XAP400 Configuration with Linux: Step by Step Guide

This document describes the steps to install and run the ClearOne echo canceller setup tool G-Ware under Linux using Wine. It was prepared by Chris Willing (c.willing (at) uq.edu.au) based on the work of visiting student, Cihan Altinay.

1. Prerequisites

You need the following:

A modified version of Wine

If building from source code, this patch is needed for G-Ware to run correctly under wine. This patch was originally made against wine-0.9.44 but will apply to other recent versions (at least up to 0.9.59). It is not needed if installing one of the binary packages listed above.
G-Ware installation files

here

DCOM98

Distributed Component Object Model

dcom98

Fonts

coure.fon
serife.fon
smalle.fon
sserife.fon

arial32.exe

courie32.exe

here

google search

2. Building from source code

Skip this section if one of the binary packages has been installed. Otherwise see how to build agwine.

3. Configuration

Either in a shell, run:

winecfg

or if your installation has a Wine entry in the Applications menu, select Configure Wine

This creates a .wine directory structure in the user's home directory as well as providing a gui to enable changing of some important settings. Using the gui that appears:

set the Windows version to 'Windows 98'
under Libraries enter ole32 and press Add. Repeat this step with oleaut32 and rpcrt4. Now select each entry and click on Edit to change the load order to 'Native (Windows)'. The list should now contain:

ole32 (native)
oleaut32 (native)
rpcrt4 (native)

Apply the settings and press OK to close the window.

Three files must now be erased from the user's new .wine directory structure which has just been created (new versions of these files are created in the following step when DCOM is installed). In a shell, run:

rm -f ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/ole32.dll
rm -f ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/oleaut32.dll
rm -f ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/rpcrt4.dll

This enables DCOM to be installed. Change into the directory where the DCOM98.EXE file was saved and run:

wine
DCOM98.EXE

The GWare software is now ready to be installed. First unzip the G-Ware archive, then change into the folder that was created and run the installer e.g.

unzip G-Ware5.0.6.zip

cd 5.0.6 (Build 7)

wine setup.exe

As the installer runs, it is probably a good idea to confirm that a desktop shortcut should be created. Read ahead in the Running GWare section below about alternative or additional methods of launching the GWare application.

You can safely confirm the dialog about 'Restarting your computer' as it will only simulate a Windows reboot (running wineboot).

4. Running GWare

At this point G-Ware should be ready to run. It may be launched in a number of ways:

If you chose to create a Desktop icon during the GWare installation, double click on the ClearOne G-Ware icon
A new 'Wine' entry should have been created in the Applications menu of the Gnome desktop when GWare was installed. Click on the new Wine entry and then follow the cascading Programs->ClearOne GWare entries to find and select G-Ware - Main Program
A menu entry for G-Ware can quite easily be added to main Access Grid menu of the Gnome desktop. Edit the file:

~/.local/share/desktop-directories/wine-Programs-ClearOne\ G-Ware.directory

and at the very end, add the line:

Categories=X-Access-Grid3-Configure;
A launcher will now be found in the Applications->Access Grid 3->Configure menu folder
G-Ware may also be launched from the command line with the following command:
wine C:\\G-Ware\\GWare.exe
or
wine ~/.wine/drive_c/G-Ware/GWare.exe
(change the path if you installed it into a different directory).

5. Troubleshooting

Why do I get a message 'Html Help is not installed' when starting G-Ware?

I can't find the 'Wine' entry in the Gnome main Applications menu. Where is it?

cd ~/.config/menus

ln -s applications-merged gnome-applications-merged 

The interface looks wrong - the font size is too small/large or button text is not aligned correctly. Why is that?

~/.wine/drive_c/windows/fonts

When I start GWare from the console I get a lot of errors similar to
fixme:comm:COMM_WaitCommEvent
EV_RXFLAG not handled
or
fixme:commdlg:GetFileName95
Flags 0x00800000 not yet implemented
What's wrong?

$
export WINEDEBUG=-all

The G-Ware interface comes up, but I can't connect to the hardware

This is likely to be a permissions setting on the serial port preventing you from reading or writing to the port. If you list the serial ports with:

$
ls -l
/dev/ttyS{0,1}

you'll see a response something like:

crw-rw---- 
1 root uucp 4, 64 1994-07-18 09:48 /dev/ttyS0

crw-rw----  1 root uucp 4, 65 1994-07-18 09:48 /dev/ttyS1

which shows that only root or members of the uucp group can read/write the serial ports. You could make everyone able to read/write the port with:

$
chmod a+rw
/dev/ttyS0

or you make yourself a member of the uucp group (method varies according to Linux distribution; with Slackware, man usermod)

Note that in newer systems using UDEV (just about any system using 2.6 kernel), /dev/ttyS0 is a link to /dev/tts/0 whose group is tty. The user's groups should include the tty group rather than uucp.

I followed all the steps and when I try to run G-Ware nothing happens or it crashes immediately with a page fault/exception/error. What can I do?

$
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib/tls.disabled wine GWare.exe

$
wine PSRServe.exe &

$ wine GWare.exe

Last modified: 30/1/2009 by Chris WIlling (c.willing (at) uq.edu.au)