Win4LinTM 1.0 Release Notes
Thank you for choosing to use
Win4LinTM
from TreLOS.
Win4Lin 1.0
is the latest product offering from TreLOS to support Windows
application execution from within the Linux Operating System.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Quick Installation
Complete Installation
Installing the Enhanced Kernel
Installing Win4Lin
Installing Windows CD System Files
Installing Windows Users
Windows 95 Y2K update
Accessing the Documentation
Operational Tips
Product Limitations
Anomalies and Caveats
Introduction
These notes provide Installation information and supplement the User's
Guide and OnLine Help contained in the distribution.
They contain important information
about this release and its limitations.
System Requirements:
-
Pentium Class processor w/ 32 MB ram or better
-
2.2.X kernel
-
RPM package management system
(see Non-RPM Installation)
-
X Windowing System
-
root access and ability to install a new kernel
-
Win 95, 98, or 98 2nd ed. installation media
Filesystem Space Requirements:
-
Win4Lin RPM installation requires approximately 10 MB
-- Mostly in /opt/win4lin (7.1MB)
and /usr/bin (1.6MB).
(If you do not have enough space in your /opt filesystem
then use symbolic links to cause "/opt/win4lin" to be
on another filesystem.)
- If as part of creating a Win4Lin capable Linux kernel you
create a new kernel source tree in /usr/src, then
70 MB to 90 MB will be needed there
for the new Linux source tree,
depending on your particular Linux version.
- Windows requirements:
Windows Version |
To Load the CD. Space in /var/win4lin |
Per-User. Space in $HOME |
- Win95 Classic
| 40 MB | 41 MB |
- Win95 OSR2
| 69 MB | 93 MB |
- Win98 First Edition
| 115 MB | 148 MB |
- Win98 Second Edition
| 132 MB | 195 MB |
(If you do not have enough space in your /var filesystem
then use symbolic links to cause "/var/win4lin" to be
on another filesystem.)
- Windows Temporary Space - each session of Windows requires 50-100MB of
temporary space on $HOME.
- Typical Windows Application filesystem requirements for $HOME
using default install options:
- Office '97 116 MB
- Office 2000 60 MB to over 400 MB
(The above requirements for $HOME are based on the "C:" drive location
being mapped by default to $HOME/win.
You can change where this is mapped using the
Win4Lin "winsetup" configuration utility,
or you can use symbolic links to cause $HOME/win to be located elsewhere.)
HELP and Documentation:
This release includes all the documentation "on-line", in HTML format.
(This includes the
User's Guide,
Trouble Shooting Guide,
Manual Pages,
this Release Note
and context sensitive help.)
After installing the Win4Lin package,
the documentation files are are all located under
"/opt/win4lin/help".
The "help" buttons in all the Win4Lin windows provide
access to all the on-line documentation.
All the documentation is in standard HTML format.
(Later in this release note, under the heading
Accessing the Documentation,
there are some tips about how to select which HTML browser
Win4Lin uses to display the documentation.)
If you have trouble installing Win4lin, installing Windows,
or have other problems, please refer to the
User's Guide and the Trouble Shooting Guide.
Product Feedback:
TreLOS very much appreciates all feedback on the product. We are particularly
interested in hearing which applications you have tried and have found
to work and of course any problems installing or operating applications
that you may have encountered. We are also very interested in your ideas
for new product features and the relative priority and importance of proposed
product features. This input will help guide our future development.
Please send all feedback by email to:
support@trelos.com
QUICK INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
The Quick Installation Instructions are for those users who are
running a standard kernel from a supported distribution. The supported
distributions are:
- RedHat 6.0/6.1
- Caldera Open Linux 2.2/2.3
- SuSE 6.1/6.2/6.3
- Mandrake 7.0
- Corel 1.0
Please follow the
Complete Installation Instructions if
you are running a custom kernel or have difficulty with the Quick Installation.
Please review the README file and the
End User License in the file license.txt.
You must agree to the conditions in the license.txt file
before installing Win4Lin.
Please put the Win4Lin CDROM in your CD drive,
login as root and then
mount the CD and change to
the directory where it is mounted. For example:
-
su -
-
mount /dev/cdrom
-
cd /mnt/cdrom/LINUX
or for SuSE
cd /cdrom/LINUX
-
sh install-kernel.sh
The install-kernel.sh script will install a "Win4Lin-Ready"
kernel on your system. The system has to be rebooted in order
to complete the installation of the Win4Lin kernel. After the reboot,
login to your system, under X, as the user who will be running Win4Lin.
To complete the installation, run the command:
-
sh /usr/bin/install-win4lin.sh
Use the "winsetup" GUI to load the Windows CD.
To install the user's Windows session, run the command:
Restart Windows one more time before installing your applications.
The installation of Win4Lin is now complete.
COMPLETE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
Installing the Enhanced Kernel
NOTE: You must be root to perform this step.
The first phase of the installation is to install an enhanced Linux kernel
which is required to support the execution of Win4Lin.
This kernel may be supplied as part of your Linux distribution, available for
download from your Linux distributor, or built locally with patches supplied
by TreLOS.
Installing the RPM or Debian package.
If you are running a standard kernel from a supported distribution,
the easiest way to install the enhanced kernel is
to use the supplied "install-kernel.sh" script
to install the supplied RPM or Debian packaged kernels.
RPM (.rpm) packages are supplied for the following distributions:
- RedHat 6.0/6.1
- Caldera Open Linux 2.2/2.3
- SuSE 6.1/6.2/6.3
- Mandrake 7.0
Debian (.deb) packages are supplied for the following distributions:
To install the appropriate package, run the commands:
- mount /dev/cdrom
- cd /mnt/cdrom/LINUX
or for SuSE
cd /cdrom/LINUX
- sh install-kernel.sh
Then, after it completes, reboot the machine.
If you prefer to build the kernel from source, you may use the supplied SRPMS.
They should produce a kernel identical to the supplied one.
See Installing the SRPM for more details.
Installing the SRPM
If you have never built a kernel before, it is likely
that the process will require access to the Linux installation CD in order
to install the packages necessary for rebuilding the kernel.
Prerequisites are:
- Compilation System
- Linux kernel source
If you have not built a kernel for your system before, then we recommend
that you first build, install and run a freshly made kernel before
you attempt to enhance your kernel with Win4Lin support.
If you are an experienced Linux user, or have already customized your
kernel, you will want to apply the source patch and build your
kernel in the way you are used to.
See Installing
the Source PATCH for more details.
SRPMS are supplied for the following distributions:
- RedHat 6.0/6.1
- Caldera Open Linux 2.2/2.3
- SuSE 6.1/6.2/6.3
- Mandrake 7.0
- Corel 1.0
You can install the SRPMS by running the supplied
install-kernel-srpm.sh
to build your kernel. You will need to supply the source RPM CD that came
with your distribution if you have not already installed the required packages
needed
to build a new kernel. Please examine this script carefully before executing
it. If you have any difficulty or questions about building
the enhanced kernel, please send email to
support@trelos.com
for assistance.
These installation instructions assume the Win4Lin distribution is in
"/Win4Lin1.0".
If you have never built a kernel, it is likely that
the installation will need access to additional RPMS in order to complete
the kernel upgrade. These packages can be found on your Linux installation
CD or downloaded from an appropriate website.
If you do not have kernel source and build tools, you must insert your
Linux installation cd into the drive and enter:
This will make the source and build tools available during the kernel installation
process. To start the installation process enter:
-
cd /tmp/inst/LINUX
-
./install-kernel-srpm.sh
When the kernel build is completed, you must reboot to load the new
kernel before continuing with the installation of Win4Lin.
Installing the Source PATCH
If you are running a custom kernel, you will want to apply the supplied
source patch to enable Win4Lin support.
You must apply the source patch and build the
enhanced kernel. Win4Lin supports the following versions of the Linux
kernel.
-
Generic 2.2.3, 2.2.5, 2.2.7, 2.2.10, 2.2.12, 2.2.13, 2.2.14
-
RedHat 2.2.5, 2.2.12
-
SuSE 2.2.7, 2.2.10, 2.2.13
-
Caldera 2.2.5, 2.2.10
-
Mandrake 2.2.14
- See LINUX/PATCH/README-Mandrake6.1
-
Corel 2.2.12
See LINUX/PATCH/README for further details and tips.
If you have any difficulty or questions about building the enhanced kernel,
please send email to
support@trelos.com
for assistance. Or see www.TreLOS.com for
the latest kernel support information.
Installing Win4Lin
Note:
If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Win4Lin,
then you must first remove the existing Win4Lin package
(rpm -e Win4Lin)
before installing the new Win4Lin version.
You do NOT need to reinstall Windows or reconfigure your user sessions.
The next phase of the installation is to install the Win4Lin RPM.
Make sure that you are using a kernel that is Win4Lin ready. To do this
you can check for one of the added functions in /proc/ksyms using the grep
command.
-
grep mki_install_hook /proc/ksyms
If the above command prints nothing back, then you are NOT running a kernel
that is Win4Lin ready. To proceed you must have a kernel that is Win4Lin
ready.
These instructions assume the Win4Lin distribution is in
/Win4Lin1.0/
Use the following commands to install the Win4Lin package:
-
cd /Win4Lin1.0/Win4Lin
-
sh install-win4lin.sh
Note C-shell Users:
Because new commands are installed in /usr/bin,
all C-shell (csh) and similar shell users (e.g. tcsh)
must log out and then back in so that the new commands
will be available to them.
Non-RPM Installation:
To use install-win4lin.sh as instructed above,
requires your system to have the RPM package management system.
RPM is a standard part of RedHat, Caldera, SuSE and other
popular distributions.
However, some distributions, notably those
based on Debian, may not directly support the RPM package format.
To install on these systems you can use the "alien" utility,
which can be used to convert the package into Debian package format and
then install it.
So for example,
to install the rpm package file
"/Win4Lin1.0/Win4Lin/RPMS/i386/Win4Lin-1.0-1.rpm",
use these commands:
- cd /Win4Lin1.0/Win4Lin/RPMS/i386
- alien -c -i Win4Lin-1.0-1.rpm
It is very important to use the "-c" option so that the installation
scripts are run automatically.
Loading the Windows CD System files
The next phase is to load the Windows installation files from CD.
You must have your Windows installation CD.
For Windows 95 you must also supply a matching Windows 95 boot floppy
(also known as a Windows Startup Disk).
If you have a bootable Windows 98 CDROM, you do not need a boot floppy.
If you do not have a bootable Windows 98 CD, you must supply a Windows
98 boot floppy.
The on-line help for this step explains how to create one of these floppy
disks if you do not already have one, or how to use an "image copy" file
of such a floppy if you do not have a floppy drive on your machine.
You must login as root and be running in graphical mode to perform this
operation.
Win4Lin supports the following versions of Windows:
-
Windows 95 "classic" (aka "retail")
-
Windows 95 OSR2
-
Windows 98
-
Windows 98 second edition.
-
Windows 95 to Windows 98 Upgrade CD
Win4Lin does not support the following:
-
Installation from a Windows "Companion" CD is not supported.
-
Installation from a pre-installed native partition is not supported.
- Upgrading existing installations of Windows 95
to Windows 98 is not supported.
-
Other Windows "upgrades" may not work.
Note:
Win4Lin only supports the "Windows 95 to Windows 98 Upgrade CD"
for fresh installation of Windows. Plus in order to install Windows
from this you must have a qualifying Windows 95 installation CD to prove
that you are allowed to use the upgrade.
When loading this CD, you must supply a Windows 95 or Windows 98 boot
floppy because that CD is not bootable.
After loading the CD, when installing Windows for individual user use,
you must supply the qualifying Windows 95 installation CD
at that time to prove to
the Windows installation program that you are allowed to use the upgrade CD.
To load the Windows CD System files,
bring up the graphical Win4Lin Setup from your X desktop as root:
Insert the Windows 95/98 CD at this time:
-
Select System-Wide Win4Lin Administration and click OK.
-
Click Load Windows CD
- If needed, click the Help button on this window for full instructions
about loading the Windows CD, including boot floppy issues.
-
Click Install
-
When prompted for it, insert the Windows boot floppy, or type
in the filename of the boot floppy image file.
-
When the Windows CD loading is complete, click Close and then Exit.
Installing Windows for a User
The next step is to install Windows for a normal user account.
You will need the Windows "product key" to complete
the installation of Windows.
This is usually printed on the booklet or card that came with
your Windows CD.
Bring up the graphical Win4Lin Setup from your X desktop as a
normal user:
-
winsetup &
-
Select Personal Windows Setup and click OK.
-
Click Install personal copy of Windows 95/98.
-
The Windows installation procedure will run and you
will have to respond to several prompts, including entering
the Windows "product key".
If Windows was originally loaded from the "Windows 95 to Windows 98
upgrade" CD, then you also will need to put your qualifying
Windows 95 CD in the drive.
When prompted, enter drive "N:\" for the location of the CD.
-
When the install is finished shut down Windows one more time.
-
Shutdown Windows :
-
Click the Start button
-
Click Shut Down.
-
Click OK to "shut down the computer". This will only shut down that
Windows session.
-
Now Windows is installed.
-
Enter 'win &' or 'fwin &'
to bring up Windows again.
Note: The above shutdown method
is the only safe way to shut down a Windows
session, and the only recommended way.
Just closing the X window
will not properly shut down Windows, which might result in some damage
to Windows' files.
Note:
If you try and run win & when Windows is not
yet installed, you will be prompted to start the
Windows installation procedure as above.
Starting Up Windows
To run Windows on your xdesktop, enter 'win &' at the user's
shell prompt.
To run Windows on a separate virtual terminal, enter 'fwin &'
at the user's shell prompt or from a console.
You may also manually adjust your display settings to the desired screen
resolution.
-
If Windows is not already running, run
'win &' as a normal user
-
Access the Display control
-
Right click on the Windows desktop
-
Select Properties
-
Or Click on Display from the Control Panel
-
The Merge Windows/X and Merge Compatible Monitor are configured by
default
-
Adjust the Desktop Area to the desired resolution
-
Select Apply/Close
Configuring Win4Lin
You may wish to customize your Win4Lin configuration by mapping additional
drives or changing existing drive settings. The graphical Win4Lin Setup
utility is used to view and customize your "configuration".
-
As a normal user, run the command
'winsetup &' to start Win4Lin Setup
-
Select "Personal Win4Lin session configuration: win" and click OK.
-
Click the button "Drives and Filesystem". (This button is along
the top)
This shows you the current drive mappings. By default the following drives
are mapped:
-
A:/ and B:/ are mapped to the FLOPPY.
-
C: is mapped to $HOME/win.
This is where Windows is installed.
This cannot be located on an NFS mounted volume.
-
J:/ is mapped to /var/win4lin/dosroot. This is where the base DOS
files are installed from the Windows CD.
-
N:/ is mapped to /dev/cdrom. This is to make the CDROM accessible.
You can map additional drives anywhere you want on the Linux filesystem.
It is recommended that you create a directory and drive mapping to hold
your personal files. For example to create a drive D that has its
files located in a new "mydocs" subdirectory under your home directory,
do the following:
First create the directory. At the Linux prompt type these commands:
Now use the winsetup "Drives and Filesystem" dialog to map drive
letter D in your personal configuration to that directory:
-
In the "Drives and Filesystem" dialog click Add.
-
The Drive is already set to D, (or the next available one). Leave it set
to that default.
-
The "Type" setting is "Linux File System". Leave it set to that default.
-
Click the Browse button. This brings up a directory selection dialog
box. Select the directory you want, in this example the "mydocs" subdirectory.
Click OK, and then click OK again.
-
Now just click Save and then Exit, and your configuration
has been updated with this new drive mapping.
Note: You will need to restart your Windows session
in order for configuration changes to take effect.
Win4Lin Networking
Win4Lin supports tcp/ip (Winsock 1.1) networking over the Linux networking
system.
There is no configuration of Windows networking to be done.
You only need to configure the networking on the Linux side.
If Windows networking wizards appear offering to help you configure the
windows networking, tell them to go away.
Cancel.
Winsock based applications such as ftp, telnet, Netscape, IE, etc. will
function normally.
See the IE5 application note for an example.
Installing Windows Applications
The final step is to install any desired Windows applications. Simply
run Windows and follow the normal application installation procedures.
Your CDROM is configured as N:/ by default.
Most applications will simply install and function normally.
However, certain classes of applications may not be supported
because of limitations in the current product.
For example, applications which require low level access to filesystem
information may not operate correctly.
This limitation may be overcome by mapping a native DOS partition
for the application installation.
Direct access to hardware is not currently supported.
Applications which require non-tcp/ip protocols for communication,
such as MS Exchange, are not currently supported.
Applications which install VXDs may not operate properly.
Windows 95 Y2K update
Microsoft's Y2K fix for Windows 95 is supported.
The fix is in the form of the executable file w95y2k.exe.
Although it is supported, some extra steps are required with
Win4Lin to complete the update.
For instructions on these steps refer to the
Win95 Y2K Update
section in the
Windows installation problems topic
of the Trouble shooting guide.
Accessing the Documentation
The on-line documentation is all in html format.
It is available via the "Help" buttons in winsetup or the dos/win window.
When Win4Lin is installed it finds an HTML browser on the Linux system
to use for displaying the html files.
If you do not like the choice of HTML browser or somehow the installation
process was unable to find a standard browser,
you can specify the browser of your choice by editing
the MERGE_HELP_BROWSER setting in /etc/default/merge.
(Note: An individual user can put their own MERGE_HELP_BROWSER setting
in their Linux environment to use a browser that is different from
the one specified in /etc/default/merge.)
If you want to access the on-line documentation files directly
they are located under "/opt/win4lin/help":
- /opt/win4lin/help/guide -- User's Guide
- /opt/win4lin/help/trouble -- Trouble Shooting Guide
- /opt/win4lin/help/man -- Manual pages for Win4Lin commands.
(The man pages for the various commands are only in html format.)
Removing Win4Lin
When you remove the Win4Lin package, it does not remove the Windows files
that you have loaded and installed, and does not remove any application
you have installed or any data files you have created.
All configuration settings are also retained.
It is designed this way so that you can remove an old
version of Win4Lin and then install a new version and not loose the Windows
installation or configuration settings.
To remove the Win4Lin RPM package, use the command
If you plan on never re-installing Win4Lin, then you probably want to remove
all the installed Windows files, as well as all the configuration
files. To remove the global Windows files and
all the global configuration files,
run the script:
-
sh /var/win4lin/final_remove.sh
Then each user can remove their Windows and configuration files. These
are in subdirectories under the user's home directory. Remove:
-
".merge" - Configuration file directory.
-
"win" - C drive directory
where Windows is installed.
Operational Tips
-
The commands winsetup, win, and /bin/dos all requires
that the DISPLAY environment variable be set properly as is required by
all X client applications.
-
Win4Lin can be executed within an X window on your desktop using the win
command or on a separate virtual console using the fwin command.
The method we prefer to use is to create a separate virtual desktop for
Win4Lin and adjust the Windows Display Settings to make the Win4Lin window
fill the entire desktop. It's much faster switching between virtual
desktops than it is virtual consoles. It also uses less memory since
you're only running one X server. The advantage of running in full
screen on a separate console is the special accelerator keys (like ALT-TAB)
can be passed into Windows rather than being caught by the Linux window
manager.
Of course, if you want to be very clever, it is possible
to configure the window manager to use different accelerators, thereby
allowing the normal ones to be passed through to Windows.
-
The default memory allocated to Windows 95 is 16MB. We have found this
is adequate for running most Windows applications, including MS Office,
and results in good overall system performance.
For Windows 98 first edition the default memory allocation is 20MB,
and Second Edition is 24MB.
You don't want to give Windows more memory than it needs because it will
just suck it up.
If your system has more than 64MB of memory, or you want to run a particularly
bloated set of applications try increasing the memory to 32MB. You
can increase this setting (to a maximum of 64MB)
with the "winsetup" utility.
-
Once your Windows installation is complete it's a good idea to make an
archive of the ~/win (C:) directory (cpio or tar are good choices).
It's also strongly recommended that you configure a drive mapping to hold
all your personal files, rather than storing them in "C:".
For example,
create a mapping of D:/ to ~/mydocs. If you do both of these things, it
will make it very easy to reinstall Windows at anytime by whacking the
archive back onto your ~/win directory
-
It's also important to remember that all the Linux filesystem permission
are enforced so it is possible to make most of C: readonly and deny access
to "others". This makes it less likely that important windows files
will be accidentally overwritten or corrupted.
Use the normal Linux commands
or GUI to change the permissions for "group" and "other".
Product Limitations
The focus of
Win4Lin 1.0
is to provide Linux desktop users access to the
thousands of Windows desktop productivity applications that are not currently
available on Linux.
This
1.0
version
of the product does not
emphasis multimedia intensive applications or server configurations.
Note that the following features are not
available in this version of the product.
These features are being considered for a future release.
Your
feedback
on the importance of these and other features is appreciated.
They are:
-
Multisession: This version supports a single Windows session.
-
Microsoft Networking. Only TCP/IP (winsock) networking is provided.
-
Device Access: Currently limited to parallel port.
-
Sound. No sound support
-
Direct X. Not supported
-
Multiple Processors. This release will only operate correctly
on single processor systems.
-
Multiple Users. This version only supports a single session
of Win4Lin at a time.
-
Desktop Integration. No pretty icons to click. Instead:
Type 'win &' or 'fwin &'
to start a Win4Lin session.
Type 'winsetup &' to start the
Win4Lin configuration tool.
-
Graphical Cut and Paste. File based cut and paste between Windows
apps and Linux apps.
-
Earlier versions of Windows (i.e. 3.1, WFW) have not been
tested and are not supported, and there is no documentation
about how to install these versions under Win4Lin.
-
Zooming (the ability to run with Windows directly manipulating the real
graphics card instead of going through X-windows) is not currently supported
on Linux.
Anomalies and Caveats