.cab File Extraction

[Plaentiff]

I've recently tried to open a .cab file, so as to begin the process of extracting it. I noticed that neither Wine nor the indigenous archive manager could handle it, so I decided to seek Google's assistance and downloaded the following, to little result. Both cabextract and unshield don't seem to work as viable commands.


/home/benyamin/bin/data1.cab: WARNING; found InstallShield header. This is probably an InstallShield file. Use UNSHIELD (http://synce.sf.net) to unpack it.

/home/benyamin/bin/data1.cab: no valid cabinets found
So, I installed unshield and type



unshield -d /home/benyamin/bin/ x data1.cab
and the reply was,


Failed to open data2.cab as an InstallShield Cabinet File


So my question is obviously thus, how do I open and extract a .cab file then? I've attempted to simply install Windows Installer, but this bears no fruit as it is unable to set a volume or some such.

[akakingess]

As far as I know, a .cab file is specifically/only a Windows file, and to be exact it is for installations, so a Windows installer would store it's data in cab files for extraction during installation of software or whatever, so there is no use for a cab file within Ubuntu/Linux unless I am completely off base.

[warfacegod]

As far as I know, a .cab file is specifically/only a Windows file, and to be exact it is for installations, so a Windows installer would store it's data in cab files for extraction during installation of software or whatever, so there is no use for a cab file within Ubuntu/Linux unless I am completely off base.

I agree, .cabs are Windows OS files and as far as I know there would be no use for them in a Linux environment. Except possibly for writing a Windows virus.

[mechro]

I don't know how good or useful it is but cabextract is available via synaptic.

[akakingess]

I don't know how good or useful it is but cabextract is available via synaptic.

Could that be in case someone with only a Windows machine needed to send you something compressed and doing it via a cab file compresses better than say zipping it?

[Plaentiff]

The idea is to extract the files within the .cab file because installshield itself (ie, Windows Installer) doesn't function for me, despite using wine or an emulation. I've already attempted using cabextract - so please, I'm looking for possible solutions.

[mister_playboy]

You can try running Universal Extractor in WINE... I've had good luck with it.

http://legroom.net/software/uniextract

[mechro]

... I've already attempted using cabextract - so please

Oops.. sorry... I reread your opening post. :redface:

[akakingess]

The idea is to extract the files within the .cab file because installshield itself (ie, Windows Installer) doesn't function for me, despite using wine or an emulation. I've already attempted using cabextract - so please, I'm looking for possible solutions.

I sympathize, I really do, I just don't think that you are going to be able to find a solution aside from putting it on a flash disk and taking it to a Windows computer to extract it and then bring it back over to your Ubuntu machine. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, just don't think that you will have luck getting it unpacked under Linux. Good luck to you and I hope you find something that works for you.

EDIT: By the way, if I remember correctly, cab files were strictly for installation programs, because I don't even think I could get one to open on a Windows machine, but that was years ago, so hopefully either I am wrong or they have made a whole lot of progress.

[mechro]

Hmmm... cabextract is working on .cab files in my XP disc :-? example...

Copied support.cab to Desktop/cabtest, then...

anthony@anthony-desktop:~$ cd Desktop/cabtest
anthony@anthony-desktop:~/Desktop/cabtest$ cabextract support.cab

[Plaentiff]

You can try running Universal Extractor in WINE... I've had good luck with it.

http://legroom.net/software/uniextract

No-go, doesn't work.

[Marvin666]

I have a cab packing/extracting program that runs under wine. I'll have to boot into jaunty to see what it's called.

[Plaentiff]

If you could kindly do so and provide me with it's name, it would be much appreciated.

[pdv99]

To all those puzzled as to why somebody might want to extract .cab files on a Linux box - I have 2 pc's - one Windows and one Linux. The Windows machine has died 'cos it's lost some .dll files. I can't get it to restore them off my Windows CD so I want to extract just the missing files from the .cabs on the CD, and then pop them on a USB stick, boot the Windows machine off a Live copy of Ubuntu on a USB stick and restore my corrupt files without having to do a complete Windows re-install.