Installing e-Sword on Ubuntu Linux
Here is a quick tutorial to install e-Sword on Ubuntu Linux. e-Sword is one of the best bible study software out there, and the only reason I stayed with Windows as long as I did. It will be interesting to see if Rick Meyers will port it to a native linux program. I believe he is trying to make a web based version of e-Sword, so his energies may be tied up with that. Until then, follow these instructions to get e-Sword running in Ubuntu using Wine. Note: I tested this with Xubuntu 8.04 and Wine version 1.0
First, install wine using a command line interface:
1. go to: Applications>System>Add/Remove…
2. Click on System on the left hand pane. In the right hand pane, scroll down until you find Synaptic Package Manager. Check it, click apply changes. If it asks for your password, enter it and click O.K. This step will install Synaptic which will be used in a later step.
3. Once Synaptic is installed (You should see it in Applications>System) Go to: Applications>Accessories>Terminal
4. In the terminal, past in the following and press enter (This will update Synaptic’s lists for Wine which is a Windows Emulator needed for running e-Sword): sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list
5. Next paste: sudo apt-get update
6. Close the terminal and go to: Applications>System>Synaptic Package Manager
7. In the search box on the top of Synaptic, type in Wine and click search. In the list that displays, scroll down until you find wine. Check it. You may get a pop up asking you to install dependencies that Wine needs. Click mark and continue to install Wine. Click Apply at the top, and when a pop up windows comes up, click Apply again. Wait for the program to install.
8. Go to www.e-sword.net and download the latest version of e-Sword.
9. When the download pop-up window comes up, choose to open (run) the program using Wine. Wait for it to download the e-Sword installer. It should automatically continue with the e-Sword installation wizard.
10. Download msls31.dll from Dlldump.com.
11. Download Riched20.dll from Dlldump.com.
12. Copy the downloaded dll’s into the e-Sword directory by doing the following steps:
a. Places>Ryan (Change Ryan with your home directory)
b. Click on the view menu and check “Show Hidden Files”
c. Double Click .wine
d. Double click Drive_C
e. Double Click Program Files
f. Double Click E-Sword
g. Copy the two downloaded dll files into this directory
13. go to: Applications>Wine>Configure Wine
14. Click on the Libraries Tab, and in the “New override for Library” drop down box, fine Riched20, click add, apply, and ok. Close out of Configure Wine.
15. go to: Applications>Other>E-Sword to run E-sword. Everything should work fine, including the Strong’s tool-tips pop-ups. Enjoy!
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Hi Ryan, Thanks for some good, clear instructions about this. I’ve been trying to find how to use E-sword on Linux for a few weeks. I wonder if I can ask for a little more help though.
I have installed Wine and, as far as I know, I have installed e-sword. However, my Applications menu doesn’t have either an option for ‘wine’ or ‘other’. So, I’m feeling a bit stuck, and a little frustrated.
I am using Feisty Fawn and wine0.9.5 (When I tried to upgrade, I received a message that some of the required additions aren’t installable on my laptop.)
Any further guidance you may have would be fantastic.
Brian
July 5th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Hi Brian,
Try this to see if e-Sword was installed.
1. Open up your Home directory. In my case it is labeled “Ryan”.
2. Do that by going to “Places” on the menu and choose “Home folder”
3. Go to View>Show hidden files in the Home folder. (Press CTRL-H as a short cut)
4. You should see hidden files now. Look for one that is labeled “.Wine” (Notice the period in front of Wine) and double click it.
5. Double click the folder “Drive_C”
6. Double click the folder “Program Files”
7. Double Click the folder “E-Sword” (Note: If it is not there, e-Sword was not installed)
8. Double click the program “e-sword.exe” and it should run the program.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Ryan. Thanks so much for the “how to”. Just installed Wine, then e-Sword into Ubuntu 8.04 studio. Then went to my Windows install of e-Sword and copied all Bible, dictionary, commentary, etc. files from e-Sword folder in Program Files and copied them into e-Sword folder in Ubuntu. Works great! Had error finding msls31.dll first time started but not since. I really appreciate your clear explanation. Made it easy for me.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
As an update, my msls31.dll error message returned. Had to make a copy of this file and paste into Windows/System32 folder. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=404042 for specifics. Now it really does work great!
July 10th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Thanks for the follow up Ryan. It would seem that e-sword had installed, but when I tried to start it, there was no Bible Programs there. So decided to uninstall everything and start again. Now I can’t install Wine!!!!. Oh well. Will keep trying.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:04 am
@ rcravysibi: Thanks for the follow on. Yes, copying msls31.dll is necessary for e-sword to run properly. I have it listed as steps 10 and 12.
@ brian: If you do not already have a bunch of data saved on the hard drive, I’d recommend a format and a clean install of Ubuntu and wine/e-sword. On a clean install, the above directions should work with no problems.