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4. Free Agent

4.1. Setting up Free Agent

4.1.1. Configuring Wine for Free Agent

Wine is capable of "emulating" many different versions of Windows. Wine is not perfect, however; it runs slower than a normal Windows installation and it is not a stable product. Certain problems occur when running Free Agent; these are discussed in the "Problems and Issues" section of the document.

Before Free Agent can be run under Linux, a certain file from a Windows installation need to be copied to Free Agent's root directory. The instructions are similar for both Windows 98SE and Windows XP configurations. Below are the instructions describing how to configure Wine for Free Agent.

First, find the section "[Version]" in the .wine/config file, and make sure that "win98" is the version Wine will imitate: 

     [Version]
     ; Windows version to imitate (win95,win98,winme,nt351,nt40,win2k,winxp,win20,win30,win31)
     "Windows" = "win98"

Next, add an entry to the "AppDefaults" section which will also tell Wine to use certain files from Windows rather than Wine. 

    ;; sample AppDefaults entries

    [AppDefaults\\agent.exe\\DllOverrides]
    "comdlg32.dll" = "native"

4.1.2. Copying and/or Installing Required Files

Several DLL files must first be copied to the root Free Agent directory from an existing Windows installation.

If Free Agent lies on a Windows partition on the same machine, you must copy the DLL files to the Free Agent root directory. Free Agent will be run from this directory on the Windows partition.

If Free Agent is being run on a Linux-only machine, you must download Free Agent to your fake C drive (usually $HOME/c). You must then use the supplied installer according to the instructions in the subsection below entitled "Using the Installer." Alternatively, you may copy an existing Free Agent folder to your fake C drive. The root Free Agent directory must include the DLL files mentioned in the following subsections.

4.1.2.1. Using the Installer

To install Free Agent, simply download the installer to your fake C drive, open up a terminal window, navigate to your fake C drive, and type: 

     wine installer.exe
(where installer is the name of the installer). Installation should work fine from here. Be sure to copy the DLL files mentioned in the rest of this section to your Free Agent root directory before running the program.

4.1.2.2. Copying required files

The Windows DLL file comdlg32.dll needs to be copied to the Free Agent root directory. Under Windows 98SE, the file is usually located in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\. Under Windows XP, the file is usually located in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\.

4.2. Running Free Agent

Using a terminal window, navigate to the root Free Agent directory and type: 

     wine agent.exe

Use Free Agent normally, noting the exceptions in the next section, entitled "Problems and Issues" Note that these are problems with Wine's "emulation," not Free Agent.

4.3. Problems and Issues

4.3.1. Fixed-width fonts and alt.ascii-art

ASCII art requires fixed-width fonts to view. Only the font "Misc Fixed" will work.

To change the font, go into Options -> Display Preferences -> Fonts -> Fixed-Pitch Body. Make sure the font "Misc Fixed" is being used.

4.3.2. Cannot post binaries

If a Wine version greater than 20030813 is being used, an attempt to add an attachment to a message will not open a file dialog box. Try to use Wine version 20030813 whenever possible.

4.3.3. Cannot save messages or binary attachments

If a Wine version greater than 20030813 is being used, an attempt to save a message or binary attachment will not open a file dialog box. Try to use Wine version 20030813 whenever possible.

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