Linux won't run executable files...?

Question

I am new to Linux I used to be a pro at Vista. My problem is that when I try to open up and executable file (.exe) it wont open it tries to unzip it and gives me this error: [/home/John/VisualBoyAdvance.exe]
End-of-central-directory signature not found. Either this file is not
a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive. In the
latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on
the last disk(s) of this archive.
zipinfo: cannot find zipfile directory in one of /home/John/VisualBoyAdvance.exe or
/home/John/VisualBoyAdvance.exe.zip, and cannot find /home/John/VisualBoyAdvance.exe.ZIP, period. What should i do to open it???

Answer 1

>"What should i do to open it???"<



You should be able to get the program to work under Wine. But if not, go into Synaptic and do a search for the program there. If you find it, install it from there.



If you don't find that program in Synaptic, you need to find out if your distro uses RPM or .deb files (as in WHAT DISTRO are you attempting to use?) and google for "'the program name' RPM" or "'the program name' .deb" to see if you can find a Linux version. If you're lucky enough to find that prog that way then download it to the desktop and unpack it using the proper package manager.



If none of that works for you then you'll have to go to the Forum for that distro and ask there, giving every little detail you can. This will get you much better answers a lot quicker. Linux forums are not as tolerable of newbs as Y! As is.



You will also find it extremely helpful to find a LUG (Linux User Group) in your area to get person on person/computer help. Find a LUG here:



http://www.linux.org/groups/

Answer 2

You can not combine the two operating systems into one operating system, because that will not work. Personally, leave it a dual boot operating system and have the best of both operating systems. If you are a gamer, retain the Windows for this purpose. Important data and files should never stay on a Hard Drive, they should be burned to DATA CD/DVDs so you never lose them. And yes, you open the user folder. On the left side you click the partition Windows is on and choose your files and click copy, then open the Linux folder you want to put them in and click past. You are done. The copy and move in Linux is limited in where it does those kind of actions, itś not all that useful compared to how Windows performs this task. Linux can only use certain Window software files by installing the wine software. It is very Limited.

Answer 3

There is WINE as I have already stated but it is always best to see if you can find and use native Linux software before you resort to running an emulator.



Major Linux Applications

http://www.bellevuelinux.org/appslist.html



Also your distro. is likely to contain an open source version of what you are looking for.



For example in Ubuntu thousands of open source applications can be found in the Synaptic Package Manager

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto



To find out which windows applications WINE will run consult the application database http://appdb.winehq.org/



But always try native first.





LUg.

Answer 4

.exe files are Windows executables, not Linux ones. You can run them under a compatibility layer called Wine, which should be available via your distro's package manager. Wine is not perfect, especially for games, so ff possible, try and find Linux versions of software instead, preferably through the package manager.

Answer 5

An .exe is a Windows program, not a Linux program. Wine is a linux system that can be used to run some Windows .exe files, and that is your only option. It is a different operating system and is designed to primarily run Linux and not Windows software.

Answer 6

Sounds like you're trying to run a windows executable on linux.

Answer 7

Linux does not use .exe files those are programs used only in a windows environment

Answer 8

Winrar is the best way to open compressed files, folders or documents. you can unzip files zip, rar, tar, jar, 7z, iso, ect...

I downloaded Winrar for free here http://bitly.com/1p3PRvs

Regards