Linux/wine

Wine

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging

Rebuild Wine Prefix (~/.wine)

wineboot -u

Test new wine prefix:

WINEPREFIX=~/my_new_prefix wine your_executable.exe

Test wine with executable:

xvfb-run -a wine your_executable.exe

Reconfig your wine prfix:

rm -rf .wine
winecfg
# or if headless...
xvfg-run wincfg

Debug Wine

If you are still stuck, you can generate a cleaner log file to parse by running your app with standard Wine debugging output:

WINEDEBUG=-all,err+all wine your_application.exe

Clean Prefix

# Remove the broken configuration directory
rm -rf ~/.wine

# Initialize a clean, default 64-bit prefix
wineboot --init

Wine Console Test

winetest.cpp ::

#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>

int main() {
    std::cout << "========================================\n";
    std::cout << "       Wine Windows Console Test        \n";
    std::cout << "========================================\n\n";

    // 1. Test Windows API Version Detection
    std::cout << "[1] Checking Windows API Memory Status...\n";
    MEMORYSTATUSEX memInfo;
    memInfo.dwLength = sizeof(MEMORYSTATUSEX);
    if (GlobalMemoryStatusEx(&memInfo)) {
        std::cout << "    -> Success! Total Physical Memory: " 
                  << memInfo.ullTotalPhys / (1024 * 1024) << " MB\n\n";
    } else {
        std::cout << "    -> Failed to retrieve memory status.\n\n";
    }

    // 2. Test Environment Variables
    std::cout << "[2] Checking Environment Variables...\n";
    char username[256];
    DWORD username_len = sizeof(username);
    if (GetUserNameA(username, &username_len)) {
        std::cout << "    -> Current User: " << username << "\n\n";
    } else {
        std::cout << "    -> Failed to get username.\n\n";
    }

    // 3. Test File System Write/Read under Wine
    std::cout << "[3] Testing File System I/O...\n";
    std::string testFilename = "wine_test_file.txt";
    
    std::ofstream outFile(testFilename);
    if (outFile.is_open()) {
        outFile << "Wine compatibility test successful!";
        outFile.close();
        std::cout << "    -> Successfully wrote to " << testFilename << "\n";
        
        std::ifstream inFile(testFilename);
        std::string fileContent;
        if (std::getline(inFile, fileContent)) {
            std::cout << "    -> Successfully read: \"" << fileContent << "\"\n";
        }
        inFile.close();
        
        // Clean up
        DeleteFileA(testFilename.c_str());
    } else {
        std::cout << "    -> Failed file I/O test.\n";
    }
    std::cout << "\n";

    // 4. Test Registry Read (Optional but good for Wine)
    std::cout << "[4] Testing Registry Access (HKLM)...\n";
    HKEY hKey;
    if (RegOpenKeyExA(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion", 0, KEY_READ, &hKey) == ERROR_SUCCESS) {
        char prodName[256];
        DWORD bufferSize = sizeof(prodName);
        if (RegQueryValueExA(hKey, "ProductName", NULL, NULL, (LPBYTE)prodName, &bufferSize) == ERROR_SUCCESS) {
            std::cout << "    -> Reported OS: " << prodName << "\n\n";
        } else {
            std::cout << "    -> Opened key, but failed to read ProductName.\n\n";
        }
        RegCloseKey(hKey);
    } else {
        std::cout << "    -> Failed to open registry key.\n\n";
    }

    std::cout << "Tests completed. Press ENTER to exit.";
    std::cin.get();
    return 0;
}

On Linux cross compile with:

x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ -o winetest.exe winetest.cpp -static

# apt install g++-mingw-w64-x86-64-posix  # version 13.2.0-6ubuntu1+26.1, or
# apt install g++-mingw-w64-x86-64-win32  # version 13.2.0-6ubuntu1+26.1

On Windows compile with:

cl /EHsc winetest.cpp

Rune in wine:

wine winetest.exe
xvfb-run -a wine winetest.exe

Issues

/dev/dri permission issue

Errors in wine log:

$ wine winetest.exe
...
libEGL warning: failed to open /dev/dri/renderD128: Permission denied
libEGL warning: failed to open /dev/dri/renderD128: Permission denied
libEGL warning: failed to open /dev/dri/card1: Permission denied
libEGL warning: failed to open /dev/dri/renderD128: Permission denied
libEGL warning: failed to open /dev/dri/renderD128: Permission denied
libEGL warning: failed to open /dev/dri/card1: Permission denied

Probably benign, but if you want, you can add the user to the "video" and "render" group, and that should fix both of these. (it did for me)

$ grep steam /etc/group
video:x:44:steam
render:x:109:steam
steam:x:1005:

explorer process failed to start

Error in wine logs:

$ wine winetest.exe
...
00f0:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow Application tried to create a window, but no driver could be loaded.
00f0:err:winediag:nodrv_CreateWindow L"The explorer process failed to start."
00f0:err:systray:initialize_systray Could not create tray window

I ignored these, although running with xvfb-run got rid of these, but had other issues

Could not get DRI3 device

When running with xvfb-run...

$ xvfb-run wine winetest.exe
...
libEGL warning: DRI3 error: Could not get DRI3 device
libEGL warning: Ensure your X server supports DRI3 to get accelerated rendering

X connection to :99 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
X connection to :99 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
X connection to :99 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).

I ignored these...