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--- howto:windows [2024/04/17 22:06]
ccrosby
+++ 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. 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
+[[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''
-<code>
-/home/apps/chpc/compmech/Wine/winehq.sif
-</code>
 Therefore, if you need to run a Windows application on the cluster, you can do so as follows:
@@ Line 64: / Line 64: @@
 </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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