problems with vmware: which virtual machine is best?

[kdemeoz]

Hi, I use Office 2010 all the time, because 2013 is slow via wine. As for the popup, I don't have it either, probably a bug...

Aha, many thanks again for all your help. 

[benit]

1) Thank you very much for "taking over" my post and enriching it so much!

2) I can take time to try Wine only now. Good news: I could easily install Wine 1.8 with Maui 17.03.

3) When I try to set up a new Winetricks for office I get the message that "Mono" is missing. There is a button to download it, but it also says to better use the version that comes with the distro.

Which version should I take? And if I should take the one that comes with Maui: What is the proper name for synaptic?

And one more question:

4) I do not have an office ISO, but only one complete .exe installation. How to handle that?

5) What about Office 2016? Any chance? Any experience? It brings some not so obvious, but very helpful features, though Office 2010 is enough for most small writings.

Thank you very much in advance for helping!

[kdemeoz]

1) Thank you very much for "taking over" my post and enriching it so much!

3) When I try to set up a new Winetricks for office I get the message that "Mono" is missing. There is a button to download it, but it also says to better use the version that comes with the distro.

4) I do not have an office ISO, but only one complete .exe installation. How to handle that?

Hi benit

1) Oops, yes, i am guilty as charged - sorry! It's just that Rocky's info really excited me  

3) I tested this method in two Maui VMs before i was willing to do it in my "real" Maui. Maybe my memory is now wrong [if so, maybe Rocky might correct me], but i also was unsure about Mono, so i think i just let Wine do the download & install Mono in one VM, whilst in the other i skipped that step [& deliberately did NOT later attempt to find Mono myself in Synaptic]. My objective was to discover if Office 2010 would still correctly work in the created WinePrefix either way, so that if it did, i would know that for my "real" Maui i could safely ignore the Mono steps. As best i recall, Office seemed happy both ways. 

4) I also do not have the ISO, but "only" my original MS DVD. I also have the MS Office 2010 sp2 exe file that i downloaded 300 years ago. With Rocky's help, these are the steps i took:

Code:

sudo apt-get install wine1.8

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-office2010 WINEARCH='win32' winecfg

sudo apt-get install winbind winetricks

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-office2010 WINEARCH='win32' winetricks corefonts msxml6

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-office2010 WINEARCH='win32' wine /media/kdemeoz/OFFICE14/setup.exe
this was with the Office 2010 installation dvd in the drive, of course.

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-office2010 WINEARCH='win32' winecfg
switch to tab Libraries and set riched20.dll to Native

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-office2010 WINEARCH='win32' wine officesp2010-kb2687455-fullfile-x86-en-us.exe
In Dolphin, navigate to /Seagate/4. Software/z. Windows pgms/Microsoft/Office Professional Plus 2010/sp2 ... & therein launch Konsole ... in which run the above command
this installs Service Pack 2.

To reset the 30-day Activation grace period [5x max; run in Konsole per preceding]:
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-office2010 WINEARCH='win32' wine OSPPREARM.EXE

I hope it works for you!! I just love it. 

PS - As per a separate thread of Rocky's, i later also upgraded to Wine 2.0, & all the above is still good. 
https://forums.mauilinux.org/showthread....light=wine 

[benit]

I am also asked for Gecko - what to do with that one? Deny?

[kdemeoz]

I am also asked for Gecko - what to do with that one? Deny?

Yes i wondered if you'd ask that. My answer is identical to before; in one VM i denied it, but in the other i allowed it. BOTH VMs eventually have a well-working Office 2010... so my provisional conclusion is that neither Mono or Gecko is necessary in our case. Note that that's my best-judgement based on my experiments, but i'm entirely happy to be contradicted by more knowledgeable people if needed. 

[benit]

Code:

~$ WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-office2010 WINEARCH='win32' winecfg
wine: created the configuration directory '/home/xxx/.wine-office2010'
err:ole:marshal_object couldn't get IPSFactory buffer for interface {00000131-0000-0000-c000-000000000046}
err:ole:marshal_object couldn't get IPSFactory buffer for interface {6d5140c1-7436-11ce-8034-00aa006009fa}
err:ole:StdMarshalImpl_MarshalInterface Failed to create ifstub, hres=0x80004002
err:ole:CoMarshalInterface Failed to marshal the interface {6d5140c1-7436-11ce-8034-00aa006009fa}, 80004002
err:ole:get_local_server_stream Failed: 80004002
err:ole:marshal_object couldn't get IPSFactory buffer for interface {00000131-0000-0000-c000-000000000046}
err:ole:marshal_object couldn't get IPSFactory buffer for interface {6d5140c1-7436-11ce-8034-00aa006009fa}
err:ole:StdMarshalImpl_MarshalInterface Failed to create ifstub, hres=0x80004002
err:ole:CoMarshalInterface Failed to marshal the interface {6d5140c1-7436-11ce-8034-00aa006009fa}, 80004002
err:ole:get_local_server_stream Failed: 80004002
err:process:__wine_kernel_init boot event wait timed out
Could not load wine-gecko. HTML rendering will be disabled.

Hmmm... does that look really promising?

[kdemeoz]

Hmmm... does that look really promising?

Every time i applied this Outlook 2010 WinePrefix installation procedure, Konsole displayed dozens if not hundreds of nasty-looking error messages during the setup. All i can tell you is that the proof of the pudding is in the eating... despite all the errors during the installation, after the installation i can successfully run MS Office 2010 Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, OneNote [but not Outlook - it locks up] in 2 VM Maui's, & 1 "real" Maui.

I'm a bit puzzled why you keep stopping to ask these questions... why not just keep going to the end, & then either it will work nicely for you like for Rocky & me, or it won't (in which case then we can troubleshoot].

My non-expert non-technical guess for the myriad error messages during the installation stages, is that we must remember... Outlook Office is a Windows pgm that is not being installed into a Windows OS... so i imagine there's a gazillion libraries, dlls, other stuff that are in Windows & which the setup is also expecting here, but of course cannot find them coz, well, this is not Windows. My semi-logical deduction is that despite the unpleasantness of seeing all those ugly transient errors, they cannot be showstoppers can they, otherwise we would not have this nice experience of Outlook 2010 in our Mauis.  :-)

[benit]

Got it working! VERY promising... though the step to adjust the riched20.dll did not work. There was another .dll displayed, but not the "riched20.dll" ...

One more question:

The quality of the letters is not as clear as it is in true Word 2010, for example. I know that Microsoft uses a special clear type technology. Can this be activated also for Wine? Makes quite a difference, if you have to stare at the screen for hours!

[benit]

Encouraged of seeing Word "natively" on my maui installation I tried to install also my HP printer driver, but that failed due to the missing USB support.

Some research on the WINE page shows me that this is a "special topic". Is anybody reading this who can give some definite advice on this problem?

Thank you very much in advance!

[rocky7x]

Hi, let me answer all uncertainties I noticed:
1. Installing mono and gecko when prompted is more than advised. I know that it probably works without them, but those 2 are important for proper working of the emulated Windows.
2. Tons of error messages are completely OK - that's how Windows programs work, there are similar tons of debug messages in Windows as well, but you don't see them since they are hidden behind the graphics
3. Regarding nice fonts, hmmm, that's strange, because I have nicer fonts than in Windows But, I think that this might help - new M$ fonts like Calibri etc use embedded bitmaps. We have to disable them with the following added to .fonts.conf in your home directory:

Code:

<!-- disable embedded bitmaps in fonts to fix Calibri, Cambria, etc. -->
<match target="font">
        <edit mode="assign" name="embeddedbitmap"><bool>false</bool></edit>
</match>

Add it before the ending </fontconfig> in that file. Logout and login to make it work.