How to create a wine program menu entry?

[bigphil]

Hi all,
I'm running Fossapup64 9.5 and using Wine Portable.
I'm trying to put a menu entry for windows explorer, I have created a symlink

(/mnt/home/wine-portable/wine-data/drive_c/windows/explorer.exe)

and put in /usr/bin.
If you click on it it fires up however I can't find a way to add it to the menu entries.
I've tried using the info. provided in Mikes post - https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=3420 - but without success. I tried -

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Windows Explorer
Comment=Windows file manager
Exec=/usr/bin/explorer
Icon=
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Categories=X-filesystem

and -

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Windows Explorer
Comment=Windows file manager
Exec=/mnt/home/wine-portable/wine-data/drive_c/windows/explorer.exe
Icon=
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Categories=X-filesystem

but no luck.
Any ideas?

Phil.

[mikeslr]

In order to run a 'program' under wine, you have to call the wine executable. Take a look (open in Text-editor/viewer) one of the the desktop file you'll find in the DATA folder of the portable. My wine-file-manager.desktop under portable 5.11 reads:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Wine File Manager
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/wine-file.png
Comment=Wine file manager
Exec=wine32 winefile ### in blue for emphasis only.
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=FileManager
GenericName=WineFile

Like winefile, explorer is a 'builtin'. No need to provide its path. It's Exec line should read:

Exec=wine explorer
or
Exec=wine32 explorer

Explorer opened using either. Mike's Wine-portable is 'multi-arch'. I'm not sure if both commands opened the same explorer, or if wine opened the 64 bit version and wine32 opened the 32bit version. Wine64 explorer opened nothing.

Note, specifying the path to the executable is necessary when you use a portable program, say deployed to /mnt/home/WindowsProgs/MyProgram/MyProgram.exe. I'm not sure about programs you installed into your wine prefix.

[bigphil]

@mikesir

I copied your wine-file-manager.desktop and changed the Exec= as below -

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Wine File Manager
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/wine-file.png
Comment=Wine file manager
Exec=wine explorer
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=FileManager
GenericName=WineFile

however it reports -

explorer.png (9.91 KiB) Viewed 247 times

I've also tried Exec=wine32 explorer and even put the path in to explorer.exe but no joy.

Their is a process in the portable called register, I have executed it.

When you stated Mike's Wine-portable is 'multi-arch' were you referring to Mike Walsh as the portable I'm using is the one created by you.

Any ideas?

regards
Phil.

[mikewalsh]

@bigphil :-

Hi, Phil.

Right. Silly question, perhaps, but you haven't given us a lot to go on. "I'm running Fossapup64 9.5 and using Wine Portable."

'Kayyy. Full marks for telling us which Puppy, but.......which 'portable'? More to the point, which type of WINE-portable? Is it one of my more modern AppImage-based packages, or is this one of Shinobar's original WINE-portables?

In both cases, you do actually need to 'link' them into the system to be able to use Menu-entries'n'stuff. If Puppy doesn't find a 'wine' executable - or at least, a sym-link to one - it won't know what it's supposed to do with your command, and will go into a huff & sulk.

Do you currently have either a 'wine' binary - or a sym-link to one, or even a script called 'wine' - in /usr/bin? Because it looks to me as though Puppy's not finding a WINE executable on the system.....and that's why you're getting "No such file or directory".

==========================

If you created a modified copy of Mike's other .desktop file - I assume in /usr/share/applications, yes? - have you run 'fixmenus' followed by 'jwm -restart' since dong so? This lets Puppy register the fact that there's a new Menu entry been added to the system, y'see.

Mike.

[mikeslr]

bigphil "When you stated Mike's Wine-portable is 'multi-arch' were you referring to Mike Walsh as the portable I'm using is the one created by you." I take it you mean me, i.e. mikeslr the publiisher of wine-portable-3.3, viewtopic.php?p=279#p279, which is an upgrade using the system developed by shinobar and the Japanese Team.

Keep in mind that those systems are exclusively 32bit. They can never run 64-bit Window programs.

See my post here, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 7d#p979604

Under this system the command to 'call' wine is wine.sh

So, the Exec line in /usr/share/applications/Explorer.desktop should read:
Exec=wine.sh explorer.

What I wrote previously about the need to provide the full path for programs NOT BUILT-IN also applies to these 'old-school' wine-portables. But there's a couple of other things you'll need to know:
To run ANY 32-bit LINUX application on a 64-bit Linux Puppy you must FIRST obtain and SFS-Load THAT Puppy's 32-bit compatibility SFS. You can download F96's from here, https://mega.nz/file/e9JQ0JJQ#Dg6Hmg7-q ... 21veEQ7_Qg.

After downloading the 32-bit Compatibility.sfs, you use Menu>Setup>SFS-Load on the fly to load it. [Alternatively, right-click the SFS and choose SFS-load from the pop-up menu]. Having sfs-loaded it, open a terminal/console and type the following command:

ldconfig

The first letter in the above is a 'small' sounds-like "EL" -- neither an i/I nor the number 1.

It should take some time for the ldconfig command to do its job. The compatibility SFS is almost an entire operating system. The ldconfig command creates links between it and your 64-bit operating system. If the terminal's command prompt reappears immediately, there's a good chance the command didn't take. Do it again.

Only after you've established the 32-bit system can you SFS-Load the 'old-school' Wine-portable.sfs.

One issue with the 'old-school' Wine & Wine.sfs is that the 32-bit 'prefix' is created @ /root. And /root always occupies/requires the use of RAM. Which is why T'other Mike and I developed a recipe of 'Externalizing' it. viewtopic.php?p=335#p335

The 'old-school' was great to have when there wasn't an easier alternative. Mikewalsh's portables are such easier alternatives. My recommendation is to SFS-(un)Load 'my' portable and make use of Mikewalsh's instead. Personally, his 5.11 version from here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... b64#p68191 runs all the Window programs I ever need. The 4.0.4 version from the same link can only run 32-bit Windows programs. I haven't yet had a reason to try his more recent builts which make use of more recent versions of Wine.

Edit, I just tried Mike's Wine_9.20-portable (still available from the Link, even though the post doesn't indicate that), https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... drive_link. It also works well.

[bigphil]

@mikesir
replacing the exec line with Exec=wine.sh explorer certainly fixed the problem as explorer fired up, however it did not create a menu entry.
I tried fixmenus, restart graphical server and even rebooted the system.
I got the current portable from -
https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 8&start=45
as it was the only one Puppy Linux search found. I downloaded version 7.12_v3.1_8.0.

@mikewalsh
you can see above the version I downloaded as it was the only one Puppy Linux search found.
Would you kindly post the link to your Wine_9.20-portable as the link provided by mikesir reports 'The requested page could not be found'.

Regards
Phil.

[rockedge]

@bigphil

I have a link for you -> WINE_9.8-portable64.tar.xz

[bigphil]

thanks rockedge

[bigpup]

replacing the exec line with Exec=wine.sh explorer certainly fixed the problem as explorer fired up, however it did not create a menu entry.

In the .desktop file for explorer that you have in /usr/share/applications/

Make sure this is in it for Categories=

Categories=WebBrowser;

then try fixmenus.

The Categories= has to be something Puppy recognizes as a proper category in the Puppy menu.

Should see entry under Menu ->Internet

[mikewalsh]

@bigphil :-

Fixed the link in mikeslr's post. It's the correct link.....but the first URL tag was in the wrong place. It now works.

Give WINE_10.0-portable64 a try. Now that v10 of 'wine-staging' has morphed into 'wine-stable', WINE 10.0 is a lot more usable than it was; the initial build was, shall we say, frustrating to use!

WINE 9.20 is certainly perfectly usable. Like mikeslr, however, I also still prefer WINE 5.11 as a 'daily driver'.....because it's rock-solid, and for the apps both of us use it just 'works'. The 9- and 10-series have added a lot of much more modern support for things; for some apps, they work way better than older builds EVER used to.

===================================

As for your Menu entry, you may find it works better to create a small script in /root/my-applications/bin which actually calls Wine Explorer.......and then point your .desktop file at THAT. I do this a lot, and it has the advantage of being able to change $PATHs, etc - especially with the portables - without needing to touch the Menu entry at all. You just edit the script instead, in order to reflect any changes.

Mike.

[bigphil]

Thanks for all the advice chaps.
I tried version 9.8 but it didn't seem to run in fossapup64 9.5 so I settled for 5.11 that does all I want.

Regards
Phil.