Having been a user of RootsMagic6, I was happy to upgrade to RootsMagic7 when it became available back in Dec 2014 .. and while it installed and worked fine on my Win8 laptop, I was sadly disappointed that it would not work correctly under Ubuntu - until today.
I was able to download the current installation program by going to their website at http://www.RootsMagic.com/download/RootsMagic-7 and to install it by following their instructions (ie to download and install RootsMagic - or in the case of Ubuntu, since Wine was already installed, just a matter of right-clicking on the icon and selecting > Open With > Wine Windows Program Loader .. and then allowing the program to install). However, whenever I tried to open any rootsmagic file with RM7 or even to create a new empty one I immediately received an external program error 'exception C06D007F' .. which always put a frowny look on my face.
RootsMagic6 continued to work under Wine just as before (after reinstalling it for testing) and as I noted above, RootsMagic7 worked fine on my other Windows machines .. just not for me on Ubuntu. :(
Today I took another look at the problem. First I installed a Linux program called PlayOnLinux .. "a graphical front-end for the Wine software compatibility layer which allows Linux users to install Windows-based video games, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Internet Explorer, as well as many other applications". This program was easily installed by opening the Ubuntu Software Center and searching for PlayOnLinux in the default repositories.
RootsMagic is not one of the pre-programmed PlayOnLinux games or utilities, but by clicking the big + icon in the top menu to install a new program and in the bottom left by clicking the 'Install a non-listed program' link I was able to re-install the RootsMagic6 and RootsMagic7 programs into two separate virtual program areas. Neither worked at first until I enabled the necessary GDIplus component features. This is done easily within PlayOnLinux by highlighting the program and selecting the 'Configure' link in the right menu area, and then clicking the 'Install components' tab, highlighting 'gdiplus' from the list and finally clicking 'Install' at bottom right. PlayOnLinux does all the heavy lifting and figures out what to download and install from there.
To get my RootsMagic7 to work, I only also had to install the 'ie6' component for my RootsMagic7 program, again after highlighting RootsMagic7 (that's what I called it when I set it up), and then selecting 'Configure' in the right menu area, then clicking the 'Install components' tab and highlighting 'Internet Explorer 6' and finally clicking the 'Install' button at bottom right.
Addendum: Also installed (using PlayOnLinux) the 'Flashplayer' and 'msxml6' components to get the interface between familysearch and rootsmagic to work properly .. as above highlighted, then selected 'Configure', and then selected the desired components, then 'Install' .. and voila!
Now both programs run perfectly on my Ubuntu (LTS 14.04) system. To be safe, I have one copy of my database file for RM6 for testing/archive and a duplicate copy for RM7 for ongoing work, but that is just me.
PlayOnLinux also has a 'Create a shortcut' link to simplify creating an icon on your desktop .. Sweet! Annnnddd, it can be used to install some of those classic Windows programs or games you desperately need (or just want for variety). Does this work for your Linux systems? /rdd
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