Can WINE offer a route to install EXE hardware drivers on a Ubuntu alone Ubuntu ?

[openick]

Hello

I have driver files that are files with file extensions exe cat inf sys ini

If WINE can read these files, can the exe files be run to install these WIMAX, MODEM and scn ( screen ? ) driver files on a Ubuntu only Ubuntu tablet ?[-o<

[cariboo]

The simple answer is no, wine doesn't have access to the hardware layer. What driver are you having a problem with?

[openick]

The simple answer is no, wine doesn't have access to the hardware layer. What driver are you having a problem with?

Hello Cariboo907,


Thank you for your reply.

These are apparently windows drivers for modem / wifi and possibly touch, for a touch tablet. The manufacturer sent me the windows drivers, wondering if there is a way to install the drivers, if I have to.

Thank you for the response. The files list is at page http://paste.ubuntu.com/571929/

[wishyjr]

this might be a little too heavy a solution but have you considered creating a windows virtual machine, then use the drivers on that?

[openick]

this might be a little too heavy a solution but have you considered creating a windows virtual machine, then use the drivers on that?


Hellow WishyJr

Thank you.

If that could be one of the solutions, I would very much like to go ahead and try. Should I try Virtual Box OSE ? Or is there any other solution that you would recommend?

The page http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/02/10/run-windows-in-a-virtual-machine-using-ubuntu-and-virtualbox/talks about some problems, particularly about USB not working, and cites and cites thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=341740 which leaves the problem unresolved.

What I have is a tablet PC without a keyboard and mouse, so I will need USB ports to connect the keyboard and mouse to work within virtual box

Q2: What commands do I type to enumerate hardware components without drivers ? At the moment sound does not work ( or not turned on ), wifi does not work, touch does not work, I am merely assuming that the drivers do not exist within Ubuntu. It is possible that some of these components could already work with the drivers already developed ( some with generic ??? drivers, such as the keyboard drivers that make any keyboard work )

Thank you.

[openick]

I am revisiting this thread after 6 months, to post some interesting information on my experiments on which I have not exactly kept a chronological log.


--- Tried either 11.04 or 11.10 and found the touch screen working, but no wifi
--- Used ndiswrapper to load wifi drivers - but wifi did not work
--- Deleted everthing and installed android 4, Touch was working
--- Installed 12.04 touch was not working, wifi was not working
--- Installed Windows 8 Developer Preview, loaded all windows drivers (windows 8 as dual boot)

( Had an issue with grub after that, boot repair resolved it )

Booted 12.04, WiFi and audio are WORKING, only problem left now is touch, about which I have created a post in installation & upgrades, with some attachments as the output of lsusb and lspci

( Posting this wondering why wifi is working now:

--- Is it because the hardware became active on the tablet after a one time installation of drivers in windows environment, irrrespective of whether windows is booted or not ?

--- Or a complex process of available drivers and windows drivers with ndiswrapper in a previous ubuntu installation (11.04 or 11.10) is retained by the new installation even after the ubuntu partition has been replaced with a new 12.04 installation? )

If this is interesting, I am open to posting the output of any command in this thread.

Thank you