mimine wrote: Mon Aug 29, 2022 12:46 pm
Hi,
I would like to play "windows XP" games on linux.
How is it possible please ?
Games I would like to play on linux :
"age of empires"
"skyrim"
"fallout new vegas"
"half life 2"
"GTA San Andreas"
"Diablo 2"
...
I guess it's not in native , but with an emulator ?
Any one knows how to do for an old computer and the easiest simplest fastest best EASY PEASY way ?
Thanks
Well, nothing is that easy.
You could run Windows in a virtual machine, of which I know nothing other than there's a Section on the Forum providing information, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewforum.php?f=107. But what came immediately to my mind was to run Wine, about which I know a lot including IIRC that Wine is an acronym for 'Wine is not an emulator'.
Again, there's a Section on the Forum specifically dealing with it. https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewforum.php?f=142
First off, it is likely that the games you want are 32-bit. So don't make the mistake of trying to use 64-bit Wine. But I'll get back to which 'type' of wine shortly.
As to the games, themselves, you can find out if they will run under wine by searching here, https://appdb.winehq.org/. Although the impression I get is that Wine Devs spend a great deal of time perfecting Wine to run games, they never discuss any program which can be run as a portable. And portable programs often run even when their install-able versions don't. The difference is that 'install-ables' write to Windows' registry and although Wine has steadily improved its registry is not yet identical with Windows' registry. The posts at WineHQ will frequently note the version of Wine used, problems and how to overcome them. A good resource, but frequently problems encountered under old versions were resolved by newer versions. So, my 'Rule of Thumbs' are: (1) use a new version of wine and (2) assume a program will work out of the box until that's proven false.
Which wine:
You didn't tell us which Puppy. Always tell us which Puppy.
If you are running a 32-bit Puppy, running 32-bit Wine is 'easy-peasy'. Do not install wine via Puppy Package Manager. And if your Puppy offers Wine via Quickpet, Don't use that either. Quickpet is very good. But constructing Wine is an Art and Puppy's master in that Art is version2013.
The advantage of installing one of version2013’s wine pets is that you have many to choose from. You can check Winehq, find out which version of wine has reports about success with the programs you’re interested in and then install that version (or a close-match) from the repository of wine builds, either his own or allys. (See the discussion and links in the Wine Section of the Forum).
If you are running a 64-bit Puppy, you can download a Wine AppImage. There’s a little manual work involved in setting up a Wine AppImage. Again, see the discussion in the Wine Section.
The biggest disadvantage to either installing a pet or using a Wine AppImage is that they will install a lot of files to /root and /usr taking up a great deal of space in a SaveFile and impacting the amount of available RAM even when not in use. You can move much of those files out onto your Storage space. But we’re no longer talking ‘easy-peasy’.
My preference remains wine-portable. It is designed to run from ‘Storage’ and is, in fact, portable. The only ‘tricky part’ is that if you are running a 64-bit Puppy, you must first download, load, and configure the 32-bit compatibility SFS. See MikeWalsh’s post here about using the ldconfig command, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 715#p64715.
The ldconfig command is used to setup links between your 64-bit system and the 32-bit system provided by the compatibility SFS. Those links must exist for 32-bit wine to function. Sometimes the ldconfig command doesn't 'take' and you'll have to run it again. To make certain it has what I do is run a 32-bit application less demanding than wine. For example, I'll download and setup MikeWalsh's 32-bit palemoon portable. https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 4251#p4251. If it runs under a 64-bit Puppy, I know that the 'ldconfig command did it's job. [The entire palemoon portable folder can then be deleted, leaving no trace, if I have no reason to keep it].
Versions of Wine-portable can be obtained via the links here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... p=279#p279. As I’ve often stated, these are built using version2013’s pets and the technique and structures developed by Shinobar and the Japanese Team to ‘portablize’ such pets.
I still use the 3.3 portable version and in 4 years the only report of a problem about getting a windows’ program to run under it had to do with the latest version of Kindle.
Of course, wine isn’t windows. So don’t expect every program to function regardless of what wine version you employ.