Family Historian under Wine
Posted: 29 Aug 2021 11:08
Hello,
I'm in the process of evaluating Family Historian 7 (FH) and comparing it to two other genealogy programmes with a view to buying a more modern one and I have a few general questions.
Until about eight years ago, I used The Master Genealogist (TMG) and even continued to use it for 2 - 3 years after Bob Velke ceased to sell or support it. At that point, and for various reasons I stopped my genealogy hobby and continued with various other interests. I packed up all my genealogy notes and computer data on my family tree as well as an associated One Name Study. A friend has recently started his own family search and enlisted my help to get going. As I was going through what was currently available on-line, I realised a lot has changed in the last few years and that it might be fun to return to the hobby.
As TMG is fairly out of date, I need a replacement. The catch, though, is that I have been running Linux for more than 12 years and have no intention of going back to Windoze. The laptop used to run TMG was the last Windows machine in the house and that is only running an early version of Windows 7. Having a small screen it was handy to take to the Archives but now, with deteriorating eyesight, is useless for research. In addition, the screen driver misbehaves and the battery only lasts for a short time.
For the techies, I will be running the eventual programme on a home-brewed machine with 16 GB of RAM and a very large NAS storage unit. The software is Linux Mint vsn 19.3 and Wine 6.0.1. FH has been installed on Wine's C drive with both install_fh7.0.7.0.exe and fh.exe running under Windows version 7. (I've briefly tried running FH under Windows 10 but with very little success. There was a slightly greater degree of success under Windows 8.0 and 8.1 but Windows 7 was by far the best.) No DLL libraries were installed by Wine.
I haven't tested all of the FH functions yet, some I don't understand, some I can't find in the menu system and some may be misbehaving. This last item, in particular, is causing a problem as I'm unsure if the cause is FH, Wine or my misunderstanding what FH is supposed to do at a relatively low level of data input.
My main question is has anyone managed to run FH under Linux with a high degree of success. If so, what settings do you use please?
The sort of big problems I'm having include not being able to install plug-ins. Wine doesn't like LUA. I've tried two or three plug-ins but they all report a 'serious problem' and need to close. I've found some entries on FHUG (e.g. https://fhug.org.uk/kb/kb-article/runni ... n-on-wine/) which discuss LUA but they all seem to be concerned with running under Windows and so I don't believe are related to my little problem. Researching LUA on-line does produce a few comments about older versions of Wine not playing nicely with LUA but I would have thought this had been sorted by now. I have a feeling that a Windows Administrator privileged account is needed to set up LUA but at least some web search claims otherwise.
Loads of little problems include, for example:-
- Part of the text in some of the windows is hidden behind text boxes opened by that window. (Hard to explain and even harder to provide an example.
- If I move the Focus Window onto my second monitor and try to open the 'Tools' menu, for example, the Focus Window jumps back to the first monitor without opening the menu selected.
- Why does editing the 'Address' require me to enter an additional Edit Address box when editing the 'Place' box is done without the need to enter any additional editing boxes? This despite the fact they are dealing with the same type of data.
- While I like the ability to show related timeline events I don't really see the point of displaying the birth of a person's sibling some 20+ years before they were born. While there is a cut-off date facility provided, there seem's to be no such facility for cutting off events before someone is born.
These, and many other similar niggles, are probably either caused by trying to run FH under Wine or actually programmed.
Any suggestions on setting up FH and Wine to work together would be greatly appreciated and enabled me to make a decision on which genealogy programme to use. I've tried going through both the Forums and the Knowledgebase with little success. Indeed, it appears that everytime I go though them, I find different advice.
Thanking you all in anticipation.
Caliban
I'm in the process of evaluating Family Historian 7 (FH) and comparing it to two other genealogy programmes with a view to buying a more modern one and I have a few general questions.
Until about eight years ago, I used The Master Genealogist (TMG) and even continued to use it for 2 - 3 years after Bob Velke ceased to sell or support it. At that point, and for various reasons I stopped my genealogy hobby and continued with various other interests. I packed up all my genealogy notes and computer data on my family tree as well as an associated One Name Study. A friend has recently started his own family search and enlisted my help to get going. As I was going through what was currently available on-line, I realised a lot has changed in the last few years and that it might be fun to return to the hobby.
As TMG is fairly out of date, I need a replacement. The catch, though, is that I have been running Linux for more than 12 years and have no intention of going back to Windoze. The laptop used to run TMG was the last Windows machine in the house and that is only running an early version of Windows 7. Having a small screen it was handy to take to the Archives but now, with deteriorating eyesight, is useless for research. In addition, the screen driver misbehaves and the battery only lasts for a short time.
For the techies, I will be running the eventual programme on a home-brewed machine with 16 GB of RAM and a very large NAS storage unit. The software is Linux Mint vsn 19.3 and Wine 6.0.1. FH has been installed on Wine's C drive with both install_fh7.0.7.0.exe and fh.exe running under Windows version 7. (I've briefly tried running FH under Windows 10 but with very little success. There was a slightly greater degree of success under Windows 8.0 and 8.1 but Windows 7 was by far the best.) No DLL libraries were installed by Wine.
I haven't tested all of the FH functions yet, some I don't understand, some I can't find in the menu system and some may be misbehaving. This last item, in particular, is causing a problem as I'm unsure if the cause is FH, Wine or my misunderstanding what FH is supposed to do at a relatively low level of data input.
My main question is has anyone managed to run FH under Linux with a high degree of success. If so, what settings do you use please?
The sort of big problems I'm having include not being able to install plug-ins. Wine doesn't like LUA. I've tried two or three plug-ins but they all report a 'serious problem' and need to close. I've found some entries on FHUG (e.g. https://fhug.org.uk/kb/kb-article/runni ... n-on-wine/) which discuss LUA but they all seem to be concerned with running under Windows and so I don't believe are related to my little problem. Researching LUA on-line does produce a few comments about older versions of Wine not playing nicely with LUA but I would have thought this had been sorted by now. I have a feeling that a Windows Administrator privileged account is needed to set up LUA but at least some web search claims otherwise.
Loads of little problems include, for example:-
- Part of the text in some of the windows is hidden behind text boxes opened by that window. (Hard to explain and even harder to provide an example.
- If I move the Focus Window onto my second monitor and try to open the 'Tools' menu, for example, the Focus Window jumps back to the first monitor without opening the menu selected.
- Why does editing the 'Address' require me to enter an additional Edit Address box when editing the 'Place' box is done without the need to enter any additional editing boxes? This despite the fact they are dealing with the same type of data.
- While I like the ability to show related timeline events I don't really see the point of displaying the birth of a person's sibling some 20+ years before they were born. While there is a cut-off date facility provided, there seem's to be no such facility for cutting off events before someone is born.
These, and many other similar niggles, are probably either caused by trying to run FH under Wine or actually programmed.
Any suggestions on setting up FH and Wine to work together would be greatly appreciated and enabled me to make a decision on which genealogy programme to use. I've tried going through both the Forums and the Knowledgebase with little success. Indeed, it appears that everytime I go though them, I find different advice.
Thanking you all in anticipation.
Caliban