* Backup and Restore FH Settings - Wine problem

[Valkrider]

Mike

I have been experimenting with a Wine setup for Family Historian. I thought we had the issues sorted with this plugin running on Mac's with emulators. Unfortunately that does not appear to be the case. I ran the plugin without problem on my VM machine. I then tried to do the restore into the Wine instance and got the following two errors and the plugin closed. V2.7 on both installs of FH.

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Screen Shot 2016-10-06 at 14.59.40.png (55.8 KiB) Viewed 10262 times

[tatewise]

Hi Colin,
The problem is with the very first interrogation of the Windows Registry to find the installed name & version of Family Historian.

It looks like something in Wine is different from Crossover.

The Plugin first tries to run a REG QUERY that in Crossover produces an error output file, but does not actually Query the Registry so no information is provided, and so the Plugin proceeds to perform the Crossover compatible RegRead function.

It seems that in Wine the REG QUERY raises the Error Invalid name message directly from Wine, because that is not a Plugin message. Since Wine produces no output file at all, the Plugin complains with the Registry Query Error message.

It looks as though that part of the design will need revising to cater for Wine as well as Crossover as well as Windows itself.

The difficulty is that it is only by detecting failure modes that the Plugin can distinguish between the different OS environments, but on the other hand they may be genuine failures that need meaningful error messages.

[Valkrider]

Mike
I am only just starting to play with Wine and am less familiar with it than Crossover.

It is certainly quicker to execute than Crossover so it may well be less sophisticated in the way it records errors.

I have FH running without issue but AS is proving to be a problem so that is work in progress, it opens and then closes immediately so I have some work to do there to get it running.

[tatewise]

Colin, I recently updated how_to:family_historian_v6_on_crossover_wine|> Family Historian V6 & Ancestral Sources V5 on Crossover & Wine with some tips for Wine prompted by another thread. Can you check them out please.

In Wine did you use winetricks to install dotnet35 for Microsoft .NET Framework V3.5 SP1 needed by AS?

We might need to run some Registry Access Plugins, as we did with Crossover, to see how Wine behaves.

[tatewise]

One key difference between a Windows installation and a Crossover/Wine installation is the Program Data folder path as documented in glossary:family_historian_program_data_folder|> Family Historian Program Data Folder and confirmed by your screenshot.

Crossover/Wine uniquely use C:\Users\Public\Application Data\Calico Pie\....
So I have adjusted the Plugin to test that path to distinguish between Windows and Crossover/Wine.
Then it uses the appropriate Registry access commands without relying on failure modes.
Don't know why I didn't do it that way to start with

Try the attached Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings Plugin Version 2.7.1 Date 07 Oct 2016.
[EDIT: Attachment deleted as now updated in Plugin Store.]

[Valkrider]

Mike

That seems to work in that it doesn't throw the errors.

However, I have a couple of problems that I need to get to the bottom of. My Wine install is using FH 6.0.5 as that is the installer that I have archived. I am struggling to apply the 6.2.2 update to that bottle in Wine, it is easy to do in Crossover. Once I have sorted the update I will report back. However, the plugin says that it will possibly restore to older versions of FH v6 but this does not seem to be the case with Wine installs in that I cannot restore my VM 6.2.2 backup to my Wine 6.0.5.

[tatewise]

I am glad that cures the Plugin errors, but cannot help much with the Wine install.
See how_to:family_historian_v6_on_crossover_wine|> Family Historian V6 & Ancestral Sources V5 on Crossover & Wine.
I presume using the wine command to specify the FH V6.2.2 installation .exe file does not work?
Maybe in Wine you have to uninstall FH V6.0.5 first?

The Plugin Options tab allows the installed FH Program Version to be later than the Backup Data Version.
e.g.
Earlier settings can be restored to a later program, which is the normal upgrade path,
i.e. V2/3/4/5 can upgrade to V6, or V6.0 can upgrade to V6.2.
But NOT the other way round, because settings are NOT necessarily backwards compatible, and Calico Pie would not support that when I asked them.

In other words, you can Backup the Wine V6.0.5 and Restore that to both the Wine V6.0.5 and the VM V6.2.2, but not the other way round.
To test that scenario, first Backup the VM V6.2.2, then run the above process, and finally Restore the VM V6.2.2, BUT make sure you use different Backup Data folders for the Wine V6.0.5 and the VM V6.2.2 backups.

[Valkrider]

Mike

I finally got v6.2.2 installed. I ended up having to copy the update file to the virtual c directory and running it from there into the appropriate bottle and then it updated fine.

The plugin then ran perfectly apart from the Registry update. There is no way in Wine to close Family Historian and keep the plugin window running. Also selecting either option for the Registry causes the following to be displayed and the plugin closes.

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[tatewise]

Sorry, I have lots of questions...

Does that FH upgrade process need to be documented in how_to:family_historian_v6_on_crossover_wine|> Family Historian V6 & Ancestral Sources V5 on Crossover & Wine?

Does the Restore for Registry Data Keys button work OK in Crossover?

Remember you must close the Plugin and then FH before allowing the Command Prompt Y/N dialogue to proceed.
However, you can tell the Command Prompt Y/N dialogue to proceed at any time, but when FH closes it will overwrite the restored Windows Registry settings with the current FH settings.
Do you get the Command Prompt Y/N dialogue black popup window at all?
Exactly at what stage does the Error Invalid Name message appear?

Please post a snippet of the contents of Z:\...\spencer\Public\Backup settings\Family Historian\Registry.keys file that can be opened using a plain text editor such as Notepad.

It may be worth experimenting with the Options tab Enable Diagnostic Mode ticked.

Please confirm that Backup works OK in Wine.

[Valkrider]

Mike

I will add to the knowledgebase about the update.

I will test the Crossover version later as it is on my Mac laptop.

I did a screen cast of the Registry Key restore and put it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/WQRhqgTOgkE as that is probably the easiest way to see what is happening.

Please find attached the Registry Keys file.

Registry copy.txt

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[Valkrider]

Mike

I have now tested v2.7.1 of the plugin under Crossover. I have used the same VM backup data as the source. Under Crossover both the data and the registry keys restore properly without errors.

[Valkrider]

Mike

I am sorry I should have been more careful with my words.

I had been concentrating on Restore and had not even tried a Backup until now. As you suspected Backup also fails.

V2.7.4 of the plugin failed on Backup with just the following error

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I then ran v2.7.5 and this failed first with the 'Invalid Name' error and then pops the second message as above.

It therefore looks like there are some significant differences between Crossover and Wine in this area.

[tatewise]

OK, so the problem is more fundamental than first thought.
(I am a bit surprised that different Plugin versions behave differently, as I have not touched the Backup functions.)
I suggest you return to Version 2.7.1 for both Crossover and Wine and I will delete the other attachments and redundant messages.

It might be best to put that on the back-burner for now, and just document it in the KB.

I suggest you get both FH and AS working well, and try all their features that work in Crossover including other Plugins, especially Check Installed Plugins Against the Store that fails in Crossover.
Also focus on the things that need checking in Wine and whether Wine fails in the same way as Crossover.
Then an investigation similar to the one we did for Crossover may be needed to discover if there is a workaround in Wine.

It would help to know what the message Error Invalid name really means.
A short Google search suggests it may be Filename related.

BTW: I have changed your KB entry for updates to Program Updates in anticipation of you updating AS one day.

[tatewise]

Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings V2.8 is now in the Plugin Store and includes the changes in V2.7.1 here.

[Valkrider]

Mike

I am away on holiday at the moment and so I only have access to the Crossover version of FH on my laptop. I can confirm that this new version of the plugin works perfectly for Backup on Crossover v16.2. I don't want to try a restore at this moment in time as I wouldn't have time or inclination to sort any issues out whilst I am away. Sorry but will test when I get home.