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--- howto:windows [2024/04/17 21:48]
ccrosby created
+++ howto:windows [2024/04/17 22:39] (current)
ccrosby [Running Windows applications]
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
   * The Linux-based analysis or simulation software has no GUI, but there is a Windows GUI.
   * The Windows application may be a pre- or post-processor for a native Linux application.
-  * If the user lacks a workstation with sufficient resource such as memory or processing power.
+  * If the user lacks a workstation with sufficient resources such as memory or processing power.
+==== Consider Cloud ====
+The CHPC has its own [[https://wiki.chpc.ac.za/guide:cloud:start|cloud]] offering called [[https://openstackusers.nicis.ac.za/login/?next=/|Sebowa]].  Windows instances are possible but the user is responsible for providing a Windows license.
 ==== Have some Wine ====
-[[https://www.winehq.org/|Wine]] (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, macOS, & BSD.
+[[https://www.winehq.org/|Wine]] (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, macOS, & BSD. Installing Wine on a Linux system is a non-trivial task, which may require root access.  This would introduce serious and unacceptable security issues.  However, Wine can be accessed by way of a [[https://docs.sylabs.io/guides/3.5/user-guide/index.html|Singularity]] container.  Singularity-3.5.3 is available on Linux and the container for WineHQ has been installed in ''/home/apps/chpc/compmech/Wine/winehq.sif''
+Therefore, if you need to run a Windows application on the cluster, you can do so as follows:
+<code>
+module load chpc/singularity/3.5.3
+singularity run /home/apps/chpc/compmech/Wine/winehq.sif  WindowsExecutable.exe
+</code>
+You will need to provide the path to the .exe file.  If Wine needs to install anything, it will do so in a hidden directory ''.wine'' in your home directory.  For example:
+<code>
+$ls -l ~/.wine
+total 2536
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs        112 Apr 17 21:56 dosdevices
+drwxr-xr-x 7 jblogs jblogs         96 Apr 12 12:18 drive_c
+-rw-r--r-- 1 jblogs jblogs    2558225 Apr 17 21:56 system.reg
+-rw-r--r-- 1 jblogs jblogs       3306 Apr 12 12:09 userdef.reg
+-rw-r--r-- 1 jblogs jblogs      29256 Apr 17 21:56 user.reg
+$ ls -l ~/.wine/drive_c
+total 4
+drwxr-xr-x  3 jblogs jblogs   22 Apr 12 12:09 ProgramData
+drwxr-xr-x  7 jblogs jblogs  109 Apr 12 12:33 Program Files
+drwxr-xr-x  6 jblogs jblogs   93 Apr 12 12:18 Program Files (x86)
+drwxr-xr-x  4 jblogs jblogs   33 Apr 12 12:09 users
+drwxr-xr-x 18 jblogs jblogs 4096 Apr 12 12:21 windows
+$ ls -l ~/.wine/drive_c/users/jblogs/
+total 0
+drwxr-xr-x 3 jblogs jblogs 21 Apr 12 12:09 AppData
+drwxr-xr-x 4 jblogs jblogs 38 Apr 12 12:33 Application Data
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs  6 Apr 12 12:09 Contacts
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs 22 Apr 12 12:13 Cookies
+lrwxrwxrwx 1 jblogs jblogs 21 Apr 12 12:20 Desktop -> /home/jblogs/Desktop
+lrwxrwxrwx 1 jblogs jblogs 23 Apr 12 12:20 Downloads -> /home/jblogs/Downloads
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs  6 Apr 12 12:09 Favorites
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs  6 Apr 12 12:09 Links
+drwxr-xr-x 5 jblogs jblogs 74 Apr 12 12:09 Local Settings
+lrwxrwxrwx 1 jblogs jblogs 23 Apr 12 12:20 My Documents -> /home/jblogs/Documents
+lrwxrwxrwx 1 jblogs jblogs 14 Apr 12 12:20 My Music -> /home/jblogs/
+lrwxrwxrwx 1 jblogs jblogs 14 Apr 12 12:20 My Pictures -> /home/jblogs/
+lrwxrwxrwx 1 jblogs jblogs 14 Apr 12 12:20 My Videos -> /home/jblogs/
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs  6 Apr 12 12:09 NetHood
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs  6 Apr 12 12:09 PrintHood
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs  6 Apr 12 12:09 Recent
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs  6 Apr 12 12:09 Saved Games
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs  6 Apr 12 12:09 Searches
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs  6 Apr 12 12:09 SendTo
+drwxr-xr-x 3 jblogs jblogs 21 Apr 12 12:09 Start Menu
+drwxr-xr-x 2 jblogs jblogs  6 Apr 12 12:33 Temp
+lrwxrwxrwx 1 jblogs jblogs 14 Apr 12 12:20 Templates -> /home/jblogs/
+</code>
+The above file listing in ''~/.wine'' illustrates that:
+  - Wine creates a Windows directory structure in your home directory.
+  - This could use up your home directory quota rather quickly.  Proceed with care.
+  - The "Windows" directory ''Templates'' is symbolically linked to your home directory.  This means that you can access your Linux files in the Windows application through ''C:\users\jblogs\Templates''
+=== Wine example ===
+A Windows application may be installed in exactly the same way.  The application will be installed in ''~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files'' by default.  In this example we can run the installed software [[https://www.irfanview.com/|IrfanView]] (a popular Windows image viewing and manipulation application) with the following command line:
+<code>
+$ singularity run /home/apps/chpc/compmech/Wine/winehq.sif ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/IrfanView/i_view64.exe
+</code>
+{{:howto:iview.png|}}
+It goes without saying that you need to use either X-forwarding or [[howto:remote_viz|VNC]] in order to get a graphical capability.
+==== Final thoughts on using Singularity and Wine ====
+  * Don't.
+  * Unless you cannot avoid it.
+  * The mere fact that something is possible does not automatically make it a good idea.
+  * We are not aware of a practical way of doing multi-node (MPI) runs.  OpenMP shared-memory multi-thread parallelism does, however work, and makes good use of the available resources.
+  * Raw computational performance is very good, and is only marginally slower than the native Linux application.
+  * Compatibility is surprisingly good.  Many things work, but, of course, there are no guarantees.

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