Running Our Software Under Linux and Other Unix Flavours

Using the Application under Unix

To use this application using a Unix based operating system (Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris for example) the Wine emulator/run environment is required. Wine is an open source implementation of Windows running on Unix. It supports the x86 varieties of Unix including Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. Without Wine the application will not run.

Additionally, you will need a Window Manager like Gnome or KDE to run our software. The following documentation describes setup for Gnome and KDE. For other Window Managers you will need to determine the setup yourself.

If you already have the required applications, just download the software you were after from the list on the right of the screen.

Installing Wine
Wine comes installed in many Unix distributions already but it is a actively developed application. Our applications will only work correctly with the version dated 20050930 or later (including the 0.9 beta release). If you do not have Wine or you have an earlier version the please download the current version. Similarly if you have not updated for more than a month we would recommend upgrading as a new version is released approximately once a month.

Wine can be downloaded from WineHQ
http://www.winehq.com/site/download
Please select and install the appropriate binary version for your operating system.

Once downloaded you must then install the new version. This is operating system dependant (installpackage, rpm) so please refer to your documentation for details on installing packages.

Additional information can be found in the WineHQ website for configuration
http://www.winehq.com/site/howto

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Installing the Application
To install you must be running a Window Manager (e.g. Gnome or KDE) and open a terminal window. From our web site you should then download our application you wish to use. Please then install it as follows:

wine installer
e.g. wine imssetup.exe

imssetup.exe is the name of the downloaded installer for IMS. This will install the application and automatically run it.

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Running the Application
After installation you will need to browse to the installed folder and run the application directly. For example:

cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/NCH\ Swift\ Sound/IMS
wine ims.exe

All of our applications install into ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/NCH\ Swift\ Sound/application, however the application folder may vary a little (Express Scribe uses the folder Scribe). A desktop shortcut can be used to start the application and creating one is described below for Gnome and KDE.

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Uninstalling the Application
To unistall the application you will need to browse to the installed folder as for running above and run the uninstall application directly. For example:

cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/NCH\ Swift\ Sound/IMS
wine uninst.exe

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Gnome Configuration Guide
Creating a Desktop Icon

A desktop icon can be created by browsing to the install folder, then right clicking on the application executable and selecting 'Make Link' from the popup menu. You can drag the created link onto the desktop.

Automatically Running on Log On

You can make the application automatically run when you log-on by creating a bash script with contents like:

#! /bin/sh
sleep 10s;
/usr/bin/wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files\NCH\ Swift\ Sound\IMS\ims.exe

Note: This example is for IMS so if different, please change the folder name and executable name for your application.

You now need to add this script into the startup programs via the Desktop menu, Preferences option, Sessions sub-option. Click on the tab 'Startup Programs' and then the add button. Browse and find the script you have created and enter a command like:

sh startwine

where startwine is the name of the script you created (note it requires the executable flag to be set using chmod +x). You will need to fully qualify the path to the script (the above example has the script in the home folder for the user.

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KDE Configuration Guide
Creating a Desktop Icon

This is the same as for Gnome (see above).

Automatically Running on Log On

You can make the application automatically run when you log-on by creating a bash script as above. Copy this script into the folder:

/usr/local/home/username/.kde/AutoStart
where username is the user id you are logged into KDE as.

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General Notes on Compatibility Problems
Toolbars
Some icons do not list on Toolbars or are truncated. In most cases this will be fixed when we release a new version of the application. Some icons (the standard delete button) are missing due to Wine implementation issues and may be solved by a later release of Wine

Explore Folders
Various of our applications have the option to explore a folder (generally a backup or log folder). Under Windows this opens Windows Explorer the browse the contents of the folder. Wine has not implemented this functionality so these options do nothing. You will need to manually examine these folders yourself. Later releases of our programs should address this issue.

System Tray
Many of our applications use the system tray for background processing. Depending on your Window Manager this is often implemented as a floating icon. Exact details are implementation specific.

Run on Startup/Run as Service
These features do not work under Wine. You can possibly create a startup shell file to automatically run the application on startup of the Window Manager. Again this is implementation and Window Manager specific.

Open/Save Dialogue
In many cases browsing though folders to open or save a file can result in Wine crashing. This does not seem to be an application error on our part but an issue in Wine.

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