Sigil on Linux with Wine (almost)

[jaber]

I actually got Sigil 0.9.14 running on Mint 19.3. Everything seems to work fine with Wine version 4.0.5 which I got from the software manager in Mint. The problem is that I get a "nag window" telling me "QPixmap::fromWinHICON(), failed to GetIconInfo() (Invalid cursor handle.)"

Any ideas?

[orebmur]

Why don't you simply use a Linux native sigil package instead of needlessly resorting to crutches like Wine?

For Debian packages are at https://packages.debian.org/bullseye...sigil/download and hopefully there is something similar available via https://packages.linuxmint.com

[DiapDealer]

No idea. I've never attempted to use Sigil with Wine. I just usually downloaded a newer version of Qt and built the newer version of Sigil from scratch whenever the repo version of Sigil lagged too far behind.

Have you tried just building Sigil 0.9.14 from scratch? It's been a while, but I can't recall any reason why the system Qt 5.6 and Python 3.6 wouldn't be sufficient to build Sigil 0.9.14. I never was able to understand why Sigil 0.9.9 was the newest version of Sigil available for Ubuntu 18.04 (which Mint 19.3 is based on).

[jaber]

Originally Posted by orebmur

Why don't you simply use a Linux native sigil package instead of needlessly resorting to crutches like Wine?

For Debian packages are at https://packages.debian.org/bullseye...sigil/download and hopefully there is something similar available via https://packages.linuxmint.com

Thanks - good ideas. I'm looking specifically for 0.9.14 (the old-school version). Debian has the latest version but not 0.9.14 and I found no packages at Mint.

[jaber]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

No idea. I've never attempted to use Sigil with Wine. I just usually downloaded a newer version of Qt and built the newer version of Sigil from scratch whenever the repo version of Sigil lagged too far behind.

Have you tried just building Sigil 0.9.14 from scratch? It's been a while, but I can't recall any reason why the system Qt 5.6 and Python 3.6 wouldn't be sufficient to build Sigil 0.9.14. I never was able to understand why Sigil 0.9.9 was the newest version of Sigil available for Ubuntu 18.04 (which Mint 19.3 is based on).

I have thought about compiling code. I don't know if any of my laptops have the horsepower I would need, but I might end up doing that. -thanks

[DiapDealer]

You can download the source-code for any of the tagged releases for Sigil from the github website if you want 0.9.14 specifically.

[DiapDealer]

As for your original question, Sigil's code doesn't use QPixmap::fromWinHICON() anywhere directly. It would use the QFileIconProvider class to get that sort of info. So it's likely some sort of incompatibility between Wine and the version of Qt5 (provided by Sigil 0.9.14) itself.

[jaber]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

You can download the source-code for any of the tagged releases for Sigil from the github website if you want 0.9.14 specifically.

Thanks, I would have found it sooner or later. I guess that's the only solution to my problem,

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by orebmur

Why don't you simply use a Linux native sigil package instead of needlessly resorting to crutches like Wine?

For Debian packages are at https://packages.debian.org/bullseye...sigil/download and hopefully there is something similar available via https://packages.linuxmint.com

Indeed, native Sigil is fine on my Linux Mint. I forget if I downloaded it or used the "Software Manager" (which should NOT be used for Calibre).

Though I don't do anything clever in ebook creation so Calibre is fine. I have used Sigil.

[DiapDealer]

Can I ask what's missing from the repo-supplied Sigil that you specifically need/want the 0.9.14 version? Glancing back through the releases, I'm not really picking up on any game-changing features between the repo-supplied 0.9.9 (That's the version supplied by Mint 19/Ubuntu 18.04) and 0.9.14. Sigil 0.9.11 and .12 were completely pulled because of serious issues. And 0.9.13/14 suffered a bit from performance issues because of the use of the revived QtWebKit project that we ultimately abandoned for QtWebEngine.

I'd personally go with Sigil 0.9.10 if I was looking for the last truly solid version before the change to QtWebEngine.

[jaber]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Can I ask what's missing from the repo-supplied Sigil that you specifically need/want the 0.9.14 version? Glancing back through the releases, I'm not really picking up on any game-changing features between the repo-supplied 0.9.9 (That's the version supplied by Mint 19/Ubuntu 18.04) and 0.9.14. Sigil 0.9.11 and .12 were completely pulled because of serious issues. And 0.9.13/14 suffered a bit from performance issues because of the use of the revived QtWebKit project that we ultimately abandoned for QtWebEngine.

I'd personally go with Sigil 0.9.10 if I was looking for the last truly solid version before the change to QtWebEngine.

I use Sigil as a reader as well as an editor (I collect magazine articles and documents - collect and organize information). So to answer this post, I loaded the same article on to two different laptops; one with Linux with 0.9.9 Sigil and the other with Windows with 0.9.14 Sigil and the fonts rendered much better in 0.9.14 Sigil. So it's not a question of usability but of readability and Windows does that better. That's why I would prefer a "wine-like" solution to the problem.

[Quoth]

It might depend on WHICH Linux window manager you use and if you setup the Linux Mint Font thing under appearance (various options for DPI, rendering and "cleartype" stuff). Though WINE isn't Windows in a VM, it may utilise the Window manager differently, it's not even an emulator. It's not got any windows code. It translates Windows API calls to Linux. So I'm puzzled as to why a similar program running under WINE should "look better" than the same natively.

I have an old free version for Linux (native) of Eagle CAD, about ten years old. I have a slightly older version that has a Windows licence, so it can do bigger PCBs and multi-sheet schematics. The windows key doesn't work with the Linux version. Apparently never did.
They look identical. I can import the old libraries, and single page schematics into the slightly newer Linux version, but not the reverse.
Farnell bought it a while after my purchase and then sadly they sold it to Adobe.

Also years ago the Windows Calibre and Linux Calibre looked the same. Now my old windows is stuck on 3.48, but I only use it for games occasionally now.

I did have this laptop as dual boot on Win7 pro and Linux Mint for awhile. I saw nothing inferior about the Linux rendering and eventually wiped the NTFS and replaced it with Ext4 for Linux only.

[d351r3d]

Originally Posted by orebmur

Why don't you simply use a Linux native sigil package instead of needlessly resorting to crutches like Wine?

For Debian packages are at https://packages.debian.org/bullseye...sigil/download and hopefully there is something similar available via https://packages.linuxmint.com

I use linux (Manjaro XFCE) and use Sigil. I've never had any issues at all. I have Sigil, and Microsoft's Visual Studio.

https://code.visualstudio.com/download

I'm fine without windows. Never saw the reason to ever use it again and I never use the terminal unless it's necessary.

[jaber]

Originally Posted by d351r3d

I use linux (Manjaro XFCE) and use Sigil. I've never had any issues at all. I have Sigil, and Microsoft's Visual Studio.

https://code.visualstudio.com/download

I'm fine without windows. Never saw the reason to ever use it again and I never use the terminal unless it's necessary.

Yep - I'm running Sigil 0.9.9 now and everything seems fine. I was able to add Microsoft true type fonts (using a Microsoft TTF installer in the software manager in Mint) which pretty much solved my problem with readability and assigning particular fonts to a text. Using this package, one can install most any true type font as well as the fonts that come with the package.

A minor problem I encountered - using a dark theme in Mint, the background colour in "Book" view is also dark. I couldn't find a workaround for this problem in Sigil "preferences." By simply adding "body {background-color: white;}" to the style-sheet takes care of everything.

By the way - Visual Studio Code comes packaged with Mint. Microsoft seems to be using its Vulture Capital to corner the open-source programming market (Visual Studio Code and Github). I'm learning VIM.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by jaber

A minor problem I encountered - using a dark theme in Mint, the background colour in "Book" view is also dark. I couldn't find a workaround for this problem in Sigil "preferences." By simply adding "body {background-color: white;}" to the style-sheet takes care of everything.

You'll probably want to use the custom_qt_styles.qss file to override the dark background of Book View on older versions of Sigil. It's not a good idea to force the background color of all of your books to be white.

Newer versions of Sigil are fully dark theme capable with preferences to take care of these things.