I have gotten enough requests regarding how I got CrossOver Office 3.0.1 to install MS Office XP, and in the process evidently cure some problems in installing some other software as well, that I am going ahead and posting here.
It boiled down to looking at the log file details, and fishing through Microsoft's own support pages on known problems. The problems don't seem to be in Codeweaver's version of WINE, but in what other vendor's software are expecting to already exist in in MS-Windows -- they have coded to maladys and mistakes as if they were the normal, and even MS's own software suffers from this.
I sent this to Codeweavers in Oct, and they said they might be able to account for some of these issues in the X-Ofc 4.0 release.
--------------Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 11:58 pm
Post subject: Re: MS Ofc XP on CrossOver--------------I finally got it to work, but it wasn't easy. It must be common problems installing on real MS Windows systems, because every one of the problems turns out to be documented on the Microsoft support site. I had to weed through the text of the error messages, the installation log files, and several articles on Microsoft's website.
It turns out that MS Office XP has problems installing on real Win-XP systems, with the exact same errors. And these errors must be fairly common, because there are tech support articles on them on MS's website.
As if that isn't enough, after you solve one problem, there is another that is also documented on MS's website. And another after that. It took 9 shots through the errors to final get an install.
The first error is regarding "system files" needing installed. Microsoft documents this in their article 286398
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;286398
My copy of MS Office XP Standard Edition for Students & Teachers does not have the required 'msagent' server on its CD's. So you have to go to Microsoft's MS Agent page to download a free copy:
http://www.microsoft.com/products/msagent/default.asp
And of course it won't install with the instructions included (of course using Crossover's installation of "unsupported" software exe file). So you have to go to Microsoft's troubleshooting page about this:
http://www.microsoft.com/products/msagent/support/user/install.asp
After trying to follow those instructions, you get another error about needing "system files" that don't seem to be on the CD. This leads us to another documented problem: 304907
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304907
This leads you to edit the window's registry files in the ~/.cxoffice/dotwine directory (*.reg), and download another file, MSDE2000:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=413744D1-A0BC-479F-BAFA-E4B278EB9147&displaylang=en
Are we having fun yet?
You also have to manually install the latest Internet Explorer directly from the Crossover Office installer (it knows how to download it directly), and use the installer to install all of the suggested font files. I got this from the Crossover manual, and from Codeweaver's website. (Use the Debian suggestions to add these to share folders for use in X-Windows and Open Office/Star Office; this way you have the same fonts for MS Office and Star Office)
You also end up with another downloaded file "tv_enua.exe" from the Microsoft downloads that the Microsoft docs say you need to fix this, but it won't install in Crossover Office.
No matter, if you now try installing the MS Office XP CD, the system files now seem to be in place and it goes into installing the software itself. This part works without a hitch. Total downloaded files needed to make this work:
MSagent.exe, MSDE2000A.exe, ReadmeMSDE2000A.htm, tv_enua.exe
and CrossOver's auto-download of MS-IE and font files.
If anyone wants a copy of the verbose log files during these installation steps, just ask -- they are large and many.
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-- Scott G. Hall Raleigh, NC, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc
