Due to a number of issues (including needing to run some specialized DOS software in our lab as well as recent stuff), we have decided to check out the possibility of going to Linux in our lab. I've been testing Linux and Wine. So far, I've found Linux Fedora 10 to be the best for my old (2002 or so) laptop, and I've been trying to get Trimble Pathfinder Office 2.70 running with Wine (without luck). For one thing, the installer works but doesn't properly edit the registry. I have to manually insert a number of lines that the installer doesn't- and I think there may be some more that need to be put in, but I can't find references to them. After fighting with it for many hours and pulling my hair, I discovered that the installer AND software was case sensitive to the registry. After editing for capitalization, I was able to eliminate two out of three error messages when I try to start the main software. The third message, however, is a killer- It says that I have the wrong database name for the Coordinate Systems Manager. I've checked the path and the capitalization, and that seems right, but for some reason I cannot get it to run. When I try to run it through the console (Wine C:\"Program Files"\"Pathfinder Office 2.70"\PFoffice.exe, it opens up and then gives me an error box (with the wrong database name message) and then shuts down. There do not seem to be any additional error messages from Wine. I'm a newby to Linux, but I've been around computers since the teletype and punch card days (somewhat conversant with Basic, Fortran, and C). I could use some tips/advice/suggestions on this one. This software is critical to our switching to Linux- we MUST have this and the Dos software working right (along with some specialized Excel 2003 spreadsheets containing heavy Visual Basic coding) before we can considering make a complete changeover. The present move to Vista is putting a lot of pressure on us- we cannot use it or the new Windows 7. Bob P.S. I DID locate the DLL responsible for the database name error, but could not figure out how to get around that problem- using a hex editor.
