documentation/bugs.sgml

   1   <chapter id="bugs">
   2     <title>Troubleshooting / Reporting bugs</title>
   3
   4     <sect1 id="troubleshooting">
   5       <title>What to do if some program still doesn't work?</title>
   6
   7       <para>
   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 ?)
  14       </para>
  15
  16       <sect2>
  17         <title>Run "winecheck" to check your configuration</title>
  18
  19         <para>
  20           Run a Perl script called <command>winecheck</command>.
  21           For details, please refer to the <link
  22           linkend="config-verify">Configuration section</link>.
  23         </para>
  24       </sect2>
  25
  26       <sect2>
  27         <title>Use different windows version settings</title>
  28
  29         <para>
  30         In several cases using <link linkend="config-windows-versions">different windows version settings</link> can help.
  31         </para>
  32       </sect2>
  33
  34       <sect2>
  35         <title>Use different startup paths</title>
  36
  37         <para>
  38           This sometimes helps, too:
  39
  40           Try to use both
  41           <command>wine prg.exe</command>
  42           and
  43           <command>wine x:\\full\\path\\to\\prg.exe</command>
  44         </para>
  45       </sect2>
  46
  47       <sect2>
  48         <title>Fiddle with DLL configuration</title>
  49
  50         <para>
  51           Run with --debugmsg +loaddll to figure out which DLLs are
  52           being used, and whether they're being loaded as native or
  53           built-in.
  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.
  57         </para>
  58       </sect2>
  59
  60       <sect2>
  61         <title>Check your system environment !</title>
  62
  63         <para>
  64           Just an idea: could it be that your Wine build/execution
  65           environment is broken ?
  66
  67           Make sure that there are no problems whatsoever with the
  68           packages
  69           that Wine depends on (gcc, glibc, X libraries, OpenGL (!), ...)
  70
  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 !)
  76         </para>
  77       </sect2>
  78
  79       <sect2>
  80         <title>Use different GUI (Window Manager) modes</title>
  81
  82         <para>
  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.
  86         </para>
  87       </sect2>
  88
  89       <sect2>
  90         <title>Check your app !</title>
  91
  92         <para>
  93           Maybe your app is using some kind of copy protection ?
  94
  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).
  98         </para>
  99
 100         <para>
 101           Go to <ulink
 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... :-)
 106         </para>
 107       </sect2>
 108
 109       <sect2>
 110         <title>Check your Wine environment !</title>
 111
 112         <para>
 113           Running with or without a Windows partition can have a
 114           dramatic impact.
 115
 116           Configure Wine to do the opposite of what you used to have.
 117
 118           Also, install DCOM98 or DCOM95. This can be very beneficial.
 119         </para>
 120       </sect2>
 121
 122       <sect2>
 123         <title>Reconfigure Wine</title>
 124
 125         <para>
 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.
 129
 130           Rename your existing <filename>~/.wine</filename> directory
 131           for backup purposes.
 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
 138           for.
 139           This is a pretty safe operation. Later you can remove the new
 140           <filename>~/.wine</filename> directory and rename your old one back.
 141         </para>
 142       </sect2>
 143
 144       <sect2>
 145       <title>Check out further information</title>
 146
 147       <para>
 148         Go to <ulink url="http://groups.google.com">Google Groups</ulink>
 149         and check whether some guys are smarter than you ;-)
 150         (well, whether they found a solution to the problem, that is)
 151
 152         Go to <ulink url="http://appdb.codeweavers.com">WineHQ's
 153         Application Database</ulink> and check whether
 154         someone posted the vital config hint for your app.
 155
 156         If that doesn't help, then consider going to
 157         irc.freenode.net channel #WineHQ, posting to
 158         news:comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine or mailing to the wine-users
 159         (or maybe sometimes even wine-devel) mailing lists.
 160       </para>
 161       </sect2>
 162
 163       <sect2>
 164         <title>Debug it!</title>
 165
 166         <para>
 167           Have you used the Search feature of the <ulink
 168           url="http://www.winehq.org/fom-meta/cache/19.html">Wine Troubleshooting Guide</ulink> ?? (i.e. are you sure there's no answer ?)
 169           If you have, then try
 170           <ulink url="http://www.winehq.org/fom-meta/cache/230.html">
 171           The Perfect Enduser Wine Debugging Guide</ulink>, and of
 172           course don't forget to read the Wine Developers Guide.
 173         </para>
 174       </sect2>
 175
 176     </sect1>
 177
 178     <sect1 id="bug-reporting">
 179       <title>How To Report A Bug</title>
 180
 181       <para>
 182         Please report all bugs along any relevant information to
 183         <ulink url="http://bugs.winehq.com/">Wine Bugzilla</ulink>.
 184         Please, search the Bugzilla database to check whether your problem
 185         is already reported. If it is already reported please add
 186         any relevant information to the original bug report.
 187       </para>
 188
 189       <sect2>
 190         <title>All Bug Reports</title>
 191         <para>
 192           Some simple advice on making your bug report more useful
 193           (and thus more likely to get answered and fixed):
 194         </para>
 195         <orderedlist>
 196           <listitem>
 197           <para>Post as much relevant information as possible.</para>
 198           <para>
 199             This means we need more information than a simple "MS
 200             Word crashes whenever I run it.  Do you know why?"
 201             Include at least the following information:
 202           </para>
 203           <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
 204             <listitem>
 205             <para>
 206               Which version of Wine you're using (run <command>wine -v</command>)
 207             </para>
 208             </listitem>
 209             <listitem>
 210             <para>
 211               The name of the Operating system you're using, what distribution (if
 212               any), and what version. (i.e., Linux Red Hat 7.2)
 213             </para>
 214             </listitem>
 215             <listitem>
 216             <para>
 217               Which compiler and version, (run <command>gcc -v</command>).
 218               If you didn't compile wine then the name of the package and
 219               where you got it from.
 220             </para>
 221             </listitem>
 222             <listitem>
 223             <para>
 224               Windows version, if used with Wine.
 225               Mention if you don't use Windows.
 226             </para>
 227             </listitem>
 228             <listitem>
 229             <para>
 230               The name of the program you're trying to run, its version number,
 231               and a URL for where the program can be obtained (if
 232               available).
 233             </para>
 234             </listitem>
 235             <listitem>
 236             <para>
 237               The exact command line you used to start wine.
 238               (i.e., <command>wine "C:\Program Files\Test\program.exe"</command>).
 239              </para>
 240             </listitem>
 241             <listitem>
 242             <para>
 243               The exact steps required to reproduce the bug.
 244             </para>
 245             </listitem>
 246             <listitem>
 247             <para>
 248               Any other information you think may be relevant or
 249               helpful, such as X server version in case of X
 250               problems, libc version etc.
 251             </para>
 252             </listitem>
 253           </itemizedlist>
 254           </listitem>
 255           <listitem>
 256           <para>
 257             Re-run the program with the <parameter>--debugmsg
 258             +relay</parameter> option (i.e., <command>wine
 259             --debugmsg +relay sol.exe</command>).
 260           </para>
 261           <para>
 262             This will output additional information at the console
 263             that may be helpful in debugging the program. It also
 264             slows the execution of program. There are some cases where
 265             the bug seems to disappear when <parameter> +relay
 266             </parameter> is used. Please mention that in the bug report.
 267           </para>
 268           </listitem>
 269         </orderedlist>
 270       </sect2>
 271       <sect2>
 272         <title>Crashes</title>
 273         <para>
 274            If Wine crashes while running your program, it is
 275            important that we have this information to have a chance
 276            at figuring out what is causing the crash.  This can put
 277            out quite a lot (several MB) of information, though, so
 278            it's best to output it to a file.  When the <prompt>Wine-dbg></prompt>
 279            prompt appears, type <userinput>quit</userinput>.
 280         </para>
 281         <para>
 282            You might want to try
 283            <parameter>+relay,+snoop</parameter> instead of
 284            <parameter>+relay</parameter>, but please note that
 285            <parameter>+snoop</parameter> is pretty unstable and
 286            often will crash earlier than a simple
 287            <parameter>+relay</parameter>! If this is the case, then
 288            please use <emphasis>only</emphasis> <parameter>+relay</parameter>!!
 289            A bug report with a crash in <parameter>+snoop</parameter>
 290            code is useless in most cases!
 291            You can also turn on other parameters, depending on the nature
 292            of the problem you are researching. See wine man page for full list
 293            of the parameters.
 294          </para>
 295          <para>
 296            To get the trace output, use one of the following methods:
 297          </para>
 298          <sect3>
 299            <title>The Easy Way</title>
 300            <orderedlist>
 301              <listitem>
 302              <para>
 303                This method is meant to allow even a total novice to
 304                submit a relevant trace log in the event of a crash.
 305              </para>
 306              <para>
 307                Your computer <emphasis>must</emphasis> have perl on it
 308                for this method to work. To find out if you have perl,
 309                run <command>which perl</command>. If it returns something like
 310                <filename>/usr/bin/perl</filename>, you're in business.
 311                Otherwise, skip on down to "The Hard Way". If you aren't
 312                sure, just keep on going. When you try to run the
 313                script, it will become <emphasis>very</emphasis> apparent
 314                if you don't have perl.
 315              </para>
 316              </listitem>
 317              <listitem>
 318              <para>
 319                Change directory to <filename>&lt;dirs to wine>/tools</filename>
 320              </para>
 321              </listitem>
 322              <listitem>
 323              <para>
 324                Type in <command>./bug_report.pl</command> and follow
 325                the directions.
 326              </para>
 327              </listitem>
 328              <listitem>
 329              <para>
 330                Post the bug to
 331                <ulink url="http://bugs.winehq.com/">Wine Bugzilla</ulink>.
 332                Please, search Bugzilla database to check whether your problem is
 333                already found before posting a bug report.
 334                Include your own detailed description of the problem with
 335                relevant information. Attach the "Nice Formatted Report"
 336                to the submitted bug. Do not cut and paste the report
 337                in the bug description - it is pretty big.
 338                Keep the full debug output in case it will be needed by
 339                Wine developers.
 340              </para>
 341              </listitem>
 342            </orderedlist>
 343          </sect3>
 344          <sect3>
 345            <title>The Hard Way</title>
 346            <para>
 347              It is likely that only the last 100 or so lines of the
 348              trace are necessary to find out where the program crashes.
 349              In order to get those last 100 lines we need to do the following
 350            </para>
 351            <orderedlist>
 352              <listitem>
 353              <para>
 354                Redirect all the output of <parameter> -debugmsg </parameter>
 355                to a file.
 356              </para>
 357              </listitem>
 358              <listitem>
 359              <para>
 360                Separate the last 100 lines to another file using
 361                <command> tail </command>.
 362              </para>
 363              </listitem>
 364            </orderedlist>
 365            <para>
 366              This can be done using one of the following methods.
 367            </para>
 368            <variablelist>
 369              <varlistentry>
 370              <term>all shells:</term>
 371              <listitem>
 372              <screen>
 373 <prompt>$ </prompt>echo quit | wine -debugmsg +relay [other_options] program_name >& filename.out;
 374 <prompt>$ </prompt>tail -n 100 filename.out > report_file
 375              </screen>
 376              <para>
 377                (This will print wine's debug messages only to the file
 378                and then auto-quit. It's probably a good idea to use this
 379                command, since wine prints out so many debug msgs that
 380                they flood the terminal, eating CPU cycles.)
 381              </para>
 382              </listitem>
 383              </varlistentry>
 384              <varlistentry>
 385              <term>tcsh and other csh-like shells:</term>
 386              <listitem>
 387              <screen>
 388 <prompt>$ </prompt>wine -debugmsg +relay [other_options] program_name |& tee filename.out;
 389 <prompt>$ </prompt>tail -100 filename.out > report_file
 390              </screen>
 391              </listitem>
 392              </varlistentry>
 393              <varlistentry>
 394              <term>bash and other sh-like shells:</term>
 395              <listitem>
 396              <screen>
 397 <prompt>$ </prompt>wine -debugmsg +relay [other_options] program_name 2>&1 | tee filename.out;
 398 <prompt>$ </prompt>tail -100 filename.out > report_file
 399              </screen>
 400              </listitem>
 401              </varlistentry>
 402           </variablelist>
 403           <para>
 404             <filename>report_file</filename> will now contain the
 405             last hundred lines of the debugging output, including
 406             the register dump and backtrace, which are the most
 407             important pieces of information.  Please do not delete
 408             this part, even if you don't understand what it means.
 409           </para>
 410           <para>
 411             Post the bug to
 412             <ulink url="http://bugs.winehq.com/">Wine Bugzilla</ulink>.
 413             You need to attach the output file <filename>report_file</filename>
 414             from part 2). Along with the the relevant information
 415             used to create it. Do not cut and paste the report
 416             in the bug description - it is pretty big and it will
 417             make a mess of the bug report.
 418             If you do this, your chances of receiving some sort of
 419             helpful response should be very good.
 420           </para>
 421           <para>
 422             Please, search the Bugzilla database to check whether your problem
 423             is already reported. If it is already reported attach the
 424             output file <filename>report_file</filename> to the original
 425             bug report and add any other relevant information.
 426           </para>
 427         </sect3>
 428       </sect2>
 429     </sect1>
 430  </chapter>
 431
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