Running RBP on Ubuntu via Wine

[billw]

Introduction
Do you use Ubuntu Linux? Want to use Run BASIC, but don't want to wait until a Linux version is available? This guide will show you how.

Note that you'll probably need internet access, and will definitely need a modern browser that supports JavaScript and cookies (such as Mozilla Firefox 2). Also, I'm using Xubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon". Different versions and distros may have slightly (or radically) different instructions. Your mileage may vary.

Part 1 - Wine
Before you start, make sure Wine is set up on your computer. If it is, you can skip to Part 2.

Okay, let's install Wine. These instructions are not exhaustive, and if you run into issues, you'll need to use your distro's support channels (whether it's IRC, a mailing list, or whatever).

Try your distro's package manager, then apt-get (see below), then the Wine website. To install Wine using apt-get, run the following command in a terminal window:

sudo apt-get install wine

Enter your password at the prompt, and WINE will be automatically downloaded and installed.

Part 2 - Install Run BASIC
Once you have Wine installed, download the Run BASIC installer and save it to your desktop. Now, open up a terminal window, navigate to your Desktop folder, and type:

gksudo wine rbp1setup.exe

You'll be prompted for your password. Enter it, and then wait a moment. You might want to use this opportunity to get a soda or use the bathroom (hopefully not at the same time). Once the Run BASIC installer opens, click the start button, making sure not to change the destination path. Once it is done installing, click the "OK" button. Run BASIC is now installed.

Part 3 - Running the RBP Console
Next, you'll want to create a script to open up the RBP Console window. Don't try to use the icons in the Application menu - they won't work properly.

Open up your favorite text editor, and type (or copy-and-paste) the following code, and save it to your desktop as "runbasic.sh":

cd /root/.wine/drive_c/rbp
gksudo wine rbp.exe rb.im

Next, try to run it by double-clicking on it. If it opens up in a text editor application, you'll have to configure your system to run shell scripts in Terminal by default. In Xubuntu, this is as simple as right-clicking the script, selecting "Open With Other Application", expanding the "Use a custom command" area, typing "bash" in the box, and clicking the "OK" button.

Once again, you'll be prompted for your password. It will take a few moments for everything to configurate itself, so hang in tight. Once the Run BASIC console is open, you can begin to use Run BASIC.

Part 4 - Using Run BASIC
Open up your browser and point it to http://localhost:8008/seaside/go/runbasicpersonal. Type in your username and password (since you've just installed, they'll be "username" and "password", respectively). Congratulations! You've just installed Run BASIC Personal on Linux.

Appendix 1 - Notes
Your mileage may vary. I'm running the latest version of Wine, Xubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon", and Run BASIC Personal RC1. I don't imagine anything will be horribly different on most other distributions.

The "Launch in Browser" button works, but it runs Firefox (or whatever your default browser is) as root (because it's root, too), meaning your profile, extensions, and such won't be available. It's best to just bookmark the login page in your browser.

I haven't played around with RB too much, but I don't imagine that anything will be much different, since it's browser-based.

If you use this tutorial, please let me know what works and what doesn't work, so others can learn and I can revise/correct. Remember, knowledge wants to be free.

Hope this helps out!
- Bill

EDIT 12/19/2007 6:36 PM ET - modified instructions so RBP is run as root. If you used this method before this edit, you'll need to uninstall and reinstall RB using the revised instructions.

[Jerry Muelver]

Nice job, Bill. I appreciate it, since I run Ubuntu on a laptop and a bigbox here. I've got memory upgrades on order, and they should be here sometime next week. I'm thinking 256Meg won't quite do the job.... I'll be back to run through your instructions then.

[billw]

Okay, I have found two issues, one of which is pretty serious.

The first is relatively minor, and that is that you cannot serve RB off of Port 80. I'm sure this is just a security issue and should be easy to fix. You can switch to any other port via the interface. For now, though, it's best to not change the port from 8008, to avoid any potential issues.

The second is very, very bad. You can change your username and password, and it will appear to work, but it will not be written to prefs.xml, and will thus be reset when you close and re-start Run BASIC. I think this has to do with file permissions. I'm going to try and find a way to fix this ASAP.

[Jerry Muelver]

Don't panic, yet, Bill. I'm having some issues with username-password on Win XP too, so it might not be the WINE thing, just yet. It could be just you and me, so let's see if anyone else pops with a problem in this area.

[carlgundel]

billw said:

Okay, I have found two issues, one of which is pretty serious.

Are you only seeing these issues on Linux?

The first is relatively minor, and that is that you cannot serve RB off of Port 80. I'm sure this is just a security issue and should be easy to fix. You can switch to any other port via the interface. For now, though, it's best to not change the port from 8008, to avoid any potential issues.

Why do you say it doesn't work. It does for me. What happens when you try?

The second is very, very bad. You can change your username and password, and it will appear to work, but it will not be written to prefs.xml, and will thus be reset when you close and re-start Run BASIC. I think this has to do with file permissions. I'm going to try and find a way to fix this ASAP.

You need to click on the Accept button in the preferences tab when you change the username and password, or it won't stick. This is actually documented.

-Carl

[billw]

Hey Carl,

Your instructions for changing the username and password worked. This is a somewhat awkward approach, though I can see why you would do it the way it's implemented. I'm going to put this on the FAQ list over on the wiki.

As for the second item, I'm going to the preferences page, setting the port number to 80, and clicking accept. I also accept the warning about changing the port number. A new tab never opens (which it did, when I changed from 8008 to 8080 for testing), and the tab RB is on continues to attempt to load. Attempting to access localhost on port 80 or 8080 (the port I had it on) results in a 404 error.

After waiting a few seconds, I shut down and re-open the RB console, and click the "Launch in Browser" button. Firefox navigates to the correct URI, but I get the following error message instead of the login screen:

Application Error
A fatal error has occurred in this application. Please contact this site's administrator.

Message not understood: #preDispatchLog:

If I shut down and re-open it again, everything works as usual.

I've got a hunch that something is preventing RB from listening on port 80, and it's just silently failing. Perhaps running it as root will do the trick. Time to mess around some more...

[rod]

Vista, Tried the password change with "username" and clicked accept. On login Windows pops up and says new password does not match that held on record. Clicked to change Windows record. Then RB login fails with new password though it did start anyway.
Login with original password works.

[billw]

Okay, I just tried running RBP as root, and it switched to port 80 just fine. I remember reading something in the Apache docs that said that it needs to be run as root on *nix, so I figured that was probably the issue. As soon as I figure out one more thing (related more to the shell script than RB), I'll update the tutorial with this information.

[billw]

Alright, I've modified the tutorial to make everything work properly. If you used the tutorial before this modification, you'll have to uninstall and start over for everything to work right. After that, it's smooth sailing.

Also, because of the way the script works, it's best to just bookmark the login page in your browser instead of using the "Launch in Browser" button. It works, but because RB is running as root, your browser will be, too. This means your profile, bookmarks, extensions, etc; will not be available. It's sort of a weird quirk of how Linux (and all other Unix-based operating systems) works.

Edited to ask: does anybody have a PNG version of the RB icon? Heck, even an extracted .ico image would work. I'd like to put a shortcut to it on my quick launch panel, but Xubuntu can't read icons out of executables - and even then, it's a shortcut to a shell script.

[carlgundel]

rod said:

Vista, Tried the password change with "username" and clicked accept. On login Windows pops up and says new password does not match that held on record.

I'm not at all clear what you mean by this.

Clicked to change Windows record. Then RB login fails with new password though it did start anyway.
Login with original password works.

When you change the password you must make sure to click the Accept button on the Preferences tab.

-Carl

[Jerry Muelver]

O, M, and G! I actually did it! I downloaded and installed WINE, copied my c:\rbp folder to my SharedDocs folder in Win XP, copied that folder out to my desktop in Ubuntu (gnome), opened a terminal window, did a cd to the rbp folder, gave a "sudo wine rbp.exe rb.im" command, and the RB server came up. Clicked on "Run in browser" and FireFox came up, ready to rip! I'm here! got some other apps running, the same way. I am SO going to abandon Windows! ;D ;D ;D

[rod]

Ok, password issue now understood. I need to click both "Accept" in the Change Password dialog then "Apply" in the Preferences dialog. Then it sticks. Windows Autocomplete trails behind and pops up a change notice when you first use the new password but thats probably normal.

Should the Preferances dialog be modal if changes have been made?

[carlgundel]

There is also a version of Wine for Apple's OS X. I would try it myself but I don't have an Intel Mac yet.

-Carl