* FH running on Wine

[tatewise]

May I refer back to two issues.

You say Charts do not display text.
I presume you are referring to Family Historian Charts created using Diagram > Save Diagram As > Family Historian Chart and opened using View > Saved Charts.
A Chart will only work within the context of the same Project in which it was created.

If you actually mean Diagrams, then the problem may be linked to the Family Historian PDF printer, that you say does not work.
In what way does this printer not work?
Can you determine if the Family Historian PDF (novaPDF 7.7 printer) is installed in Crossover/iMac?
Usually during the FH installation it says it is installing the PDF printer near the end.

Have you tried using the FH File > Print Setup and checking it refers to an existing printer, to see if that fixes Diagrams/Charts.

[philjo]

I tried about 18 months ago but gave up due to a problem with entering the registration key which prevented FH from running.

Anyway after reading this thread I have just tried again using the latest version of Crossover. I have the full FH 4 installation CD & was able to install that into a new bottle and it let me enter the registartion key. I then installed the FH 5 upgrade CD into the same bottle & registered that.
I then downloaded the 5.09 upgrade & again installed into the same bottle.

In each case the crossover installer seemed to think the installation was incomplete though FH did open.

5.09 is now running on my mac with my project open.

I just tried the running the descendents by generation report but get a blank screen where the record text should be. the only thing that appears in the report is an image of the census document referenced in one of the source citations. none of the other narrative reports seem to work either.

Referring to Tatewise's previous question I have just looked at the FH File > Print Setup - the PDF printer iis on the drop down list but it does not seem to know anything about paper sizes as the paper size list is blank for that printer.
How would I determine if the novapdf7.7 printer is installed (& how to install it if it isn't)?

I am running Lion on my mac by the way.

Jeremy

[tatewise]

I am glad to hear that FH V4 and V5 Upgrade and V5.0.9 all installed OK.
(Do you know it is not necessary to install FH V4 before the V5 Upgrade?)

I wonder if Crossover says the installation is incomplete because the Family Historian PDF printer did not install.
(The one bundled with FH V4 is novaPDF 6 and with FH V5 is novaPDF 7.7)

On Windows, I am sure the single installation process installs Family Historian followed by the Family Historian PDF printer as two separate programs.
So the first can succeed and the second can fail, leaving FH working but the PDF printer not working.

I know nothing about iMac or Crossover so don't know how you determine what is installed.

I suspect the Family Historian PDF printer cannot be installed separately.

I do know that printable output from FH such as Reports and Diagrams can be disrupted by faulty or missing printer drivers.
Try using File > Print Setup to select a working printer and see if the Reports and Diagrams are any better.

[Valkrider]

Mike

Some more diagnosis.

Diagrams are fine they display and print perfectly.

Reports are the issue. Selecting any report (I have tried about 10 so far) both in-built and custom have a problem when selecting any MAC printer (not FH PDF printer see below). The on screen display only shows the multimedia items attached to the report and not the text. However, ignoring this and pressing print then the report is correctly printed with both images and text. Very odd.

If the FH PDF printer is selected then the on screen display shows nothing neither text or images. I tried to print just to test it but cannot find a saved pdf anywhere on the MAC so far.

For me running Mavericks I had no issue with the install of FH or the PDF printer both completed properly. As stated above and not unexpectedly the PDF printer does not seem to work. It would be nice if this was an optional install in the FH install process. MAC's have their own OS inbuilt PDF printer.

I will write this all up.

[tatewise]

Jeremy, could you please give more specific details of how Crossover reported "the installation was incomplete".

So just to be clear Colin, in your posting of Thu Feb 13, 2014 1:12 pm you said Charts were a problem, but you actually meant Reports.

You say "iMAC's have their own OS inbuilt PDF printer". Can you select this printer via the FH File > Print Setup, and if so, does this fix the Reports problem?

Is there any way you can determine if the Family Historian PDF (novaPDF 7.7 printer) is installed in Crossover/iMac?

[Valkrider]

Mike

Yes the Nova driver is correctly installed as a printer.

It is not possible to select the MAC pdf printer from Crossover.

Yes I did mean reports not charts my mistake

[tatewise]

If the Family Historian PDF (novaPDF 7.7 printer) is installed correctly, but not functional in FH, perhaps this should be reported to Crossover support.

Are there any other printers available via Printer Setup?

A similar problem with Reports was reported in Nov 2013 Version for Linux operating System.
There it was suggested that File > Print Preview worked OK.

What happens with Reports if you choose Save Report As and try each of the options (PDF, HTML, RTF, Text)?

[Valkrider]

Mike

Crossover (CodeWeavers) only support 'official' ports of software. Unfortunately Family Historian is NOT an official port and so is not supported. They help out where they can. I will try them with the PDF printer issue.

The only way to access the MAC PDF printer is through the MAC print dialog not through the Crossover Windows one. As a result there is no way to access this from FH.

I have done a full search for all pdf files on my MAC and none are being generated by Nova. Nova may have to be a separate 'Bottle' and this is not possible with the FH one as I understand it is a licenced cut-down version of the full programme.

I have saved Reports as pdf, text and RTF. Text and RTF are fine and pop the 'where to save' dialog, however there are no multimedia images in the RTF version, I don't know whether there should be. PDF doesn't produce anything or pop the save dialog. Windows Adobe Acrobat is known not to work on Crossover and so that is not an option. I haven't been able to yet find a Windows PDF printer that does run in Crossover.

Almost there now

[tatewise]

What about File > Print Preview for Reports?
Is that a workaround for the missing text?

What about Save Report As option for Web Page (HTML)?

Both Web Page (HTML) and Word-Processor (RTF) should have Multimedia images.

Do the Save Diagram As and File > Print Preview options work OK for Diagrams?

You could try the http://www.novapdf.com/ free trial download for novaPDF Standard Desktop and bottle that, because that novaPDF version is know to work with FH in Windows.

Have you tried any of the fhugdownloads:pdfcreate|> Downloads & Links ~ PDF Utilities in Crossover, especially CutePDF Writer and PDF995?

[Valkrider]

File > Print Preview displays correctly.

Save as HTML works fine, displays in Firefox with both text and images.

The RTF file on further investigation does not show images in the default MAC rtf viewer. However, opening it in Word does display the images.

Diagrams: Print preview works fine. Save as works other than for PDF. Saving as a PDF crashes Family Historian. I have kept a copy of the crash file. A saved diagram as a custom chart opens fine too.

The only display issue is therefore text in the display window.

I will try those suggested PDF printers.

[Valkrider]

None of the suggested Windows PDF printer work under Crossover. Doing some research on the Codeweavers website it is not possible to add Windows printer drivers. Crossover relies on MAC printer drivers BUT doesn't display the MAC print dialog.

I have found a free PDF printer for the MAC that installs as a printer just like on a Windows machine. PDFWriter is available here.

[tatewise]

Are you saying that FH can use that to create PDF output via the Print option and selecting PDFWriter?


A few other things to check...

Ensure that both FH Help and AS Help work OK, as sometimes these have failed in the past.

Run the latest Ancestral Sources Data Entry Plugin and check its Help and Advice and Set Window Fonts buttons work OK, and that AS is invoked correctly.

Run the Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings Plugin and ensure all is OK and that the Backup option works.

[Valkrider]

Are you saying that FH can use that to create PDF output via the Print option and selecting PDFWriter?

Yes I am

Run the latest Ancestral Sources Data Entry Plugin and check its Help and Advice and Set Window Fonts buttons work OK, and that AS is invoked correctly.

As I said earlier there is a problem with this plugin when you return from Ancestral Sources to Family Historian it hangs the MAC. Use Ancestral Sources ONLY with Family Historian not running.

I will check the others out tomorrow.

[tatewise]

RE: FH & AS Help buttons ~ Do these work OK?

RE: Ancestral Source Data Entry Plugin ~ Are its Help and Advice and Set Window Fonts buttons fully functional, proving specific LUA features work OK?
(After launching AS via the Plugin you can Close FH to avoid the hanging bug.)

RE: Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings Plugin ~ Does its Backup option function, proving batch jobs and registry export work OK?


I have rooted around the Crossover web site and found some Family Historian entries you might have overlooked.
See http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibilit ... +Historian
The specific FH version 4, 4.1 and 5 entries have no details, but Family Historian 2012-01-17 Gold does!
Its Overview tab offers a Cross Tie download. ~ Have you tried it? It is dated 2012-10-30 so maybe applies to V5.
Its Details tab has 3 Gold Rankings which if clicked offer some contact names.
Its Tips & Tricks tab says Help menu doesn't work.
Its Forum tab has 5 threads and the one from Ann Evans posts the Reports problem.

[Valkrider]

Mike as I said yesterday I wasn't going to check out the other things you asked until today. I have now done as asked and the details are below.

FH & AS Help buttons ~ Do these work OK? Yes they do no issues can be opened from the Crossover application menu and within the FH or AS app too.

Ancestral Source Data Entry Plugin ~ Are its Help and Advice and Set Window Fonts buttons fully functional, proving specific LUA features work OK? Yes BUT the plugin reports AS as not being installed as it is in its own 'Bottle'. Even if it is running at the same time as FH the plugin still insists that it isn't installed.

Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings Plugin ~ Does its Backup option function, proving batch jobs and registry export work OK? This plugin does NOT work. If you select a new folder for the backup it saves the new folder name in Chinese characters even though you type in Latin characters. The plugin then throws a permissions error of being unable to write to the folder and then another error of no registry access.

Its Overview tab offers a Cross Tie download. ~ Have you tried it? No not yet

Its Forum tab has 5 threads and the one from Ann Evans posts the Reports problem. I have replied to Ann's thread already.

As I have managed to get this far with it I have now awarded it a Silver medal on Codeweavers site and will look at building a Crosstie for V5 (if I can find out how).

[tatewise]

I suspected there might be problems with those Plugins because of the Windows features they use.

Please confirm which Versions of those Plugins you have tested.
They should be V3.3 and V1.8 respectively.

Ancestral Sources Data Entry Plugin cannot detect whether AS is running or not.
It inspects the C:\ProgramFiles\Ancestral Sources\ installation folder or inspects the Windows Registry to determine the AS installation path in order to run Ancestral Sources.exe.
I am surprised Crossover supports neither of those.

Given the folder problems of Backup and Restore... Plugin please try the following.
In FH use Tools > Preferences > Backup tab, and for Default Backup Folder click << Select button and use Make New Folder.
Then check that File > Backup/Restore correctly chooses to use that new folder (you can Cancel the actual Save/Open).

Backup and Restore... Plugin should default to the Default Backup Folder preference set above.

[Valkrider]

Mike

Yes I am running those versions.

I am going to try putting Ancestral Sources in the same Bottle as Family Historian and see if that resolves that issue.

The Backup folder is a weird issue and seems to be a bug in Crossover. Creating a Backup folder with the Tools dialog rather than the plugin dialog creates the Chinese character file. I created the Backup folder in the file manager instead and then configured it in the Tools > Preferences > Backup dialog.

I then tried the plugin again and got the error message in the image below.

Screen Shot 2014-02-20 at 12.34.12.png (34.94 KiB) Viewed 11698 times

I am just starting to document this now and will try the Ancestral Sources tweak above a bit later.

[Valkrider]

Update:

Even with Ancestral Sources in the same Bottle the plugin says it is not installed. It makes no difference whether AS is running or not.

[tatewise]

Using the Crossover file manager could you check the following please.

Does anything like C:\ProgramFiles\Ancestral Sources\Ancestral Sources.exe exist?
If not, then can you locate where Ancestral Sources is installed in the Crossover file system.

The AS Plugin problem may be that some other environment variables are not supported by Crossover, namely PROGRAMFILES and PROGRAMW6432.
Can you post screenshots of any AS Plugin popup warning error messages?

Does C:\users\crossover\My Documents\Family Historian Projects\Spencer\Spencer.fh_data\Plugin Data\Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings.dat exist?

I am a little surprised you go the Registry Query Error the last time, but not the first time the Plugin was run.
The Plugin must have got past that step the first time in order to show the Backup tab and button, you say you clicked.

[Valkrider]

Mike

Does anything like C:\ProgramFiles\Ancestral Sources\Ancestral Sources.exe exist?
If not, then can you locate where Ancestral Sources is installed in the Crossover file system.

Yes it does see screenshot

Screen Shot 2014-02-20 at 13.47.45.png (124.26 KiB) Viewed 11689 times

No error messages are shown only this

Screen Shot 2014-02-20 at 13.50.06.png (25.5 KiB) Viewed 11689 times

Does C:\users\crossover\My Documents\Family Historian Projects\Spencer\Spencer.fh_data\Plugin Data\Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings.dat exist?

Yes it does.

The registry error was shown before as I said earlier

and then another error of no registry access.

So no it has never got past this step

[tatewise]

It seems in both cases that it is a Windows Registry access problem.

The AS Plugin performs a Registry Read of HKCU\Software\Ancestral Sources\00\Version to extract the AS Version number, which fails, so it assumes AS is not installed.
There might be a workaround for this if it is possible to easily determine that the Plugin is running in Crossover/Wine, but would just check the installation path and assume the latest AS Version is installed.

The B&R Plugin performs a Registry Query to extract the installed FH Version details, which fails to write anything to the .keys file.

I wonder if Crossover supports Windows Registry access commands such as REG QUERY, REG EXPORT, REG IMPORT, etc.

[Valkrider]

Mike,

I have no idea I have asked the question of Codeweavers.

I have updated the Knowledgebase article.

[tatewise]

In the KB article you suggest using your first name as the "COMPUTERNAME".
Is this because iMac computers conventionally take your first name as the computer name?
If not, then perhaps the iMac System Preferences > Sharing > Computer Name would be better, as that is what differentiates the iMac from others on a network.

If CodeWeavers will not support Registry access, then I suspect the following is a workaround.
Add another environment variable "ANCESTRALSOURCESVERSION"="3.2.3".
This would need one small permanent revision to the AS Plugin.
The environment variable would need updating with each new AS installation.

Do you mind if I reword the KB environment variable instructions slightly?

[Valkrider]

Mike

I am just on my way out for the evening. The first name was what Codeweavers suggested. I will try changing it for something else tomorrow and make sure it continues to work. If it does I can reword the KB appropriately.

I think the suggested workaround is a good idea for AS.

No problem with rewording just leave the name until I have tested a different name.

[Valkrider]

Mike

I have changed the name as you suggested and FH still works as do the plugins that require a COMPUTERNAME.

I have had two responses from Codeweavers copied below.

1: I know you can access and edit the registry using http://www.codeweavers.com/support/wiki ... istry_keys in Crossover, but I don't know if those specific commands are present in Crossover or not. I'll ask our developers and see if they know.

2: The devs say that the program reg.exe included in Crossover would do that. It supports add, delete, and query but not export or import. They suggested using regedit.exe you could add/remove keys manually if you wanted. I have no timeframe or idea of reg.exe will be worked on and export/import added.

With Regedit I have checked and

The AS Plugin performs a Registry Read of HKCU\Software\Ancestral Sources\00\Version to extract the AS Version number, which fails, so it assumes AS is not installed.

is present and so for some reason is not being read properly.

Any further thoughts?