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:

Filesystem Space Requirements: (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: 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: 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: 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:

Debian (.deb) packages are supplied for the following distributions: To install the appropriate package, run the commands: 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: 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:

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:

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. 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.

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:

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:

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:

Win4Lin does not support the following: 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:


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:

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.


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". This shows you the current drive mappings. By default the following drives are mapped: 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:     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":

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: Then each user can remove their Windows and configuration files. These are in subdirectories under the user's home directory. Remove:

Operational Tips


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:


Anomalies and Caveats