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How to Run Dreamweaver CS3 on Linux using Wine

Posted October 17th, 2007 by rmorgan

Why would you want to run Dreamweaver under Linux? If you have to ask, then you probably haven't used it or you're not a serious web developer. Adobe's Dreamweaver is the premier web editing tool on the market today. There are many free alternatives to this expensive software program, but they don't come close to Dreamweaver's capabilities and therefore it's well worth the money, IMHO.

Note: I'm using Ubuntu 7.04 Edgy Eft for this, so change these commands to match up whatever your distro uses to accomplish the same thing.

Warning: Don't steal software. This guide is for users who have a legitimate copy of Dreamweaver installed on their Windows partition. If you don't have Dreamweaver, you can get a copy from Adobe's website here: http://www.adobe.com (we don't get any $$ kickbacks from that).

Ok, on to the steps to get this working!

First, install wine if you haven't already. Like I stated before, I'm using Ubuntu to do this, so apt-get is my choice of software installers. Your distro may be different. Consult your system docs for the correct syntax for your software package management tool.

Note: Make sure you have the latest version of Wine for your distro. The current release can be downloaded here: http://www.winehq.org/site/download

sudo apt-get install wine

Your wine user directory and other options aren't set up by default, so issue the winecfg command to set up the environment:

winecfg

which created the necessary .wine directories under my home directory.

Next, copy the entire "C:\Program Files\Adobe" program directory from your Windows partition to the wine program directory "/home/(username)/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/" like so:

(my window's partition is sda2. yours may be different)
cp -R /dev/sda2/Program\ Files/Adobe/* /home/(username)/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Adobe

This is a large directory, so it might take a few minutes to copy over. It also might be easier for Linux newbies to copy/paste this in the GUI.

After that, copy the whole "Adobe" folder from "c:\Documents and settings\All users\Application Data" to "/home/(username)/.wine/drive_c/window/profiles/all users/"

Then, copy the whole "c:\Windows\system32\Macromed" directory to "/home/(username)/.wine/drive_c/window/system32/Macromed/". Notice that the "ia" is left off the end of the word "Macromedia". This is not a typo.

Next, copy the whole "Adobe" folder from "c:\Program Files\Common Files" to "/home/(username)/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/"

Finally, you'll need to copy over the "c:\WINDOWS\WinSxS" directory to your Wine "windows" directory. Wine doesn't have a WinSxS directory, so copy the whole thing over intact. Dreamweaver needs the latest C++ runtime and other assorted files from there to work properly.

After you have copied all of the program files and system files Dreamweaver needs to your Linux partition, you need to export the Dreamweaver registry keys. Boot back into Windows and use regedit to dump this information to a file:

Start --> Run --> "regedit" (Enter)

Export the entire "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Macromedia/" registry key to "C:\dreamweaver.reg" and boot back into Linux.

Now we'll need to convert the registry keys to ASCII format with the recode utility. Let's install that program if it isn't already:

sudo apt-get install recode

Copy over the registry keys to your home directory and convert them to ascii like so:

recode ucs-2..ascii dreamweaver.reg

And now import the keys into wine:

wine regedit dreamweaver.reg

Finished! Now cd over to your Dreamweaver directory and run DWCS3! Hopefully it will work... lol

cd .wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Adobe/Adobe\ Dreamweaver\ CS3/
wine Dreamweaver.exe

Post your comments/corrections/feedback below.

Excellent tut, I do believe

On June 2nd, 2009 fallen00sniper says:

Excellent tut, I do believe it will work, I have not rebooted yet, but I am also doing this with PhotoShop CS4 at the same time, hopefully it will also work, if not no big loss I will just get it sorted later.

Thanks for the tips, this

On May 18th, 2009 skywalkerrss says:

Thanks for the tips, this tutorial that i stumbled on will show you how you can run Dreamweaver CS3 on Linux using Wine.
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Ohhhhhhhh my god:

On April 6th, 2009 raymond_haddad says:

Ohhhhhhhh my god: C:\Windows\winsxs is 8GB. do i need to copy everything????? i'll be out of space on my laptop :(.

Thanks for the tips, this

On March 24th, 2009 Narconon Vista Bay says:

Thanks for the tips, this tutorial that i stumbled on will show you how you can run Dreamweaver CS3 on Linux using Wine.
Thanks
http://www.calnarconon.org

i tried to do all i red but

On March 13th, 2009 boyanmagat says:

i tried to do all i red but the problem is still here?
and have noting to do more!
I transfer all from vista part. and have wine 1.1.15
and made winsxs and all the other things and still -

fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\home\\ivo\\.wine\\drive_c\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS4\\xerces-c_2_7.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library xerces-c_2_7.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\home\\ivo\\.wine\\drive_c\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS4\\Dreamweaver.exe") not found
fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\home\\ivo\\.wine\\drive_c\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS4\\AdobePSL.dll") not found

err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"Z:\\home\\ivo\\.wine\\drive_c\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS4\\Dreamweaver.exe" failed, status c0000135
and a lot of more...
Please help me?

i was stuck in the beginning

On March 3rd, 2009 cthar says:

i was stuck in the beginning itself.
after installation of wine, i was copying C:/Program Files .... from WIndows partition into linux, but couldnot do so. the error reports
cp: target `Files/Adobe' is not a directory

my configuration might be wrong. can you help me please

A lot of interesting info

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Great, finally i can use

On November 9th, 2008 duaneh says:

Great, finally i can use Dreamweaver on my linux. Thanks.
--
Dualeh, editor of insomnia herbal

err:module:import_dll

On September 12th, 2008 Barry Jeenmaz says:

err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\xerces-c_2_6.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library xerces-c_2_6.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Workspace.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MFC80U.DLL (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Workspace.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Workspace.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Workspace.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library Workspace.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Dreamweaver.exe") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MFC80U.DLL (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Dreamweaver.exe") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Dreamweaver.exe") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Dreamweaver.exe") not found
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Dreamweaver.exe" failed, status c0000135

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Yes, those are Microsoft

On September 13th, 2008 rmorgan says:

Yes, those are Microsoft libraries that Dreamweaver is linked against. Usually in your Windows directory or Windows/system32. Copy those dll's over to the same location in your wine's windows directory.

I read the post and followed

On September 2nd, 2008 gilbertoalbino says:

I read the post and followed allong with it.
However, I faced a situation:
Inside the winsxs folder of my Windows vista,
there is 10 Giga of files.
Should I copy all this files to Linux Wine winsys folder?

Good question. When I wrote

On September 8th, 2008 rmorgan says:

Good question. When I wrote this article, I was using Windows XP. I have not used Vista (nor will I ever be using Vista) since I'm a Mac and Linux person, so I have no idea. Maybe you can get a friend who still uses XP to burn you a copy of their winsxs directory and you could use that.

Problems with dlls

On July 5th, 2008 klsfriend says:

I followed the instructions using Ubuntu 8.04. I get the following error messages when I try to run dreamweaver:

err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\xerces-c_2_6.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library xerces-c_2_6.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Workspace.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MFC80U.DLL (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Workspace.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Workspace.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Workspace.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library Workspace.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Dreamweaver.exe") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MFC80U.DLL (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Dreamweaver.exe") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Dreamweaver.exe") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Dreamweaver.exe") not found
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\\Dreamweaver.exe" failed, status c0000135

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

KLS

WinSxS

On July 19th, 2008 herschen says:

There is already a winsxs folder in /.wine/drive_c/windows. When you create a new folder "WinSxS" in Linux, it treats this as a different directory than "winsxs." However Windows does not let you create two directories with the same wording and different case. So Wine chooses the first directory it sees "winsxs" and ignores "WinSxS." Delete the directory "winsxs" and you should be fine.

Missing files

On July 14th, 2008 rmorgan says:

It looks like you might have missed some required files. Copy those DLL's over to your wine c drive and try it again.

This tutorial rocks!!!

On May 6th, 2008 austin1030 says:

Hey
I follow this tutorial with Ubuntu Hardy and it works charm!

Although I have not tested all other Adobe Macromedia applications, I think it would work.

Thanks

Austin

7.04 is feisty fawn not edgy

On May 1st, 2008 duckhead42 says:

7.04 is feisty fawn not edgy eft.....

C++ Library

On April 13th, 2008 bubbasheeko says:

Okay, I have went from the associations not being able to link to dreamweaver. ie. the C++ library. I updated the library from the link on the Wine project page for Dreamweaver CS3. I was able to get a different result. Now I receive a pop up box that says:

Runtime Error!

Program: C...

R6034
An application has made an attempt to load the C library incorrectly.

Any ideas from here?

Further licensing, etc...

On December 5th, 2007 Holonet says:

Ok I gave it another try (on a fresh Ubuntu 7.10 install), but unfortunately yielded the same results. I was incorrect about the Macromed directory. It is there, but on my system, it's in the SysWOW64 subdirectory (inside the one given above). I still haven't seen "Macromedia" in the relative directory in the registry though. On second thought, this part might be because I'm using Adobe CS3 Master Collection, and it's just under that.

I did a little impatient reading, suffice to notice the -f (force) argument in recode, which will force it to complete even if it is irreversible. I'm not sure if that solves everything or not, but that way, it at least didn't give me a "failed" message.

Once again, it started up fine, but after the splash screen it gives the initial message:

AMT Subsystem Failure

The licensing subsystem has failed catastrophically. You must reinstall or contact customer support.

Now...if I try to start the program again, a message comes up BEFORE the splash screen, saying "Licensing for this product has stopped working..." etc etc... and says uninstalling/reinstalling is necessary. Now, what really steams me is that when that happens, it changes something so it pretty much can't be undone. I figured out by re-copying the common files part, the message seems to be thwarted, but then the program just locks up instead. Essentially, if a mistake occurs anywhere installing, you've got to pretty much clear everything, and I mean everything and try again.

Anyhoo, good writeup all the same. I think the only reason this doesn't work is because of Adobe's ridiculous installation program. I'm gonna look around some more, but sheesh...

Update:

Ok I may have this wrong, but it seems like CS3 will not run without the Flexnet licensing service. I tested my working installation in Windows, and shut down the FNPLicesningService.exe process, but when I started Dreamweaver, it started itself back up again. I frankly don't get how it worked on any machine if this service doesn't run in wine somehow, or there isn't some workaround...but I'd sure be open to suggestion.

I've tried searching the registry for everything related to the flexnet service, and I tried using the same method to put that in the wine registry, as well as copied the Macrovision/Flex folders to the respective common files locations, same result.

License collapse & Macromedia

On December 3rd, 2007 Holonet says:

I'm not clear on where you're getting these "Macromed" and "Macromedia" directories in CS3. As far as I know, as of this release, Adobe purchased the rights to Dreamweaver, so it's not Macromedia anymore. This seems confirmed by my installation. I did not find those directories, but I successfully started up the program, following the instructions, substituting Adobe in for Macromed, and Macromedia in the registry. In the registry, it ("Adobe," that is) was under /software/wow64...(something or other)...which I'm assuming has something to do wtih me having a 64-bit processor.

Along similar lines, I got this error when I tried to recode the registry file:

recode: Adobe.reg failed: Untranslatable input in step `ISO-10646-UCS-2..ANSI_X3.4-1968'

Is this because I have a 64-bit system as well? I am running Linux Mint, which is basically Ubuntu, but I just found out it's 32-bit only. Could this and/or my processor have something to do with that?

In any case, it did start up, but said the licensing stopped working, and the program closes after it opens. I heard about people having problems up to wazoo with this sort of thing because Adobe made a horrible installation process. I never experienced it until trying this though. At first, I thought it was a problem from the source, because my Windows installation (Windows being Windows here) is all messed up, but I checked and it still starts fine in Windblows. Is there possibly some other part of the registry or someplace I have to copy licensing info from? I tried copying over the entire /software/ registry folder (and got the same recode error, btw), but no luck. [I only tried this because I'm canning Mint since it doesn't support x64]

Updated testing required

On December 4th, 2007 rmorgan says:

Thank you for your comments. I'm going to have to revisit this article and try it on a few of my updated machines. I have a 64-bit AMD desktop that I will try it on, along with a 32-bit Intel laptop.

I've read some comments elsewhere on the web stating that Adobe's registration engine is causing problems, yet not will every user. It's unfortunate that they feel the need to cripple the application in this manner, even though what we are describing here is a legitimate usage with a legitimate license.

Possible folder problems if Dreamweaver won't start after copy

On November 28th, 2007 regularjohn44 says:

Thanks for the great instructions, here are tips from my experience.

When I was copying folders from Windows to Linux, there were a couple of differences I had from these instructions. If you are having trouble you might check these things:

Application Data/Adobe folder - on my Windows partition, this folder was not under All Users, but my specific user profile.

WinSxS - My installation of wine actually DID have this folder already, but it was in lowercase. When I copied over the Windows version of the folder with all the C++ libraries, etc, it was just a duplicate with different capital letters. Dreamweaver would not run for me until I copied all of the folders and files out of the Windows WinSxS folder into the lowercase "winsxs" folder that already was there in wine. Then I had to copy all the files out of the winsxs/Manifest (note uppercase) folder and put them into the pre-existing "manifest" folder (note the lowercase!)

Once I solved the winsxs issue, DW started right up! I'm running Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10.

Thank you for your comment.

On November 29th, 2007 rmorgan says:

Thank you for your comment. Yes, you are correct about the Adobe folder being under a user's profile if it's not installed for "All Users". And thank you for the update with the WinSxS directory information.

What are the latest C++

On November 4th, 2007 jwv says:

What are the latest C++ runtime?

I have install and add the files DLL (mfc80u.dll , msvcp80.dll , msvcr80.dll) missing on the folder system32 but when a run dreamweaver i get this error "Runtime Error! An application has made an attempt to load the c runtime library incorrectly".

I now the problem is on the C++ runtime files.

When i go to the Synaptic Package Manager and search for c++ runtime library i dont now to choice the rigth package.