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'Safely' run Wine

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 5:06 pm
by mikeslr

Well, I couldn't leave it alone. :lol: :roll:
Following my exploration here, viewtopic.php?p=21516#p21516 I wondered how well the containerization mechanism employed by EasyOS might do in isolating Wine and applications which run under it.

I have yet to discover any good reason to run a 64-bit version of Wine; and to run a 32-bit version under 64-bit Puppys usually requires SFS-Loading a 32-bit compatibility application*. But EasyOS can run 32-bit Puppys in a container and has available for immediate installation via sfsget Racy.

I have EasyOS on a USB-Key. I booted it up and sfs-"got" Racy. And ran into the first stumbling block and a really important one. How do you get anything into Racy? The included Seamonkey was too old: the Forum wouldn't allow access. Scanning for documentation about sharing files under EasyOS I found a post suggesting that the containerized OSes would have access to USB-Keys. But unless I missed something, the containerized Racy wouldn't mount any device.. And, indeed, even using the Containerized Racy's rox, there did not appear to be anything beyond the Containerized Racy's /.

The only way** to access Racy was a folder it shares with the main OS, EasyOS, and other contained OSes: /home/shared? [Or something like that, not in EasyOS right now. So that's from a sometimes flaky memory]. Atl-F6 switched me out of Racy into EasyOS, itself. Downloaded version2013's wine-3.x.1 pet (as I knew it functions under Racy), and the setup file for Atlantis-lite. Copied them into the /home/shared? folder. Then Clicked the Racy icon on the desktop switching into the containerized Racy.
Installed the wine pet, opened a terminal and ran "wine winecfg" to create the wine environment; then installed Atlantis-lite. As my previous exploration revealed, wine related files were scattered all over 'the' system; Winefile had access to all files on 'the' system; and Atlantis's setup file offered to install Atlantis anywhere on 'the' system. But the system was only Racy's system. Everything was within the container and nothing had offered to place or store anything outside of the container.
Except the one location /home/shared? Before switching out of the containerized Racy, you can carefully examine the contents of that folder and delete anything which isn't supposed to be there.

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* 'Ordinary' Puppys, if they possess the necessary dependencies, can use a Wine AppImage which can handle both 32-and-64 bit Window Applications. But EasyOS's Containerized 'Puppys' apparently can't mount AppImages. This, however, may result from a conscious decision by Barry K as to what functions the Containerized Puppys were to have. Currently, AFAIK, only Barry K has provided Puppys usable under EasyOS. While searching for information about how to get pets into Racy, I chanced upon a post in which Barry K explains how to create a Containerized Puppy. The application one can use provides choices. The choices Barry K made may have resulted in what, I think, rufwoof refers to as an 'impaired root'.

** It didn't occur to me to explore the Contained Racy using EasyOS's file-manager. See Mike Walsh's post and my reply. viewtopic.php?p=21789#p21789.