Scott,
I don't think you need to override this check, esp. given that there's a good reason for it being there:
Note that there is a problem with this setup if the app modifies the registry and we then need to update the prefix-default registry
I've excellent experience with symbolic links. In fact, none of the apps (games) I use are installed directly within any .wine prefix. Drive_c/Program Files/Games is a symbolic link to a large partition.
Imagine a distro package containing a Windows game in the form of a read-only copy of an installed prefix (into, say, /opt).
So I recommend the following setup: - Have the game's main directory be something like /opt/games/XYZ in UNIX, but tell it to install to C:\games/XYZ - During installation, write down all registry keys that the app creates and every file that it stores outside of its local directory.
Beware: the name of the directory C:\Program.. depends upon every user's locale at .wine creation time! Use C:\Games\ instead to avoid that pitfall.
For every user: - After .wine is created normally, add a symlink from Drive_c/Games to /opt/games - Add registry keys or dlls needed by the app.
wineprefixcreate ln -s /opt/games/XYZ $HOME/.wine/drive_c/games cp -p whatever.dll $HOME/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/ wine regedit xyz.reg
Trivial, isn't it?
Typically, you don't need to recreate the content of user-local APPDATA directories. The app will create them upon each run, since they ought to run with different users on one machine.
Caveat: Although my .wine and games directories are distinct, I've no experience with write-protecting the games partition. Obviously, this only has a chance to work with modern apps, written after MS started recommending separating the app's dir from its per-local configuration files to be since stored in ~/LOCALAPPDATA or the like. Thus w9x/w2k-era games are ruled out. Still, I don't know where those apps attempt to store e.g. crash logs.
I've seen apps write high-scores or savegames to their central directory when w2k was set in winecfg, and use HKCU/LOCALAPPDATA (what's the exact name?) when running in xp mode.
I've made excellent experience with plenty of apps sharing a single .wine-games prefix with such a setup. I.e. you don't need one prefix per app. Like on a real box, the apps ought to be able to coexist.
Drawback: when I was initially attracted to Wine 5 years ago, every .wine was a tiny 3-4MB. Nowadays it's more than 10 times that size, and I'm not happy with that. Using a single onion-union-fs to share drive_c/xyz may be interesting -- for as long as one single version of Wine is in use.
Regards, Jörg Höhle
On 9/24/12 2:48 AM, Joerg-Cyril.Hoehle@t-systems.com wrote:
Scott,
I don't think you need to override this check, esp. given that there's a good reason for it being there:
The good reason doesn't apply in this use case. Overriding it fixes every problem I'm facing without having to do anything complicated or manual.
Note that there is a problem with this setup if the app modifies the registry and we then need to update the prefix-default registry
I've excellent experience with symbolic links. In fact, none of the apps (games) I use are installed directly within any .wine prefix. Drive_c/Program Files/Games is a symbolic link to a large partition.
Your apps don't need to have conflicting registry settings then. I can't assume I'll always be so lucky.
Imagine a distro package containing a Windows game in the form of a read-only copy of an installed prefix (into, say, /opt).
So I recommend the following setup: - Have the game's main directory be something like /opt/games/XYZ in UNIX, but tell it to install to C:\games/XYZ - During installation, write down all registry keys that the app creates and every file that it stores outside of its local directory.
Beware: the name of the directory C:\Program.. depends upon every user's locale at .wine creation time! Use C:\Games\ instead to avoid that pitfall.
For every user: - After .wine is created normally, add a symlink from Drive_c/Games to /opt/games - Add registry keys or dlls needed by the app.
wineprefixcreate ln -s /opt/games/XYZ $HOME/.wine/drive_c/games cp -p whatever.dll $HOME/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/ wine regedit xyz.reg
Trivial, isn't it?
We can't assume apps will install cleanly, or only need the files in their install directories; copying to windows system folder does happen, and then it becomes a real mess.
Typically, you don't need to recreate the content of user-local APPDATA directories. The app will create them upon each run, since they ought to run with different users on one machine.
Caveat: Although my .wine and games directories are distinct, I've no experience with write-protecting the games partition. Obviously, this only has a chance to work with modern apps, written after MS started recommending separating the app's dir from its per-local configuration files to be since stored in ~/LOCALAPPDATA or the like. Thus w9x/w2k-era games are ruled out. Still, I don't know where those apps attempt to store e.g. crash logs.
I've seen apps write high-scores or savegames to their central directory when w2k was set in winecfg, and use HKCU/LOCALAPPDATA (what's the exact name?) when running in xp mode.
I've made excellent experience with plenty of apps sharing a single .wine-games prefix with such a setup. I.e. you don't need one prefix per app. Like on a real box, the apps ought to be able to coexist.
Perhaps. But separate prefixes give us so many advantages here, at the mere cost of some disk space.
Drawback: when I was initially attracted to Wine 5 years ago, every .wine was a tiny 3-4MB. Nowadays it's more than 10 times that size, and I'm not happy with that. Using a single onion-union-fs to share drive_c/xyz may be interesting -- for as long as one single version of Wine is in use.
Regards, Jörg Höhle
Thank you though, you do propose one alternative.
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Joerg-Cyril.Hoehle＠t-systems.com -
Scott Ritchie