Ubuntu – Testing an application in new Wine without losing access to current Wine

dependenciespackage-managementwine

How do I test a new version of Wine for one application without losing access to the distribution-packaged version of Wine that works for all my other applications?

I am trying to use the program 0CC-FamiTracker version 0.3.14.5 on Xubuntu 16.04 LTS (amd64). I have installed Wine 1.6.2 from Ubuntu's repository, which correctly runs other Windows applications that I use regularly, such as FCEUX (debugging version) and vanilla FamiTracker 0.4.6. But when I open 0CC-FamiTracker, after the main window is fully drawn, it immediately displays a MessageBox whose text I have partially retyped below:

This application has encountered a problem and needs to close.

Unhandled exception E06D7363.

[…]

(The "[…]" is pending a solution to my previous question "How to copy error message text from Wine alert box?".)

From my other research, I have determined that "Unhandled exception E06D7363" is a catch-all for exceptions thrown in a Microsoft Visual C++ program that the program did not catch. (6D 73 63 is the ASCII code for "msc".)

In a comment to my previous question "How to copy error message text from Wine alert box?", another user suggested testing the program in a newer version of Wine as described in "Ubuntu – WineHQ Wiki". But a notice at the top of "Ubuntu – WineHQ Wiki" states:

If you have previously installed a Wine package from another repository, please remove it and any packages that depend on it (e.g., wine-mono, wine-gecko, winetricks) before attempting to install the WineHQ packages, as they may cause dependency conflicts.

But if I uninstall older Wine packaged by Canonical to make way for newer Wine packaged by WineHQ, I fear losing the ability to run the working applications on which I depend. Is there a way to use both Wine packaged by Canonical and Wine packaged by WineHQ in parallel? Or would I need to install a second copy of Xubuntu in a virtual machine, in a separate partition, or on an external drive in order to have access to both?

Best Answer

What I would do is make a backup of the Wine prefix (cp -r ~/.wine ~/.winebak), try the upgrade, and if the new version causes issues, uninstall the new packages, reinstall wine1.6, remove ~/.wine, and rename ~/.winebak to ~/.wine.

Rarely does Wine have regressions, especially if using the stable version (2.0.x).

Related Question