Lock a version of a software

This is a very important thing to know if you like a particular version of a software. I'll give you an example to clarify. The current version of Wine is 1.1.41. However most of the Windows programs I have dont run on it. I have found that another version 1.1.31 does the job pretty well. Now if you have installed Wine or have repositories of it enabled, you might unknowingly update your Wine to the latest version, and lose the functionality of it (which is true in my case). I gave the example with Wine, but this applies to any other application.

So, what do you do in such a situation? The answer is surprisingly simple. There is a function in Synaptic which allows you to 'lock' a particular version so that it doesnt update or stays 'as is'.

Here's how you 'lock' a version of any particular software. The screenshots given below has been done with respect to a particular software (Wine in this case), but the same procedure applies to everything else as well.

First up, go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. There, search for your software (in this case its Wine1.2), and select it.



Next, go to the Package option and select/click on Lock version:



After you have done that you will find that a small Lock sign appears next to the software name:



Thats pretty much it! You will now not be updated to a later version of the software unless you un-select the Lock version option.

Wine Application Database

I'm not sure how many of you know of this, but WINE (the Windows emulator for Linux) has an application database which lists how each and every software will work on it. It has Platinum, Gold and Silver categories which is representative of the functionality/responsiveness of the program. So before you buy a Windows game or a software, you might want to check out if the game/software is included in the list.

Link : Wine Application Database

Cartman's Authoritah

Thats Cartman from South Park in case you havent guessed it already. Cartman's Authoritah is a really cool, light weight game which in my opinion every South Park fan should have a go at (and yes, it includes the choicest of Cartman quotes). By the way, its a Windows game. Worry not though, because it works perfectly (yes, absolutely perfectly) under WINE. (If you havent installed WINE yet, you should check out this link here: How To Install WINE)

The screenshot of the game is given below (Cartman and Kenny):



I dont usually recommend using Windows games on Ubuntu simply because they can sometime be very buggy, but I'll make an exception in this case though. The game is absolutely free and the best part is its only 1.43 MB!

So, you have absolutely no reason not to download it and give the game a try.

You can download the game from Download.CNET.com, the link is here: Cartman's Authoritah

Remove programs from WINE

Now uninstalling programs installed under WINE is pretty easy isnt it? But sometimes, even though you have uninstalled a program, the menus of it might persist in the GNOME Menu > WINE > Programs

This is quite a common problem with an easy solution. The next time you see list of programs in the menu which you have already uninstalled, do this:

Go to /home/username/.local/share/applications/wine/Programs folder (the username being your username) and delete the files which have the names of that already removed program.

Thats it! Close the folder and check the GNOME menu now, your WINE menu will be exactly as it should be.




(For tips on how you should install WINE and modify it to benefit you, check out another blog post of mine here)

Install WINE

Wine (Microsoft Windows Compatibility layer) is one of the most loved softwares on Ubuntu. What it does is allows you to run Windows files on Ubuntu. Say you want to play a game which doesnt have a Linux counterpart, or say a software whose windows versions are popular, what do you do? Simple, install Wine and play the game exactly as you would on Windows!

So how do you install Wine? Well thankfully its in the Ubuntu repositories.

First up go to Ubuntu Software Center and type "Wine", you'll get the following search results:



Next select the Wine beta option (its better to select beta since it has loads of bug fixes compared to the stable version, ironically! :) ) as shown in the previous pic and install it:



Thats it! Now whenever you come across a .exe file or any Windows supported file, just right click on it and select the option to open the file with Wine. It will then run exactly as it would on Windows.

Extra Tips:

Here's some really useful info. Wine actually modifies your Firefox tahoma font and unfortunately that will make all your firefox fonts look really really weird! Eg. bold fonts would look like regular fonts etc. There's a way to undo the damage without affecting Wine at all. What you need to do is go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. From there, search "ttf-tahoma-replacement" in the search bar. It will obviously be installed on your system (considering you've already installed Wine).

So what you do is basically select the package and mark for complete removal of it (just the "ttf-tahoma-replacement" package, nothing else). Click on "Apply" to remove the pack.



And once you have removed the font pack, your synaptic should look like this once you search for "ttf-tahoma-replacement" again in the search bar (the pack should be deactivated/unselected):



I had to figure this thing out by myself. I havent found any other tutorial which explains this Firefox font problem solution.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed finding it out!