Hi all,
I wrote a new imgact function for FreeBSD to start wine
automatically as a sort of an "interpreter" for windows
binaries.
Obviously the interpreter does not have to be exactly wine.
You can change the program using a sysctl variable. You can
also use another sysctl variable to tell the kernel whether
the emulator requires windows binaries to be compatible with
the host processor architecture.
The idea of allowing systems to use wine automatically as
a shell style "interpreter" for windows binaries was born
as a kind of BSD advocacy stunt. It was simply nice to be
able to tell people my system was able to do something they
had never expected.
People kept telling me they are stuck with windows, because
they are unable to use their everyday applications in any
other system. When I have told about things like wine to help
with their problem people usually start complaining they are
unable to do any special tricks to start their programs in
an emulator. So, they do not know how to do it and they do
not really want to know. Obviously what they need is some
mechanism which "knows" instead of the user.
This lead me to thinking that the analogy with emulators and
shells is obvious. With the BSD imgact system one could just
add another imgact module logically similar to the one used
for the shell scripts. I just had to write one.
The patch is available here...
<http://www.mawit.com/~jau/imgact_wine-4.9.patch>
The diffs were done against 4.9-STABLE sources, but originally
the imgact_wine function was created in a 3.5.1 environment.
There are some things which might have to change.
(1) Currently the CPU architecture recognition does not work
for any other system but iX86, because the processor type
macros i386, alpha, ppc, etc. seem to no longer exist during
4.9 kernel compilation.
Actually I would like to get all those i386, alpha, ppc, and
what-not back!!!
(2) In case there is a w32 emulator within the kernel itself,
as I believe some people try to tackle the same issue in
NetBSD, there is a need for one more sysctl variable to tell
the kernel whether to use the internal emulator or an external
one like wine.
(3) Lacking any information of a better place to put my w32
related sysctl variables I put them in the kernel branch
(kern.w32xxx). They might have to be moved somewhere else.
Anyhow, this is such a small change to the system and so easy
to switch on and off using sysctl I see no good reason to not
support this functionality. OTOH the advocacy value for novice
users with windows backgrounds might be quite remarkable.
Any GUI oriented program launcher would instantly become able
to handle also w32 binaries without any special knowledge of
wine or windows binary formats. That again is what any novice
with a windows background expects.
If you find the idea worthy to use also in your systems, feel
free...
You may use it or abuse it, and if it breaks you get to keep
the pieces.
Cheers,
// jau
.--- ..- -.- -.- .- .- .-.-.- ..- -.- -.- --- -. . -.
/ Jukka A. Ukkonen, Mawit Ltd, Finland
/__ M.Sc. (sw-eng & cs) (Phone) +358-500-606-671
/ Internet: Jukka.Ukkonen(a)Mawit.Com (Home) +358-9-6215-280
/ Internet: ukkonen(a)nic.funet.fi
v Internet: jau(a)iki.fi
+ + + + My opinions are mine and mine alone, not my employers. + + + +
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