Linux: Rebirth 338 & wine

[^rooker]

Rebirth is an old music application (drum sequencer, synthesizer sound, ...) which has been released freely on http://www.rebirthmuseum.com.
(Unfortunately, it's not real Free Software - I mean: GPL)

I'm still kind of stuck to this program, so I wanted to try using it with Wine (v0.9.59). Here's howto get it working on Kubuntu Hardy:


1) Download the CD-ROM .iso image from www.rebirthmuseum.com

2) Unzip it, so that you have the .iso file.

3) Create a mount point for that image file:

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sudo mkdir -p /mnt/rebirth

4) Mount the image:

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sudo mount -o loop -t iso9660 /path/to/rebirth/image/rebirth.iso /mnt/rebirth

If you want it to be persistent (or at least more conveniently mountable), enter it in /etc/fstab by adding this line:

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/path/to/rebirth/image/rebirth.iso /mnt/rebirth iso9660 loop,user,noauto

Then you can simply do a "mount /mnt/rebirth" - even as non-root user.

5) Install ReBirth, by starting "Install ReBirth RB-338.EXE".
Known problem: Due to security reasons, memory handling for 16-bit support was changed in recent Ubuntu updates, so you might run into this error:

winevdm: unable to exec '--app-name': 16-bit support missing

You can workaround this problem by changing sysctl parameters first:

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sudo sysctl -w vm.mmap_min_addr=0

6) Configure Wine to mark /mnt/rebirth as CD-drive.
(Either start "winecfg" from the commandline, or open the application menu and select "Wine > Configure Wine")

- There, select "Drives" and add "/mnt/rebirth" as e.g. "D:"
- Click on "Show Avanced"
- Select Type: "CD-ROM"
- Manually assign: "Label": RB338V20

And confirm with "OK".

----
That's it. You should now be able to run the official and free ReBirth version in Wine.
The link to winehq's application database for ReBirth might help with future problems.

[^rooker]

Wine v0.9.59 has a problem with JACK audio output that results in the following error message:

errJACK_callback_wwo buffer underrun of xxx frames

This bug should be fixed since version 0.9.61 - so upgrade to a more recent version of wine (in my case, v1.0 worked):
Instructions for Ubuntu and Debian can be found at http://www.winehq.org/site/download-deb

[^rooker]

Rebirth won't take the mounted ISO as its CD:

Please insert the ReBirth RB-338 2.0 CD.
Waiting for CD...

Wine seems to be unable to provide label and serial-number of ISOs, so you need to symlink the iso manually. Here's an excerpt from an ubuntuforums.org thread, called "Wine Programs Can't Detect Mounted .iso":

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Wine manages a directory $HOME/.wine/dosdevices where symbolic links for mapping Windows-drives to locations in your filesystem are held. Just enter the directory in a terminal and examine it yourself (ls -l command).

There are links that have one colon (e.g. E which are refering to the mapping directory in your filesystem, and there drive-letters followed by two colons, which are used to point to a actual physical device (e.g. D: -> /dev/cdrom).
So I not only tried to loop-mount my iso and bind it to drive E:, but also to bind the "physical drive" E:: to the iso itself, so that the windows software may find the cd's serial and stuff. And guess what, it worked at least for me
------------------

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$ sudo mount -o loop ~/rebirth-image.iso /mnt/rebirth
$ cd ~/.wine/dosdevices
$ ln -s /mnt/rebirth e:
$ ln -s ~/rebirth-image.iso e::

Thanks viktor, you saved my day!

[^rooker]

[PROBLEM]
If you have to use the jack output within wine, which seems to be somewhat "unsupported" at the moment, you might experience crackles in the audio output.

[SOLUTION]
In my case, selecting an individual jack output (e.g. JACK WaveOut 0) as sound device within the Windows application, the sound crackled. Selecting "Primary Sound Driver" as audio device removed the crackling noise.

However, this means that you lose control over which channels you can output individually.