I have a question for you – hence the “Request For Comment” in this post’s title.
I have been compiling a Slackware package for the Wine emulator for a long time now. The 64bit wine package contains both the 64bit and the 32bit Wine binaries and libraries. It therefore also requires that you made your 64bit Slackware into a multilib system.
For a while now, Wine can be built in another way than I have been doing it traditionally. The “WoW64” build aka “Windows on Windows64” allows you to run 32bit Windows binaries on a pure 64bit Slackware Linux OS, no multilib required.
Caveats of a switch to a WoW64 build of Wine for Slackware:
- The WoW64 build does not support 16bit Windows binaries.
- You may have to re-create your 32bit Wine prefixes.
Meaning, the Windows programs which you already have installed on your computer have been written to what’s called a “Wine prefix”, basically a subdirectory in your homedirectory (the default location is~/.wine/).
Usually you would not bother with the concept of the Wine prefix, but it allows you to isolate various Windows programs from each other. Suppose you need to install additional Windows libraries via tools like winetricks (the same script is called ‘protontricks‘ if you use Valve’s Proton instead of Wine). but the DLL requirements are conflicting between Windows programs. Then you install each program into its own Wine prefix.
Bottomline: it may cost you some one-time work to get your programs going again. - There’s some reports about performance regressions in Wine 9.x under WoW64 for 32bit Windows programs that invoke OpenGL calls directly. I can not confirm that this has been addressed in Wine 10.x
- Valve’s Steam gaming platform still requires multilib on your computer.
Therefore I would like to hear your opinion about whether or not to switch from traditional multilib Wine to the new WoW64 Wine.
With “you” I mean actual users of my Wine packages. I am not interested in random replies.
Let me know below!
Eric
I don’t know if it would matter? The only thing I really use WINE for anymore is Scrivener and Scapple. Gaming, I’m using Proton, either through Steam, or via the Heroic Launcher. Scala I use, too, but it’s definitely not 16 bit.
I volunteer as tribute, if you need help testing something. 🙂
I recently encountered a game that does not work with wine WoW64 (i used the SBo slackbuild to build it), which is Mortal Kombat Trilogy from GOG. I only got it working after switching to your own wine package 😉
For the rest, I never noticed particular issues using the WoW64 build for other applications or games.
Hi Alan,
I am in no hurry to switch to a WoW64 build myself, so as long as there are reports of nonfunctional applications I will take that into account. Time and patience will resolve these issues.
The last time I used your Wine packages was before Slackware 15.0 – the last time I used a multilib system. When Slack 15.0 was released, I stopped using Wine. And a few months ago, I had to test a 32-bit windows program and, fortunately, Wine 9.0 built from SBo worked fine for me.
So, as a former actual user of your Wine packages, who eventually run things on Wine, I say that I would use you packages again if no multilib is required.
Cheers
Hi Eric,
I used your wine packages for a decade but some months ago I decided to try a non-multilib build (using the SBo script) to see if the few windows programs I use ran properly.
Programs are
Harzing’s Publish and Perish
FlexiPDF
Adobe Digital Edition
and a few genealogical databases.
All of those ran fine without multilib (ADE installed using winetricks, so in its own prefix). I then decided to skip multilib altogether, reducing upgrading a bit (no more compat32 packages). Right now I’m on Wine-10.0 (stable, SBo build). I’ve run into some issues with later dev versions: in version 10.5 and onwards my genealogical databases don’t function perfectly (the search panel opens behind the main window, unless I untick the “Allow the WM to control the windows” in winecfg > graphics). In dev version 10.10 FlexiPDF and ADE refuse to run (I’ve filed a bug report). Haven’t tried 10.11.
Based on my needs and preferences, wine without multilib will be perfectly fine. Should you choose that road, I will definitely use your wine packages again.
Hi Eric,
I figured I would chime in on this. I’ve been using your Wine package for years, and I truly appreciate the work you’ve put into maintaining it. Recently, I decided to experiment with the SBo Wine package after hearing that it could be built without requiring multilib by using the newer WoW64 approach.
I’m currently running Wine 10.12 on a pure 64-bit Slackware system, and all the Windows programs I use are working perfectly without any 32-bit libraries. All of those programs, including MP3Tag, dBpoweramp, and iTunes (for QAAC support with dBpoweramp), now have 64-bit builds, so I no longer have any real need for 32-bit support in my day-to-day use.
I’ve also transitioned to using the Flatpak version of Steam. I don’t game heavily, but the few titles I have tested have worked flawlessly with it. Between that and the move to 64-bit Windows applications, I have found that I can now comfortably run a multilib-free Slackware install, at least for my current needs.
If any limitations arise in the future, I won’t hesitate to return to a multilib setup, since it has always worked reliably for me. For now, though, I’m mostly experimenting, and the WoW64 path has been surprisingly smooth.
I programmed in ’90 a lot of things with Turbo Pascal for Windows. It was a 16bit compiler. It is a shame, that wow64 do not support Win16 imho.