2 <title>Troubleshooting / Reporting bugs</title>
4 <sect1 id="troubleshooting">
5 <title>What to do if some program still doesn't work?</title>
8 There are times when you've been trying everything, you even killed a cat
9 at full moon and ate it with rotten garlic and foul fish
10 while doing the Devil's Dance, yet nothing helped to make some damn
11 program work on some Wine version.
12 Don't despair, we're here to help you...
13 (in other words: how much do you want to pay ?)
17 <title>Run "winecheck" to check your configuration</title>
20 Run a Perl script called <command>winecheck</command>.
21 For details, please refer to the <link
22 linkend="config-verify">Configuration section</link>.
27 <title>Use different windows version settings</title>
30 In several cases using <link linkend="config-windows-versions">different windows version settings</link> can help.
35 <title>Use different startup paths</title>
38 This sometimes helps, too:
41 <command>wine prg.exe</command>
43 <command>wine x:\\full\\path\\to\\prg.exe</command>
48 <title>Fiddle with DLL configuration</title>
51 Run with --debugmsg +loaddll to figure out which DLLs are
52 being used, and whether they're being loaded as native or
54 Then make sure you have proper native DLL files in your
55 configured C:\windows\system directory and fiddle with DLL
56 load order settings at command line or in config file.
61 <title>Check your system environment !</title>
64 Just an idea: could it be that your Wine build/execution
65 environment is broken ?
67 Make sure that there are no problems whatsoever with the
69 that Wine depends on (gcc, glibc, X libraries, OpenGL (!), ...)
71 E.g. some people have strange failures to find stuff when
72 using "wrong" header files for the "right" libraries !!!
73 (which results in days of debugging to desperately try to find
74 out why that lowlevel function fails in a way that is completely
75 beyond imagination... ARGH !)
80 <title>Use different GUI (Window Manager) modes</title>
83 Instruct Wine via config file to use either desktop mode,
84 managed mode or plain ugly "normal" mode.
85 That can make one hell of a difference, too.
90 <title>Check your app !</title>
93 Maybe your app is using some kind of copy protection ?
95 Many copy protections currently don't work on Wine.
96 Some might work in the future, though.
97 (the CD-ROM layer isn't really full-featured yet).
102 url="http://www.gamecopyworld.com">GameCopyWorld</ulink>
103 and try to find a decent crack for your game that gets rid of
104 that ugly copy protection.
105 I hope you do have a legal copy of the program, though... :-)
110 <title>Check your Wine environment !</title>
113 Running with or without a Windows partition can have a
116 Configure Wine to do the opposite of what you used to have.
118 Also, install DCOM98 or DCOM95. This can be very beneficial.
123 <title>Reconfigure Wine</title>
126 Sometimes wine installation process changes and new versions of
127 Wine account on these changes.
128 This is especially true if your setup was created long time ago.
130 Rename your existing <filename>~/.wine</filename> directory
132 Use the setup process that's recommended for your Wine distribution
133 to create new configuration.
134 Use information in old <filename>~/.wine</filename>
135 directory as a reference.
136 For source wine distribution to configure Wine run
137 tools/wineinstall script as a user you want to do the configuration
139 This is a pretty safe operation. Later you can remove the new
140 <filename>~/.wine</filename> directory and rename your old one back.
145 <title>Check out further information</title>
148 There is a really good chance that someone has already tried
149 to do the same thing as you. You may find the
150 following resources helpful:
156 Search <ulink url="http://appdb.winehq.org">WineHQ's
157 Application Database</ulink> to check for any tips
158 relating to the program. If your specific version of
159 the program isn't listed you may find a different one
160 contains enough information to help you out.
165 <ulink url="http://www.frankscorner.org">Frank's Corner</ulink>
166 contains a list of applications and detailed instructions
167 for setting them up. Further help can be found in the user
173 <ulink url="http://www.google.com">Google</ulink> can be
174 useful depending on how you use it. You may
175 find it helpful to search
176 <ulink url="http://groups.google.com">Google Groups</ulink>,
178 <ulink url="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine">comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine</ulink>
184 <ulink url="http://www.freenode.net">Freenode.net</ulink>
185 hosts an IRC channel for Wine. You can access it by using
186 any IRC client such as Xchat. The settings you'll need are:
187 server = irc.freenode.net, port = 6667, and channel = #winehq
192 If you have a program that needs the Visual Basic Runtime Environment,
193 you can download it from
194 <ulink url="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bf9a24f9-b5c5-48f4-8edd-cdf2d29a79d5&DisplayLang=en/">this Microsoft site</ulink>
199 If you know you are missing a DLL, such as mfc42,
200 you may be able to find it at
201 <ulink url="http://www.dll-files.com/">www.dll-files.com</ulink>
206 Wine's <ulink url="http://www.winehq.org/site/forums#ml">mailing
207 lists</ulink> may also help, especially wine-users. The
208 wine-devel list may be appropriate depending on the type of
209 problem you are experiencing. If you post to wine-devel you
210 should be prepared to do a little work to help diagnose the
211 problem. Read the section below to find out how to debug
212 the source of your problem.
217 If all else fails, you may wish to investigate commercial
218 versions of Wine to see if your application is supported.
226 <title>Debug it!</title>
229 Finding the source of your problem is the next step to take.
230 There is a wide spectrum of possible problems
231 ranging from simple configurations issues to completely unimplemented
232 functionality in Wine. The next section will describe how to
233 file a bug report and how to begin debugging a crash. For more
234 information on using Wine's debugging facilities be sure to read
235 the Wine Developers Guide.
241 <sect1 id="bug-reporting">
242 <title>How To Report A Bug</title>
245 Please report all bugs along any relevant information to
246 <ulink url="http://bugs.winehq.org/">Wine Bugzilla</ulink>.
247 Please, search the Bugzilla database to check whether your problem
248 is already reported. If it is already reported please add
249 any relevant information to the original bug report.
253 <title>All Bug Reports</title>
255 Some simple advice on making your bug report more useful
256 (and thus more likely to get answered and fixed):
261 Post as much relevant information as possible.
264 This means we need more information than a simple "MS
265 Word crashes whenever I run it. Do you know why?"
266 Include at least the following information:
268 <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
271 Which version of Wine you're using (run <command>wine -v</command>)
276 The name of the Operating system you're using, what distribution (if
277 any), and what version. (i.e., Linux Red Hat 7.2)
282 Which compiler and version, (run <command>gcc -v</command>).
283 If you didn't compile wine then the name of the package and
284 where you got it from.
289 Windows version, if used with Wine.
290 Mention if you don't use Windows.
295 The name of the program you're trying to run, its version number,
296 and a URL for where the program can be obtained (if
302 The exact command line you used to start wine.
303 (i.e., <command>wine "C:\Program Files\Test\program.exe"</command>).
308 The exact steps required to reproduce the bug.
313 Any other information you think may be relevant or
314 helpful, such as X server version in case of X
315 problems, libc version etc.
322 Re-run the program with the <parameter>--debugmsg
323 +relay</parameter> option (i.e., <command>wine
324 --debugmsg +relay sol.exe</command>).
327 This will output additional information at the console
328 that may be helpful in debugging the program. It also
329 slows the execution of program. There are some cases where
330 the bug seems to disappear when <parameter> +relay
331 </parameter> is used. Please mention that in the bug report.
337 <title>Crashes</title>
339 If Wine crashes while running your program, it is
340 important that we have this information to have a chance
341 at figuring out what is causing the crash. This can put
342 out quite a lot (several MB) of information, though, so
343 it's best to output it to a file. When the <prompt>Wine-dbg></prompt>
344 prompt appears, type <userinput>quit</userinput>.
347 You might want to try
348 <parameter>+relay,+snoop</parameter> instead of
349 <parameter>+relay</parameter>, but please note that
350 <parameter>+snoop</parameter> is pretty unstable and
351 often will crash earlier than a simple
352 <parameter>+relay</parameter>! If this is the case, then
353 please use <emphasis>only</emphasis> <parameter>+relay</parameter>!!
354 A bug report with a crash in <parameter>+snoop</parameter>
355 code is useless in most cases!
356 You can also turn on other parameters, depending on the nature
357 of the problem you are researching. See wine man page for full list
361 To get the trace output, use one of the following methods:
364 <title>The Easy Way</title>
368 This method is meant to allow even a total novice to
369 submit a relevant trace log in the event of a crash.
372 Your computer <emphasis>must</emphasis> have perl on it
373 for this method to work. To find out if you have perl,
374 run <command>which perl</command>. If it returns something like
375 <filename>/usr/bin/perl</filename>, you're in business.
376 Otherwise, skip on down to "The Hard Way". If you aren't
377 sure, just keep on going. When you try to run the
378 script, it will become <emphasis>very</emphasis> apparent
379 if you don't have perl.
384 Change directory to <filename><dirs to wine>/tools</filename>
389 Type in <command>./bug_report.pl</command> and follow
396 <ulink url="http://bugs.winehq.org/">Wine Bugzilla</ulink>.
397 Please, search Bugzilla database to check whether your problem is
398 already found before posting a bug report.
399 Include your own detailed description of the problem with
400 relevant information. Attach the "Nice Formatted Report"
401 to the submitted bug. Do not cut and paste the report
402 in the bug description - it is pretty big.
403 Keep the full debug output in case it will be needed by
410 <title>The Hard Way</title>
412 It is likely that only the last 100 or so lines of the
413 trace are necessary to find out where the program crashes.
414 In order to get those last 100 lines we need to do the following
419 Redirect all the output of <parameter> -debugmsg </parameter>
425 Separate the last 100 lines to another file using
426 <command>tail</command>.
431 This can be done using one of the following methods.
435 <term>all shells:</term>
438 <prompt>$ </prompt>echo quit | wine -debugmsg +relay [other_options] program_name >& filename.out;
439 <prompt>$ </prompt>tail -n 100 filename.out > report_file
442 (This will print wine's debug messages only to the file
443 and then auto-quit. It's probably a good idea to use this
444 command, since wine prints out so many debug msgs that
445 they flood the terminal, eating CPU cycles.)
450 <term>tcsh and other csh-like shells:</term>
453 <prompt>$ </prompt>wine -debugmsg +relay [other_options] program_name |& tee filename.out;
454 <prompt>$ </prompt>tail -n 100 filename.out > report_file
459 <term>bash and other sh-like shells:</term>
462 <prompt>$ </prompt>wine -debugmsg +relay [other_options] program_name 2>&1 | tee filename.out;
463 <prompt>$ </prompt>tail -n 100 filename.out > report_file
469 <filename>report_file</filename> will now contain the
470 last hundred lines of the debugging output, including
471 the register dump and backtrace, which are the most
472 important pieces of information. Please do not delete
473 this part, even if you don't understand what it means.
477 <ulink url="http://bugs.winehq.org/">Wine Bugzilla</ulink>.
478 You need to attach the output file <filename>report_file</filename>
479 from part 2). Along with the the relevant information
480 used to create it. Do not cut and paste the report
481 in the bug description - it is pretty big and it will
482 make a mess of the bug report.
483 If you do this, your chances of receiving some sort of
484 helpful response should be very good.
487 Please, search the Bugzilla database to check whether your problem
488 is already reported. If it is already reported attach the
489 output file <filename>report_file</filename> to the original
490 bug report and add any other relevant information.
497 <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
500 sgml-parent-document:("wine-user.sgml" "set" "book" "chapter" "")