[SOLVED] PlayOnLinux will not mount Office 2003 CD

[Randall]

I am running Mageia 3 and have PlayOnLinux installed. I opened PlayOnLinux, clicked "Install", clicked "Office", and then Microsoft Office 2003. I inserted my Office 2003 CD, clicked "Install, then "Other", and then "Next". The next window said "Where is mounted your CD-ROM?" The box below that already contained "/media/cdrom", so I just clicked the "Next" button. I then got "Error: Unable to find the CD-ROM".

[ghmitch]

Randall, Did you make sure the Office 2003 CD was MOUNTED? CDs do not necessarily automount when inserted in the drive. Sometimes there needs to be user interaction to guarantee this step. - George

[Randall]

I restarted the laptop with the Microsoft Office 2003 CD in it, and after Mageia booted I got an icon on the right side of the taskbar that when I clicked on it, it said "Available Devices - Optical Disc - Office". So I assumed the CD was mounted. I then tried using PlayOnLinux again to install Office, but got the same "Error: Unable to find the CD-ROM".

[doktor5000]

after Mageia booted I got an icon on the right side of the taskbar that when I clicked on it, it said "Available Devices - Optical Disc - Office". So I assumed the CD was mounted.

Did you open the CD in some file manager? Please try that and make sure you see the contents, before you try the installation.

[Randall]

Yes. When I clicked the taskbar's icon, it gave 3 options, and I clicked "Open with File Manager", which then showed a window with 89 files.

[lomion]

This is happend because Usr move in Mageia 3. Playonlinux is looking on a wrong place. It must be /run/media... or something.

[ghmitch]

If there is a USR MOVE issue going on here, that would indicate that it might be Bugzilla time.

[Randall]

I tried /run/media and got the same error message. I have done some Google searches and found that some people are having problems installing Microsoft Office with the latest version of WINE, which is what PlayOnLinux uses. They have to remove the latest version of WINE and download and install an earlier 1.2 version of WINE. Unfortunately, when using WINE 1.2, activation of the software did not work, so he had to install the latest version of WINE in the Debian repository. Once WINE 1.4.1 was running, activating the software was no problem, and Office 2003 worked.
I downloaded WINE 1.2, but have been unable to install it.

[ghmitch]

Interesting. Currently available Mageia versions of wine are wine-1.3.20-2.mga1.i586.rpm, wine-1.4-1.mga2.i586.rpm, wine-1.4.1-1.mga2.i586.rpm, wine-1.5.27-1.mga3.i586.rpm (the one you had the problem with) and wine-1.6-0.rc4.4.mga4.i586.rpm (Cauldren). There should probably be a bug report filed against wine-1.5.27-1.mga3.i586.rpm regarding this issue. ALSO ... please mark this topic as "SOLVED"!

[doktor5000]

From what i can see, the topic is not yet solved. Also, how should we fix bugs caused by proprietary software?
From reports in the Wine forums and the AppDB entries for Office 2003, it also works fine with later wine version, even with 1.5.xx.

[ghmitch]

Once WINE 1.4.1 was running, activating the software was no problem, and Office 2003 worked.

This would *seem* to indicate that he found a solution to the problem. Unless, of course, the possibility that wine was never the problem at all and and the successful install was just a coincidence, ... or I am missing something here?

Also, how should we fix bugs caused by proprietary software?

This problem appears to be a problem with wine which is NOT proprietary software since it is the generic wine packaged with Mageia.

From reports in the Wine forums and the AppDB entries for Office 2003, it also works fine with later wine version, even with 1.5.xx.

That fact that it seemingly didn't work with Mageia could have something to do with Randall's unique configuration, or it could have something to do with some other aspect of Mageia. According to Randall "I have done some Google searches and found that some people are having problems installing Microsoft Office with the latest version of WINE". Note the work "some". Unfortunately, Randall may have simply ended up being a part of the "some". But it really does seem that he has a satisfactory solution in place, at least until the next wine update comes along. I do think he should probably submit a bug report against wine though so that this incident is on record at least.

[Ken-Bergen]

Once WINE 1.4.1 was running, activating the software was no problem, and Office 2003 worked.

This would *seem* to indicate that he found a solution to the problem. Unless, of course, the possibility that wine was never the problem at all and and the successful install was just a coincidence, ... or I am missing something here?

In the post you quote he's referring to his google search for a solution.

He still appears not to have solved his problem.

[Randall]

I first tried installing Office 2003 from its CD through PlayOnLinux. I now tried another way. I restarted laptop with Office CD already inserted and then got an icon in the taskbar that if I clicked on it I got a small window that said "Available Devices - Optical Disc - OFFICE11", with 3 options that allowed me to select "Open with File Manager". I opened the File Manager -> right-clicked setup.exe -> General tab, where under "Location" it said the following:
/run/media/randall/OFFICE11
I then clicked the "Permissions" tab and it showed "is executable" was not enabled. I tried enabling it, but was not allowed to.
I clicked setup.exe and got a dialog box that said, "The program setup.exe has encountered a serious problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience. This can be caused by a problem in the program or a deficiency in Wine. You may want to check the Application Database for tips about running this application".
I then opened PlayOnLinux -> Install -> Office -> Microsoft Office 2003 -> Clicked "Next" in the next window -> In the next window, clicked "Other", which then showed /media/cdrom. I deleted that and entered /run/media/randall/OFFICE11
It then installed Office, but I got a dialog box that said installation had failed. But when I closed that dialog box I got another dialog box that said installation was successful. I now can go to PlayOnLinux -> tool bar - Configure -> It shows Office2003 and Office2007. The right pane says "Please select a program or virtual drive to configure". I clicked Office2003 and got a window with 5 tabs. I clicked the "Configure" tab -> "Add application" button -> I entered Office2003. It showed Global setting, but I changed it to Windows XP. One of the other 5 tabs is "General", which has a button for "Make a new shortcut from the virtual drive". Should I do that?
I am running Wine 1.5.27. I went to Wine's Configurator and entered Office2003 because that is how it was listed in PlayOnLinux.
I am still not able to open an Office 2003 document, and Office is not listed in Mageia's launch menu.
I went to the Wine web site, and in the left column, under AppDB, clicked "Browse Apps". On the next page, in the "Name" box, I entered "Office". On the next page I scrolled to and clicked on "Microsoft Office (installer only). On the next page I scrolled to and clicked on 2003. On the next page, I clicked the "Show all tests" button and it showed that Mandriva 2009.1 (Spring) passed the "Installs" and "Runs" tests for Office 2003 Pro using Wine 1.5.21, so I assume that Mageia 3 would also pass the tests using the Wine 1.5.27 that I have installed. But I have Office 2003 Basic (includes Word, Excel, and Outlook), and not the Office 2003 Pro that was used in the Wine test.

[ghmitch]

Part of the problem could be due to Microsoft's wide diversity of Office titles. MS tends to do things in a way that you are never quite sure of what you are getting. Is it the basic title or the professional title ... or a "lite" title. Is it the retail version or the OEM version. Back in my Windows days that is one of the things I got frustrated with. One user has a problem and another doesn't. If Play on Linux is looking for a correct "template" it may not be seeing it. Who knows? This wine stuff is wonderful when it works, I used it for a while and have been tempted to use it again. But it is just this sort of hit and miss pattern that have kept me from falling in love with it. I don't mind titles that are custom wine packaged by the ISVs, they always work, but the do it yourself stuff is definitely hit and miss. Native software is the way to go for sure, but there are difficulties in procuring what one needs to function on that level so it is not a total solution either. But doktor was correct in terms of his comments about proprietary software support. The ability to use a specific Windows exe is certainly not guaranteed and getting it to work properly could easily prove more trouble than what it is worth.

[Randall]

I just installed Office 2003. I download the older Wine 1.2 version from http://www.oldapps.com/linux/winehq_for ... 6?download and then extracted Wine 1.2 to the desktop. I did not remove Wine 1.5.27, so I have two versions of Wine. I then opened PlayOnLinux, clicked "Install" in its toolbar, clicked Office, clicked Office 2003, clicked "Other", entered /run/media/randall/OFFICE11, and for the first time I got the window where I could enter my Office 2003 CD's product key number. Installation completed and I now have icons on my desktop for Word, Excel, and Outlook. I then activated Office online.