Running Window, DOS, and Macintosh Applications

Using mtools

Mtools are mostly DOS commands that have the letter m in front of them and that run in Linux (though there are a few exceptions that are named differently). Using these commands, you can easily work with DOS files and file systems. Table 5-4 lists mtools that are available with Linux (if you have the mtools package installed).

I usually use the mtools to copy files between my Linux system and a Windows system that is not on my network. I most often use mcopy, which lets me copy files using drive letters instead of device names. In other words, to copy the file vi.exe from floppy drive A: to the current directory in Linux, I would type:

# mcopy a:\vi.exe

Using dosemu

The DOS emulator package dosemu no longer comes with the Red Hat Linux distribution. To use dosemu, you can try to install source code available from dosemu.sourceforge.net.

With the utilities that come with the dosemu package, you can run DOS applications, as well as use your computer as if it were running DOS. This includes accessing hardware, working with DOS configuration files, and using the DOS file system.

The following commands can be used to start dosemu within Linux:

• dos — Starts the DOS emulator in any shell.

• xdos — Starts the DOS emulator in its own X window.

• xtermdos — Starts the DOS emulator in an xterm window.

• dosdebug — Starts a debug program to view information and error messages about a running DOS program.

Basic information about your DOS environment is set in the /etc/dosemu.conf file. The following list describes how the DOS environment is set up and how to change it:

• CPU — The CPU is set to emulate an 80386 (Intel 386-compatible). You can change the $_cpu value to 80486 or 80586 (for Pentium).

• Keyboard — The keyboard is set to auto, which tries to set the keyboard based on the current Linux console settings. You can specifically change the keyboard type by setting the $_layout value to a variety of other country/language combinations listed in the dosemu.conf file (such as us for US/English, de for German, or it for Italian).

• X Settings — There are several X settings (beginning with $_X) that let you change things such as the title in the DOS window, the font used, and the cursor blink rate.

• Floppy Disks — Floppy disk A (/dev/fd0) is set to a 3.5-inch floppy (threeinch) and floppy disk B (/dev/fd1) is not assigned. Either disk can be assigned to be 3.5-inch (threeinch), 5.25-inch (fiveinch), atapi, or empty.

• Hard Disk Images — The file system that appears when you start DOS is actually a disk image file stored in /var/lib/dosemu. By default, dosemu uses hdimage.first (which is linked to hdimage.freedos). You can change that to another DOS image or to a DOS file system (such as /dev/hda1, if that partition were a DOS partition).

• Serial Ports — No serial ports are assigned by default. You can assign any of the serial ports ($_com1 to $_com4) to a device such as a modem (/dev/modem), a mouse (/dev/mouse), or a terminal line (/dev/tty0).

Dosemu is set up for the root user. It is not very secure to allow multiple users to have access to DOS because DOS does not have the same security protections for files and devices that Linux does. If you want other users on your Linux system to use DOS, however, edit the /etc/dosemu.users file so that it includes the following lines:

root c_all
all c_all

For more information on dosemu, visit the dosemu home page at www.dosemu.org.

Understanding WINE

For WINE to let you run Windows applications, it needs to have an environment set up that looks like a Windows system. When you install the wine package in Red Hat Linux, the package creates /etc/wine/wine.conf and /etc/wine/system.reg files that, like the Windows registry, identify the locations of components an application would need in a Windows operating system.

The location of the basic Windows operating-system directories for WINE is the /usr/share/wine-c directory (in other words, drive C:) by default. Table 5-5 shows how C: and other Windows drive letters are mapped into Linux directories and devices.

Within the /usr/share/wine-c directory (that is, your C: drive), you should see some things that are familiar to you if you are coming from a Windows environment: autoexec.bat and config.sys files (empty to start with), and My Documents, Program Files, and windows directories.

Assuming that the basic directory structure is okay with you, you may still want to consider changing a few items. For example, you may want to change the command to print documents (set in the /etc/wine.conf file) to something other than the "| lpr" command to use a particular printer or add some Linux printing options.

Setting up Windows applications

The best way to understand how to set up and run a Windows application is to step through the process of getting a simple Windows accessory to run in WINE. To do this procedure, you will need the following:

• The wine package installed in Red Hat Linux.

• Access to MS Windows components, including the executable program you want to run and the DLL files the executable needs to run.

If you have a dual-boot system (Red Hat Linux and Windows), the best way to do this procedure is to have Linux running with the Windows partition mounted somewhere so that you can copy the files you need. Otherwise, you should skip the first step and copy the files you need from a floppy or CD, or over the network.

In this example, we want to be able to run the Microsoft Paint program (mspaint.exe) from Windows in Linux using WINE. Here is an example of how to go about it.

1. If you have a dual-boot system start by mounting the Windows partition. Here's how:

   • As the root user, from a Terminal window, type:

     # fdisk –l
     

     This lists your hard-disk partitions. Look for a partition that is listed as something like WIN95 FAT32.

   • Make a directory on which to mount your Windows partition. For example, to use the /mnt/win directory, type:

     # mkdir /mnt/win
     

   • Assuming that the Windows partition is on the first partition of the first IDE hard disk (/dev/hda1), type the following to mount the Windows partition:

     # mount –t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/win
     

     At this point you should have a mounted Windows partition available from /mnt/win.

   • To make that partition permanently available to you from Linux, add the following line to your /etc/fstab file:

     /dev/hda1          /mnt/win         vfat      defaults     0   0

   The preceding entry causes the Windows partition to mount automatically on /mnt/win each time your Red Hat Linux system boots up.

   Note?

   For the purposes of the rest of this procedure, I assume that you have a Windows system accessible from /mnt/win. If this is not the case, you need to find a way to copy files from your Windows system on another computer to the locations described in this procedure.

2. Copy the mspaint.exe program to a location accessible from your Linux computer. For example, with a mounted Windows partition as previously described, you could type:

   # cp /mnt/win/Program\ Files/Accessories/mspaint.exe /bin
   

3. Run the wine command with mspaint.exe as an argument to see if it can run or if it needs some added DLL files.

   # wine /bin/mspaint.exe
   err: module:PE_fixup_imports Module (file) MFC42.DLL (which is
            needed by Z:\a\mspaint.exe) not found

   This says that you need the mfc42.dll file to be able to run mspaint.exe.

4. Next, copy the necessary DLL file from the Windows partition. For example:

   # cd /usr/share/wine-c/windows/system
   # cp /mnt/win/windows/system/mfc42.dll mfc42.dll
   

5. With the proper DLL files installed, type wine /bin/mspaint.exe again and the MS Paint window opens. An example of the Paint window running in Red Hat Linux is shown in Figure 5-3.

   
   Figure 5-3: Running Paint in Red Hat Linux using WINE.

In Figure 5-3, Paint is displaying a bitmap image that I opened from the Red Hat Linux file system. Choose File ? Open. In the Open dialog box, you can see how the application views the locations available to it. The C:, D:, E:, F:, and Z: drives all represent the locations shown in Table 5-5. (The computer in the example didn't have a floppy, or you would see an A: too.)

Finding Windows applications for WINE

Applications that have been tested to run under WINE are maintained at the Wine Application Database (http://appdb.codeweavers.com/). The database is divided into the following categories:

• Educational Software and Computer-Based Training

• Games

• Multimedia

• Networking & Communications

• Productivity

• Programming / Software Engineering

• Reference, Documentation, and Information

• Scientific, Technical, and Mathmatical

• Special Purpose

• Utilities

Hundreds of applications have been submitted for the database. Most of the packages that have been tested are games. In most cases, the person listing the application describes the platform he or she tested on and any experiences he or she had getting it to run. The host of the list, codeweavers.com, asks that you create a login to access the database.