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Running MUSHclient under Wine (Linux)

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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (22,973 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Sat 27 Nov 2004 12:42 AM (UTC)

Amended on Mon 09 Apr 2007 06:52 AM (UTC) by Nick Gammon

Message

Now that Lua is incorporated into MUSHclient, it is more feasible to run MUSHclient on Linux under Wine, including using scripting.

I have found problems running MUSHclient with the COM interface enabled, but this seems to work OK without it.

I will do a run-through here to show the general idea. It is a little fiddly, but Wine is still under development. :)

Knoppix

I will demonstrate using Knoppix, which is a stand-alone version of Linux, that you can simply boot from a CD, without installing any files. The advantage of this is that, if you follow these steps, it should work exactly the same for you, because Knoppix isn't installed onto your hard disk, it runs straight from the CDROM.

You can get Knoppix from http://www.knoppix.net/. The version I tested on was Knoppix 3.6. This includes Linux 2.4.27 and Wine version 20040615. I tested with MUSHclient version 3.53.

To install Knoppix just download the ISO image (CDROM image) and then burn that to a CDROM as an image (not just copying the file onto it). If you do that successfully then when you look at the CDROM you should see dozens of files, not just a single image file. In my case the ISO file name was 'KNOPPIX_V3.6-2004-08-16-EN.iso'.

However these instructions should work OK if you have other versions of Linux, providing you have installed a reasonably recent version of Wine using your normal installation method.

Boot Knoppix

Once you have your CDROM, just put it into the CDROM drive, and reboot the PC, making sure that the BIOS is set to boot from CDROM if it finds a bootable CD.

Install MUSHclient

Obviously, to use MUSHclient it needs to be installed somewhere. The MUSHclient installer doesn't seem to work too well under Wine, so the best thing is to install temporarily using Windows, and then have those files available for the Wine test. If you have two PCs, you could get them over a network, or burn them onto a CDROM, ready for reading into Knoppix.

It obviously defeats the purpose of running MUSHclient under Wine if you have to have Windows in the first place to install it, however if I get a few messages from people saying they want to use MUSHclient on Linux, I will release a "gzip" version on the web site, that can just be unzipped into a directory.

One simple method is to simply "mount" the Windows partition under Knoppix (it opens read-only) and just access MUSHclient from your normal directory.

For my test I ftp'd the following files from another PC:

  • mushclient.exe - 2.07 Mb
  • lua.dll - 120 Kb
  • lualib.dll 140 Kb

Start Wine

Now comes the interesting bit. Open a "command" window by clicking on the console icon (this looks like a computer screen, 4th icon from the right below).

You need to navigate (cd) to the directory with MUSHclient installed. If you have copied them by ftp, then that may well be the current folder (the folder /home/knoppix) however if you have MUSHclient on your hard disk, you can use the file browser to find it, like this:

In this case you would type:

cd '/mnt/hda2/Program Files/MUSHclient/'

The quotes are necessary because "Program Files" has a space in it.

Now we'll try to run MUSHclient:

wine mushclient.exe /wine

The option "/wine" tells MUSHclient to not use COM operating system calls, which seem to work less well under Wine. You should then see this if you haven't used Wine before:

Click on "Configure Wine" and you will see:

Click on "Next" and you will see:

Click on "Next" and you will see:

Click on "Finish" and you are done. You should then see MUSHclient start up, and show its "unregistered copy" screen ...

Now, before dismissing that, there seems to be a problem that if you have an unregistered copy, it crashes (I didn't do that deliberately, promise!). I don't know why, and since it doesn't happen under Windows where the compiler and debugger are, it is hard to fix. So, fortunately you can register before dismissing this screen. Click on the "Register Now" button, and enter your name and registration code.

Bug fixed in MUSHclient 3.54

The above bug has been fixed in MUSHclient 3.54, so you can run unregistered copies without this crash. Obviously I would prefer if you register, however it is only fair to check how well it works before you do so. If you are using version 3.54 onwards, you can skip the stuff about the crash, and starting MUSHclient a second time.

MUSHclient now FreeWare

Versions 4.00 onwards are now FreeWare, so the registration issue goes away. :)

Once you have registered, and then click on the correct button (in this example, "1") to close the "unregistered copy" box, you will get the crash, like this:

However all is not lost. MUSHclient is now registered, so you can start it up again ...


wine mushclient.exe /wine

The first thing I would do now is change the default fonts. They seem to default to a rather hard-to-read all-capitals font. Go to File -> Global Preferences -> Defaults, and change the Output Font and Input Font to something more readable, and preferably monospaced. I chose Bitstream Vera Sans Mono ...

Now you can open a world (Connection menu -> Quick Connect) and try it out. I then opened the world configuration dialog and selected Lua scripting, and "Enable Script". The screen dump below shows that scripting in Lua works, even with the /wine option on the mushclient command line.

There you have it - MUSHclient running on Linux. Have fun.


- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Zozen   (1 post)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #1 on Fri 02 Feb 2007 03:34 PM (UTC)
Message
First of all, thank you for making this wine thing possible :)

I tried the client under Windows and liked it very much, especially that it can be scripted using JScript, and I did a few scripts already, but I am usually using Linux (Debian) and I would like to ask if it is possible to make JScript run with wine.

I managed to run the client without the /wine option but JScript isn't working.

I get a "Scripting error":

Error number: -2147221005
Event: finding CLSID of scripting language "JScript"
Description: <<Unable to convert error number -2147221005>>
Called by:

Do I have to copy some DLL-s? From where and to which location? If it can't be done, is there a way to convert the scripts from Jsript to Lua? (I wrote quite a few lines)

Thank you very much in advance for your help!
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Posted by Shaun Biggs   USA  (644 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #2 on Sat 03 Feb 2007 02:49 AM (UTC)
Message
I just started running MUSHclient under Wine myself. Lua is the only scripting language supported, and so far I haven't had terribly much trouble converting scripts over. A few problems here and there, but it's the same for any new language to me.

Only thing that I'm having issues with is that lua is so versatile that there are about ten ways of doing even the simplest thing, so it's hard to get a standard 'best' way to do it.

It is much easier to fight for one's ideals than to live up to them.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (22,973 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #3 on Sat 03 Feb 2007 06:58 AM (UTC)
Message
Quote:

Do I have to copy some DLL-s? From where and to which location? If it can't be done, is there a way to convert the scripts from Jsript to Lua? (I wrote quite a few lines)


Yes, JScript is implemented by a DLL (jscript.dll). You would need to copy that from your Windows PC.

Once you have done that you need to tell Windows that the script engine exists. Click on the "Register DLL" button in the (MUSHclient) scripting configuration window. That should register the DLL. If you get no error messages, then Jscript should now work.

Failing that, you could always convert to Lua, however that cannot really be totally automated.

- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (22,973 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #4 on Sat 03 Feb 2007 07:02 AM (UTC)
Message
Quote:

Only thing that I'm having issues with is that lua is so versatile that there are about ten ways of doing even the simplest thing, so it's hard to get a standard 'best' way to do it.


It probably doesn't matter a huge amount, the best way is probably the way that makes sense to you. However if you are in doubt you can post a sample script snippet and ask if the Lua scripters would do it that way or not.

In many cases, slight variations don't matter. However in some cases, like where you might be doing a linear search of 10000 items for something, which could be done much more quickly with a keyed lookup, there may be room for improvement.

The important thing really is to make scripts readable, by coding with good data names, lots of comments, and not trying to be "too clever". Remember, a year later, you may be wondering why you did things a particular way. Lots of comments, clear data names, and a simple style, will work wonders in helping you, and others, understand your scripts.

- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Shaun Biggs   USA  (644 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #5 on Thu 15 Feb 2007 11:01 AM (UTC)
Message
I tossed the jscript.dll file into Wine's windows/system directory, and everything worked great for my script file. After a bit of testing, I tried loading up a plugin... then everything kind of exploded. Apparently MC couldn't register the dll when it was a plugin. Is there anything I'm missing to get around this, or are Jscript plugins just not usable under Wine as of yet?

The actual error message:
Line 182: Could not initialise script engine (problem in this file)

It is much easier to fight for one's ideals than to live up to them.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (22,973 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #6 on Fri 16 Feb 2007 04:08 AM (UTC)
Message
Once Jscript is registered, which should be a once-off operation, it should work. Possibly the DLL needs to be in a standard place, like the \windows\system directory, if there is such a thing under Wine.

Or, possibly make a symbolic link to the DLL from whereever the plugin is installed.

- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Vanidor   USA  (21 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #7 on Mon 19 Sep 2011 04:01 AM (UTC)
Message
Heya Nick/Anyone,

A friend of mine is running Linux and has tried Wine, but says she had some wonkieness/weirdness with it... Things like.. Well here's the convo:

Akesi says, "WINE is damn near impossible. You can't log or save your settings. I tried."

Johnothan says, "Ah...awell"

Akesi says, "It does not even flash when something is in the window."

Johnothan Hrms and looks into this

Akesi says, "Logging and settings are important to me. :/"
Akesi says, "The window can't flash either."
Akesi says, "Very, very wonky."
Akesi says, "I tried it on an updated Ubuntu, KildClient does not work on the updated, downloaded every bit of WINE. Tested it out, I liked it, but the wonkiness of no logs or no saved settings and no alerts turned me off."
Akesi says, "Alright. I would love to get back on the updated Linux, myself."
Akesi says, "As it stands I have to reopen MUSHclient from an excuteable each time and start it from the beginning."

Could you perhaps update the MushClient -- Wine guide for a more recent edition to help new users of your wonderful program who might be having problems?

Thanx, and please, keep up the wonderfully GREAT work for as long as you can!
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Posted by Twisol   USA  (2,257 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #8 on Mon 19 Sep 2011 05:41 AM (UTC)
Message
That's a bit odd. As a current user of MUSHclient on Ubuntu, I haven't had and don't currently have any of those problems. My issues are limited to the Japanese yen symbol being displayed in place of backslashes in the pattern entry field, and the splash image not rendering (it's just black). I don't have any functional issues though.

'Soludra' on Achaea

Blog: http://jonathan.com/
GitHub: http://github.com/Twisol
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (22,973 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #9 on Mon 19 Sep 2011 07:33 AM (UTC)
Message
That's very odd. I would check you have write access to where-ever MUSHclient got installed to (like Program Files).

Quite a few users run under Wine, so this is not a major design issue, I think it is some sort of local problem on your PC, quite likely to do with not being able to write.

- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Fiendish   USA  (2,514 posts)  [Biography] bio   Global Moderator
Date Reply #10 on Mon 19 Sep 2011 03:33 PM (UTC)

Amended on Mon 19 Sep 2011 03:38 PM (UTC) by Fiendish

Message
I run the latest Wine with zero problems and I've never used the /wine flag to launch. I just double click the icon and everything runs smoothly.

Twisol said:
the splash image not rendering (it's just black)

Do you have intel graphics? I used to have black rendering issues before applying the resolution of this xorg bug. https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28798

Quote:
Akesi says, "It does not even flash when something is in the window."
I don't even know what this means.

https://github.com/fiendish/aardwolfclientpackage
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Posted by Twisol   USA  (2,257 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #11 on Mon 19 Sep 2011 04:23 PM (UTC)
Message
Fiendish said:
Twisol said:
the splash image not rendering (it's just black)

Do you have intel graphics? I used to have black rendering issues before applying the resolution of this xorg bug. https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28798

I don't think so, I have an on-board nVidia card... I'm more bothered by the backslash-shows-as-yen issue, to be honest.

Fiendish said:
Quote:
Akesi says, "It does not even flash when something is in the window."
I don't even know what this means.

He means the on-activity taskbar flashing, I presume. On GNOME that seems to degrade to simply bolding the title on the taskbar.

'Soludra' on Achaea

Blog: http://jonathan.com/
GitHub: http://github.com/Twisol
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Posted by Vanidor   USA  (21 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #12 on Mon 19 Sep 2011 10:52 PM (UTC)
Message
Fiendish said:

I run the latest Wine with zero problems and I've never used the /wine flag to launch. I just double click the icon and everything runs smoothly.

Quote:
Akesi says, "It does not even flash when something is in the window."
I don't even know what this means.


For having it flash the window/taskbar on new content.
IE: In the configuration window, under Output, 5th item on the righthand side.. "New activity flashes taskbar"

Evidentally it isn't flashing to alert her when there's new activity in a non-focused window, letting her know that 'something's' happened.. And, now that I look further down, yes, Twisol is correct (I think anyways) with his on-activity flash....Although when I have Mushclient off focus and something happens, the MushClient taskbar icon/button flashes, but it's basically the same thing really.
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