WINE Still Works, But Not Like It Did Before

[martinjdz]

I just re-installed Kubuntu 24.04 on an ASUS desktop PC (UEFI, GPT). (I had previously upgraded from 22.04 to 24.04, but the upgrade left my system very sluggish. I finally decided to do a clean install.)

Under 22.04, I relied heavily on WINE to run certain portable Windows7 applications. I can still use these apps, but it is much more difficult now.

I Had to Install Q4Wine to Create a Virtual C-Drive.
Previously, I could open up the WINE application and do this. Now, however, I cannot open the WINE application at all. Therefore, I must create the drive using Q4Wine.

Using Q4Wine, I can install apps under "/home/[username]/.wine/drive_c/Program Files". However, it appears that there is no way to create shortcuts (application links) for the KDE Desktop. I must launch apps from within Q4Wine.

I Had to Install WINE from WineHQ
The WINE version available from Discover simply does not work. I had to use directions and software from the WineHQ site:

https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/Debian-Ubuntu

There is still no formal entry for WINE in the KDE application menu, and I can no longer open up the WINE application (to create a virtual C-Drive). However, when right-clicking on an *.exe (Windows) program file, the following option is now displayed:

Open with WINE Windows Program Loader

Selecting this option opens the Windows application immediately. This is how I know that WINE is installed and it is working.

PLayOrLinux Does Not Work
I previously used it to create shortcuts to Windows apps for the KDE desktop. Without PlayOnLinux, there does not seem any way to do this. The Kubuntu 24.04 security system no longer permits direct activation of Windows executables, AppImages, or even JAR (java) programs. PlayOnLinux was one of the ways to get around this limitation.

I can't find any info. in the system logs about why PlayOnLinux is not working. Launching it from a terminal window, however, shows the following error messages:

->Playonlinux
Looking for python3... 3.12.3 - selected
/usr/share/playonlinux/python/mainwindow.py:710: SyntaxWarning: invalid escape sequence '\|'
self.SupprotedIconExt = "All|*.xpm;*.XPM;*.png;*.PNG;*.ico;*.ICO;*.jpg ;*.J PG;*.jpeg;*.JPEG;*.bmp;*.BMP\
1.0
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/playonlinux/python/mainwindow.py", line 41, in <module>
import options, threading, debug
File "/usr/share/playonlinux/python/options.py", line 21, in <module>
from asyncore import dispatcher
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'asyncore'

[Tom_ZeCat]

I went through something similar. I use WINE to run Ultralingua 6 (a program for foreign language dictionaries). When I first upgraded to 24.04, it would not work, but I got it to work by installing the latest WINE via apt on the command line and, like you, installing Q4WINE. I saved the steps that worked in a CherryTree file, and I'm copy and pasting those steps here in case it helps someone. My Ultralingua 6 is not specifically a portable version, but it acts like one. I bought the thing years ago and no longer have its install program, but I do have all the files from an install into Windows XP, so I copy them in and set them up to run under WINE.

Here are my steps that I saved. I hope it helps.

1. In the package manager, I purge-unisntalled WINE and everything pertaining to it. One thing didn't let me purge, so I just went with "remove" for it.
2. I command-line installed the latest version of WINE, 9.0 at present.
3. At this point Ultralingua, and other Windows programs, would run, but only if I double clicked on their exe file from Dolphin. Programs would not run from KDE's launcher.
4. Installed Q4Wine.
5. I double clicked on Ultralingua's exe file, and it wanted to run from Q4Linux. Q4Linux put Ultralingua's icon in Q4Linux's interface.
6. At this point, I was able to run Ultralingua by clicking on its icon within Q4Linux's interface, but I wanted to be able to run it from the desktop and the launcher.
7. I therefore drag and dropped Ultralingua's icon from Q4Linux's interface to the desktop. I chose the option “link to here” when dropping from the desktop. Chosing “copy here” also worked.
8. At this point, I could run Ultralingua from its desktop icon, but not from the launcher.
9. I therefore right clicked on the Ultralingua desktop icon and chose "properties". I then clicked on the Applications tab and found the command that QT had created for Ultralingua. I copied that into a text file. (It was: /usr/bin/q4wine-cli -p "Default" -d "system" -i "ultralingua" %f)
10. I then right-clicked on KDE's launch icon and chose "Edit Applications". I went into Education ==> Languages and found the Ultralingua entry I had created before.
11. I replaced the "browse to" command line I had created before with the command that Q4Linux had created for the desktop.