General questions about Wine...

[josolanes]

I haven't used wine in a little while now (a couple of months), partly because i had a lot of difficulty getting it to install and just got frustrated trying to get it to work.

some background info on my previous experience with wine: i was using fedora core 3 at the time and attempted to install it using the cvs version (i found the install pretty difficult even following what seemed to be excellent instructions and always came up with a problem that would lead me to quit trying). i now run gentoo and find installing things through source to be much more seemless as you simply type a command and everything is usually done for you . i have the option of doing this with wine using emerge (which is what got me interested in it again since i won't have to deal with cvs ).
p.s: i'm not putting fedora core down, it's just at the time i thought my only option was using the cvs source--which it may not have been--and i was inexperienced to say the least, so i wasn't prepared for the task that i put myself up to. i now have a lot more linux background and knowledge and feel more comfortable with it in general

my questions are:
does wine make the system lose stability? i'm asking this because my system, for the first time ever, is extremely stable and i don't want to risk it just to run a couple more games/apps. i thought i noticed a stability problem with it before, but i also installed it about 4 times without knowing how to uninstall each time, so that may have been the cause

does wine open the system to windows virii or other code that may normally cause problems on a windows machine?

if/when i do install it, should i install the following short list of packages to make sure it's thorough/easy to use? list (with brief description of each part): wine, gwine (gnome app to manage the wine cellar), winesetuptk (setup tool for wine adapted from codeweavers by debian), and of course any of the necessary dependencies that would be needed for any of these (taken care of by portage/emerge).

those are the main questions i had
i'm just looking for someone to let me know that this is a safe move and that it shouldn't cause problems. i would like to be able to run a few more of my windows games and, if needed, some other windows programs in the future. i like the idea that i have the option to run a windows app if i absolutely need to because you'll never know when you actually need it


I appreciate any input you can offer on this
Thanks in advance!

[josolanes]

i decided to install it anyways...install went way too easy . then winesetuptk made it very easy to set wine up. i had a gui that ran me through some steps and that was it.

i think it should work comfortably in this install
now i just need a win program to test it on

[ubermoon]

Why are they bothering with direct 10 implementation. seem trival, they should concentrate on getting the cdrom drive reading, instead of having to use no cd cracks, which r usually full of virus'. Im not even sure wether the no cd cracks are legal. So I won't b using wine till they get the cdrom drive working.

[i92guboj]

does wine make the system lose stability? i'm asking this because my system, for the first time ever, is extremely stable and i don't want to risk it just to run a couple more games/apps. i thought i noticed a stability problem with it before, but i also installed it about 4 times without knowing how to uninstall each time, so that may have been the cause

Wine is just another program. If you use a stable kernel, a stable fs and stable 3rd party drivers (if any) then a problem in wine shouldn't compromise your system. In linux no program can't hard lock your system, unless there's something involved in the kernel side (buggy driver/experimental patchsets, in general), or faulty hardware.

Wine can fail, sometimes it can segfault, but that at most should only cause wine to die (along with any windows program that is running under wine, of course). Nothing else. In any case, wine is not hooked in your system permanently nor anything like that. Wine only runs when you open it to launch windows software under linux. So, no, it doesn't add any instability to your OS.

does wine open the system to windows virii or other code that may normally cause problems on a windows machine?

Potentially: yes. Wine aims to be a full replacement for the windows api. So, as long as the virus is using windows api functions and not some other more low level mechanism it should work on wine (that's what wine is for: to run windows programs, and that's what viruses are). However, that's only theory. Usually, they will not work and will just cause wine to exit or fail in colorful ways. Viruses usually deal with esoteric functions and unexpected or not-so-well-documented behaviors, that, more than likely, will fail to run on wine.

I've never heard of any successful report of anyone running a virus under wine. Many people have tried. However, as I said, it's potentially possible, and I guess that some of them will run.

So, my advice is the following: if you plan to use programs that can potentially serve as a way into your box (for example, if you use IE under wine), do it on a separate user account. Remember: wine will have at most the same privileges that the user that you are running wine under. So, if you use it on a separate user account at most it will be able to damage the files on the home directory for that user, but not your main one.

After that explanation, I think that there's no need to say that you should never run wine as root, because then wine will have root privileges, and anything running under wine as root will have full permissions over your system. We all know -hopefully- what that means.

if/when i do install it, should i install the following short list of packages to make sure it's thorough/easy to use?]

I just use wine, plain wine. Nothing else. That's it, unless I have to for some reason.

gwine is not related, it's about the other wine, the drink.

Why are they bothering with direct 10 implementation.

I don't know what you are talking about. As far as I know, there has been no support at all for directx10 on wine, up to 1.1.6 (correct me if I am wrong, please). In the 1.1.7 changelog it appears a little note saying "First steps of Direct3D 10 implementation.", it's the first thing I've seen, which probably means that there's absolutely nothing usable still. So, if I were you, I wouldn't worry about how much time they have wasted on that. It's been ridiculous, considering that wine started like 15 years ago.

seem trival, they should concentrate on getting the cdrom drive reading, instead of having to use no cd cracks,

Patches are always welcome.

Well, we can't tell these guys what they must or mustn't do. After all, it's their time and effort. I don't always agree with the direction of the project, but after coming such a long time, I am sure that they do the things for a good reason, even if I can't always understand it.

After all, if you want to run a protected game, most times you have a workaround (yes, it's legal if you own it, at least on most countries, I am no expert in legal issues), but if you want to run a dx10 based game, you don't have any option at all. From that point of view, it seems clear to me where the priority is, even if the number of titles for dx10 is not that big yet.

[ubermoon]

Thx 4replying, I was'nt trying to cause trouble. But I don't think I'll use wine until they get the cdrom drive working instead of having to use no cd cracks.

[techieMoe]

Do not post to threads that are 3 years old. Start your own.