[solved] kernel 2.6.7-1.494 update breaks wine

[Anand Buddhdev]

Anand Buddhdev wrote:

> Today I updated my kernel to 2.6.7-1.494.2.2, and I can no longer run 
> windows binaries. I did some investigation, and found out that until 
> 2.6.6, binfmt_misc was compiled as a module, and the wine startup script 
> inserted it using modprobe, and then registered wine as a handler for 
> windows executables. With kernel 2.6.7, binfmt_misc is compiled into the 
> kernel, not as a module. Hence the modprobe in the wine startup script 
> fails, and furthermore, the script is unable to register wine as a 
> handler for windows executables.
> 
> I have filed this in bugzilla as a kernel issue, but I am not sure who 
> is at fault. Anyway, does anyone know how I can restore the original 
> functionality I had, where I could just type:
> 
> .wine/c/Program\ Files/LeXpert/Lexpert.exe
> 
> at the shell prompt and get Lexpert.exe to run?

Many thanks to Geoffrey Leach for providing a clue to solving this 
problem. The solution is that under this new kernel, we have to mount 
the binfmt_misc pseudo filesystem on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc to access 
its features. So I added to my /etc/fstab:

none  /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc  binfmt_misc  defaults  0 0

And then mounted it by running:

mount /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc

I then removed the line:

/sbin/modprobe binfmt_misc &>/dev/null

from the file /etc/init.d/wine, as it is no longer needed. And then I 
started the wine service:

/etc/init.d/wine start

And now I can run my windows application just like before, by double 
clicking on its icon on the desktop, or typing its name on the command line.