Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Flashing hardware via WINE ?

On 03/19 11:20, Kai Krakow wrote:
> Am Sun, 19 Mar 2017 09:57:22 +0100
> schrieb tuxic@××××××.de:
>
> > On 03/19 09:37, Kai Krakow wrote:
> > > Am Sun, 19 Mar 2017 09:09:51 +0100
> > > schrieb tuxic@××××××.de:
> > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > I have a smart NiMH-charger with serial port (normally used to
> > > > dump chargeing curves to the PC).
> > > > The chargers firmware can bei flashed with a flashtool provided
> > > > by the vendor. The communication is via serial port. I have
> > > > a PCI=>serial.ports-card installed in my PC.
> > > >
> > > > The command
> > > >
> > > >     file <flashing tool>
> > > >
> > > > results in this information
> > > >
> > > >     PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows
> > > >
> > > > . As Linux user by heart I have no Windows.
> > > >
> > > > May the attempt to install wine and use it for this purpose
> > > > a thinkable way or are the precoditions that way, that it
> > > > is due to those a NO-NO...?
> > >
> > > Flashing via serial port should be no problem from within Wine. It
> > > requires no special driver implementation.
> > >
> > > However, if the hardware implements its own driver behind the serial
> > > port, it won't work anyways because on the Wine side there will be
> > > no such driver.
> > >
> > > So I think, it should either work or fail early without doing
> > > damage.
> > >
> > >
> > > > Does anyone have experience with such an attempt?
> > >
> > > I'm usually doing such things from VirtualBox by passing through the
> > > hardware (usually USB, that's easily done from within the GUI).
> > >
> > > VirtualBox can also pass COM ports to the VM. You may want to try
> > > that as a second chance.
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Regards,
> > > Kai
> > >
> > > Replies to list-only preferred.
> >
> > Hi Kai (that's a rhyme! :)
>
> Yeah, I know that one... If you are from Germany, you'll also get why
> my former nick (some years ago) was "Shark" :-)
>
> > I have installed Virtualbox already and use the Linux Image I
> > installed there for banking purposes only. Feels more secure.
>
> So something like application virtualization... You could maybe run in
> an isolated container, only exposing the xserver or run inside a nested
> xserver. It would probably greatly reduce startup times and not waste a
> complete image.
>
> > I would prefer the WIndows-in-a-(virtual)box-solution) as you
> > do -- if I would own a Windows installation disc. But do not.
>
> Well, you can easily get an image from MS using a Linux browser. Just
> go to the Windows 10 download page. It will show a selection form to
> choose the ISO instead of the nasty downloader they present to Windows
> browsers. Then install this inside the VM. Even if not activated, it
> runs for 1-2 hours before shutting down which should be enough for most
> purposes you'll need it for.
>
> If you already activated a Windows installation with your MS account,
> with some luck your Win10 VM may even become digitally activated (this
> happened to me). No cracks involved. Should be legal enough. ;-)
>
> > But it is good to know, that the wine-workaround would either
> > work or fail too early to damage anything.
>
> I tried some, and all failed because they didn't even find the device.
> The ones that worked where either network based (flashing via IP
> protocol) or using other simple interfaces (COM or LPT).
>
> > Is there anything important to know before doing an emerge
> > of wine (need I more than app-emulation/wine?) -- I have
> > literally no experience with this emulator - the flashing
> > tool is a 32bit gui application...) ???
>
> Wine = wine is no emulater ;-)
>
> Actually, it's the Windows API implemented as .so files plus an EXE
> loader to enable the kernel to run PE binaries (instead of ELF). So
> nothing is emulated, it's running native. There's also a thin layer of
> drivers implemented to transform API calls to native kernel interfaces,
> like HID (for input devices). So everything connecting to simple
> HID-USB should also work (some custom USB hardware just implement a HID
> interface, it's simple and cheap).
>
> If your applications work depends on if the required parts of the API
> had been implemented (including the bugs that exists between different
> versions of Windows).
>
> So, with this knowledge, you simply emerge wine with the useflags that
> look useful to you. If you don't need graphics (DirectX) or don't want
> to apply your linux GUI theme to Windows apps, you can ignore the
> staging useflag. Wine can be compiled with both 64bit and 32bit support.
>
> After installation, get familiar with the winecfg utility. It allows
> mapping unix path to Windows drive letters. And it allows to set
> Windows version per EXE you run (to expose different API bugs and
> behavior to your application). Also, you can set DDL overrides (which
> is what Windows itself uses when you run applications in compatibility
> mode, or when you put DLL overrides manually in the registry). Tho,
> here you can decide between native (native DLL on filesystem) or builtin
> (*.dll.so file from Wine), and the order in which they are tried.
>
> You may also run with different WINEDEBUG settings if you want to work
> out problems. There are fixme lines which usually show stub
> implementations of API calls (functions that do nothing, and are there
> just to return success or fail). You can use it like this:
>
> # WINEDEBUG=-all wine your-exe-file.exe
>
> If you'd like to easily manage different Wine prefixes, I'd recommend
> using PlayOnLinux - it's not only useful to games. It also has a long
> list of scripted installers for installing popular Windows extensions
> that you may need (fonts, VB runtimes, C runtimes) in different
> versions.
>
> And then, maybe you want to use winetricks, tho it may be a bit tricky
> to run this with PlayOnLinux because it will default to the
> non-PlayOnLinux wine prefix. Easy work-around: Launch a commandline
> shell from within PlayOnLinux and run winetricks there.
>
> With PlayOnLinux you can easily reset or discard wine prefixes if you
> messed up. Also, you can see each prefix as some sort of compatibility
> profile you individually crafted per Windows application you are
> running.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Kai
>
> Replies to list-only preferred.
>
>

Hallo Kai,

jupp - ich bin aus Deutschland...die Sache mit dem "Shark"
ist ja nett! :)

Yepp - I am from germany...the "Shark" nickname is nice! :)

The problem with "secure banking" is two sided: First it has
to be secure from the technical point of view and secondlu
-- in case of being hacked -- the "experts"
from the credit institute has to be convinced, that everything
was done to secure the banking tasks.
In latter case a "complete isolation" via Virtualbox seems
more intuitively to be understood than more advanced
setups with the same technical degree of security.
See here for more:
https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Hacker-brechen-aus-virtueller-Maschine-aus-3658416.html

Back to bussiness: Wine wth a 32bit flashtool is not suitable for me,
since I am running a pure 64bit (no multilib) Gentoo setup.

I think I have to send the charger to the vendor 
for updateing it...sigh.

Cheers
Meino