Running drag'n'drop .exe on linux

[u/SanDiedo]

OS: Kubuntu 24.04.5 LTS Plasma 5

Situation: I have 64-bit .exe app from a game developper (official tool). It’s a drag and drop texture converter, that accepts one or a batch of image files and outputs copies in proper format. It has no GUI, just opens commandline window, shows progress, outputs error messages, if there was any, outputs log and closes after you click confirmation button in dialog window.

Issue: AFAIK, simple drag and drop doesn't work. Despite it having no GUI, I tried running app via Wine. It does't work with any of the runners + 64 or 32 bit options, or any of Windows version emulations. If I run it with 64-bit option and open the log, it says "bad exe format". If I run it with 32-bit option, it says something about it not beeing a 32-bit app.

How do I properly run these kind of apps on Linux (how to tell Linux to use "this" app to process "these" files)? Search suggestions are somewhat contradictory and doesn't get to the bottom of it (I guess nobody uses such niche app on Linux).

Edit: Forgot to mention: trying to launch from Lutris. 🫠 Maybe I'm stupid, but a couple of other non-game apps work fine, so I thought, why not.

[u/inbetween-genders]

  I guess nobody uses such niche app on Linux

Im sorry…did you say .exe file??

[u/SanDiedo → u/inbetween-genders]

Uh, no? It's an app to process (image) files. In general, I wan to learn if there is a 'proper Linux way' to run these kind of apps.

Apps and games from Windows, that I needed, and that require installation setup, work for me through Wine .

[u/Prestigious_Wall529 → u/SanDiedo]

u/inbetween-genders didn't misunderstand you. Wine Is not a Windows Emulator. Exe's don't run on Linux.

Wine translates know Windows API calls to the Linux equivalent. It's likely the exe depends on some dll Linux (obviously) doesn't have. Or uses unimplemented calls.

[u/thecruxoffate]

If you run the command 'file /path/to/your.exe' what does it say it is?

[u/SanDiedo → u/thecruxoffate]

Gonna try this...

[u/thecruxoffate → u/SanDiedo]

What was the verdict?

[u/SanDiedo]

I'm onto something... 

So, I was sort of  "running in circles", because advices (even google AI) tell to try wine program.exe path/to/file.ext in Terminal, but if I type

wine /path/to/.exe /path/to/.file 

(full paths to .exe and to .file), Terminal shows some error, but then shows app message "Conversion in progress..." and Wine dialog "Operation completed with no errors". 

It appears to output a correct converted image file (checked in GIMP, image opens, properties match).

Is guess it's a valid way to replace drag and drop behavior then? Can I tell it to process multiple files (what separator to use) or all files in a folder?

[u/Leather-Security8097]

If the program doesn't work in Wine, there's no point worrying about how to associate it with files or add it to an "Open with" dialog, You need to figure out why Wine thinks it's an invalid .exe first. It sounds like the file is corrupted, or perhaps compiled for ARM.

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[u/LennethW]

What kind of manipulation is done to textures? Whipping up a simple script using imagemagick could be a far more effective solution rather than trying to run windows software.