masm32 and Ubuntu

[locche]

Sorry if I confused you Black Vortex by using 3 concepts in one post.  I assumed in a masm32 forum we would all be able to multi task. Okay, switching to real mode....
In my view:  A pc exists to get things done.  If I wish to achieve my goal, then I need to know how communicate to the hardware what is required of it. Since every OS has its strengths and weakness, so a pragmatic approach is required,  Realpolitik, if you will.  So depending on the task, one might use an unstable overhyped unix clone like linux or our old lovable MS Windows. Maybe the thought of switching between the 2 OS brought to your mind an image of juggling. Maybe that's where the circus metaphor arose.  However, when I recall the last 2 decades of Microsoft:  The horrors of realising that winword on win 3x won't be  returning
and there's a 20 page semester work about to share the same fate, to the post 97 office with animated "creatures" dancing across your desktop asking you if you want to write a letter whilst your attempting a (because it's Microsoft) complicated vb macro to do something "simple",  to a memory and hdd space devouring  graphical OS which means the trash for the Pentium 3 and 4 generations OR a variety of "Desktop environments" which change from distribution to distrubution full of GUI applications which cannot work because one distributor places /etc/configmeifyoucan in   /usr/configthis whilst the others place it in /etc/config/findmeifyoucan to having to recompilie a kernel in 200x to include support for NTFS... I ask you: Who didn't grow up in a circus?  If I haven't just
left you somewhere on the stack then I proceed to the following observations:
First, tasm32 and tlink32 are command line tools.  Wine is a windows emulator. Calling wine with tasm32 is has a similiar effect to dropping your source code on the compiler icon. This is why I use dosbox.
Secondly,  32 bit windows applications don't agree much with a dos environment. This is why I use wine, to run the applications.
Last, the question pertained to running masm32 in a linux environment, which is why I mentioned Red Hat.  As the OS still does what I require, why would I upgrade to a newer version, which is just as costly in terms of hardware as vista?
Just as an afterthought, masm32 doesn't perform the install. This is not to say it wouldn't run. Office 2000 did do the install, and works fine so long as one avoids the help functions which cause the paperclip of death to appear and crash your application.  In my experience the wine apis work fine, but no .chm please.

I only wanted to help, but that circus comment may mislead others into believing windows assembly with a commercial assembler is neither possible nor feasible. The road less travelled may prove itself more pleasant.

[redskull]

Also, just to confirm, using masm to assemble programs for operating systems other than Windows (even if you get it to work), is strictly against the license, is it not?

-alan

[BlackVortex]

Also, just to confirm, using masm to assemble programs for operating systems other than Windows (even if you get it to work), is strictly against the license, is it not?

-alan

But we're talking about programming for windows, just using linux as the main OS, so I'm not sure.  When in doubt, use Jwasm.

Also, in this day of emulation and virtualization, you can run virtually (pun intended) anything ... anywhere.

@locche : tl;dr, but I see you're heartbroken, although I was just kidding. It wasn't an insult, just that using those workarounds regularly and for serious jobs is a balancing act.
Hence the witty circus comment    :lol

[locche]

yeah. bv cried all night over my Ray Duncan scripts that the text is smeared.  I enjoyed the image of a circus but couldn't resist the 3 items in one post part. Hope your Ralph Brown kept dry. Peaceful reboot.

[carlos]

Shankle

Wine will run masm32 and programs you write,  the results as hutch had said in not impressive, but why instead of having a dual boot machine don't you install a virtual machine manager,  VMware cost money, (the server version is free), but virtualbox is free, install any of them in ubuntu, create a virtual machine, and install windows in that VM that way you could have the best of both worlds, use masm in windows environment, and linux for everything else,  as a bonus, you could have linux work as a file server for windows, and if you save the VM files to a dvd, you could recover fast from a windows disaster

in August 2007 I switched from win to ubuntu, I will never go back, except for masm coding, I use the win Vm for little else, and since I'm learning GAS now, some day I may get rid of It,

Welcome to the Linux world , you won't regret it

Carlos Pacheco

[shankle]

Thank you Carlos for your reply.
I looked on Ubuntu and found these items in the repositories:
Virtualbox-ose
Virtualbox-ose-source
Virtualbox-ose-guest-source
Vboxgtk
Virtualbox-ose-dbg
Wouldn't have the vaguest idea which one to install.
This is a completely new idea to me. Being 100% green on Ubuntu
I have no idea how to install a virtual machine in Ubuntu. Is it something like
Wubi would do? How would I do backups and manage a web site etc.?
At the present time I have no idea how to do a backup from Ubuntu.
I do know how to do it in Windows.
It still doesn't solve the problem of running MASM32 programs in a Linux environment.
I think I realize that can't be done.
I guess eventually I will have use one of the many Linux Assembler languages.
But which one and especially why? Everyone advises to use the one he is familiar with which
is not necessarily the best one. Personally I think I will wind up maintaining my programs
in MASM32 and also converting them to some Assembler language in Linux.
An awful lot of work. But nothings easy.
I would like to hear some more details on your suggestion if you have the time.
JPS

[drhowarddrfine]

@shankle,
Too many questions for here.  You really should be asking those on the Ubuntu forum.

[shankle]

ok, will do.
Just thought that Carlos might answer come of them.

[carlos]

Hi shankle

first, go to the ubuntu forums http://ubuntuforums.org/ and create an account NOW!!!  :toothy  :toothy  :toothy being a linux newbie (as I was, (and still I am)) this is your biggest source of help.

next, select virtualbox in synaptic, it will mark any dependencies (extra files needed) vbox will need, click install and synaptic will locate download and install Virtualbox, (or any package you chose)

run vbox, the process is intuitive, at least for a asm coder,

don't try to make a huge disk for windows, is better a small (6 - 10 Gb) virtual HD and use linux as a fileserver, (whit Samba, or activating folder sharing in vBox)

without Wine (or any emulator you choose) is impossible to run a win program in ubuntu, (or any linux ) they are essentially different beasts
if you plan to write programs for both platforms in assembler you had to remember the first caveat of assembler  Is Non Portable.

which assembler you should chose, JWasm run in windows and linux, but I hadn't tried it,  Nasm also do it, and is masm like but the macro is different, personally I'm learning (g)as, why? because is the standard in any linux distribution, is different, is weird (being ATT based), and is hard, (having being designed as a back end for the C compiler), but it will not stop a assembler coder, or will it?
if you had any doubts I'm glad to Help

Carlos

[GregL]

... is weird (being ATT based) ...

You can switch gas to Intel syntax. Use .intel_syntax noprefix. Unless you really want to use ATT syntax, I absolutely hate ATT syntax.

[drhowarddrfine]

Well, I have no issues whatsoever using ATT syntax.

[GregL]

drhowarddrfine,

To each his own.

[shankle]

Installed the Virtualbox in Ubuntu.
Then tried to install XP PRO in the virtualbox and I died right there.
My CD is a re-installation CD.
So I think I am back to the Dual Booting scenario.
Dell only gives re-installation CDs as far as I know.

[xmetal]

Installed the Virtualbox in Ubuntu.
Then tried to install XP PRO in the virtualbox and I died right there.
My CD is a re-installation CD.
So I think I am back to the Dual Booting scenario.
Dell only gives re-installation CDs as far as I know.

Can you elaborate on what went wrong? I remember doing a "fresh" Windows XP install with my own Dell "re-installation" CD.

[sinsi]

To freshly (re)install xp, all you need is a full version and your key. Basically all you pay for with xp is the 25 digit key.