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Hi, when using the drop down combo boxes on the display tab, I am seeing a null character terminator after the choice, when I reopen the tab.  So when I first make my choice there is no null character, but when I return to the display tab, my choices look like this:  backbuffer/0

Does anyone know if this is supposed to happen ?  Many thanks

That is odd. It shouldn't be doing that. Have you tried reinstalling PlayOnLinux, using the newest version from our Download section? Also, your terminal output (run playonlinux from the terminal) and recreate the error and reposting it here might show what is causing the error. 

From the terminal these are the messages that look appropriate:

[POL_Wine_Direct3D] Message: Setting wine Direct3D /home/james/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/WorldOfTanks OffscreenRenderingMode backbuffer
[POL_Wine] Message: Running wine-1.7.33 regedit /home/james/.PlayOnLinux//tmp/regkey.reg (Working directory : /usr/share/playonlinux/python)
[POL_Wine] Message: Notice: PlayOnLinux deliberately disables winemenubuilder. See http://www.playonmac.com/fr/page-26-Winemenubuilder.html
err:setupapi:create_dest_file failed to create L"C:\\windows\\system32\\shlwapi.dll" (error=80)
fixme:ntdll:NtConnectPort (0x5b0c1170,L"\\ThemeApiPort",0x33d08c,(nil),(nil),(nil),0x33d09c,0x33d098),stub!

The qbittorrent I am using is from the website and is 4.2.5.  I see there is some message about shlwapi.dll - can I install this somehow?

The null character is still in the display drop down box, although when I set it to backbuffer it isn't there again until I shut down the configure dialog and reopen it.

Is there a virus checker for my wine prefixes that I can install?

No. lol. You don't need a virus checker unless you are downloading software from places where it shouldn't. Also, Linux is pretty secure against viruses. I don't even remember the last time I thought about an AV. :)

Can you post the FULL terminal output? Please don't post edited ones. That MIGHT be part of the problem, but for clarity, it is easier to post up the full debug output so that we can make sure we see everything that happened.

Below is me starting POL and then selecting the display tab.  After I finished my message above, someone who has hacked my machine deleted my xorg.conf, so linux is neither unhackable nor virus free, the belief that it is is a false sense of security, back from the day when linux was entirely scripted and visible, unlike the invisible binary monster that it has become.  I am most probably going to try xen with pass through to install windows 7 for my windows games.  Wine with cmst worked well for world of tanks, but then I got a new graphics card and it won't work in slot one (4 lane width) of my 2006 mac, so I've got it in slot 2 (1 lane width) and this I suspect prevents the cmst patch working properly.  With the latest wine I get 28 frames a second, and with the cmst patched wine I get 4 or 5 frames a second at best.

$ playonlinux
Looking for python... 2.7.8 - selected
/usr/share/themes/Lubuntu-dark-panel/gtk-2.0/apps/lubuntu_lxpanel.rc:5: Unable to locate image file in pixmap_path: "images/panel-dark-bg.png"
[main] Message: PlayOnLinux (4.2.5) is starting
[clean_tmp] Message: Cleaning temp directory
[Check_OpenGL] Message: 32bits direct rendering is enabled
[Check_OpenGL] Message: 64bits direct rendering is enabled
[POL_System_CheckFS] Message: Checking filesystem for /home/james/.PlayOnLinux/
[main] Message: Filesystem is compatible
[install_plugins] Message: Checking plug-in: Capture...
[install_plugins] Message: Checking plug-in: ScreenCap...
[install_plugins] Message: Checking plug-in: PlayOnLinux Vault...
[maj_check] Message: List is up to date
[POL_Wine_Direct3D] Message: Setting wine Direct3D /home/james/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/WorldOfTanks OffscreenRenderingMode backbuffer
[POL_Wine] Message: Running wine-1.7.33 regedit /home/james/.PlayOnLinux//tmp/regkey.reg (Working directory : /usr/share/playonlinux/python)
[POL_Wine] Message: Notice: PlayOnLinux deliberately disables winemenubuilder. See http://www.playonmac.com/fr/page-26-Winemenubuilder.html
[POL_Wine] Message: Wine return: 0
Registered PID: 3860 (Missing)
Registered PID: 3886 (Missing)
Registered PID: 4117 (Present)
 

> No. lol. You don't need a virus checker unless you are downloading software from places where it shouldn't. Also, Linux is pretty secure against viruses. I don't even remember the last time I thought about an AV. :)

Well, if one runs a Windows virus/trojan under Wine, they'll get the same rights as the current user, so they can use the network, read files, write/overwrite/delete user files, etc...

Wine is not a sandbox, actually it's incompatible with its goal of seamless integration with the host environment.

See Wine FAQ, "Risks"

For files you can try clamav, for apps just install programs from trusted sources (as already mentionned).

Edited by petch

They would need root access to delete your xorg.conf file, so unless it was run as root, that wouldn't happen. Plus, I doubt someone physically hacked your system. Just from experience, this is rarely true, especially to do something like just delete the xorg.conf file. I know that Wine is not a sandbox, but viruses come from getting malicious files from malicious sources 99% of the time, and even then, as petch stated, it would only have access to user files, which can still be bad, but not as dangerous as on a Windows system, where the same virus would likely have priv. escalation and wreak havoc on your whole system, not just user files. 

 

so linux is neither unhackable nor virus free, the belief that it is is a false sense of security, 

I said no such thing... I have no false sense of security, sir. Virus' come from users that expose the system to virus's. As for your claim of your system being hacked so that someone could delete your xorg.conf file, well, from a network security standpoint, I would want to see a few things:

- How do you know you were hacked? Forensic evidence?

- What motive would one have for deleting that file (especially because a system running open-source drivers does not need a xorg.conf anymore.)?

- How did the hacker get root access to the machine without it being granted by someone with that power?

- And why go through all of that trouble, just to harass you and delete a random file, not owned by the user?

Idunno. I am not going to get into this one, but in all honesty, every time I see a virus on any user's computer that I work on, it is always from getting malicious software from malicious sites, and if a "hacker" had root access, I doubt they would do something as trivial as that...

Sorry for the rant. :) 

No worries, and thanks for your help.  I have been using a program called firejail which runs any program in a chroot sandbox, and I think it p*ss*d some random hacker off who started hassling me.  I've been using linux for the last 6 years, and was a windows user for twenty years before that, so I have seen some hacking in my time from keystroke loggers to desktop spoofing.  The last time my linux box was hacked a systemd pipe was damaged to allow access to the init process and then they hacked the gdi of my x session.  all sorts of fun!  I've even seen kernel commits that are purely there to allow hacks.  I'm mostly having problems now due to laziness, and a desire to allow mr hacker to spend some time revealing the different ways that he has hacked me before my next, hardened install.  Running windows processes allows all sorts of windows exploits and I notice that the crossover bottles scan for viruses each time they run/install.

Any way, thanks for your help.  I'm very grateful.

Yes Crossover does that; I'm not sure it can be done in any useful way, talking of false sense of security...

 

> I've even seen kernel commits that are purely there to allow hacks.

Looks real bad, I hope you reported your findings?

Edited by petch

 

I've even seen kernel commits that are purely there to allow hacks.

I agree with Petch; those should be reported. Although, I doubt that something that obvious would slip past all of the maintainers involved in the Linux kernel, especially how transparent it is and how many people see every commit that goes in (it is all VERY public. https://www.kernel.org/ ). That commit would have to slip by dozens, if not hundreds of eyes of coders. No offence, but I find that claim very hard to grasp, and would really like to see some evidence that the Linux kernel maintainers purposely let in code that obviously allowed hacks. Got any links to these commits or your report to the kernel team about these? IF it is true, that is something I am very interested in seeing personally, as it sounds like hogwash. Again, no offence intended, but that is a big claim, and something that I have never heard of.

Edit: wait wait wait:

 

then they hacked the gdi of my x session. 

GDI is a Windows library. Linux does not use it (except through Wine). Linux would be using XLib, if I am not mistaken. The only thing I can even find related to GDI and Linux has to do with printers......

Nevermind. I refer to my first statement about touching this one. lol. 

Edited by RoninDusette

Gdi - graphics display interface, sorry, I still use windows terminology, and I have a perhaps exaggerated fear of null character attacks.  As far as the kernel is concerned, the hack that I mentioned was to prevent the correct vmemory allocation of a driver for a usb device rather than a security problem and is a personal issue between myself and some problematic individuals.

No bother.  I have reinstalled World of Tanks and am playing it fine.  Thanks for your help - btw - have you looked at including wine-staging in the available wine versions?  I don't know if might be any good, but it seems to have a lot of fixes for graphics cards.