* Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

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Valkrider
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by Valkrider »

I have managed to delete 3 old installations of Family Historian that were causing confusion.

I now have one folder that is correct and this is the one with all the plugins in from my earlier post. So those screenshots reflect the state of the poll with regard to files and locations.

Now I have installed Research Planner and am getting the Zip file error so I need to find that thread and sort out that issue and then progress to the pl issue.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by tatewise »

Colin, does the FH Tools > Plugins window now match the scripts in the one Plugins folder?
Does the one remaining Plugins folder contain a pl folder?
Does my test Plugin script find that pl folder and its init.lua contents?
See how_to:family_historian_v6_on_crossover_wine#plugin_library_modules|> Plugin Library Modules regarding pl.zip file download.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by Valkrider »

Success. Now working fine in POM.

The location is as per the Knowledgebase entry.
Screenshot 2020-04-07 at 15.28.17.png
Screenshot 2020-04-07 at 15.28.17.png (409.01 KiB) Viewed 8966 times
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by Valkrider »

Mike

It shows the attr as per the screenshot with Table.11

The Research Planner plugins runs fine.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by tatewise »

Excellent, so now we advise JP Ford to follow a similarly intensive trail and hope POL is consistent with POM ...
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by JP Ford »

I'm afraid I got lost in those last few messages... Let me backup a few messages to ColeValleyGirl's first post testing the response of

Code: Select all

local storein = fhGetContextInfo('CI_APP_DATA_FOLDER')..'\\Plugins\\'
Here is screencap of that test...
(003).png
(003).png (41.03 KiB) Viewed 8944 times
The path "C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\Plugins" is the correct path where my current plugins appear and also the path where the pl directory and related files are currently located. That path is synonymous with my Linux path: "/home/joelford/PlayOnLinux's virtual drives/Genealogy/drive_c/ProgramData/Calico Pie/Family Historian/Plugins/"

Now to the tests Mike recommended: I assume that, since my path is different than Colin's, I should run this test with my
"C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\Plugins" path...
Here is the result:
(001).png
(001).png (36.61 KiB) Viewed 8944 times
It is not nil, so assumed to be correct.

And, now the second test against the pl folder, again with assumption about my path versus Colin's:
(002).png
(002).png (36.74 KiB) Viewed 8944 times
So, since not nil, I assume it is correct. I do not have multiple installations nor extraneous files as Colin's final post seem to imply, so I'm unclear as to what to do next.

PS. on my POL FH installation, the path:
"C:\users\joelford\Application Data\Calico Pie\Family Historian\" contains two sub-directories;
"Plugin Data" and "Preferences"
the first is empty and the second contains two files: "prefs.dat" and "WebSearchSites.dat"
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by JP Ford »

As an additional note, I'm not sure why/how I've progressed, but I am no longer getting a pl error, but I'm now getting a popup from the Research Planner telling me that I need "zip support". When I download the compressed zip.dll file and place it in the Plugins folder, and then run the research planner, FH crashes in a very disgraceful manner with a page fault error and dump... removing the zip.dll files from the Plugins folder returns FH to normal behavior and the research plugin returns to the previous zip support notification and failed download effort.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by tatewise »

OK, the pl library module problem has been resolved somehow. Maybe a shutdown/reboot has 'improved' things.

The ZIP support is a new challenge to overcome. The how_to:family_historian_v6_on_crossover_wine#plugin_library_modules|> Plugin Library Modules zip.dll is essential.
The zip.zip file must be downloaded & unzipped and the unzipped zip.dll file put in the Plugins folder.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by Valkrider »

Mike

Earlier in the thread I had this issue. I just downloaded the zip file extracted it and put the resulting dll in the /public/../../../Plugins folder and it extracted the helpfile and ran fine.

I am running v4.3.4 of PlayOnMac which is the current version of POM.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by JP Ford »

My current distribution is currently using Wine 3.2. The version of POL is 4.2.12.
The zip.zip file must be downloaded & unzipped and the unzipped zip.dll file put in the Plugins folder.
Exactly what I did with no joy. Note that the Research Planner plugin goes through the effort of trying to download the Zip Support, so I assume it is trying to download the zip.dll file listed in the KB.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by Valkrider »

I had exactly the same issue with this plugin earlier in the year installing it on Crossover. It is part of the beta 2 thread IIRC.

The version of Wine I am running in the install that works is 4.0-rc4(Staging).
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by JP Ford »

FYI, I just updated to POL 4.34, which offers me the latest versions of wine, so now looking at upgrading the existing VM.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by tatewise »

Try this test script to see if the zip.dll file is detectable by checking the attr as before:

Code: Select all

	require("lfs")
	local storein = fhGetContextInfo('CI_APP_DATA_FOLDER')..'\\Plugins\\'
	local attr = lfs.attributes(storein..'zip.dll')
	debug=debug
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by JP Ford »

UPDATE!! Research Planner is now running on PlayOnLinux. I had to do the following:

1. update POL to (latest) ver. 4.34 to provide access to versions of Wine above 3.2.
2. upgrade existing FH installation from Wine 3.2 to Wine 5.1 (stable).

After these changes, Research Planner started as expected.

Comments: Latest (and most unstable) version of Wine 5.5-staging did not work. Would not even start.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

Research Planner is now running on PlayOnLinux
Excellent news.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by tatewise »

I've updated the how_to:family_historian_v6_on_crossover_wine#plugin_library_modules|> Plugin Library Modules advice to incorporate what has been discovered in this thread.
It now has a test Plugin script, based on my scripts here, to verify the library module folder & file paths exist.
Any comments?

Does there need to be any update to the WINE, POM or POL versions that the FHUG advises to be used?
See how_to:family_historian_v6_on_crossover_wine#introduction|> Introduction.

Can anything else in how_to:family_historian_v6_on_crossover_wine|> Family Historian V6 & Ancestral Sources V5 on Crossover, PlayOnLinux/Mac & Wine be more specific?
There are several Fix Me! flags that need reviewing.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by JP Ford »

Mike,

I haven't tested the various version of Wine; there are many from 3.2 to 5.5, so I have no idea where in the range the fix may occur. Wine 5.5 absolutely did not even start on my system. I am running modern hardware (AMD Ryzen CPU, SSD's, lots of DDR4 ram, discrete graphics, etc.) and an updated linux distro , so that is concerning.

I guess I would say that a general statement recommending the latest version of POL would be a good idea.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by Valkrider »

tatewise wrote: 08 Apr 2020 11:27 Can anything else in how_to:family_historian_v6_on_crossover_wine|> Family Historian V6 & Ancestral Sources V5 on Crossover, PlayOnLinux/Mac & Wine be more specific?
There are several Fix Me! flags that need reviewing.
I will take a look at these over the coming days.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by JP Ford »

Sadly, after all the efforts by Mike and others, numerous tweaks and hacks, etc. I've decided to abandon running my FH on PlayOnLinux and return to running FH in a VirtualBox VM. Trying to get and maintain FH working in POL is just too much trouble, IMO, and results in a less than satisfactory application experience.

If you have no other choice but to use POL under Linux, and you're willing to do the tweaking and arm-twisting necessary, you can get the basic features of FH running. The numerous problems with diagram and report presentation, plugin issues, print capabilities, and various errors, all of which may or may not be resolvable, overshadows the slight convenience of running a wine instance that is closely intertwined with the host file-system.

In contrast, running in a full-blown VM, while incurring slightly more overhead and being more quarantined from the host file-system , is no less convenient and is virtually (pun intended :D ) error free. In a VM, everything works and it all works really well. Connectivity with the internet, the host system, and/or LAN storage resources is easily setup and reliable. The only downside is that you need a Windoze license in order to create the VM. Luckily, I have many of these from years as a MS partner and Small Business solutions provider.

So, I'm very grateful for the help I've gotten here from all of you. Hopefully, the trail we've left will help someone else in the future.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by tatewise »

Thank you so much for your efforts to help resolve the POL issues (and indirectly POM & Crossover).
I am sure they will help others who do not have Windows licences available.

But you are absolutely correct that a VM running genuine Windows will be a far better solution.
Which VM are you intending to use? See how_to:family_historian_on_imac_ipad_android_etc#virtual_machines|> Virtual Machines.
Can you add anything to the advice we have published?
See how_to:family_historian_ancestral_sources_on_oracle_virtualbox|> Family Historian & Ancestral Sources on Oracle VirtualBox.
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by JP Ford »

Mike - I've always used VirtualBox if I had a choice; it's low overhead, open-source, and very fast under Linux. I was running FH and RM together on a Windows 7 x64 VM before switching to POL. I've simply reverted back to it. Ancestral Sources also works fine in that configuration. I've mapped to local LAN shares for my FH and RM files (Ancestral Sources as well). It's all on a local wired gigibit LAN, so very fast and stable.

Thanks again for the help. BTW, I usually have several linux distros in VM's to test and keep up with changes in that scene. If you ever need a test-bed for POL I'm happy to set one up and see what kind if errors I can generate :lol:
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Re: Issues with plugins under linux, wine, and playonlinux

Post by tatewise »

Thank you for the POL test-bed offer.

If you can add anything to our minimal how_to:family_historian_ancestral_sources_on_oracle_virtualbox|> Family Historian & Ancestral Sources on Oracle VirtualBox advice that would be very welcome.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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