing a compact install. I was able to delete the files on C with the Wine explorer. I'd still like to know how to do a regular install without any files going on the C drive.

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2015 10:12 am
by NorrinRadd
This is kind of disappointing to read. At some point -- I realize it's hardly an immediate concern -- M$ will force me to abandon Windows 7. Very little I've heard about Windows 10 impresses me (in a favorable way, that is). I was contemplating Mint or some other flavor of Linux as a possible next step. But if mouse-over pop-ups and copy-to-browser don't work properly, it's essentially a crippled program for my purposes.

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2015 2:58 pm
by therapon
UPDATE:

With the latest Wine (1.7.48), the Print Preview issue appears fixed - click outside the preview window and it just stays on top. However, if you accidentally double-click on a floating window Title Bar, then click again anywhere except on the warning popup window ("You cannot maximize...") it will cover it up. Alt-Tab will get you to the warning window so you can close it.

therapon

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 6:54 pm
by therapon
therapon wrote:My typical setup is with 5 docked views and a floating view. If a user-editable book view (where I enter my sermon notes) has focus, when I rotate the cube then come back to TW, the floating view ALWAYS has the focus. It used to be I could enter notes, rotate the cube then come back and keep typing. Now I have to click in the view where I left off typing first. It is not related to 32-bit or 64-bit Wine, I've tried both ways.
therapon
After much frustration, I determined something (I have no clue what) was corrupted in my KDE settings. I replaced ~/.kde/config/ and this is no longer an issue. It sure would be nice if the Shift-mouseover problem could be fixed. For some reason, after you use Shift-mouse over a popup, every popup after that displays as if Shift-mouse is still active. Oh well!

therapon

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:55 am
by DarrelW
Hey Therapon,
I realize it has been a long time, but hopefully you have resolved your issues. I run TW latest beta on Linux Mint 20 (sometimes switching to Ubuntu Mate 20.04) and Wine 5.14. I run triple monitors with TW on an SSD. My setup runs exceedingly well, and because of the SSD exceedingly fast. I left Windows 8 years ago and have never gone back. The windows programs I still use work very well in the latest Wine. Just thought I'd share a bit.

I also just set up a cube. I use an nVidia graphics card, so the cube is playing quite right, although when I setup 4 sides it gives me 12 instances to play with!

Darrel

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 2:59 pm
by therapon
Hi Darrel,

Thanks for asking. The one lingering issue is the Shift-mouseover thing that goes back to 2009. See this post: http://forum.theword.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6876

It has followed me from computer to computer and over several Linux distros. The one common thing is KDE. Starting with KDE 3.0, it persisted in 4.0 and now Plasma. It's aggravating at times but after 10+ years I've gotten used to it. I'm glad it works well for you.

therapon

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2020 8:39 pm
by Rodrigo Samy
DarrelW wrote:Hey Therapon,
I realize it has been a long time, but hopefully you have resolved your issues. I run TW latest beta on Linux Mint 20 (sometimes switching to Ubuntu Mate 20.04) and Wine 5.14. I run triple monitors with TW on an SSD. My setup runs exceedingly well, and because of the SSD exceedingly fast. I left Windows 8 years ago and have never gone back. The windows programs I still use work very well in the latest Wine. Just thought I'd share a bit.

I also just set up a cube. I use an nVidia graphics card, so the cube is playing quite right, although when I setup 4 sides it gives me 12 instances to play with!

Darrel
Good to know, Darrel, thank you for the heads up, I am transitioning from Windows 7 to Linux and the only thing I was afraid would not work well is TheWord, which is an irreplaceable program, as already said by somebody else. That is encouraging, given the fact migrating to another system feels like a jump on the darkness.
mathetes wrote:Everything works fine under WINE. I'm running Debian Stable. I do find, though, that TW responds slightly quicker under a virtual machine when scrolling through the Bible text. It's not enough of a lag under WINE to be a hinderance, but when you do a comparison, it is noticable.
Good to know as well, mathetes, that is encouraging. I just discovered there is something like a difference between an emulator (I guess WINE is one of them) and a virtual machine. From your knowledge, what of them would likely integrate theWord more seamlessly with Linux?

I am thinking mostly about being free to copy and paste between TheWord (running in an emulator *or* a virtual machine) and any program running on Linux - as well the Clipboard monitoring feature (when you copy a verse reference and theWord recognizes it and displays a popup window with the verses text). That comes last but it is in no way the least in my work, it is something I use a good lot.

Thank y'all for any feedback, stay healthy, stay well.

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2020 9:50 pm
by Jeff
Rodrigo Samy wrote: Good to know as well, mathetes, that is encouraging. I just discovered there is something like a difference between an emulator (I guess WINE is one of them) and a virtual machine. From your knowledge, what of them would likely integrate theWord more seamlessly with Linux?

I am thinking mostly about being free to copy and paste between TheWord (running in an emulator *or* a virtual machine) and any program running on Linux - as well the Clipboard monitoring feature (when you copy a verse reference and theWord recognizes it and displays a popup window with the verses text). That comes last but it is in no way the least in my work, it is something I use a good lot.

Thank y'all for any feedback, stay healthy, stay well.
Hi Rodrigo

Someone more knowledgeable on virtual machines may correct me, but I think running theWord under Wine seems more straight forward to me, and I would try that first. The clipboard monitor works fine for me on all my Linux programs using Wine.

I have no experience with virtual machines, but my understanding is that with a VM you still have to have a license to Windows and have it installed on your machine along with Linux, and have to have a certain amount of partition space dedicated to it, and then you can access Windows from within Linux somehow (again someone can correct me). I did dual boot Linux and Windows for a period of time until I was sure I could do everything on Linux and had everything I needed transferred over. As I understand that's different from a VM as I could only boot one OS at a time (though I could see and copy Windows files from Linux, but not run programs). I personally don't want to deal with two OSs and be done with Windows.

If you simply can't get something to work in theWord using Wine, it should work in the virtual machine just as it does on Windows, though someone else would have to answer about whether the clipboard monitor would work on the Linux section (I would guess it's doubtful).

I did a compact install of theWord as I thought that it would be easy to transfer if I try different distros or something (though I've stuck with MX Linux for 2 1/2 years since then) and it's worked well for me. But someone may be able to tell you more about the advantages of a full install vs. compact.

Re: Linux newbie w/ Wine questions concerning TW

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2020 12:06 am
by DarrelW
I run TW in wine 5.19, PlayonLinux and VirtualBox. It's easy to set up on all of them and runs beautifully. I have no performance lag in any of them. My preference is running TW in wine. I use the clipboard monitor a lot, grabbing verse text from TW forany Linux program I may be using.

Oh and by the way, I run both Linux Mint 20 and LMDE 4. TW runs beautifully in either distro!

Darrel