Wine Traffic #46 For 5 Jun 2000
Table Of Contents
Introduction
This is the 46th release of the Wine's kernel cousin
publication. It's main goal is to distribute widely what's
going on around Wine (the Un*x windows emulator).
If you haven't already answered our
survey last week, do so now; we will report on the
results next week.
To keep more up-to-date on Wine's progress, the Wine Weekly News has
created a Wine Status
(http://www.winehq.com/News/status.html)
page. If there are any of the items listed on the status page (or
even items that are not listed) that you'd like the Wine Weekly News
to write a feature or howto article about, please send your requests
to us at wwn@winehq.com, so we can see what will be the most
interesting for our users.
The WineHQ server is now hosted by Corel. You can read the
announce (http://www.winehq.com/News/2000/23/announcement.txt)
.
Mailing List Stats For This Week
We looked at 144 posts in 392K.
There were 53 different contributors.
24 posted more than once.
28 posted last week too.
The top posters of the week were:
- 17 posts in 34K by Alexandre Julliard <julliard@winehq.com>
- 14 posts in 27K by Uwe Bonnes <bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de>
- 10 posts in 29K by Bertho Stultiens <bertho@panter.soci.aau.dk>
- 10 posts in 16K by Ove Kaaven <ovehk@ping.uio.no>
- 6 posts in 17K by Douglas Ridgway <ridgway@winehq.com>
- Full Stats
1.
Address space separation
28 May 2000 - 2 Jun 2000
(25 posts)
Archive Link: "Address space separation"
People:
, Ove Kaaven, Gérard Patel, Guy Alberte
The long awaited address space separation patch has been
committed. As already covered in previous issues (
#39 and
#27,
), this patch lets every
Windows' process run in its own address space (in term of Unix memory
mappings). This firstly allow to get rid of the famous error where
Wine was unable to run a 'stripped binary' with another process.
Lots of people posted positive feedback on the patch, some others
(like Gérard Patel, Ove Kaaven, Guy Albertelli) pointed out some
errors that were quickly fixed.
The most noticeable bad sides of this patch are:
- the -desktop option no longer work when more than one
process is launched
- DOS (MZ) processes are no longer supported
- it seems that the patch is less robust with 16 bit apps
than for 32 bit ones
- support for native USER is now broken
- inter-process message sending is also broken
There are a few other changes, mostly involving the command line
options:
- Wine is no longer able to spawn several processes at
once. Before, it was legal to use
[old way] wine telnet freecell
Now, you must invoke twice the wine interpreter on the command
line. The good side of it is you no longer need to put the optional
arguments to your program into quotes on the command line. Before you
had to write:
[old way] wine "winword.exe mytext.doc"
now you must write
[new way] wine winword.exe mytext.doc
Notes:
- if any path (to the executable, or to a file name) contains
spaces, you need to tell the shell not to interpret those spaces as
separators using back slashes or quotes. For example, if you used to
write:
[old way] wine "c:\winnt\winhlp32.exe d:\borland\Borland
Shared\MSHelp\win32.hlp"
now you need to write:
[new way] wine c:\\winnt\\winhlp32.exe d:\\borland\\Borland\
Shared\\MSHelp\\win32.hlp
or
[new way] wine c:\\winnt\\winhlp32.exe "d:\borland\Borland
Shared\MSHelp\win32.hlp"
- if among the arguments to your program, one starts with a dash,
you'd better use
[new way] wine --desktop 640x480 -- hl.exe -console
note the '--' to tell Wine not to look for options after this sign
(and consider the rest of the command line as parameters to create the
new process).
2.
Code-pages in Wine
29 May 2000 - 30 May 2000
(9 posts)
Archive Link: "Codepages and locales"
People:
Bertho Stultiens, Alexandre Julliard, , Dmitry Timoshkov
Bertho Stultiens announced:
I am currently implementing the Wine Message Compiler (wmc: as an
alternative to mc.exe). I need to implement quite a bit unicode
support for it to function correctly. Unicode requires a lot of tables
for conversion and I did just that for nearly all codepages (from
ftp.unicode.org).
Alexandre Julliard answered Dmitry Timoshkov has been working with him
integrating the same needed basic features into Wine (like on demand
translation table loading...). Both agreed that (g)libc didn't provide
yet a reliable Unicode support, and that a separate one shall be
provided. However, since the wmc message compiler shall be used to
compile Wine, it would be difficult to make it heavily rely on Wine
features. Also, Bertho would like to keep wmc (as wrc - the Wine
resource compiler - is) independent of Wine.
Bertho suggested
I am not suggesting to build libunicode.so, but I do suggest to build
libunicode.a, which can be linked against. This should not require a
special API if it only concerns tables. The point is that libunicode.a
should be self-sufficient so that you can take it out of wine's context
just far enough so that it becomes usable in a wider sense.
Basically, you need to place the unicode code isolated and only provide
the mere minimum of API which would also be required within wine's
context. This enables me to reuse the data/code in wrc without requiring
a complete wine-build and does not complicate wine's internal API
because it isn't really extended, but merely reused. It would be a shame
to neglect the potential while not much effort is required.
3.
Too many GDI objects ?
1 Jun 2000
(6 posts)
Archive Link: "LOCAL_GetBlock not enough space in GDI local heap"
People:
Jacques Gelinas, Gavriel State, Sander van Leeuwen, Doug Ridgway, , Douglas Ridgway
Jacques Gelinas wrote:
We are trying to run a win32 application on Wine and Linux. The
application is starting and ultimately fails with the following
message:
LOCAL_GetBlock not enough space in GDI local heap (01d7) for 60 bytes
The application does quite a lot before failing. It does ODBC access
to a sybase server, brings its splash screen, then its main
windows. Note that this application main window use quite a few
widgets. It is made of a notebook object with several data browsers
and input fields distributed in the various pages.
Trying to pinpoint the offending piece of code (This is our own
application, so we have to source), we think it is not any code in
particular, but simply because there are two many widgets. Commenting out
the area where our app fails, we get a little further and fails in another
window.
Actually, the Corel tree has an extensive resource/memory leak tracker,
including a motif-based graphical profile viewer client. Last I heard,
Alexandre didn't want to put that into WineHQ, since he wanted Wine to
properly implement the equivalent Win32 APIs so that resource-monitoring
Win32 apps would work.
Stéphane Lussier provided another track
In Wine there's currently a limitation on the size of the GDI heap. It is
limited to 64K. This is a old limitation from Win 3.1 (16 bits), this
limitation doesn't exist under Win9x/WinNT.
Alexandre fixed that issue on the Corel wine tree, and I'm pretty sure
eventually somebody will merge his work back into Wine-HQ source tree. It
could even be you :-)
If your application creates a lot of GDI objects that could be the problem.
Or maybe also your application leaks some GDI object, if it's the case
you'll run into that problem (no more space in the GDI heap) much faster
than in Windows. I think in Windows you can create 64K objects before
Windows starts to complain.
Although the Wine GDI heap is only 64K, it's not as bad as it
looks. The Wine GDI heap, unlike Win16, does not store large objects
(fonts, palettes, etc.) but only structures which hold flat pointers
to the objects themselves. So, although the heap is of a limited size,
the number of objects which can realistically be stored is large and
not much different from Microsoft implementations. If you're running
out of space on the GDI heap, then Wine is probably leaking GDI
objects.
4.
Wine mail archives
31 May 2000
(1 post)
Archive Link: "archives up"
People:
John Freed announced that the HTTP access to the Wine mailing lists
archive is back online. Those archives can be accessed at
http://www.integrita.com.5.
Feature: DLL overrides by Ove Kåven
People:
, Bertho Stultiens
The wine.conf directives [DllDefaults] and [DllOverrides] are the subject of some confusion. The overall
purpose of most of these directives are clear enough, though - given a choice, should Wine use its own
built-in DLLs, or should it use .DLL files found in an existing Windows installation? This article
explains how this feature works.
DLL types
native
A "native" DLL is a .DLL file written for the real Microsoft Windows.
builtin
A "builtin" DLL is a Wine DLL. These can either be a part of libwine.so, or more recently, in a
special .so file that Wine is able to load on demand.
elfdll
An "elfdll" is a Wine .so file with a special Windows-like file structure that is as close to
Windows as possible, and that can also seamlessly link dynamically with "native" DLLs, by using special
ELF loader and linker tricks. Bertho Stultiens did some work on this, but this feature has not yet been
merged back into Wine (because of political reasons and lack of time), so this DLL type does not
exist in the official Wine at this time. In the meantime, the "builtin" DLL type gained some of
the features of elfdlls (such as dynamic loading), so it's possible that "elfdll" functionality
will be folded into "builtin" at some point.
so
A native Unix .so file, with calling convention conversion thunks generated on the fly as the
library is loaded. This is mostly useful for libraries such as "glide" that has exactly the same
API on both Windows and Unix.
The [DllDefaults] section
EXTRA_LD_LIBRARY_PATH
This specifies the location of the Wine's DLL .so files. Wine will search this path when trying
to locate a DLL of the type "builtin" or "elfdll". (This does not apply to libwine.so, since libwine.so
is not a DLL in this sense.)
DefaultLoadOrder
This specifies in what order Wine should search for available DLL types, if the DLL in question was
not found in the [DllOverrides] section.
The [DllPairs] section
At one time, there was a section called [DllPairs] in the default configuration file, but this has been
obsoleted because the pairing information has now been embedded into Wine itself. (The purpose of this
section was merely to be able to issue warnings if the user attempted to pair codependent 16-bit/32-bit
DLLs of different types.) If you still have this in your wine.conf or .winerc, you may safely delete it.
The [DllOverrides] section
This section specifies how you want specific DLLs to be handled, in particular whether you want to use
"native" DLLs or not, if you have some from a real Windows configuration. Because builtins do not mix
seamlessly with native DLLs yet, certain DLL dependencies may be problematic, but workarounds exist in
Wine for many popular DLL configurations. Also see WWN's Status Page (status.html)
to figure
out how well your favorite DLL is implemented in Wine.
It is of course also possible to override these settings by explictly using Wine's --dll command-line
option (see the man page for details).
Some hints for choosing your optimal configuration (listed by 16/32-bit DLL pair):
krnl386, kernel32
Native versions of these will never work, so don't try. Leave at builtin.
gdi, gdi32
Graphics Device Interface. No effort has been made at trying to run native GDI. Leave at builtin.
user, user32
Window management and standard controls. It was possible to use Win95's native versions at some point
(if all other DLLs that depend on it, such as comctl32 and comdlg32, were also run native).
However, this is no longer possible after the Address Space Separation, so leave at builtin.
ntdll
NT kernel API. Although badly documented, the native version of this will never work.
Leave at builtin.
w32skrnl
Win32s (for Win3.x). Native version will probably never work. Leave at builtin.
wow32
Win16 support library for NT. Native version will probably never work. Leave at builtin.
system
Win16 kernel stuff. Will never work native. Leave at builtin.
display
Display driver. Definitely leave at builtin.
toolhelp
Tool helper routines. This is rarely a source of problems. Leave at builtin.
ver, version
Versioning. Seldom useful to mess with.
advapi32
Registry and security features. Trying the native version of this may or may not work.
commdlg, comdlg32
Common Dialogs, such as color picker, font dialog, print dialog, open/save dialog, etc.
It is safe to try native.
commctrl, comctl32
Common Controls. This is toolbars, status bars, list controls, the works.
It is safe to try native.
shell, shell32
Shell interface (desktop, filesystem, etc). Being one of the most undocumented pieces of Windows, you
may have luck with the native version, should you need it.
winsock, wsock32
Windows Sockets. The native version will not work under Wine, so leave at builtin.
icmp
ICMP routines for wsock32. As with wsock32, leave at builtin.
mpr
The native version may not work due to thunking issues. Leave at builtin.
lzexpand, lz32
Lempel-Ziv decompression. Wine's builtin version ought to work fine.
winaspi, wnaspi32
Advanced SCSI Peripheral Interface. The native version will probably never work. Leave at builtin.
crtdll
C Runtime library. The native version will easily work better than Wine's on this one.
winspool.drv
Printer spooler. You are not likely to have more luck with the native version.
ddraw
DirectDraw/Direct3D. Since Wine does not implement the DirectX HAL, the native version
will not work at this time.
dinput
DirectInput. Running this native may or may not work.
dsound
DirectSound. It may be possible to run this native, but don't count on it.
dplay/dplayx
DirectPlay. Native ought to work best on this, if at all.
mmsystem, winmm
Multimedia system. The native version is not likely to work. Leave at builtin.
msacm, msacm32
Audio Compression Manager. Builtin works best, if you set msacm.drv to the same.
msvideo, msvfw32
Video for Windows. It is safe (and recommended) to try native.
mcicda.drv
CD Audio MCI driver.
mciseq.drv
MIDI Sequencer MCI driver (.MID playback).
mciwave.drv
Wave audio MCI driver (.WAV playback).
mciavi.drv
AVI MCI driver (.AVI video playback). Best to use native.
mcianim.drv
Animation MCI driver.
msacm.drv
Audio Compression Manager. Set to same as msacm32.
midimap.drv
MIDI Mapper.
wprocs
This is a pseudo-DLL used by Wine for thunking purposes. A native version of this
doesn't exist.
6.
HowTo: Lotus Notes
People:
, Dan Schwarz
Dan Schwarz has brought to our attention that he hosts a
Lotus Notes on Linux (http://www.brooklinesoftware.com/linux/linuxnotes.html)
resource page, which
explains how to make Lotus Notes work under Wine. It appears a bit outdated as of this writing, but should make
a good starting point (and you could just pester him if you want updates).
We need more application tips! Submit your contributions to wwn@winehq.com (mailto:wwn@winehq.com)
.
Sharon And Joy