See if VarAC's author might help with more Wine compatability

[WheezyE]

I might need to email the author with some more suggestions for Linux/Wine users:

• There are no default values for VARA HF file path, IP, Main port, KISS port, file transfer limits/directories, or logging settings: I can set these with sed for users on first install, but I'm afraid this is kind of a messy solution that over time could randomly cause instabilities. <--- EDIT: I think that there are defaults, they just aren't set in the config file initially.
• The program doesn't seem to be able to locate its own home directory while run from Wine (it ends up putting its config files in the user's home directory): This is kind of messy for users and could lead some users to delete their settings file without realizing.
• VarAC seems to only run from commandline if invoked via the home directory (which is why shortcuts work but invoking VarAC inside its own directory doesn't run VarAC).
• Request an icon file be included in the releases so that we can create a desktop shortcut to it? (currently no start menu icons are made by the program to link an icon file to in Wine) <-- EDIT: Extracting the program icon works.
• The VarAC.ini settings file only has a [VARAHF_CONFIG] section (which lists variables named VarahfMainPath= etc) which is set for VARA HF, but also for VARA FM (and probably Sat). Request different variables to store locations of the different modems.

[SpudGunMan]

Interesting I haven't seen issues like this files stay where expected (I think I will also retest I got his email if needed new 6.6 alpha as well)

Let me know if I can help - I have been using the app reasonably well some features he is just disabling via code for Linux like spellcheck and new voice-text stuff

[WheezyE]

I was able to make progress because of your PR. Thank you!

Yeah .conf & .ini files appear in the VarAC directory (in the ~/.wine/ folder), but the .ini files don't get used. VarAC also then creates new .conf & .ini files made inside ~/. that VarAC is actually reading/writing to.

[WheezyE]

Notes on extracting VarAC icon from .exe in Linux
1a) Proof of concept (reference)

sudo apt-get install icoutils -y
wrestool -l ${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/VarAC.exe' | grep group_icon
#output: --type=14 --name=32512 --language=0 [type=group_icon offset=0x8b68b8 size=76]
wrestool -x -n '32512' ${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/VarAC.exe' > varac.ico

1b) Automatic with grep & variables (reference)

sudo apt-get install icoutils -y
ICONNAME=$(wrestool -l ${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/VarAC.exe' | grep -o -P '(?<=--name=)(.*?)(?= --.*type=group_icon)')
wrestool -x -n "${ICONNAME}" ${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/VarAC.exe' > ${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/varac.ico'

2. EDIT: This works too lol (reference)

wrestool -x --output=${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/varac.ico' -t14 ${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/VarAC.exe'

EDIT: Linux doesn't like windows .ico files (prefers .png files)

mkdir ${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/img/'
icotool -x -o ${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/img/' ${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/varac.ico' # https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/impish/man1/icotool.1.html
VARACICON="$(basename $(find ${HOME}'/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/img/' -maxdepth 1 -type f  -printf "%s\t%p\n" | sort -n | tail -1 | awk '{print $NF}'))" # https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/565995
echo $VARACICON

No current way to do this with wine alone (reference)

[WheezyE]

Now that I feel I have a better grasp of how VarAC functions and some of its bugs, I've made some requests on the forum
https://www.varac-hamradio.com/forum/bug-reports/on-linux-wine-varac-cannot-find-its-config-files
https://www.varac-hamradio.com/forum/feature-requests/config-file-layout-ideas

[SpudGunMan]

FYI the latest alpha version I needed to add fonts to keep the errors away
sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

[SpudGunMan]

I did this to handle missing fonts in the corefont pack I have not tested much but there is currently an error for missing font this might correct https://github.com/SpudGunMan/segoe-ui-linux