The Ellen G. White Estate has not released a Mac application for searching Ellen White’s published writings for many years. In fact, they have never released one that runs natively under OS X. And because newer Macs no longer ship with OS 9 emulation, this means new Mac users (and probably most users in general these days) are left out in the cold.
Of course, using Apple’s Boot Camp, it is possible to install Windows on a Mac, and run the EGW software that way. But this involves tedious rebooting each time you want to switch to Windows. Or it is possible to run the EGW software under a virtual environment such as VMware Fusion or Parallels. And that is what I had been doing; it works, but it’s slow (open VMware, wait for Windows to awake, start the EGW software, which then runs a bit slow in the virtual environment).
Recently, a friend, Nathan Tyler, tipped me off to the fact that the EGW software works great under Wine, a software environment for running Windows apps under UNIX-based operating systems (such as Linux or OS X). There is a special build of Wine for OS X, called Darwine. He claimed that the search software ran faster under Wine than it does on his Windows machine. (Edit: I guess he just claimed it was fast!) And guess what? I found that to be true for me as well.
It is not trivial to set up the EGW software to work this way, at least not yet. First I downloaded Darwine, and configured it. (The main thing to configure was mapping the folder where I would put my Windows apps to a drive letter.) Then I copied all the EGW software files from my Dell over to my Mac. Then came a tedious process of finding all the related Windows registry entries on my Dell, exporting them to files, copying those files to the Mac, editing them so the paths to the files are correct, and importing them into the Windows registry running in Darwine. (This is necessary because those registry entries contain the license information needed to run the software. The installer writes the license information to the registry, but I have not learned a way to run the installer from the CD-ROM under Darwine. Thus I had to do it myself.) Then I had to copy a file, “egwhite.lcf,” from the main EGW software folder to the subfolder “Books,” because for some reason I got an error saying the file had to be there instead. After that I could run the EGW software, but it was a bit tedious to launch. So then I created a shell script to open the EGW software using Wine, and then used the freeware application Platypus to create an OS X application that can be opened from Finder. And for a finishing touch, I copied the EGW icon to that OS X application.
Now I have a cool little OS X application that I can open with a simple click, and the EGW software is blazing fast. Faster at opening than on my Dell, and much faster than going through VMware Fusion.
Good post!
I’m trying it on Fedora 10, I’ll post if I get it working…
Thanks for blogging this, Michael. I think it will be useful to people out there.
For the record, on my Linux machine it’s not really faster than windows but on my friend’s Mac it’s awesome. Darwine might be a particularly good build of the Wine libraries. Or OSX might be a particularly good OS, LOL…
On Linux the whole thing is not quite as complicated because Linux is a bit more geeky to start with.
I’m waiting for delivery of my new Comprehensive Research Edition 2008 CD so I can figure this out all over again.
Excellent work. I hope you help us with step-by-step, detailed instructions to teach those of us who may be more challenged exactly how to do it. This would be a huge help for the White Estate.
I really have no idea what you did to get Darwine working. I have Folio running under VM Fusion on my Macbook Pro. But I cannot get it to run under Darwine or CrossOver. After reading the above and being tantalized, I spent an entire afternoon trying but am no closer to success than when I started.
Where are the files in Windows that you copied over? What are their names? Where did you put them in the Mac? How did you then get the application to run? Some of us need EVERY detail of the recipe! Otherwise we will never get the bread to rise.
Yes! Thank you Michael for sharing this exciting news.
I was reluctant to order the Comprehensive Research Edition 2008 CD because I really don’t want to introduce Windows to my new Mac. It’s nice to know it’s possible, even if it requires time and brain power to make it work.
Michael,
Just got it running on my Mac. Works fast and perfectly. What a hassle to figure out. Located Nathan Tyler who suggested getting the log of errors in terminal. This let me trace down the missing .dll files. Then got the WinSxS folder correctly populated. Success!
I can tell you the new $19.99 2008 edition runs perfectly on the Mac. I went ahead and purchased CrossOver. I am not sure that helped me over regular WINE.
Thank you for your blog.
I have sent the info to the White Estate. Hopefully, they will get a WINE installer working.
Phil
What is a shell script for opening it?
Hi Michael,
I was led to your site by the folks at the White Estate. I have just switched (about a month ago) to Mac. It’s been quite an adventure. This would be the most complicated aspect… but listening to your comments (as well as Phil Mills response) regarding how well it works once running, I’m quite keen to give it a try. Any chance you have more detailed documented instructions available?
Blessings,
Adrian
Here’s the gruesome details from my experience. I hope someone will check the work and tell us what is necessary and what files maybe I failed to copy. The following contains the details as best as I can remember and reproduce them. It took me three weeks of trial and error. If someone else is doing this, put down every step and file. I cannot reproduce each of these since I was experimenting somethings worked and somethings didn’t.
But here is the best I can do. Somebody else, please improve on this!
1) I downloaded CodeWeaver’s CrossOver ($39.95, but free demo for 1 month before you purchase. I decided to try it before purchasing it. I got everything running with CrossOver so purchased it. If you are more adventuresome than I, do it for free like Michael with DARWINE).
2. You must have access to a Windows machine, I used XP running on VM Fusion on my Mac. I had 2008 EGW files installed here.
3. In the Windows machine I opened the program “Regedit”. Then exported the following Registries in “Win9x/NT 4 Registration Files: (*.reg)” format:
From the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT I exported registries for *, .msi, (though I don’t know if these two files are needed. If you don’t have these files on your Windows Registry, obviously they are not necessary), .nfl, .nfo, .sdw, folio.link, Infobase are definitely needed.
From the HKEY_CURRENT_USER in the Folder “Software” I exported the registries for EGWResearch2008.
From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the Folder “Software” I exported the registries for EGWResearch2008.
From the HKEY_USERS in the Folder “S-1-5-4″ in the folder “Software” I exported the registries for EGWResearch2008.
3. Using CrossOver, I made an XP bottle.
4. From the CrossOver Program’s Menu I selected “Run Command” and typed in Regedit using the Windows XP Bottle I had created. I then imported the previously exported registries as outlined above. Note again, they can only be imported in CrossOver Regedit if they were exported in the “Win9x/NT 4 Registration Files: (*.reg)” format.
5. In the Crossover Menu bar under Configure I selected “Manage Bottles…” and selected the “Advanced” tab-like button. Then selected the “Open C: Drive in Finder” button. This opened up a Finder Window Folder and selecting Finder menu View “As column” I was able to determine the location of the “C:” drive.
6. I then copied all of the “Estate” folder into exactly the same location on my “C:” drive they had been on the Windows XP C: drive.
7. I then returned to CrossOver and in the Programs menu opened the “Run Command…”. Making sure that I was in the Windows XP bottle I used the mouse click on the triange to the left of Debug Options and then enabled “Enable CrashReporter for this run” and “Create log file.” (I did not select any extra logging channels. I really don’t know what I am doing, so more info would not help me at this point). Now using the browse command I selected the “Views.Exe” in the “Estate/Research 2008/Folio” folder. I then clicked on the Run button.
8. I then opened up the log file that was created and found there were some missing .dll files. I searched for these on the Windows computer and copied them into the Folio folder (I may have put them in other folders, too).
9. The last glitch was ironed out when I copied the various “msvcm80″ files into the various appropriate “winsxs” folders including into the Manifests and Policies folders.
10. I then ran the “Views.Exe” and it ran perfectly.
11. After clicking the “Save Command to Programs Menu” I utilized the CrossOver Programs menu “Reveal in Finder.” I then dragged the Views.app to the doc.
12. I click on the Doc application and Fast Folio begins.
There is only one bug in my program that I have found so far. I can place Icons in the menu under Customize, but cannot remove them or move them. That may mean I failed to get all the registries correctly, or it may be something that doesn’t work. I have found work arounds. Depending on how you quit Folio will depend if your customization is cleared.
Wish list: Somebody would make an icon for the EGW program to paste into it.
Somebody would make a script so that it would automatically open EGW-SDW without having to hit enter at the start. I tried but could not figure out how to do this easy task in AppleScript.
That’s it.
Phil
Here is the work around to keep your Folio customizations intact.
DO NOT quit Folio Views by quitting CrossOver with the usual Mac “cmd-q”.
Instead, first exit from Folio Views by clicking on the red button in the upper left corner of the Folio Views window.
Now you can quit CrossOver using “cmd-q”.
The next time you open Foilio Views you customztion is intact.
I upgraded to CrossOver 8.0.0. There are some improvements. You can now keep your customizations more easily and quit CrossOver and still have them remain. Also, Regedit recognizes the regular regedit files. No need to save them as “in9x/NT 4 Registration Files”.
I also redid the install. Do not import the “*” or the “.msi” registers.
You can copy the bottles from one machine to another, but use Batmod for the appropriate ownership and permissions or it will not run.
Hi Phil, Great work in documenting your success in getting the 2008 Windows edition of the White Estate Software to run on the Mac. I followed your instructions step-by-step and it works great! I had to start again two or three times. But for a new Mac user it wasn’t too hard to do (and now I know the Mac a whole lot better). The only thing I notice, is that when Folio Views opens, it does not automatically open the Index Infobase. I have to select it manually from a drop down menu. Having done this, though, it opens with graphical user interface in tact and ready to click-and-go. If you know how to remedy the opening of Folio Views to automatically open the appropriate infobase, please let me know. Thanks Adrian.
That is a problem with CrossOver 8.0. I have not figured out how to solve it, yet. My solution which is in subsequent comments only worked with the older CrossOver.
It is interesting. CrossOver (and probably Darwine) runs any of the programs I have need from the Windows slum world. I just stuck in a CD with an .exe file for running the CD. Worked perfectly in CrossOver.
I don’t know why I didn’t get this before. I should have learned Darwine since it is free.
Hi Phil,
I did according to your instructions. I get the same errors as when I tried Darwine. Errors stating need a ton dll files. LIke maybe 100 different dll files. I don’t have the time here and now to track down the files in XP and copy them over. Do you know if that’s the real problem?
Yes. You need every .dll file it says you need. That is a hassle. Most can be put into the folio folder, but a few need special locations.
Just to note, DARWINE works equally well and does not involve a purchase.
Also, there IS an icon you can use. The icon file that Windows normally uses (it ends in .ICO) can be used as well. It is found alongside the Views.exe program file in the your installed files folder.
If you read Michael’s post carefully you will see how he was able to get the program to open EGW-SDW automatically (shell script–you just place a parameter at the end which is the Windows style path location of the EGW-COMP file, within quotation marks). For an idea of how this works, on Windows open the properties of the shortcut that launches the EGW software. That same command structure is what you will feed to DARWINE. The sytax is simple–program name followed by file name that you wish to open.
–Nathan
The application program that CrossOver creates is actually a Mac “package.” It is rather complicated. I did examine the various files within the package, but have no clue what to do to get CrossOver to start the EGW-SDW file.
Nathan, could you give an example? Then I think I could figure it out.
How do you open properties in Windows. I have no idea. I am a Mac User. I don’t know how to “poke around” in Windows.
Someone needs to give step by step instruction for DARWINE. I couldn’t figure it out. CrossOver was easier for me (and still hard). I considered the purchase to be a donation to the improvement in CrossOver.
Support for it was spotty. I got an e-mail from the CrossOver team that said I could not import registry files. So I begin entering the registries by hand! Finally I gave up on this (way to many files, way too many ways to make a typographical mistake). Since the CrossOver Regedit had an import function I tried exporting from the Windows machine in the various formats and finally discovered the format that does import. No credit to the CodeWeaver team.
I should redo the creation of the working program in Crossover and see if * and .msi matter. But, I have a working product and don’t have the time.
Figured it out.
In VM Fusion (or the Windows machine) I used the search command from the start menu. I found the desktop folder and selected the “EGW Research 2008″ shortcut. Under the File menu I selected Properties. There I found the needed magic command: “C:\Estate\Research 2008\Folio\Views.exe” -i “C:\Estate\Research 2008\Folio\Books\egw-comp.sdw”. I copied this.
Yours may have a different location.
Using CrossOver in the Programs menu I opened the “Run Command…”
In the Command entry section I pasted the following exactly including the quotes: “C:\Estate\Research 2008\Folio\Views.exe” -i “C:\Estate\Research 2008\Folio\Books\egw-comp.sdw”
After clicking the “Save Command to Programs Menu” I utilized the CrossOver Programs menu “Reveal in Finder.” I then changed the name of the app program I had just made to “EGW Complete.app” (without quotes) and dragged the file to the Dock.
I click on the Dock application and the Ellen White Shadow file opens up.
Eureka. I am finished.
No. Not quite. I do not have the .icn files Nathan is talking about. I still have to fix this.
Sorry, people, things have been so crazy here, I have not participated in the further discussion (it’s been a string of camp meeting, other projects, keeping a girlfriend happy, preparing to leave this Friday for Mexico).
Unfortunately I do not have detailed notes. I have used only Darwine, not CrossOver, and I have “The Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings,” Version 3.0 (from 1998), not the 2008 version that Phil is using. So some of the steps and what needs to be done were a bit different in my case.
Basically I downloaded and installed Darwine. Darwine defaults to creating its virtual C: drive in your user folder (~/.wine/drive_c), which is a hidden folder in Finder. Because it’s hidden, it can be a little tricky to work with. You could make a shortcut to it, but I just worked around it. Being the control freak that I am, I created a folder on a separate drive, and made that my drive E:, which is where I decided to put my Windows apps. In the Darwine folder, there is an app called WineHelper. If you launch it, and click on the menu WineHelper > Configure Wine…, you get some options. If you click on the Drives tab, you can change the C: drive to whatever path you want and/or create your own drive mappings. That’s what I did. I changed drive E: to the path I wanted (“/Volumes/Apps/OSes/Windows apps”). All other Darwine settings I left default. If I had to do this all over again, I would have changed my drive C: path, and not used the E: drive.
Then I made a copy of the software folder on my real Windows computer, the folder Views is in. In my case it was C:\Program Files\Estate. I copied this to my Mac, in the folder mapped to drive E:, as described above.
Then I launched RegEdit on my real Windows computer (just open the Run box, and type “regedit” and hit enter). I searched for all references to Views.exe or Estate. I can’t recall exactly what I found, but there about 4-6 sets of registry entries that I exported. From RegEdit, you select the entries you want, and choose the menu File > Export…, and save as .reg files. I am sure this explanation is totally useless to anyone who doesn’t understand how the Windows Registry works; perhaps I or someone else can elaborate more at a later time.
On my Mac, all .exe files are associated with Darwine. This may be the default after install, or I may have done that manually. In any case, once they are associated (you can right-click on an .exe, change the Open with: option to “WineHelper.app”), you can run .exe files in Darwine somewhat naturally.
I then double-clicked on the “autoreg.exe” file in the Views folder on my Mac. Presumably this adds some of the registry entries automatically. I did it just for kicks.
Because I was going from a drive C: install of EGW to a drive E: install, I had to change some of the registry entries manually. The .reg files that were exported are actually just plain old text files. So I opened them in a text editor, and carefully replaced all references to “C:\Program Files\Estate” with “E:\Estate”. Then resaved.
Then I opened the folder “Sample WineLib Applications” that is included with Darwine, and ran the regedit.exe file contained therein. I used File > Import… to add the registry entries I had edited.
Then, as explained in my first post, I had to move a file. Once I did that, I could run the Estate software. But it was a little tedious to start, and WineHelper was making all these debugging windows pop up. So I wanted a more elegant solution.
I found the solution to making a Mac app for Darwine apps. First, find the path to Wine. In Terminal (in Utilities folder), type “locate /Darwine/Wine.bundle/Contents/bin/wine”. Make a note of the full path. In my case it was “/Volumes/Apps/OSes/Darwine/Wine.bundle/Contents/bin/wine”. This is where I installed it; could be different for you!
You also need to know the path to Views.exe (in Darwine), and the path to the library (in my case “egw-comp.sdw”), which is in the Views folder. In my case these are “E:\Estate\Folio\views.exe” and “E:\Estate\Folio\Books\egw-comp.sdw” respectively.
Then you want to take an ASCII text editor (like TextWrangler or equivalent), and type them all together on one line (the line will wrap around, but don’t use the enter key):
/Volumes/Apps/OSes/Darwine/Wine.bundle/Contents/bin/wine “E:\Estate\Folio\views.exe” “E:\Estate\Folio\Books\egw-comp.sdw”
Then save this as a shell file. I saved it as “egw-folio.sh”, in the Estate folder on my Mac. The .sh extension is important. Now it needs to be made “executable”. The easy way to do this on the Mac is to use the free app BatChmod. Just drag the .sh file onto BatChmod, and make sure all the X checkboxes are checked. And apply. (UNIX geeks can also do it in the terminal.)
Then I used the free app Platypus to make this .sh file into an app. This is extremely easy. Open Platypus. Type something in the App Name field (whatever you want, I used “EGW Folio Views”); this is what your app will be called. For Script Type, choose Shell. For Script Path, click the little Select… button, and find the .sh file you made. You can assign an icon here if you want; you can drag the “egw.ico” file onto the icon square if you want the standard icon. Leave everything else the way it is. Click Create. Bam!
You should now have an application that will run like any other Mac app. Hope this helps!
Very helpful details, Michael, thank you. After reading your comment I ran Autoreg.exe Just in case. I can’t tell any difference as yet.
Somehow, I don’t have the egw.ico. I have done both a Mac and a Windows search. Can someone send that to me. I don’t understand why it isn’t in any folder on the Windows machine. When I get that, I will truly be done.
One other hint. When I was stuck and couldn’t understand the suggestions I was given by Computer gurus such as Michael and Nathan (such as, “How do you find properties in Windows?”, I would Google the question. I had to change my first wording of that search— with the terrible economy I found it is easy to find properties, just not the properties I was looking for).
Phil
Phil, regarding the icon file, they may have changed the 2008 version and until one of us gets our hands on it we won’t be able to check for you. On my 2005 version the file “egwprog.ico” is in the same folder as “views.exe”
There is a chance that with this iteration of the CD-ROM they have embedded the icon resource in the program file. Hopefully someone else who has the latest will be able to enlighten us.
Nathan
I made my own icon, which you can download here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?shar.....f6e8ebb871
It is included in Mac .icns format, and also as a PNG. It’s a 24-bit 128px icon, compared to the original egw.ico file which is an 8-bit, 32px (?) icon. It looks a little small if your Dock has a lot of icons in it or is sized small; but still, I like it better.
Here’s a preview of the icon in all its full-size glory:
http://skitch.com/sodiumpowere.....state-logo
PS: The preview image I linked suffers from some JPEG compression artifacts that are not in the icon files you would download.
I downloaded the icons, selected the application which I call EGW Complete and did “cmd-i” which gives the information about the file. I then dragged the icon file over the icon in the information folder on the top right. It immediately changed to your icon.
I then dragged the app file to the dock.
My task is completed. Your icon now has a special place on my dock. Thank you; I love your icon. It is perfect.
On May 16, this project was started. For three weeks figuring out this puzzle has consumed nearly every spare non-Sabbath moment.
Now the time that has been consumed getting the tool to run, can be applied to studying the complete Ellen White writings without firing up VM Fusion. Thank you, Michael.
Phil,
You have options. Here is a copy of the original but in PNG format.
http://www.mediafire.com/?shar.....f6e8ebb871
Nathan
How do you change a .PNG file into an icon on the Mac? My method above doesn’t work with .PNG files apparently.
I converted this PNG file into an ICNS file. Download this here. Nathan, if you would put this on your download file it can be included in your download.
http://www.mediafire.com/?shar.....f6e8ebb871
Hi Michael:
Thanks for the effort to bring the EGW CRE 2008 to the mac. Unfortunately most of us are not nearly as knowledgeable as you are regarding registry files and so on. I am at a total loss right now as to how to proceed. I have Darwine on my mac. I have exported the registry files from the installed folders on the Windows machine. That is as far as I can get. Phil (a friend of mine) sounds like he’s had an easier time with Crossover. I am not giving up on Darwine – but I will likely need some tutoring beyond what is posted here. Hopefully I can find someone who understands the terminology better than I. But praise God for this opportunity! I hope the White Estate catches on!
Skip
I’m hoping to put together a better tutorial. But it’s a bit of work, and I’m a busy guy. But if you hang tight, I will try to put together something visual. Or maybe someone else will beat me to it (they are welcome to do so!).
Michael –
Thanks for the post here. Have you any ideas on making the software work on Windows Vista 64bit? I have tried installing it, tried updating the registry (your search tips were very helpful), but alas, it still won’t work. Folio Views will open but it will not open the info base. I get a 332,5 error, unable to open the infobase. I have ordered the latest version from the ABC but now I find it is on backorder for at least 2 weeks! This is the only program I use everyday that I have not been able to install on my new laptop. Thanks!
Mark
Mark,
Looks like sometimes a Windows app runs better in something other than Windows… Maybe you should have bought a Mac, LOL.
Although with 64-bit you’re basically starting all over again as far as application programming so a lot of older programs are going to spit the dummy.
This discussion is made up of mostly non-Windows users. I would suggest getting in touch with the EGW Estate tech support (see the web site for support contact email). They are actually very helpful.
That aside, if you have a 32-bit Windows license you could run the EGW software inside a virtual machine running 32-bit XP or something. There is VMware and also Sun VirtualBox (which is free). Also maybe there are some compatibility settings that you can specify in Vista that will actually let the software run properly. But this is where the EGW Estate will be the most helpful to you.
And look forward to the latest version to see if they’ve got all their ducks in a row and it can run on 64-bit as well.
Regards,
Nathan
Hi Mark,
I will testify that the 2008 EGW software runs perfectly happily under 64-bit Windows 7. I have the Release Candidate installed, but the actual release shouldn’t be any different.
Regards,
Cam
Thanks! Since I received the new edition I have had no issues with any installation – vista, Windows 7, XP, haven’t tried the Linux box but I see Nathan has already blazed the trail there as well!
is the reason everyone is jumping through all these hoops to install this because they get the “Invalid #” error for their CD-key when running setup.exe through wine? I’d like to know if this is a common problem before asking the wine community for help with this.
I’ve got the Comprehensive Research Edition 2008 running on Linux nicely by jumping through those same hoops.
Yes, I believe that is the problem. We are not all using the same software or versions, but as far as I know none of the CD install apps work properly under Wine.
That’s correct, Rob and Michael.
You will get the same error on Windows if you try to install from a CD via a network location (ie, not on your own computer). This is because the copy protection routine in the installer wants direct physical access to the CD media to verify it is an original manufactured copy (which is why in theory a burned copy of the CD would never work either). Because this direct access is not happening in the WINE environment, we cannot install from the EGW CDs due to the copy protection.
With that knowledge, maybe someone can make it work by allowing the installer to do what it needs to. I don’t have enough programming knowledge to say whether it is possible. However my hunch is that it may never work due to how WINE runs a sort of virtual environment in Linux (or other OS). Perhaps someone in the WINE community could in fact work on this issue.
If you have an older version of White Estate for Windows, perhaps like Michael has, without the copy-protection, then you can use Crossover to install it. I did it with a non-copy-protected White Estate, Windows version folio views. I don’t remember the software version. I did this only as a test for the White Estate.
Daniel, yes, my version 3.0 installed fine using CrossOver 8.0 under Linux. I think I had first tried installing from the CD-ROM under Darwine, and ran into some issue, and because of that and other factors, I just decided to do it the hard way. Those with older versions like I have could probably do a regular install, either under Linux or Mac OS X, whether using CrossOver or WINE/Darwine. However, I’m glad I went the other route, just to know it could be done. And without that, this thread would not exist!
Hi friends,
I made a huge mistake — I had EGW (1998 version) working under Darwine – it even ran the installer and everything. BUT, I then bought VM Ware Fusion because I thought it would be better… I was dissappointed.
I then deleted Darwine from my applications and now when trying to run the EGW software (still the old edition) it opens quickly and looks like it is running fine… then the following message appears…
fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_PROCESSOR_PERFORMANCE_INFORMATION
fixme:process:GetProcessWorkingSetSize (0xffffffff,0x32e398,0x32e394): stub
X Error of failed request: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
Major opcode of failed request: 66 (X_PolySegment)
Serial number of failed request: 58940
Current serial number in output stream: 59068
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Rodney Bowes
Someone, I think Nathan, was saying that CDs w/o copy protection would work better for some reason in some cases. Well, the 3 new CDs now in ABCs, for $10, 15, & 20 are NOT copy protected at all. That of course includes the new CRE ’08 some of you have been working with.
This is my first visit to your blog. I don’t begin to understand all you guys have done to accomplish what you have. Would like to think I could figure it all out too if I had the appropriate Mac and software and time. Would enjoy the challenge, but unfortunately work here at the White Estate, my two teenagers, other home and church duties, all keep me far too busy for such a project.
However, what really intrigues me, is wondering… Couldn’t what you all have figured out provide the basis for creating a new EGW CD for Macs? Couldn’t a programmer be found who could use what you’ve found to create scripts to use with Darwine to create an autoinstall routine to do automatically all the manual stuff you had to do? WDYT? Is it too complex and variable to be done in a way that it would work automatically, perfectlly and successfully on any Intel Mac with OS X 10.4 or later?
Larry,
IMHO, this could be done. In fact if you look back into some of the emails I sent to you something like two years past, you may find an email from me to you outlining such a thing as you describe above.
I thought when the harvest season was over here in Maine, I might try my hand at such a feat. I think Apple’s new PackageMaker would make this fairly simple. I tried several ABCs in my travels and none of them have had any new CDs in stock. The ABC in Maine does not stock the CD and it’s 120 miles away. So, I’m still on the Family Edition and the your beta has a flakey installer that won’t work under WINE.
Phil, you seem to be a persistent and technically savvy person, you are probably more qualified than I for this.
Another thing, Larry, people with a PowerPC processor running Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard will be out-in-the-cold, so to speak, because Leopard on a PPC cannot run the ‘Classic Environment’ and cannot run Darwine/Crossover. They’d have to use Emulation.
Hi Larry,
You must have missed my email because I have suggested this very thing to you. People like Google have done this. Their application called Picasa is programmed and compiled Windows-only, but they have a Linux version that is packaged with a runtime version of WINE.
If you are interested in getting some professionals to handle it, contact the people at Crossover Software. I believe they would be your best bet and they could make sure that the WINE build is compatible with your application and that the Mac package will work reliably on Intel Macs.
God bless,
Nathan
After thinking about what Larry said, maybe it’s not the copy protection but some part of the Windows API that WINE hasn’t implemented. At the point where the installer checks the serial number, perhaps it’s just calling a function that doesn’t exist and that’s what gives the error?? Either explanation would be valid. I haven’t tried looking at the command line output to see if there is something helpful there. When I get my new CRE disk (in Australia, still waiting) I will give it a whirl.
I’ve received my CRE 2008 disc order.
Now I can confirm that installation direct from CD fails under WINE at the point where you enter the serial number. This could have been the problem all along–not CD copy protection but serial number validation failure.
The command line output, which is normally verbose on errors, says absolutely nothing. So from what I can see no error is being passed to the backend, but the user gets an “invalid” message after trying to proceed with their serial number entered. I would suggest that this is an issue with WINE which is beyond my ability to identify.
That said, the old trick seems to still work. I installed a fresh copy of CRE2008 into a clean Windows 7 installation. I then copied the “Estate” folder into the correct location in the WINE folder tree (the point where WINE maps drive C:\).
Attempts at running views.exe yielded some error messages. These were fixed by installing Winetricks and running the command “sh winetricks vcrun2005″ [note: I'm doing this all in Ubuntu Linux; the DARWINE stuff under MacOS is going to be a little different I believe]. This is the Visual C++ libraries that Folio Views needs.
Now Views opens but I need to go back to the Windows installation and get my registry entries in order to be able to open infobases. I’ll report back here when I have achieved success with that.
The bottom line is I think the new CRE 2008 will work on Linux and Mac OS with roughly the same tricks we’ve had to use with previous versions.
–Nathan
Just a note for Larry, that’s Codeweavers, not Crossover Software. I got the company confused with the products. –NT
SUCCESS! I got CRE 2008 running on Linux. The same principles should work for DARWINE. Here’s what it took–and some things here have already been discussed in previous posts, but this is basically a recap.
1) Fresh WINE install. For the record, I’m using version 1.1.27 from direct from the development repository. I believe that the current stable version 1.01, would yield the same result.
2) Install Visual C++ 2005 libraries. I did it via the winetricks script, but you can download directly from Microsoft and install right in WINE if you want. http://download.microsoft.com/.....st_x86.exe
3) Copy registry entries from a working installation. I exported every registry section containing the string “C:\Estate” since with the 2008 CRE version that is the location of the EGW software. I ended up with 9 registry files. You export from REGEDIT in Windows and import in the same program in WINE.
4) Copy the “C\Estate” folder from the Windows installation over to the corresponding WINE location. A standard WINE installation puts a hidden folder called “.wine” in your user folder. Within that is a folder called “drive_c” which is mapped to Windows C: drive.
If you read this blog post and the comments, Michael has some other way to get it working without copying into the “drive_c” folder but for me this is simple because you don’t have to modify those registry entries. The one challenge on the Mac is that those hidden folders are not easy to get to, but there is a way. For helping my friend on Mac I just googled it and found how to reveal the hidden folders.
I really like the Adventist Pioneer Library being included… It is worth the long wait for the release of this software!!
–Nathan
A freeware for the Mac: TinkerTool, has, amongst other features, the ability to show and hide invisible files.
If you know where the invisible file is and it’s name, can use the Go menu from the Finder: Go -> Go To Folder… Type in ~/.wine click the Go button or hit the Enter key and the Finder will take you right to the file.
Note you must use the dot before the file name. The dot makes the file invisible.
Good tip, thanks Daniel.
There is an OS X-specific version of winetricks here, called TRiX: http://mike.kronenberg.org/?p=69
I haven’t tried it, since these libraries are not needed by the version I’m using. But if you’re getting errors about a missing “MSVCR80.dll” file, you may want to try it. I believe it is a simple download-and-install process.
Thanks to all. I will be tackling this in the next month or so in Ubuntu as well. Glad that it works.
–Nathan S
I have been running the EGW software for the last couple of years on my Ubuntu linux machine, with WINE. Installation was a snap — I simply ran the setup.exe file with wine and had a perfect working install in a few minutes. I used an old install CD: “The Complete Published Ellen G White Writings” Version 3.0, Copyright 1998; it was the two-disc, Legacy of Light release.
–Randy Steffens
Hi there.
I just got my mac book pro and was wondering if someone could direct me to the website where I should download Darwine from…
Thanks!
Alfonso, you can find it here: http://www.kronenberg.org/darwine/
Thanks, Michael. I’ll get started on this and I’ll let you know. I’ve just own a mac for 4 days so it may take a while…
Michael,
Would you be willing to guide me through this by phone? I’m getting a bunch of errors in the winelog. I tried following what the log says but continue to get them. Or I can send you the wine log…
I know you’re busy and I don’t want to be a nuisance so I’ll be patient…
Happy Sabbath!
Alfonso.
Michael,
It works now!!! I already had tried TRIX before (during my original installation attempt) so, after your last email asking me to run TRIX, I thought this might not work. But when I opened TRIX today and looked carefully I realized that when I followed the instructions on this blog the first time, I installed “Visual C++ 2005spl redistributable libraries” instead of “Visual C++ 2005spl redistributable libraries (mfc80,msvcp80,msvcr80)”
Thanks so much for your help. This is a blessing!
We have been using a Mac since the mid 90′s. In only the last year we started running OS X up to 10.3.9 because we can’t give up classic. All our Bible studies are in Classic but we know we have to start using software that is OS X native. We are looking for a word processor that will import our old WordPerfect files and I think I will try NeoOffice (any advice is welcome). More importantly, I also have to figure out how to get the EGW DC-Rom onto OS X. This entire conversation on taking an EGW disk made for a PC and running it on a Mac is amazing. I am so totally lost. , but I see that it can be done and that gives me hope. So most of all, thank you for this hope. What I really need to know is this: What version of OS x are all of you doing this on? Is anyone using 10.3.9 or at least 10.4 (which still runs Classic)? Thank you for your time in posting all this info. It is so valuable.
Jane
Jane,
The Folks on this forum are using Intel based Apple computers which will only run Mac OS X 10.4 and greater Mac OSes.
You can use up to Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) on a PowerPC and still run Classic apps. If you upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) you will loose the ability to run Classic apps.
If you are still using a PowerPC based Mac and are satisfied with it, I suggest you continue with it till such time as you feel you must upgrade to a newer (Intel) Mac.
There is no Mac native White Estate software for Intel based Macs.
On an Intel based Mac one has to either use a virtual machine, like VirtualBox (freeware), Parallels or Fusionand install Windows. Or, as in the case of the folks on this forum, use an environment that fools the software into “thinking” it is on Windows. The basic software is called WINE. It is an acronym for: Wine Is Not an Emulator.
There was, at one time, rumored to be native Mac OS X software coming. But with the death of dear Ken Hamel (Mac Online Bible), I doubt it will ever come to be. Brother Hamel is the only reason there is ANY White Estate software for the Mac, for he lobbied the White Estate hard for Mac software and then did most of the work developing it and never asked them for a dime.
As for a WordPerfect replacement, I have no experience with these files, but here is a (probably biased) comparison I found: http://www.mellel.com/mellelcompetitive.html.
Have you considered Maclinkplus Deluxe? I have a friend that uses it in his Ministry to convert old WordPerfect files (Mac System 7.6.1) to another format. BTW He still uses a (last gen) PPC Mac and sees no reason to upgrade to an Intel Mac.
Daniel
Hi Jane,
I was in the same situation, having used WordPerfect for hundreds of important Bible study documents. However, you will be happy to find that the OpenOffice import filters for WordPerfect are quite good. NeoOffice (which is based on OpenOffice) would suit you just fine, I think.
A few things that I find some problem with are WP’s embedded comments, page numbers in footers and numbered outlines, which come through but leave somewhat to be desired. The rest of the formatting survives and it is good enough to print off as it is if you need to. I keep a running copy of WordPerfect handy just in case but I end up using it rarely. If you do all your document conversions at once then you won’t have to do this.
In short, the latest OpenOffice WPD import filters are the best I have seen for getting WPD files into another format–better even than exporting from WordPerfect itself.
God bless,
Nathan
Jane, sorry I have been missing from the discussion. I think your question has been answered well by the others. I would add just one more option: The old program Virtual PC (now sold by MS) will run on a PowerPC, and it will let you run the EGW software within it. It’s a virtual environment. It runs a bit slow, but I did have an EGW setup based on Virtual PC once, and can say that it works. However, it does NOT work on Intel-based Macs. So, in summary:
PowerPC Mac: Use Virtual PC (buy software + Windows license); emulated, runs slow.
Intel Mac: Use Boot Camp (included in 10.5 and 10.6; requires a Windows license) … or Parallels (buy software + Windows license) … or VMware Fusion (buy software + Windows license) … or CrossOver (buy software only) … or Wine/Darwine (free). Generally speaking, the paid options are easier to set up, whereas Wine/Darwine is free but requires tinkering. Boot Camp runs the fastest, but requires that you restart in Windows to use it; however, for an app like EGW library, speed is not much of an issue, and any of these apps are plenty fast.
Michael’s right. G5, G4, G3 (these are PowerPC based Macs) and lower Macintoshes must use emulation software, like VirtualPC, to use the Windows version of White Estate software.
Virtual PC is no longer developed or sold by MS. There is no MS support for it in Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5. VPC version 7.0.3 was the last version. It may or may not run in Leopard (you take your chances), but more than likely will not have (Windows) access to the CD drive.
So if you have Mac OS X 10.5 you can’t use the Classic version of White Estate and may not be able to use the Windows version.
Daniel
One little update: If you have an Intel Mac, you can also use VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/), which is a FREE virtual environment for a guest operating system, much like Parallels for VMware Fusion. Although VirtualBox is free, you do need a Windows installer and license (which costs money, although not if you have a spare one handy).
Hi Michael,
It was probably have been last winter, I tested CRE beta for Larry using Windows XP Pro in VirtualBox.
VirtualBox, at least at the time, was pretty good for a free product, however, the user had to select some things manually. Seems like I had to enable the CD drive and disable it if I wanted to use it or not and had to use a keyboard maneuver to get the cursor out of the VM.
Daniel
One more update: Apparently I was wrong: There is a version of Darwine for PPC, and you can download it here: http://darwine.sourceforge.net/download.php
I have not tried it.
I downloaded the PPC version. In the “Read Me” it says in bold red ‘you can’t run Windows apps on PPC Macs using Darwine for PPC’.
So I say, what good is it??
The original Darwine project was for just that purpose, running Windows apps on PPC Macs. It was developed to incorporate Qemu, a CPU emulator.
Daniel
Hmmm. Well, it looked promising!
CrossOver is supposed to work with 10.4 and above,
If you can find someone who has already installed the EGW program on their Mac, copying the files over from them is a piece of cake. The entire installation takes less then 10 minutes.
But you should have already purchased the Ellen White CD, so that everything is legitimate.
The White Estate could do this, but they feel no compelling reason to put any resources into the Mac side, unfortunately. They remain under the Microsoft delusion that the Mac is just a tiny niche. They have no idea how times have changed and the powerful uptick in Mac use there has been.
From what I’ve been recently led to believe, Phil, you may be in for a pleasant surprise from the White Estate.
Nathan and Phil,
When I attended Ken Hamel’s Funeral, in June, some of the White Estate folks were there and they told me something of your “surprise”, Nathan.
A couple months later I emailed them a couple times just to see how it was progressing, but they never did respond, which is unusual for them. I’m not sure what to make of it.
Daniel
Daniel,
We can only speculate as to what is going on now, but what I heard was from Larry Crews–that he had contacted a 3rd party developer regarding developing a WINE-based Mac version.
Now to the speculation part–it’s either going ahead or they aren’t interested. I don’t know. It has occurred to me that with the new low CD-ROM price, there is a downside in that sales revenues on the Mac version might not justify its development cost.
Nathan
There is movement. I am in communication with the person working on the Darwine version. But since this is a Mac person with no knowledge of Wine it will take some time to get up to speed.
I am sending them CD’s with CrossOver. As they understand CrossOver and work backword, they should be able to do Darwine.
I don’t see the installation ever becoming seamless, however. This is certainly a step in the right direction.
Which may mean that the 3rd party developer idea fell through.
It would be possible to do a seamless install–Google have done it for their Picasa product on Linux. It is simply the Windows executable file packaged into a runtime version of Wine and distributed as a Linux package.
Actually, I heard a very different story. I don’t want to spell the beans here, but it had to do with the code base of Ken’s OLB.
WINE: Corel, at one time, I think it was like ’98 or ’99, had an installer that installed the Windows version of WordPerfect for the Linux platform. Supposedly, the install was seamless. But, the software was reportedly bug-ridden. They called it WordPerfect 9. So, looks like an installer is certainly possible, like you said, Nathan.
I think the problem with installing from the CD-ROM is that the installer is flakey and WINE does not know how to handle it.
The beta software I tested for the White Estate could not install in Windows until it connected to the internet and then downloaded some patch. It wouldn’t really run under wine. And when I run the latest release I get the same reaction in wine.
The price is low because the GC is subsidizing the sales of the software products. They are still making the money.
Thank you all for your replies. Our situation is this: We have 2 hard drives on our powermac G4 (from 2001) right now, 1 with only os 9.2.2, the other hard drive with os 10.3.9. We will continue to run 10.3.9 and classic for a while, but in looking ahead what I am wondering about is this: If I use OpenOffice or NeoOffice in 10.3.9 and change over those WordPerfect files to OpenOffice or NeoOffice, then will those file be usable in 10.5 (which I am sure we will eventually have to go to). If those old Wordperfect files made into OpenOffice or NeoOffice files would be usable on 10.5, then the next step would be the EGW CD-rom “upgrade” that you have described above. We have 2 disks of EGW, one for the old mac 9.2.2 (which, incidentally, Phil helped us to get up an running on back in ’94 or ’94, though I doubt he remembers it. The White Estate gave us his personal phone number and he was great about helping us), and the 1998 version that I use on a Sony laptop with Windows XP. I expect I can somehow use the PC version for the transition to Mac 0S 10.5. But that is all down the road.
So Nathan, are saying that you are using 10.5 and have imported your wordperfect files directly into OpenOffice on 10.5? I was thinking I would have to start on 10.3.9 or 10.4 because that runs classic and the WordPerfect files are already on that hard drive (easy to import) and then take that OPen Office file and use that on the 10.5. But maybe I have made this too hard.
For now, this was all brought about because our old Laserwriter 360 doesn’t want to print on the G4 set up anymore, so we thought we should buy a printer compatible with os 9.2 and os 10. Hah, it will print alright, but it won’t print the quote marks in the documents, so that is how I got started on all this, thinking I really needed to upgrade the operating software because I couldn’t get the new printer to work right with the old system I am using. Talk about a round-about way of getting somewhere.
At this point, I will just try to use OpenOffice or NeoOffice and see if a WordPerfect document imported into that, and running on OS 10.3.9 will print the quotation marks in a document. Then I will be safe for a while. Thanks again for all your replies. You are all most helpful.
I thank Our Father for your help, and I thank you too.
God Bless,
Jane
Hi Jane, your document formats will work independently of what operating system you use. It is more a function of the particular software you are using. And I’m glad you asked because I didn’t think to mention I was using WordPerfect on Windows. I assume the format is the same, but as you say it’s a good idea to test with NeoOffice on your current setup to see if the results are what you want.
Hi Jane,
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but the way you write, I get the impression that you want to use your PowerMac G4 with Mac OS X 10.5 and use the Windows White Estate software on it using Darwine.
First, since Mac OS 10.6 was just released a few weeks ago you’ll have to find a copy of 10.5 from an independent supplier. Megamacs.com and Mac-pro.com spring to mind.
Second, if you are using a G4 PowerMac, it must meet the Apple Specified system requirements of a 867 Mhz processor. Which your 2001 G4 may just barely meet.
Third, a G4 PowerMac will in no way run the WINE, Darwine or CrossOver software so as to make use of the Windows (PC) version of the White Estate Software.
The only way to use WINE, Darwine or CrossOver is with a computer with a x86 processor. For the Mac, it will have to be Intel processor powered. Your G4 PowerMac does not qualify.
WordPerfect: Even if you decide to put Mac OS X 10.5 on your Mac you can still access Classic apps with the use of SheepShaver. SheepShaver will run *almost* any “Classic” application with, alas, the exception of White Estate software.
SheepShaver is similar to VirtualPC except it is very, very fast. Draw backs: you cannot copy & paste or drag & drop files between the Mac and SheepShaver. SheepShaver is no longer being developed.
There is a “pre-built” downloadable file all set up with Mac OS 8 and WordPerfect here-> http://macwp.com/files/SS-WP%201.1.zip Please take note that some consider the use of this unethical because Apple has not yet made the “Classic” Mac OS or the required ROM, free. But SheepShaver is free and open source. Bear in mind that the download is quite large, 272MB.
There is another “pre-built” SheepShaver floating around the web that I accidently found and then downloaded that has just the basic Mac OS 9.0.4 and little else. Compressed, it is fairly small. With it you can install just about anything a *real* Mac can. But, alas, still, not Folio Views aka White Estate software because of a ‘bug’ in the Mac version of SheepShaver.
If you need help with SheepShaver there is a SheepShaver forum at the http://www.emaculation.com website.
Also there is a Yahoo WordPerfect Group that has lots of useful links.
Daniel
Actually I was wrong about the SheepShaver copy & paste. It works just like it should.
Daniel
There is now a version of Darwine for PPC, and it is the same version as the Intel one: http://darwine.sourceforge.net/download.php
Not sure how they did it, but it would be nice if someone with a PPC Mac could try it out and see if it works with the EGW software.
Cool, I might be able to try that out sometime on my old Mac.
Hi Jane,
You can submit your “quote” printing problem to the folks at http://www.macosx.com. They have some very knowledgeable people there. They are all volunteers – it’s all free advice.
Have you tried: re-installing the printer drivers? trashing the printer driver preference file?
Given time, I could come up with some other ideas. You can email me here:
vmklxwsc (at] trashmail.net within one week or 5 emails, after that the address expires.
Thank you all for your advice. This is going to take time to think through. All of your advice will help me to make a more informed decision and I appreciate that.
Jane
Hi all, as supervisor of CD-ROM projects at the Ellen G. White Estate I’ve been following this blog for some time with interest. I’ve noticed some speculation over the past few days popping up on this blog about what the White Estate’s plans are for Mac OS X users. To put to rest any and all rumors here, yes, we are currently working on an accelerated path towards releasing a Mac version of Ellen G. White’s Writings by utilizing the WINE environment to run our Ellen G. White Comprehensive Research Edition CD. It’s a stop gap solution for sure, but hopefully only for the short term. We’re currently working with a developer to help create a hybrid version of our EGW CRE 08 and WINE into a simple automated install. To answer the question does it work–yes, the EGW Writings and Folio Views works beautifully when running on the WINE environment. We have created new installers for both the Complete Published 07 and the Comprehensive Research 2008 editions to simplify the install process under WINE. The Complete 2007 edition works flawlessly now, and today we’ve just completed the a new install of the CRE 08. We’re yet to create a one click start of the EGW Complete infobase, instead of presently where just starting Folio Views and then opening the infobase, (Michael maybe you can help us with this?) But everything then runs so smoothly and well, so we’re really excited it has worked out so far.
Now it’s down to automating the install process for both WINE and the Ellen G. White Writings CRE 2008 and creating a package install. We won’t worry about the Complete version though. If all goes as planned building the package installer, we plan on selling this Mac CD for $20 through ABC stores. We’re trying to not involve commercial software companies in this project to keep costs down thus allowing us to sell the CD for the same price as the $20 Windows version of the CD. Sound Fair? I hope so!
There is still many things to do on this project to make it work for end users. So when the time comes for help answering technical questions on the build or for beta testing, please email me if you’re interested in volunteering to help bringing this project to fruition. Please email me: thompsond@whiteestate.org.
Some of you have a lot more experience in many different areas, so hopefully we can call on you to make this project a success for all Mac users out there.
Darryl Thompson
Assistant Director
Ellen G. White Estate
Hi Darryl,
That is very exciting news! I’m glad to see this happening, and the many Mac users wanting to use the EGW software on their machines thank you! I plan to send you a separate email, but if there is anything you need, feel free to post here about it; we seem to have a fairly active and enthusiastic group.
And there are a lot more readers of this, than commenters.
I get requests for help all the time.
Even with these very explicit directions, the task is too great for some.
Others don’t have the registry files.
Michael (and others),
Thanks for your positive response to the news of the White Estate creating a somewhat native version of EGW writings for Mac OS X that does not require the expense of boot camp or virtualization! As an update to my previous post nearly two weeks ago there has been some good progress made on development. On my last post we had had success with a beta version of our EGW Complete 2007 CD running on OS X using WINE. We now have successfully created and completed development of a total new simple install of the EGW Comprehensive Research Edition that installs and run perfectly on OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard using WINE’s Windows API. We’re now working on a combined package install of WINE and EGW CRE to make the process easy for users to install EGW CRE on their Intel Macs. We also have a high resolution EGW CRE program icon for your Mac Dock to open the EGW Complete Published Writings infobase on startup.
Hopefully, if everything continues to plan (and it has so far) we’ll have a beta version for testers later this month. I’m impressed with the speed of this new build of CRE. It runs so fast on Snow Leopard, (similarly it’s seems as fast on Windows 7). Most likely I’ll post the EGWCRE/WINE package file on whiteestate.org for subscribers to this blog to download and beta test. If all goes as planned, Intel Mac users will have for an investment of only $20 access to the Comprehensive Research Edition 2008 running almost natively on their desktop. No need any more for Boot Camp or virtualization and all hassles and expenses that’s associated with this process in its many varied forms.
The White Estate plans an initial pressing of 1000 CD’s for sale at $20 at ABC’s before the end of 2009. I’m very optimistic that this is achievable. So I’ll be eager for feedback once we release the beta. If not, then at least early in 2010.
Darryl Thompson
Assistant Director
Ellen G. White Estate
Some (Intel) Macintosh users will never upgrade from Tiger; this is especially true for Switchers. Hopefully this new release will be usable on Tiger.
I have Snow Leopard and find it extremely buggy and would not advise a Tiger user to upgrade to it until the major bugs are worked out.
Daniel
Good news!
Hi Darryl,
Glad to hear this! Great news!
Count me in on the beta testing or anything else I can do.
I warn everyone on a PPC machine, if they want to use EGW software, not to upgrade to Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 because they will lose the use of the Classic environment and, of course, they can’t use WINE.
Daniel
Hi Daniel, Michael & others…
Just wanted to let everyone know on this blog that the Ellen G. White Estate has released a beta 1.0 using WineBottler to port and package the WINE environment for running the Ellen G. White Writings Comprehensive Research Edition 2008 on an Intel Mac. It is available as a 585MB DMG file for downloading at our White Estate Website. PLease go to the following unpublished link: http://whiteestate.org/cre/egw-cre08_b1.dmg
Once you have downloaded the file you will need to open the disk image on your desktop to run the installer. A graphic with the EGW logo and Applications folder will appear. Step 1. Drag as it shows the EGW logo into the Applications folder. (As this is an internet download file you will need to give permission to open and run the file.) Step 2 Open your Applications folder and drag the EGW CRE 2008 EGW icon down into your dock. Launch the EGW CRE 2008 program. Note: The first time the EGW application runs it may take 2-3 minutes to open. This is because it installs all the WINE runtime libraries and X11 server into OS X. You will see X11 server startup and run along with the EGW CRE 2008 Folio program. X11 will be the appliction you need to close upon exiting our EGW software.
Happy testing.
I’m really interested on feedback for all versions of Universal OS X from Tiger, Leopard, to Snow Leopard (both 32 & 64 bit). You can respond on the blog or directly to me through thompsond@whiteestate.org I will get both.
God Bless
Darryl
I just wanted to make everyone aware of the fact that on first run, the EGW software (that is, the underlying WineBottler application) will copy all of the WINE and Folio Views files including the fake Windows C drive, into ~/Library/Application Support/Wine.
So, you need to have twice the amount of hard drive space as you would normally think. On my installation it took 1.8 GB of space.
Daniel
Thanks Darryl!
It worked great for me. I was trying to decipher the instructions on the blog (Thanks Michael et al) and was well into the process when I came across your link to the automated installation. It worked well. I am running Snow Leopard on an early 2008 Macbook Pro.
Blessings on getting a native app for us Mac users. I can’t wait.
Ricky!
Found another problem. It is all italicized. It needs to be non-italic.
Hi Phil, can you elaborate? I believe you are experiencing a font problem. They haven’t actually changed the format of the infobase.
I tested today on a MacBook and it performs beautifully. This will be a dream come true for those who have tried jumping through the hoops. And the dock icon is nice too. I’m jealous–I want one for my PC.
Nathan,
Everything is italicized, even in the home page with the picture of Ellen White.
The book list is italicized. All the print is italicized. I assume it is not a font problem but some preference in the Folio version being used.
That reinforces my view that it is a font problem–a missing font problem, so an italic font is being substituted as closest match.
Phil,
The fonts are Mac OS system fonts. You probably have a corrupt file somewhere. If it were me, I would delete the install, including the files it copied to ~/Library/Application Support/Wine and try installing again. Might even download again.
Daniel
If anyone is interested:
There is an open source OS replacement for Windows called React OS (non-unix based). I think it is at version 0.3.10, an alpha. They have a VMWare appliance that can be downloaded – its free.
Last year I tested 0.3.6. I could not get CRE beta to install in it – very buggy. http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html
Kind of like Windows, but without Windows.
Daniel
The New EGW CRE 2008 Beta: If you are using Mac OS 10.4 Tiger, be aware that you need the application X11 from OS X install disc. Make sure you have the latest version. In my testing on Tiger, the beta gave error dialogs using the commands associated with mouse clicks e.g. tool bar and menu commands. If the commands could be used via the keyboard the commands worked normally.
Daniel
Easy to install.
There were some problems with inconsistent copying.
I like remapping of the keyboard for the usual Mac keyboard, not Windows. On CrossOver I can remap them, but I don’t know how to do this under WINE.
Phil
Are your talking about Ctrl-C vs Cmd-C?
Yes.
But, I got inconsistent copy-paste regardless. Even using the menu copy-paste. It got stuck on my first copy and couldn’t get it to copy anything else.
I’ll be interested in Fred Bischoff’s experience. He uses it in more sophisticated ways and uncovered problems with things I did not even know Folio could do!
Copy and paste seems to be working well on my system. (EGW 2008 bundle + OS X 10.6.2).
Phil,
There should be a key config file buried somewhere in the WINE files. I had a look, but didn’t find it right away and I don’t have time right now to go digging around. Since this is not a standard WINE ‘file system’ it won’t be in the standard wine location.
Daniel
My testing has progressed well. The install was flawless on my macbook running Leopard, 10.5.8. I’ve had a couple snags so far: I must control-c (rather then command-c) order to copy. Not really a problem, just an inconvenience. The other problem I’ve had is that two finger scrolling on the trackpad is extremely sensitive and finicky. If I move my fingers just a bit too far, the screen begins to scroll wildly and uncontrollably. It can’t be stopped until several seconds have elapsed, and then I find myself far from where I was originally. I can mitigate this problem by scrolling up and down the the keyboard arrows, or by being extremely careful when dual-finger scrolling on the trackpad, but it would be nice if it weren’t so sensitive.
Overall, I’m extremely happy with the software.
Randy,
I have a MacBook Pro, revision b, and Mac OS 10.5.8. Copy/paste does not work at all for me, either through the keyboard or the menus. The two finger scroll works perfect though.
Can any one here print? I cannot yet.
Daniel
That is exactly happening to my MacBook Pro 17 inch. I have the 3.1. I am running Mac OS 10.5.8.
I tried it on a MacBook and it works perfectly (except for the Apple-backward Windows copy-paste keyboard combination).
I am trying it today on a MacBook Pro 15 inch and see if that works.
Do you have some of the characters in italics?
Did you have it running under CrossOver?
I hate to take off CrossOver because it runs well and I also have a couple other programs running under it.
Dr. Mills,
I’m not having the character problem you are. Nor do I have it running under CrossOver. Have you tried going to Tools > Options >”General” tab> and changing “Infobase view font”?
Phil,
None of my characters are italic.
Under this particular install of WINE the developer uses the Mac OS X fonts found in Library/Fonts.
Daniel
I don’t have a real printer, only the Adobe PDF writer. However…
In my custom Darwine install of EGW 3.0, this Adobe PDF printer shows up in the printer list when I use the Print command. The app appears to print, but I have not located the resulting PDF files, if in fact they are being created.
In the EGW 2008 bundle from the EGW Estate, I cannot print at all. I get an error that says “Before you can perform printer-related tasks such as page setup or printing a document, you need to install a printer. Please install one and retry.”
Hopefully next week we will have a new beta that incorporates the latest version of WINE v1.01. Benefits are supposed greater stability for copy/past (no remap of Ctrl+C though) and a hopeful fix for the inability to print directly from Folio.
If anyone experiences a crash or error message (other than printing) please post a screen capture of the error in the next couple of days.
Thank you to all who have tested and commented so far. It is most helpful.
Darryl,
Here’s a link to a screenshot where I am running the beta on Tiger 10.4.11: http://img.skitch.com/20091126.....qun7bt.jpg
This error occurs whenever the toolbar tools are clicked on i.e. Search, Next Hit, etc. Also, if you look closely you will notice the window is lower on the display than one would normally place it, so some of it is not visible. This is because each time any clickable command is attempted the window will lower itself by about three-fourths of an inch on this display.
Daniel
Daniel,
No, I cannot print through folio – I get an error message saying that a printer needs to be installed. Perhaps there’s a way to get WINE to recognize my current printer, but haven’t looked into that much because I never use that feature in folio. I’m always copying/pasting into Pages/Word, and I print from there.
Anyone wishing to change the key shortcut from Control key (what Windows uses) to Command key (what Apple users are accustomed to) may wish to try the following:
(Both links explain the same workaround. I think the first is clearer, but the second contains for info.)
http://www.macosxhints.com/art.....6110939423
http://discussions.apple.com/t.....ID=1186976
This will make Cmd-C (copy), Cmd-V (paste), Cmd-P (print), etc., function instead of Control-C, etc. However, note that these steps also DISABLE the Cmd-Q (quit) command for X11 itself.
I’ve tested this on my system, and it works as advertised. Just create the .Xmodmap in your home folder, as described in the links, and UNCHECK the option “Enable key equivalents under X11″ in X11′s preferences.
Michael,
I don’t have that file on my system.
Randy,
I would rarely print too, but many people do print from Folio and it’s one of the features that should be checked out for functionality before the White Estate releases this to the Mac using Adventists.
Darryl says: “If anyone experiences a crash or error message (other than printing) please post a screen capture of the error in the next couple of days.”
Where/how do we post the screenshot?
Michael, Does this blog format support uploading/pasting of images? I tried a paste of an image but it didn’t work
Daniel, you are right. The .Xmodmap file does not exist by default, and besides that it will be hidden when you do create it, because the name starts with a period. The easiest way is to create it is with a simple text editor. (One that saves ASCII text, not formatted text. TextWrangler is a good free one.)
About images: No, you cannot add images to your comments on this blog. However, using a free service like Skitch (or any image or file hosting service, of which there are many), you can post an image online to that service, and then add a link to the image URL to your comment.
I solved my copy/paste problem.
I went to X11 Preferences and unchecked the “Enable key equivalents under X11″. Then I quit X11 and re-opened it, then re-checked the box “Enable key equivalents under X11″ then quit and re-opened the program again.
Now I can copy using ctrl+c or the menu.
Daniel
Didn’t work for me.
When I first installed it, it worked one time, so I know there is some way to make it work.
Apparently, however, it is a known bug.
It seems to work well with the 15 inch MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard with the latest updates installed.
I am going to install Snow Leopard on my machine tomorrow and see if that takes care of the italics strangeness.
Phil,
After a system restart my copy issue has returned. Still if I turn off “Enable key equivalents under X11″, I can copy from the menus only. And, of course, no keyboard shortcuts will work.
Daniel
Even though there are serious usability errors using this beta in Tiger, I discovered that printing works great!
Hopefully this will help give someone a clue to figuring out the problem in the later Mac OSs.
My feeling is the file/directories are in different locations in Leopard and SL, breaking the printing “connections”.
Daniel
I just put this on a new unibody macbook. Virgin computer, no CrossOver.
Still no copy-paste function. No font problem, however.
The copy-paste function clearly has problems. Fonts must be related to some bad fonts on my machine.
Phil
Works great on my MacBook Pro 2.4 running Snow Leopard. Haven’t tried all functionality yet but everything I have tried works well. Exciting that the Mac version is here!
Since getting all the preferences checked correctly, it runs fine on my machine.
I have tried to get the standard copy/paste to work, but remain stuck with the Backwards Windows copy/paste (which was purposefully designed to not be the same as the Mac).
I cannot get the modifying files to modify anything. Hopefully that will be addressed in the final edition.
I am very impressed with the fellow who put this all together in such a short time. I am speechless with surprise and pleasure.
Just FYI, the location for Darwine has moved–it is now called WineBottler and can be downloaded at:
http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/
He’s done some good work on it.
Regards,
Nathan
Here are a few things that I have found and am wondering how to either remedy or suggest them to be fixed for the final product.
I am running Snow Leopard.
When you close X11 with out saving changes in EGW, it will close without saving changes.
When you close EGW X11 still remains running. Is there a way to close both at one time and then if you choose to close X11 is there a way to get a prompts to ask you to save before it closes out.
Will legacy of light be also made available to run just as the EGW 2008 Comprehensive CD-ROM?
THIS IS SOOOOO EXCITING!
Tara Marie, it is pretty much the standard behavior with all X11 apps (not just EGW) to leave X11 running after they quit. However, like you, I find it somewhat bothersome. Here is a workaround (found it here: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimer.....x_x11.html):
In Terminal, type:
defaults write org.x.X11 wm_auto_quit -bool true
If you want to change the delay for how long X11 waits before auto-quitting (by default it’s a few seconds), use this command:
defaults write org.x.X11 wm_auto_quit_timeout -int 3
(The “3″ is the number of seconds to delay, and can be changed to any number of seconds you prefer.)
You must quit and restart X11 to see the changes.
Michael: Thanks for the above link, but it is broken; it has a right parentheses mixed in at the end of the URL.
I’m not sure how useful the ‘auto quit’ would be. I still have to quit the X application and if I do that I might as well just quit X11.
Daniel
Well, I now have everything working correctly with .Xmodmap and selecting the proper preferences.
However, X11 will not close with the cmd-q and must be closed by mousing to the menu as was previously mentioned.
It is great to have this all working quickly and well. I will now remove my CrossOver and use this exclusively.
Phil,
See my previous comment to Tara Marie above for a method to make X11 quit automatically.
I have the choice, cmd-q and ctrl-c for copy or cmd-c for copy and not cmd-q.
Either choice works well, but neither is completely Mac. It will be interesting to see how this is solved.
I have noticed in N.W. 1828 Dictionary that some words are red bold print, where as some black bold…? I cannot find the reason or logic as to why some are and some aren’t. I thought of some reasons but there is no consistency with each thought so just thought I would mention this.
I am still just so excited that when I want to go to SOP I don’t have to turn on VM Fusion! I have it all there on Mac. This is joyful.
whew!
Tara Marie,
From my brief look, it appears that the black bold words are alternate definitions for words that are listed in red bold. At least this appeared to be the case on the few pages of definitions I scanned. I’d never used the dictionary before.
I have also noticed that in the L window pane if I have selected a topic and it is highlighted blue I can use the trackpad to scroll up and down with ease as well as with my mouse… shhh…. it’s a Microsoft mouse. However if I have double clicked the selection and it is no longer a solid blue selection but an outline of a box around the the same selected topic I cannot scroll in the left window pane using trackpad or mouse. The main display window will still scroll either way.
Since this is a new unibody MBP I have not installed the CD-ROM on VM Fusion so cannot test if that is the same for when it is running on Windows. I still have my old Mac at home and will check later. Even if it is the same in Windows couldn’t it be fixed so that a user could scroll regardless if they have double clicked on a topic? It would defiantly make it more user friendly.
I just happened to be randomly scrolling through the EGW Index and found under Air (atmosphere) that 5. Impure (polluted or vitiated) should probably be in blue as just is all the other heading topics. Unless because impure is sometimes noted as black. ;0) It is blue in the actual content area.
When in the EGW writings… Once you have made a note how are you to delete it? It doesn’t give the option to delete.
After spending quite some time trying different things I wen to close out and opted not to save any of my changes (that may or may not make a difference) but when I closed it then several windows the same size as the window I had been browsing in closed. Like let’s say you open up many documents at once and then they are cascaded view and then they all just closed immediately at least maybe 10-20 came out of no where and closed. It happened all so fast.
Blessings,
tara marie
I don’t know if this makes a difference or an indication of some small problem that could remain small or prove to be a huge glitch later on in using this program as such. I noticed when I go to expose or spaces the scoll bars become checkered in pattern but return to normal when it or the respective space is selected.
I don’t see that effect on my screen. However, if you look closely at the Windows scrollbars, you can see they are filled with a very fine checker pattern … it’s the cheap Windows way to make gray.
I suspect that when you shrink the windows you get what in design circles we call a moire or interference pattern, which often happens when patterns are scaled on computer displays (it happens because of the odd interactions between the “virtual pixels” in the pattern and the limitations of the physical pixels on the display). In that case it’s a harmless visual glitch.
Michael is correct – expose and other window scaling effects will cause that pixel-mashing.
There is a way to make WINE use a different drawing method. I set it on my Linux machine so I don’t get that effect. Now I’ve forgotten how to do it. It’s unlikely that the developers of the EGW CD will be tweaking that one.
Hello to all of you working on this project. I just downloaded the E.G. white file from this link http://whiteestate.org/cre/egw-cre08_b1.dmg on Friday 12-11-09 and used it to rap up a sermon for sabbath. It worked great except for the sensitive scrolling. some one else also experienced the same problem. I’m new to mac and have had my macbook pro for less than two weeks. Could you let me now when and where the next release is available for testing. I want to say thank you to all of you and PRAISE GOD!!!
Hi Chad,
The next beta will probably be released when the developer has worked out the copy and print bugs, plus a few others, like quitting with no warning to save any changes and quitting X11 at the same time as Folio. Also there are serious issues in using this release with Mac OS X 10.4 aka “Tiger”.
Daniel
Does anyone here know how to set the default nfo-base to open when the application starts?
I emailed Larry and Darryl but they don’t respond.
Daniel
Hi Daniel,
This should be already happening if you installed the EGW Mac beta that is being linked to here. If when you open the program, you do not see the Ellen G White Writings menu image in front of you, then something went wrong and you should probably try uninstalling and reinstalling.
If you installed your own copy of WINE or DARWINE and the EGW CD-rom, then read starting at the top of this page to get those answers.
Nathan
It sounds like you are going the Wine/Darwine route, and in that case, like Nathan said, you should read the detailed steps outlined above. It is possible to set the database to open automatically, but the steps are a bit complicated and it would just increase the wordiness of this thread to repeat them again.
Michael,
No, I am trying to get other installations working properly.
I have not had an install where it would open a default nfo-base automatically. Even on my (standard) Windows via Fusion install I have to choose the nfo-base every time I open Foilo. Under Fusion it isn’t so bad because I just ‘suspend’ the whole OS, and ‘un-suspend’ to start where I left off.
Do you think it is a registry entry?
Daniel
Okay in your Windows via Fusion setup that’s because you’ve made a shortcut to the application only rather than the full path that the EGW installer usually makes in the launcher – it points to the application, then passes another text string which is the location of the infobase to open.
Again, I’m sure we covered that further up on this page.
Thanks everyone for trying to help.
I got everything figured out now and seemingly everything is working fine in all three OSes.
I now have a fully working EGW CRE 2008 that I cobbled together myself. It prints and copy/pastes, too.
Now I’m working on getting the cursor to be Mac-like and the keyboard shortcuts to be Mac-like as well.
Daniel