24 replies to this topic

[jrw]

It just occured to me today that with the proliferation of small high capacity external hard drives why do i need to carry my computer. I usually use TMG from my laptop. Is there a way to install TMG on an external hard drive in such a fashion that I only need to carry the hard drive (western digital passport, mybook etc) and just plug it into a computer at my brothers house or the library or my office? This would save a ton of weight on trips to familiar destinations
JRW

[Jim Byram]

No. TMG must be installed on the system that it's going to run on. Many required support files are installed to the system32 folder. Fonts are installed to the fonts folder.

[elevator]

There is a work around for this though; although it requires quite a bit of techincal knowledge. Providing you have a BIOS that supports it, it is possible to boot an operating system such as Windows XP directly from a USB external harddrive. It is then possible to install TMG on the external hard drive operating system and work with it from any computer whose BIOS supports the USB boot option. I have used this myself with great success with both Windows and Linux.

No. TMG must be installed on the system that it's going to run on. Many required support files are installed to the system32 folder. Fonts are installed to the fonts folder.

[sam.m]

I currently have Vmware installed and have setup a virtual machine with just win xp and my genealogy applications. Works quite well as TMG currently is quite unfriendly as a portable application. And carry this file on my external hardrive. Which means I only have to install vmware on the host machine.

[elevator]

One more comment; maybe outside the subject; but if TMG used relative rather than fixed paths to store external exhibits, the portability of TMG would be drastically improved, inlcuding the option of putting the project files on an external hard drive. I know this has been discussed MANY times before, just thought I'd yet again express my wishes to have the portability improved in the next release...

[jrw]

Went to the Vmware page. Do i need the player? A little unclear on what happens. I download their player and install it? Then somehow make my external hard drive a virtual machine?
jrw

[jeffpiper]

No. TMG must be installed on the system that it's going to run on. Many required support files are installed to the system32 folder. Fonts are installed to the fonts folder.

Can you not install the program and directory on each pc? you would then transport the external hard drive between pcs and the relevant fonts/files/registry entries would be in place on the internal hard drive of each machine

[elevator]

For this to work, one must take great care to assure that the external hard drive gets assigned the same drive letter on each machine everytime it is hooked up (in these days with multiple cd/dvd media, thumb drives, card readers, and network drives this can be quite challenging). This is because the fixed path storage scheme that TMG uses. And if you are REALLY honest, you must also check the TMG license to make sure installing it on multiple machines does not infringe on the licensing agreement In any event, I am following this and many other similar threads with great interest as I would absolutely love to see the possibility to carry my project around with me on an external hard drive in future releases.

Ken.

Can you not install the program and directory on each pc? you would then transport the external hard drive between pcs and the relevant fonts/files/registry entries would be in place on the internal hard drive of each machine

[RGC]

For this to work, one must take great care to assure that the external hard drive gets assigned the same drive letter on each machine everytime it is hooked up (in these days with multiple cd/dvd media, thumb drives, card readers, and network drives this can be quite challenging).
[Snip]
Ken.

One can use the SUBST command-level instruction to reassign drives. Pick an imaginary drive letter and reassign the real one. One can even (although this is not applicable here) assign a drive letter to a subdirectory.

For example, if TMG were to be told that the data files are on drive W (a drive letter which is highly unlikely to be assigned in any system), and the external hard drive, when loaded on machine 1 appeared on drive G, then the command

SUBST G: W:\

would do the job. If the external hard drive loaded on machine 2 were to appear as drive J, then

SUBST J: W:\ on that machine would do it.

These instructions can be loaded under run - command while the system is up and running or as a BAT command run during startup. I use a similar technique regularly (subdirectory reassignment) when changing machines and also to maintain programs on my machine which will be run on another with different drive assignments.

Dick

[elevator]

I had honestly forgot about that command, that of course makes things quite a bit easier!

Ken.

SUBST G: W:\

[jrw]

I was discussing this with my medical informatics person and we talked about macs. He said most programs are self contained and therefore easier to move and delete and that they would possibly work on an external drive. Does anyone know and is there a (plan for) mac version of TMG?
jrw

[Jim Byram]

Does anyone know and is there a (plan for) mac version of TMG?

My personal take is that it's highly unlikely that there will ever be a MAC version of TMG. The gain in market share could never justify the expenditure of resources to undertake such a project.

[joanmc]

My personal take is that it's highly unlikely that there will ever be a MAC version of TMG. The gain in market share could never justify the expenditure of resources to undertake such a project.

Even better, is there any possibility of a Linux version of TMG? Has anyone used TMG with WINE or Crossover Office successfully? I gather it would be fine with VM Ware.....


Joan

[hamamelis@ntlworld.com]

Even better, is there any possibility of a Linux version of TMG? Has anyone used TMG with WINE or Crossover Office successfully? I gather it would be fine with VM Ware..... Joan

TMG6 runs perfectly well with linux. However, you do need to know how to set it up.
It will run in the emulators Wine4LinPro or ParallelsWorkstation. However, I prefer to run it natively using wine. I have explained in detail why and how to do this on my website at www.rhus.org.uk. Follow the link Linux. (Put very briefly: Importing and checking external images does not work on the emulators but does with wine.)
I have not succeeded in getting TMG to run with any version of wine (latest 0.9.43). However, as explained how, it will run with CrossoverOffice v6.1 & v6.2.
All the other common utilities like TMGUtility, SecondSite2 and GenSmarts run better under wine than CrossoverOffice.

I wonder if TMG version 7 will be easier to run using wine in Linux? So far as of 21 Jan 2008 the 30 day trial V7 will not run on either Crossover or wine. However, things are brighter than before: 1. It appears to install. 2. TMG7 will start up and looks normal but is unable to access the VFP files. Quite a few bits of the program do work, so I think it is a matter of time to find which dlls are required to fill in the missing links.

I hope this helps, let me know how you get on.
Best wishes,
Ian.

Edited by hamamelis@ntlworld.com, 21 January 2008 - 09:18 AM.

[joanmc]

Thanks so much for this Ian! Now I'm really excited Not only will TMG work but John Cardinal's great utilities AND GenSmarts - that's wonderful. Hmmm, I wonder about GedStar Pro? Don't want much do I?

As a Linux newbie, it will take me some time to figure it all out. I have Kubuntu Feisty on one machine and GenToo on another and currently run Win XP Pro with Firefox

Do you or anyone else beta test TMG using Linux? It would be good to know about v7's compatibility......

Thanks again Ian.


Joan

TMG6 runs perfectly well with linux. However, you do need to know how to set it up.
It will run in the emulators Wine4LinPro or ParallelsWorkstation. However, I prefer to run it natively using wine. I have explained in detail why and how to do this on my website at www.rhus.org.uk. Follow the link Linux. (Put very briefly: Importing and checking external images does not work on the emulators but does with wine.)
I have not succeeded in getting TMG to run with any version of wine (latest 0.9.43). However, as explained how, it will run with CrossoverOffice v6.1.
All the other common utilities like TMGUtility, SecondSite2 and GenSmarts run better under wine than CrossoverOffice.

I wonder if TMG version 7 will be easier to run using wine in Linux?

I hope this helps, let me know how you get on.
Best wishes,
Ian.

[hamamelis@ntlworld.com]

Thanks for your kind comments, Joan. I have linux running on an Acer Travelmate 3004 laptop which weighs 1.9kg, so I have no need to anything else - I carry my entire office with me every where I go. I can't quite imagine using something as small as a Gedstar for TMG.
I would imagine that TMG7 will be easier to run on wine than v6. Later versions of programs like Dreamweaver, Photoshop and the genealogy software we mentioned seem to be better behaved than they used to be. I expect everyone is aware of the economic potential of writing cross platform applications. I think TMG6 uses an earlier version of Visual Fox Pro which has been superseded.
Ian.

[joanmc]

My reason for using Gedstar Pro is to avoid having to pack my laptop all the time. I have both my projects (client & personal) on my Palm LifeDrive via GedStar and it along with its keyboard fit nicely into my purse which helps my back injury immensely. When I travel, the laptop stays safely locked up while I use my Palm at whatever repositories I'm doing research in. In the evening, I sync the info onto the laptop then onto my thumbdrive, work on it if necessary and start again the next day. While at home, I do the same thing when at the Archives, Family History Centre, etc. It's absolutely wonderful. Even when I was using my laptop, I never typed notes directly into my program, rather entered it into a WP document then double checked it, analyzed it and, if I decided it should be entered into my database, I simply copied & pasted it so that process hasn't changed.


Joan

Thanks for your kind comments, Joan. I have linux running on an Acer Travelmate 3004 laptop which weighs 1.9kg, so I have no need to anything else - I carry my entire office with me every where I go. I can't quite imagine using something as small as a Gedstar for TMG.
I would imagine that TMG7 will be easier to run on wine than v6. Later versions of programs like Dreamweaver, Photoshop and the genealogy software we mentioned seem to be better behaved than they used to be. I expect everyone is aware of the economic potential of writing cross platform applications. I think TMG6 uses an earlier version of Visual Fox Pro which has been superseded.
Ian.

[sam.m]

I have not succeeded in getting TMG to run with any version of wine (latest 0.9.43). However, as explained how, it will run with CrossoverOffice v6.1 & v6.2.
All the other common utilities like TMGUtility, SecondSite2 and GenSmarts run better under wine than CrossoverOffice.

Just checked Wine and it seems someone has had TMG7 work with Wine 0.9.58 Wine Entry for TMG

[Robert Jacobs]

Ian,

This is an exciting development for me. In your TMG/Linux installation have you succeeded in using the report fuinction to print word-processing files? Are you using 32-bit or 64-bit Linux?

When the day comes that TMG & Quicken run perfectly and completely under Linux Microsoft is history for me.

Thanks.

formerprof

Edited by formerprof, 06 April 2008 - 05:37 AM.

[hlein]

Ian,

This is an exciting development for me. In your TMG/Linux installation have you succeeded in using the report fuinction to print word-processing files? Are you using 32-bit or 64-bit Linux?

When the day comes that TMG & Quicken run perfectly and completely under Linux Microsoft is history for me.

Thanks.

formerprof

Hi formerprof,

I tried it using Ubunti and wine 0.9.59 and TMG7. It seems to work well if you follow the HOWTO in
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?...n&iId=10500
Without his procedure, I had a lot of troubles.


Regards
Helmut