Ian's Linux Page: Running The Master Genealogist under Linux with Crossover, ParallelsWorkstation or Win4LinPro

The Master Genealogist can also be run witn WinXP running under Linux with the free emulator qemu: see more here

This is work in progress, but the method seems to work perfectly.

First: obtain legal trial or paid for copy of The Master Genealogist (TMG) from www.whollygenes.com for about $59 plus UK VAT.

To run The Master Genealogist v7 with Crossover go to Compatability Forum:

For some time now I have been running The Master Genealogist(TMG) v6.12 using various types of emulation. The latest news is that it runs best and perfectly, as far as I have been able to ascertain so far, under Crossover 6.1. There was a real problem with Crossover 6.0 with menus running off the screen and hanging which I referred to in an earlier post. That seems to have been completely solved. You can read that post here:
http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name/?forum=1;app_id=874;mhl=6286;msg=5020#msg6286

The Crossover setup required to run TMG, SecondSite and TMGUtility is described by John Layt here:
http://crossover.codeweavers.com/pipermail/discuss/2005-October/009118.html 

Second Site has now been updated to version 2 and has various enhancements. However, the setup described below for version 1 will not work with it because version 2 requires a WinXP bottle in which TMG will not run. See my alternative instructions.

Here is my way installing TMG based on John's method.

NB: TMG will install in a Win2000 or WinXP bottle but will not run even after IE6 is installed, just as John Layt found. So I did as he suggested in the above post.

1 Create new Win98 bottle in Crossover v6.1. Here it is called "TMGTestInstall"

2 Install DCOM98 as a supported application.

3 Install IE6. A minimal installation will do as I do not think Outlook Express or Media Player are required.

4 (Download from MS the MSXML installer which is needed for the next .msi file. It could be found at: (all on one line)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-6da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42 &displaylang=en
Otherwise google "download msxml.msi"
Save this file in: ~/.cxoffice/TMGTestInstallation/drive_c/windows/system
(NB: This if for a single use installation of Crossover, replace "~" with "/opt"  for a multi user root installation.

5 In a terminal do the following:
cd ~/.cxoffice/TMGTestInstallation/drive_c/windows/system
~/cxoffice/bin/wine msiexec.exe /i msxml.msi
A message will appear: "Wecome to MSXML 4.0 SP2 Parser & SDK Setup utility". Install and reboot.

6 Download & Install  MDAC 2.5.3 filename: mdac_typ.exe as a Crossover unsupported application in the TMGTestInstall bottle
Download & Install  MDAC 2.6 filename: mdac_typ2.60.exe in same bottle.

7 Download & install MS Scripting 5.6 for Windows, filename:
Windows9x-Script56-KB917344-x86-enu.exe

8 Install TMG v6.12 as an unsupported application in the same bottle. For all users or just yourself. There seems no need to keep backup files when asked.

The updater may not work. So, go the whollygenes website and download latest test version and install. You can unlock this with your password. All configuration files and family trees should remain intact. However, be sure to create a backup of your data first.

9 SecondSite version 1 and TMGUtility can be installed in the same way. Second Site Version 2 must be installed in a separate bottle. See instructions.

10 GenSmarts will install but not run. Read John Layt's post above for details of how to resolve this. I do not use it.

I have found that GenSmarts will install in wine v0.9.45 as WinXP application and can be run using the following command line:
'cd "/home/ian/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/GenSmarts" ; wine gsEngine.exe skipmutex'. This was found in this post in GenSmarts site. I have only tested the trial version 2.  

N.B. I have just discovered that the command line just mentioned will run Gensmarts v1.1.1.30 as well. There are a few error messages which can be ignored and a FoxPro utility may have to be downloaded. Both will load Firefox, but to use IE you need to use ies4lin and the command line ~/bin/ie6. However, there seems to be no way of passing arguments, like names and dates of birth to IE. If the are there it does not launch.

Crossover Setup should look something like this:

Win98 bottle - following loaded
Win OLE Components & part 2, DCOM98, Win Installer 2.0 Redistributable
msls31, MFC libraries for Active X, MS Express 6
IE6 SP1 & tools, Media Player 6.4, Firefox 1.5
MSXML 4.0 SP2 Parser & SDK, Second Site
TMG, TMG Utility, SecondSite, TMGUtility.

 

When TMG is run an error message about VisualFoxPro not being able to assign temporary directories. Just ignore and relaunch TMG. It should run well then.

In Crossover bottle run Configuration and in Desktop Integration make "My Documents" point to the right place. For me that is to "~/MyDocuments" (note no space) which is a symbolic line to an NTFS partition "/media/WinXP/Documents and Settings/Ian/My Documents".  This is then be shared with WinXP should I need to run it.

Configuration>Control Panel>winecfg>Desktop Integration: My Documents = /home/ian/MyDocuments (This is a link to "/media/WinXP/Documents and Settings/Ian/My Documents" in my case.)

Setup TMG project and exhibits location.

This method works with SecondSite v1 and the new version 2 but see alternate instructions for setting up version 2.

I have found that the most compatible way of doing this is the set up a special directory which contains: 1. a subdirectory with TMG project files and 2. image subdirectories. Then winecfg is used to make a link from a windows disk letter to this directory. Here is how I do it:

1. Create a TMG project & image file say ~\TMGMyFamilyTree

2. Copy all the files in c:\Program Files\The Master Genealogist\projects to ~\TMGMyFamilyTree\projects. You may want to copy only those files that relate to a particular project, but be sure to copy them all.

3. Copy all the images associated with the project to ~\TMGMyFamilyTree using any subdirectories that you may wish, eg Maps, Photos, Certificates

4. Go into Crossover>Connfiguration>[Choose your TMG Bottle]>Configure>Control Panel>winecfg then under Drive tab make a new drive letter like s: that maps to the directory that contains TMG projects sub-directory and all exhibits sub-directories. TMG will find exhibits and be able to run with SecondSite2 (see instructions.) I would suggest that you do not use drive d: to say h:. Just keep adding a new drive till you get to a suitable letter, the other unused ones can be deleted after if you wish.

5. Run TMG and close the current project and open a new one giving the location of the project files as ~\TMGMyFamilyTree\projects.

6. In TMG menu do File>Preferences>Advaned and give location of image files as s:, you may wish to give location of backup files as a subdirectory of this as well. Also Timelines, GEDCOM & Reports.

7. Locate the new image files. In TMG menu do File>Maintenance>Validate File Integrety. Search for missing external exhibits and click "Specify the folders to search". Click Add go to top of list and find "s:" under My Computer and click the first subdirectory containing images to be searched. All subdirectories containing images must be added. You may have to remove previously used directories. In addition, I found that I had to rename the original directory where the images were located so that TMG did not find them there and was forced to search the new location. Now click OK and the new locations for images should be found. I think that TMG has to be exited and restarted with the project for the thumbnails to be updated.

Some additional information, much of it out of date can be found at:
http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/search/?keywords=tmg&search=forum

NEW INFORMATION: Win4LinPro Desktop v4.0 with WinXP SP2 was able to perform the exhibit file finding test above & seem to work well as below with no limitations. SecondSite v1 & 2, TMGUtility and GenSmarts integrate well. Win4LinPro with Win2000 SP4 does not seem to allow TMG to access mapped folders and from that assessment is of limited use.

ParallelsWorkstation v2 with either Win2000 SP4 or WinXP Sp2 appeared not to be able to allow TMG to access a mapped shared directory as described below. Therefore, on this basis, there seem to be limitations in using ParallelsWorkstation with TMG. If I find a fix I'll put it here.

Running in a windows emulator Win4LinPro is slower than running native, but integration with programs such as SecondSite and GenSmarts seems to be complete. The changes below overcome the problem that I previously described with missing images files not being able to be automatically found by TMG.

1. In Win4LinPro WinXP Folder Tools menu create a map of a disk, say s:, to the TMGMyFamilyTree directory.
2. [In ParallelsWorkstation WinXP create a share for the file that contains the exhibits.] With Windows running Map the networked share to a drive letter such as s: in WinXP.
3. Tell TMG to look for exhibits in sub folders of the drive s: and it will find them. Use the method described above for Crossover.

N.B. The shared files cannot be used directly in Win4LinPro because TMG or VisualFoxPro does not seem to be able to search for //HOST: or other network files. Wine seems to have overcome this problem completely.

TMG in ParallelsWorkstation running either Win2K SP4 or WinXP SP2 does not seem to be able to access these mapped drives at all.
I have seen various posts that suggest that this is related to Parralles accessing shared folders using path of the form "\\.PSF\HomeIan\MyDocs..." Windows programs do not seem to be able to find files starting \\.PSF. I have also noticed that filenames are also capitalised and Linux is case sensitive.
Not likely a premissions issue because running in Ubuntu Feisty "sudo parallels" does not help.

Win4LinPro only works with WinXP SP2 and not with Win2000 SP4.
Wine4LinPro access shared files using paths of the form "\\Host\home\MyDocuments..." and this works fine with all the windows programs that I have tried, with one proviso that the "\\Host\home\MyDocuments... etc" has to be mapped to a disk like "s:" in WinXP SP2. None of this seems to work in Win2K SP4.

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