Arch Linux

DarksideEE7

Member

From: Arkansas, United States

Registered: 2009-06-06

Posts: 356

bin32-wine vs 32-bit chroot environment

I run Arch x86_64 with bin32-wine for all of my windows applications, however I was wondering if there are any advantages (compatibility, speed, etc.) to running a 32-bit chroot environment for all of my 32 bit apps (which would only be wine). 
Currently I only use wine for Office 2007, however I would like to run Deus Ex and Starcraft (maybe others in the future), and I'm currently unable to get Starcraft running.  Deus Ex runs in windowed mode with safe mode on, but very poorly.
System specs:

ASUS UL30A  U7300 dual core 1.3 GHz
4 GB DDR3
Intel GMA4500 MHD graphics

Any thoughts on this?  Thanks in advance

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,356

Re: bin32-wine vs 32-bit chroot environment

Advantages aren't very big. What I can think of:-

1. You're using the official repositories. No need to wait for AUR maintainers to update their packages once they realize the packages have been updated in the repositories.
2. You get binary downloads for packages (see 1) instead of having to compile lib32 equivalents. If you have many 32-bit apps, this can be reasonably substantial. With only wine, may not be.

Disadvantages are disk space and having to remenber to pacman -Syu both your install and chroot together.

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DarksideEE7

Member

From: Arkansas, United States

Registered: 2009-06-06

Posts: 356

Re: bin32-wine vs 32-bit chroot environment

I see.......thank you for the response.  I wondered if I had to compile for the chroot or simply use pacman -Syu.  That is indeed a large advantage. 

I went ahead and completely wiped bin32-wine, all of the dot files, and reinstalled Office 2007, Starcraft, and Deus Ex.  That fixed a bug in Office (files with space in file path not opening correctly from dolphin/konqueror/etc).

I also discovered that one of my problems with my games was that I somehow missed a few packages related to opengl.  I stll wasn't able to get Deus Ex working just yet.....
I may go ahead and do the chroot, as that seems like an easier way of doing things after the initial setup. 

If anyone has anymore input I would be grateful to hear it.

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,356

Re: bin32-wine vs 32-bit chroot environment

I also discovered that one of my problems with my games was that I somehow missed a few packages related to opengl.  I stll wasn't able to get Deus Ex working just yet.....

That is precisely one of the problems when using lib32, its sort of like relying on the dark crevices of Arch . The packages are written by well-meaning folk, but they're not devs, and there's no bug tracker.

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Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
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jelly

Administrator

From: /dev/null

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 714

Re: bin32-wine vs 32-bit chroot environment

and lib32 stuff clutters your system,  a chroot is much cleaner in the sense that you dont miss dependencies that much. The real "problem" is that windows developpers dont release much 64 bit programs

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dotfiles

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,356

Re: bin32-wine vs 32-bit chroot environment

The real "problem" is that windows developpers dont release much 64 bit programs

Not sure what's the relevancy here. wine is primarily for games anyway, and it'll take decades before games getting released as 64-bit becomes the norm. Most of the big office software (Adobe stuff, Microsoft Office stuff, and technical stuff) all have 64-bit versions already.

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Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.

DarksideEE7

Member

From: Arkansas, United States

Registered: 2009-06-06

Posts: 356

Re: bin32-wine vs 32-bit chroot environment

and lib32 stuff clutters your system,  a chroot is much cleaner in the sense that you dont miss dependencies that much. The real "problem" is that windows developpers dont release much 64 bit programs

Whlie it's true that very few Windows apps have native x64 code, isn't the problem that we don't have a wine 64 bit package in the first place?  I know Windows uses a wow64 for running 32 bit code in a 64 bit OS. 

When I went to 64 bit Vista a few years ago this surprised me........

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,356

Re: bin32-wine vs 32-bit chroot environment

Some laptops are sold with 64-bit windows nowadays. Which is ridiculous given the software inside is mainly still 32-bit. Then again 'legacy' support is very important so they couldn't just pull it I guess.

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Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.