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In this particular case I need to run .complicated NET application for Linux. By complicated i mean - that project was developed for 3 years and i don't want to write it again in java or something else and develop and support both, .NET and Java version later.

Application is generating mouse and keyboard events (by winapi/dll import) and uses serial port. I have also few timers for delays - for serial port communication (10-20ms, i dont need big precision here).

The rest is just a lot of simple code, nothing special, no weird controls, no directx etc.

What should i expect? Will this work?

If some part of code will fail - i can change it a little, make network connection between .net app and mini-application on linux that i can write for sending mouse and keyboard events, or RS232 communication.

Additionally i want to ask about Wine and .NET in general:

How to write .NET applications that should run on Linux/Wine/Mono?

  • which version of framework? (1.x, 2.0 or can i use 3.5?)
  • what should i avoid (imports from windows dll? timers?)

Edit/moved from comment:

I saw mono few years ago, but it was terrible. Now i see it growed up, supports LINQ, Threading and other complicated features. In addition now help looks really serious. Im not accepting answer yet, because i see that people still posting very useful links. If this question gets many +1 i will rewrite it and maybe this will help others.

I hope someone here have some practical experience with .NET on linux here...

Kamil
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    [Mono](http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page) is an open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET that you could probably use for this. – Anirudh Ramanathan Oct 27 '12 at 19:20
  • Thanks. I saw this somewhere, but i forgot. Anyway i still need some practical information from someone who developed something that works in Mono. – Kamil Oct 27 '12 at 19:22
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    If it is compatibility that is worrying, there is the [Mono Migration Analyzer](http://www.mono-project.com/MoMA) which can show potential issues. – Anirudh Ramanathan Oct 27 '12 at 19:32
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    Mono won't be suitable if you are using pInvokes to access functionality within Win32 - this will just plain out fail on linux. – adrianbanks Oct 27 '12 at 19:37
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    @adrianbanks but he mentions the solution to that in his own question. He can split the program in to two parts, the platform independent .NET part with some IPC to a native component that is used based on what platform it is run on. Infact [he can still use P/Invoke](http://www.mono-project.com/Interop_with_Native_Libraries), he just needs to use one class for windows and one class for Linux – Scott Chamberlain Oct 27 '12 at 19:41

5 Answers5

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Have you read about Mono.NET on http://www.mono-project.com?

It allows you to write .NET apps for Linux with minor differences over the Microsoft implementation. I don't think wine will cope with any of the .NET components.

Just read the documentation before and you have a go.

PS: This also gives you the compatibility list between mono and .NET. http://www.mono-project.com/Compatibility and MoMA(mono migration analyzer) is a tool that will scan any .NET app already created to see if its compatible to deploy on linux.

Scott Chamberlain
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Freeman
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    Thanks. Thats probably enough for me, but ill wait with accepting. I see that people are still posting useful links. – Kamil Oct 27 '12 at 19:34
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    yes, the best part is that its ported even further, so you can use it to write code for android and ios too. – Freeman Oct 27 '12 at 19:36
  • If anyone happens upon this question, nowadays you'll want .NET Core, Microsoft's official platform to support .NET on Windows and other desktop software. – person27 Feb 21 '19 at 04:12
7

In this post i shortened and combined all information i learned from others in this thread.

  1. Open source impementation of .NET for Linux is called Mono.

  2. Compatibility is well documented (see links below). Mono supports LINQ, threading and some other complicated features.

  3. It even supports InteropServices. Its possible to use DllImport on linux library (!), like libc.so for example.

  4. Mono can support Android and iOS (they are Linux based, right?)

  5. There is a tool for Mono compatibility analysis called MoMA (Mono Migration Analyzer)

The Mono Migration Analyzer (MoMA) tool helps you identify issues you may have when porting your .Net application to Mono. It helps pinpoint platform specific calls (P/Invoke) and areas that are not yet supported by the Mono project.

Useful links:

Mono - home page

Mono - page with documentation

Mono - compatibility page

MoMA - Mono Migration Analysis page

Kamil
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3

We have a couple of .net applications that run on Windows or Linux with Mono.

You can develop in VisualStudio if you want, it is not necessary to use the Mono development environment. Only the runtime mono libraries are required in order to run .net applications on Linux.

We use net 2.0 target to compile these apps in VisualStudio, because mono is nearly 100% compatible with .net 2.0. Mono also implements APIS from later .net versions, but not all and not as complete. If you use features of newer versions than 2.0, you should check if these are supported or use the Mono compatibility analysis tool. You can also use Mono develop instead of Visual Studio, my predecessor was doing that; the result is pretty much the same, and I prefer to use Visual Studio instead.

We didn't find any major trouble, and the apps are relatively complex, heavily multithreaded, async I/O, WinForms, sockets, serial ports, etc.

Some app used .net libraries that are not available in MS .net, but all these can be installed on Windows as well so that there is no problem to run these apps in Windows.

Hope that helps,

JM Catena
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You can develop C# applications on linux with .NET Core: https://www.microsoft.com/net/core

After you install it, type dotnet new in your terminal to get a list of application templates which can be generated for you to start.

As of .NET Core 2.0 today, this is the list:

Templates                                         Short Name       Language          Tags               
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Console Application                               console          [C#], F#, VB      Common/Console     
Class library                                     classlib         [C#], F#, VB      Common/Library     
Unit Test Project                                 mstest           [C#], F#, VB      Test/MSTest        
xUnit Test Project                                xunit            [C#], F#, VB      Test/xUnit         
ASP.NET Core Empty                                web              [C#], F#          Web/Empty          
ASP.NET Core Web App (Model-View-Controller)      mvc              [C#], F#          Web/MVC            
ASP.NET Core Web App                              razor            [C#]              Web/MVC/Razor Pages
ASP.NET Core with Angular                         angular          [C#]              Web/MVC/SPA        
ASP.NET Core with React.js                        react            [C#]              Web/MVC/SPA        
ASP.NET Core with React.js and Redux              reactredux       [C#]              Web/MVC/SPA        
ASP.NET Core Web API                              webapi           [C#], F#          Web/WebAPI         
global.json file                                  globaljson                         Config             
Nuget Config                                      nugetconfig                        Config             
Web Config                                        webconfig                          Config             
Solution File                                     sln                                Solution           
Razor Page                                        page                               Web/ASP.NET        
MVC ViewImports                                   viewimports                        Web/ASP.NET        
MVC ViewStart                                     viewstart                          Web/ASP.NET

The current latest version is 2.0.

tedi
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0

You can install the full .Net Framework 4.x in wine using winetricks, then run your app.

Wine supports serial ports, so I don't see any inconvenience.

I made a video showing this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60yyWBLXv1k

In the video, you can see the windows taskbar. Don't worry about it. This is because it is running in WSL2. But these steps work perfectly in Linux.

Regards

Carlos Rafael Ramirez
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  • Do you think this has a chance or working for a .NET C++/CLI winforms app that uses mixed and native C++? It's compiled with /clr. – Adam Bruss Jun 23 '20 at 18:20
  • Yes, it should work. WinForms is better supported than WPF. You have two ways. 1. Let wine install Mono for Windows which supports WinForms. 2. Avoid installing mono as in the video and install .NET framework. the version of the frameworks depends on the target version that you specified in your project. – Carlos Rafael Ramirez Jun 25 '20 at 08:36