WoW64 is a Windows subsystem for running 32-bit stuff on 64-bit Windows. You’re talking about Wine’s implementation of WoW64 - there’s the old one which needs 32-bit Linux libraries and the new one which doesn’t.

I do know about this. to be specific, wine team since 9.0 stablised using there newer wow64 stuff (iirc, this was one of the blockers to use wine on non x86-64 architechtures), and since then, there has been aur package to play around it. I used to only use it, but receently i wanted to download a game, and faced this bug. then I reverted back to normal arch package which is in multilib repo and depends on lib32-*. Now the main arch package is using the newer wow64 implementation.

I did hint at the the fact that I did not find much in logs. I have not checked the verbose logging (which shows each dll involved, each bit of memory read, etc), but with regular logging,

0130:fixme:win:WINNLSEnableIME hwnd 00010108 enable -1: stub!
0158:err:environ:init_peb starting L"C:\\users\\sg\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\is-SE85P.tmp\\FlushFileCache.exe" in experimental wow64 mode
0158:fixme:ntdll:NtSetSystemInformation (0x00000015,0x40bb84,0x00000024) stub
0158:fixme:ntdll:NtSetSystemInformation (0x00000050,0x40bba8,0x00000004) stub
0170:fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_PERFORMANCE_INFORMATION

these are the only lines that come when actual installation starts. The installer stays stuck at at some percentage (varies depending on total game size, and size of compressed binaries)

I think it is related to freearc decompression, because at this point in installer, the various .bin files (the compressed files are named like fg-*.bin, where * is some number, they are FreeArc archive files) are decompressed when using older wine version, with this, they are just stuck. I can not C^c the proceess, I have to pkill all the running wine processes. There is something related to wine written in fitgirl faq, which also hints at replacing the dlls for this, but that does not work for me

India

it is not caching related, it happens for a game installer of size 100 mib, and i have plenty of ram (24 gb)

bottles uses its own version of wine (i think it is called something like soda) which is older and would probably still have lib32 stuff. I prefer distro packages.

I do not think it is a good idea to prepare a vm image and install it as iso. it can be done afaik, but not a great idea. Assuming he (your dad) already has a ubuntu system (presumably some lts, i am asssuming something like 1604, 1804 or 2004) then it is easier to just upgrade the system. I know you said that he has forgotten to upgrade, so i would ask him to somehow send you a photo of what he has installed right now (can be hard, but maybe just asking what animal is present on the wallpaper (if he uses the default one that ubuntu uses) can help. even look of top bar or icons can help to get the age. Afaik, ubuntu upgrade paths are relatively stable, so once you know what version he uses currently, then you can install that version, and upgrade it to newest install on your system and record instructions. This would be long and tedious task. I do not use ubuntu, so i do not know what jumps can be taken (i know you can jump from 1 lts to another, something like 1804 to 2004, but can you jump 2 lts versions? some ubuntu forum or wiki post can help regarding this). Once you complete upgrades, you can record instructions and send them.

This can be a easier for following reasons -

• he would not have to plug in usb and boot into installer mode - this can be hard if he does not know what key to press, or if he does not press it fast enough

• you would still be using some standard installation, rather than your “custom” iso - not a big thing, but upgrades are more certain in a standard installation

• ubuntu has snaps - I am not a big fan of snaps, but it is a good thing for likes of your dad, who would prefer to have there apps (like web browser) auto updated in background. Mint has flatpak, but by default stuff is installed as deb packages, upgrading them requires sudo password, which can be hard for your parent.

the virtual image is much larger than iso, because it is uncompressed. Isos are you compressed by something like squashfs, which prepares something like a tar or zip file, which is also mountable. Also your intial virtual file system allocated size might be larger (which would largely be empty, this would be “sparse” file). From my prior experience, you can sometimes have sparse file errors, which can cause errors at bootup, these can be benign, but may seem strange to your father.

Someone else mentioned, you can also possibly install it on a laptop, and then ship that to your father, or buy a prebuilt laptop with linux preinstalled. Nowadays, some big brands like hp/dell/lenovo also have options in there build configurators to select the operating systems, and there are also linux specific vendors (more expensive). But this option in general is expensive (because there is a laptop cost).

Also, where does your father live? If he lives somewhere maybe close to me or someone you know who can go and upgrade / install new system for him. This can be hard for logistaical reasons, or you may not be able to find someone trustworthy.

posteo is what i am using. Upsides - reasonably cheap (12 euros per year), downsides - no custom domains

congrats. I dont read much, but i might consider this one

there are about 432 = 4! ways that is 24 and if it alarms after 3 tries, it can be safe-ish.

that explains it

lemmings.world or pifed.social both are general purpose, and relatively small

I do this. I almost always pack extra information, and then skip according to time. In case someone questions back, I say, it was back on so and so slide, you might have missed it

most solids and liquids are practically incompressible (when comparing with gasses). there is a relationship between bulk compressibility, shear stress and youngs modulus for solids, which can be extended for liquids. It does not work for gasses

they all are chronically ill, they will die, just in some time

you are not adding enough water, add more

I feel you. Not a american.

how are we quantising water shape (droplet vs jet)? Is it amount of pee generated/unit amount of time or something similar?

by a very specific definition of “inside”

had almost the same line of thought, that some leader’s term got over