Best Practice Wine or VirtualBox?

[eddie]

I am a PCLinuxOS newbie. 

I have must use several windows programs: Medical, Taxes, Radio Scanner and purchased Bible study programs. 

I installed Wine and VirtualBox on my machine.  I installed a Windows XP machine (would prefer a windows 7 machine but did not see that choice.)  In the course of program installations I hit the install program selection in Dolphin.  I was surprised when 2 icons appeared on my PCLOS desktop, a program Icon and a link.  I clicked the program Icon and the program ran. 

My question: 
If I can install a program and it runs in WINE is that a preferred choice to using VirtualBox?

If this is in the wrong place point me to the right place.

PCLOS is a KEEPER!
eddie

[parnote]

eddie,

I also use TaxAct on WinXP in VirtualBox for figuring my income taxes. There are some tax software packages that are entirely web-based, but I cannot remember what they are at the moment (I'm happy using TaxAct in VirtualBox). As for your bible study software, you might want to take a look at BibleTime and Sword, both of which are bible study packages and both are in the PCLinuxOS repository.

I think you're better off using a virtual machine in most cases with Windows-based software. It helps avoid small glitches that may crop up, affecting the full functionality of the software, and prevents Windows-based software from accessing your Linux hard drive, keeping everything contained/constrained to the virtual hard drive.

parnote

[kernowyon]

+1 to parnote's comments. In general, running Windows programs in a virtual machine running Windows is much easier and more reliable than using Wine. The main problem with virtual machines is a lack of 3D support (or at least a lack of decent 3D support). There are improvements all the time towards getting 3D working properly (and I can play Quake 3 Arena for example in VirtualBox on a Windows XP guest adequately), but it is still a long way from being good.
So if you don't need 3D support (i.e you are not trying to play games) then VirtualBox or some other VM is the best and most sensible way to go if you need Windows programs - but you do need a legitimate licenced copy of Windows remember!
Wine, on the other hand, does not require a copy of Windows or a licence. It supports a fairly large range of Windows programs, but it can be tricky to get some things working and some programs will simply not work.

Go for VirtualBox unless you need the gaming support - and if you do, then simply install your games using Wine.

[GermanTux]

Another vote for VirtualBox.  It works great, and you do not have to pollute your PCLOS installation with Windows software. 

Wine is a nice idea, but it works better in theory than reality. 

[djohnston]

The radio scanner program may be the only snag. It depends on whether it needs to access certain hardware directly or not.

Just did a net search for Windows radio scanner. There's an exercise in futility. So many come-on sites to weed through.

[eddie]

Hi djohnston,

Quote >The radio scanner program may be the only snag. It depends on whether it needs to access certain hardware directly or not. < Quote

Just found that out the hard way.  Re-installing the system now.  It needs the serial ports.  I have a PCI seriar port card installed in the machine but PCLOS seems to have missed it.  The package I installed to activate it killed the system - messed up the nvidia gt430 installs.  The screen showed I N V covering the whole screen.   Will find out the name of the package when I get the new system installed.

The first thing will be learning how to do a backup and restore.

eddie

[rubentje1991]

The first thing will be learning how to do a backup and restore.

You will love to hear about a feature called "mylivecd" (you can do a search on the forum to find more information)....


About Wine <-> Virtualbox... I prefer Wine if my apps are working OK in there  (using it for 5+ years now)...
=> for some things, like Visual Studio 2010, I need VirtualBox; but many progs are working beautifully in wine (in my case)

But, as mentioned, it's always best to search an alternative to your needed app in Synaptic (possibly with our help)... 

[eddie]

PCLinuxOS - Strike ONE!  

Three weeks now and flustration is starting to build.  Earlier PClinuxOS installs worked fine.  Now have it installed on 3 computers.  

After the crash caused by attempting installation of the serial ports a clean install was required. Attemps failed when I tried to save my /home partition.  Seven hours later I finally got PCLOS to install correctly.  

After updating the install, installing Kernel 2.6.38.8-pclos.3.pae, updating again, then installing VirtualBox with a Windows XP Pro machine on a 40 gig fixed hard drive, I called it a night.   I have no plan to use WINE but use VB only.

Big problem now seems to be when the scanner is connected to the serial port both the keyboard and mouse stop working.  

I have not attempted connecting the "Must Have" medical device (an interface between Glucose meter and Software [Diabetes Pilot]) to the second serial port at this time.    

At a loss as to which way to proceed from here.  Any ideas?

eddie

[GermanTux]

Get the serial port installed?  The kernel will take care of this.  Just run dmesg on the command line to see what is what connected as. 

Also, what type of scanner are you using that is connects via serial?  Even the really old scanner have parallel connections. 

[djohnston]

Also, what type of scanner are you using that is connects via serial?  Even the really old scanner have parallel connections.  

I think he means Universal Serial Bus.

eddie,

Are your devices plugged directly into the ports, or are you using a hub?

[eddie]

Hello All,

I'll answer the easy part first.

Also, what type of scanner are you using that is connects via serial?  Even the really old scanner have parallel connections.

The scanner is a radio reciever scanner, Uniden BC796D.  Used for monitoring Police, Fire, Emergency Calls and so on.  

It has and RS-232 9 pin  serial port and interfaces with software to program the reciever.   The adapter used to connect the Accu-Chek Aviva glucose meter to the computer is a RS-232 9 pin serial port also.  

I do know the difference between a USB port and a Com port.  I have software and adapters to convert a USB to RS-232 port. To prevent conflicts I installed a multi I/O pci card with 2 serial ports and 1 parallel port.

Are your devices plugged directly into the ports, or are you using a hub?

The devices connect to the ports on the multi I/O card.


Insert Quote

Get the serial port installed?  Just run dmesg on the command line to see what is what connected as.  

Ran dmesg.  I don't understand a lot of the output.

This motherboard has 6 onboard USB ports Plus there is a multi-card reader with an additional USB on it.  The dmesg ouput lists finding 3 usbs.  No tty, com port or serial port that I can see.  At the bottom of the report in the Virtual Box section, the following is repeated for about 100 lines    

usb 2-1: reset high sped USB device using ehci+hcd and address 2

Looking at the output there are many refferences to "64 Bit".  This is a 64 bit machine.

Thanks
eddie

If interested I can post it in another reply.

[AS]

I am a PCLinuxOS newbie.  

I have must use several windows programs: Medical, Taxes, Radio Scanner and purchased Bible study programs.  

I installed Wine and VirtualBox on my machine.  I installed a Windows XP machine (would prefer a windows 7 machine but did not see that choice.)  

VirtualBox allow you to install Win7 (both 32bit and/or 64 bit), it have even option for Windows 8, just be sure to have installed the lastest version: VirtualBox 4.1.8.
In my view your best choice is VirtualBox, will provide you a real Windows, the only exception are the graphics performance, whenever you would need 3D capability.

Be sure to ave installed the "Extensions" in VirtualBox, and later to install the "guest additions" on each guest machine.

About the serial (RS-232) ports, VirtualBox allow you to configure two ports, just be sure that:
1) the serial ports are effectively working in linux;
2) configure specifically each port in guest settings, as I believe you card is using "non standard IO port addresses".

In the course of program installations I hit the install program selection in Dolphin.  I was surprised when 2 icons appeared on my PCLOS desktop, a program Icon and a link.  I clicked the program Icon and the program ran.  

My question:  
If I can install a program and it runs in WINE is that a preferred choice to using VirtualBox?

If this is in the wrong place point me to the right place.

PCLOS is a KEEPER!
eddie

Wine generally is much more difficult to configure, in my view should be suggested only for programs already known as working on Wine, the website provide a compatibility list: http://appdb.winehq.org/

AS


EDIT:
An additional note about the RS-232/USB convertors, be careful because sometimes they are not fully transparent, or may not provide a full RS-232 compliance, your mileage may vary, the additions of the MULTI I/O card should be preferred.

[eddie]

Okkkkk!

I installed Windows 7 32bit in a VM and after installin antivirus (avast home) installed the "Extensions" and  "guest additions"  went to the device page on VB opening page and enabled com1 and com2.

Started the win-7 VM and checked system devices.  I now have a com1 and com2 listed in the devices.

Since its past my bedtime I will wait until morning to install and try the Radio Scanner and Glucose adapters.

Thanks for the help.

eddie

[AS]

Okkkkk!

I installed Windows 7 32bit in a VM and after installin antivirus (avast home) installed the "Extensions" and  "guest additions"  went to the device page on VB opening page and enabled com1 and com2.

Started the win-7 VM and checked system devices.  I now have a com1 and com2 listed in the devices.

I would suggest to check that the serial ports are working properly on the host, before trying to use those ports from the guest. 

Since its past my bedtime I will wait until morning to install and try the Radio Scanner and Glucose adapters.

Thanks for the help.

eddie

[eddie]

Strike 2 and a bunch of fowl balls!

I would suggest to check that the serial ports are working properly on the host, before trying to use those ports from the guest.

Just how do I check the ports in Linux?

Booting the win7 install (not it VB) both ports work and the software!!

Looks to me link ttyS1 may not be installed.  I don't know how to install it and have not googled anything that makes sense to me.

thanks
eddie

[root@localhost ~]# setserial -g /dev/ttyS[01]
/dev/ttyS0, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4, Flags: spd_cust
/dev/ttyS1, UART: unknown, Port: 0x02f8, IRQ: 3

[root@localhost ~]# dmesg | grep -i tty0
console [tty0] enabled
[root@localhost ~]# dmesg | grep -i tty1
[root@localhost ~]#