NeTraverse Win4LinTM 3.0.0 Release Notes

Thank you for choosing to use Win4Lin from NeTraverse. Win4Lin 3.0.0 Desktop software integrates the Microsoft® Windows® 95/98 operating systems into the Linux™ environment, allowing users to access both Linux and Windows® applications simultaneously.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Major new features in the the 3.0.0 release
Viewing the Win4Lin Documentation
System Requirements
Windows Versions
Disk Space Requirements

Supplement to the On-line Help Documentation

Support for Audio Playback
Customizable drive labels
Loading the Windows installation files from CD
Loading Windows installation files from Windows partition
Access to floppy disk drive during Windows installation
Networking Support
Windows Application Support
Windows 95 Y2K update

Removing Win4Lin

Operational Tips

Known Limitations

Anomalies and Caveats

Providing Feedback


Introduction

This release, 3.0, is a major update to the previous version, Win4Lin 2.0.

This document provides release specific information that is supplemental to the Installation and Operations Guide, and the User's Guide and other on-line help documents contained in the distribution. 

Major new features in the 3.0.0 release

Viewing the Win4Lin Documentation

This product provides an Installation and Operations Guide, and on-line help documentation that includes a User's Guide, Trouble Shooting Guide, Manual Pages, and this Release Note.

Electronic versions of the Installation and Operations Guide, in PDF and HTML formats, are located on the Win4Lin 3.0 CD in the doc/W4L3.0-guide directory.

The on-line help documentation is located on the Win4Lin 3.0 CD in the Win4Lin/help directory. After installing the Win4Lin package, these files are located under /opt/win4lin/help:

All the on-line help documentation is in standard HTML format. The Linux man command cannot be used to display the manual pages.

The Help button in Win4Lin windows provide access to all the on-line help documentation.

To display the on-line help documentation from within a Win4Lin session, use Shift-F12 to display the menu bar, then choose the desired topic from the Help menu

During installation, Win4Lin locates an HTML browser on the Linux system for use when displaying the documentation. If you do not like the choice of HTML browser, or the installation process was unable to find a suitable browser, you can specify the browser of your choice by editing the MERGE_HELP_BROWSER setting in /etc/default/merge.

NOTE: A user can override the default in /etc/default/merge by setting MERGE_HELP_BROWSER in their Linux shell environment.

If you have trouble installing Win4lin or Windows, or encounter other problems, please consult the Installation and Operations Guide, User's Guide and the Trouble Shooting Guide. Please note that you can always find the most up-to-date technical documentation, as well as the latest product updates, on our website at http://www.netraverse.com/support/.


System Requirements


Windows Versions

Windows language versions that can be installed.
Win95-ClassicWin95-OSR2Win98-OriginalWin98-SE
Basque Yes - - -
Brazilian YesYesYes -
Czech - YesYesYes
Danish YesYesYesYes
Dutch YesYesYesYes
English YesYesYesYes
Finnish YesYesYesYes
French YesYesYesYes
German YesYesYesYes
Greek - YesYesYes
Hungarian - Yes - Yes
Italian - YesYesYes
Norwegian YesYesYesYes
Panama - Yes - -
Polish - Yes - Yes
Portugese YesYes - -
Russian - Yes - Yes
Slovak - YesYesYes
Sloveni - - YesYes
Spanish YesYesYesYes
Swedish YesYesYesYes
Turkish YesYes - -


Disk Space Requirements

The above requirements for $HOME are based on default mapping of the C: drive location to $HOME/win. The Win4Lin winsetup configuration utility can be used to change this mapping. Alternatively, you can use symbolic links to map $HOME/win to another location.


Supplement to the On-line Help Documentation

Support for Audio Playback

Win4Lin now supports audio playback through Windows 95 and Windows 98. Sound recording, midi, volume control and Music CD playback are not supported.

It is required that you have sound hardware supported by your Linux Operating System.

The interface used to play audio is the Open Sound System (OSS) API (the standard on most Linux distributions) through the /dev/dsp device. If you are using a different sound driver architecture such as ALSA, please make sure you have enabled OSS compatibility.

Known limitations in this release are: If you have upgraded from a previous release of Win4Lin and have not reinstalled your personal copy of Windows, please follow these instructions (these are based on English versions of Windows): To disable sound, set the environment variable MERGE_AUDIO_PLUGIN=none, or make this a permanent setting in /etc/default/merge.


Customizable drive labels

A new feature of this release is "customizable labels" for the Windows drives. The default labels have changed and now reflect the location of the drive mapping in to the Linux filesystem.

NOTE: The "~" character refers to $HOME.

To customize the drive label do the following: create a directory named .labeldosdrive in the directory at the root of the drive and in that directory create an empty file with your chosen name for the drive label.

Known limitations in this release:


Loading the Windows installation files from CD

Once Win4Lin is installed you need to load the Windows installation files from a 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:


Loading Windows installation files from Windows partition

With this release, you now have the option of loading the Windows installation files (.cab files) from the native Windows partition on your hard disk (the DOS C: drive).

If you do not have a Windows installation CD, but you do have a dual boot system with Windows on another partition, it is possible to load the required installation files from that partition. For this to work, all the installation files need to be in a single directory on the native Windows partition (typically C:\windows\options\cabs). In addition to the .cab files, the directory must contain the extract.exe file and a "setup" command file. For English versions of Windows, the "setup" command file is called setup.exe. Other language versions of Windows may instead use one of the following: install.exe, config.exe, instalar.exe, asenna.exe, installa.exe setupcur.exe, kur.exe.

To load Windows installation files from a Windows partition, perform the following steps:

  1. Change to the root user:
    su root
  2. Load the installation files:
    loadwindowsCD dosc


Access to floppy disk drive during Windows installation

Access to the floppy disk drive is prevented while Windows is being installed. This is done because on some Linux systems, when there is no floppy disk drive or no floppy disk in the drive, the Linux driver malfunctions and hangs until a floppy disk drive is installed and/or a floppy disk is put in the drive. Normally access to the floppy disk drive is not needed while installing Windows. If you need access to the floppy disk drive, type the following command:

installwindows floppyok


Networking Support

Win4Lin supports two methods of TCP/IP networking:

You choose which kind to use when you install Windows.

You can switch the type of networking from WinSock to VNET and from VNET to WinSock using the new command win_network. To change to WinSock type "win_network -w", and to change to VNET type "win_network -v".

NOTE: due to a limitation in the registry editor supplied with Windows 95 "classic" , the "win_network -w" option is not supported with this release of Windows.


Windows Application Support

Most Windows applications will simply install and function normally. Certain classes of applications, however, may not be supported due to limitations in the Win4Lin product.

Applications which require low level access to filesystem information may not operate correctly. In some situation, this limitation can be overcome by installing the application on a native Windows partition mapped to a Win4Lin drive. Examples of programs that may not work correctly are: disk defragmenters, disk scanners, and file repair programs.

Application that require direct access to hardware are not supported.

Applications that install VxDs (virtual device drivers) may not operate properly.


Windows 95 Y2K update

Microsoft's Y2K fix for Windows 95 (w95y2k.exe) is supported although some extra steps are required for 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.


Removing Win4Lin

When you remove the Win4Lin package, it does not remove the Windows files that you have loaded and installed, nor does it remove any application you have installed or any data files you have created. All configuration settings are also retained. This design allows you to remove an old version of Win4Lin and install a new version without losing the Windows installation or configuration settings.

To remove the Win4Lin RPM package, perform the following steps:

  1. Change to the root user:
    su root
  2. Remove the product files:

rpm -e Win4Lin

If you wish to remove all the global Windows files and global configuration files, run the script:

sh /var/win4lin/final_remove.sh

Then each user can remove their private Windows files and private configuration files. These are located in subdirectories under the user's home directory:
.merge   - Configuration file directory.
win      - C: drive directory where Windows is installed.

Operational Tips

Known Limitations

The focus of Win4Lin 3.0.0 is to provide Linux desktop users access to the thousands of Windows desktop productivity applications that are not currently available on Linux.   This release is not suitable for 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.  Please use the web site http://www.netraverse.com for feedback

The top requested features not yet available are:


Anomalies and Caveats

Providing Feedback

NeTraverse very much appreciates all feedback on the product. We are particularly interested in hearing about applications that you have tried and have found to work. Of course, we also welcome information regarding problems you have encountered with the installation or operation of applications. Further, we are interested in your ideas for new product features and enhancements. This input will help guide our future development.

Please use our web site http://www.netraverse.com to provide your much needed feedback.