Failing To Install Rhino3d (Windows App) via Native ZorinOS "Wine" App

Visper · July 12, 2025, 9:29pm

Hello. I am fairly new to the whole Linux system but wanting to migrate to it as fast and solidly as possible. Right now I am trying to move my creative apps into my Linux computer. In this case, I am specifically trying to install Rhino3D version 8 - for which I already have a licence. But whenever I click on the executable file the wine icon comes up on my toolbar as well as a blank box. The only thing available/visible in this wine box is the 'x' button to close it out.

I have included the Rhino executable file in the "Wine" app as an application and have selected windows 10 but nothing changes. I have included a few screenshots of what I am describing as well as my system info.

Thanks for the help!

OS: Zorin OS 17.3 x86_64
Host: MacBookPro9,1 1.0
Kernel: 6.8.0-60-generic
Uptime: 9 days, 22 hours, 23 mins
Packages: 2227 (dpkg), 74 (flatpak)
Shell: bash 5.1.16
Resolution: 1440x900
DE: GNOME 43.9
WM: Mutter
WM Theme: ZorinBlue-Light
Theme: ZorinBlue-Light [GTK2/3]
Icons: ZorinBlue-Light [GTK2/3]
Terminal: gnome-terminal
CPU: Intel i7-3720QM (8) @ 3.600GHz
GPU: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Gr
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M Mac Edit
Memory: 7096MiB / 15930MiB

chronosJ · July 12, 2025, 9:56pm

Welcome to Linux!

Rhino3D looks like it'll need some special winetricks packages to work.

This guide talks about what you'll need:

Visper · July 16, 2025, 9:58pm

Thanks for this. I was able to (I think) successfully install winetricks but now I am encountering another issue. When I try to run:

WINEPREFIX=~/.rhino7 wine '/home/nomis/Downloads/rhino_en-us_7.38.24338.17001.exe'

I get the following erros relating to wine-gecko.

Could not find Wine Gecko. HTML rendering will be disabled.
011c:err:mshtml:create_document_object Failed to init Gecko, returning CLASS_E_CLASSNOTAVAILABLE
011c:err:mshtml:create_document_object Failed to init Gecko, returning CLASS_E_CLASSNOTAVAILABLE
0110:err:winediag:ntlm_check_version ntlm_auth was not found. Make sure that ntlm_auth >= 3.0.25 is in your path. Usually, you can find it in the winbind package of your distribution.
0110:err:ntlm:ntlm_LsaApInitializePackage no NTLM support, expect problems
011c:err:mshtml:create_document_object Failed to init Gecko, returning CLASS_E_CLASSNOTAVAILABLE
011c:err:mshtml:create_document_object Failed to init Gecko, returning CLASS_E_CLASSNOTAVAILABLE

I have looked into making sure I have the mos up to date version of wine-gecko and I am. Gecko · Wiki · wine / wine · GitLab - Here is from where I am making sure I have the correct software version of gecko.

Thanks for helping a noob.

Aravisian · July 17, 2025, 4:10am

Is Gecko in the proper directory?
~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/gecko

Can you check if the files are located where MSI expects to see them:
find ~/.wine ~/.local/share/wine /usr/share/wine -type d -name gecko

Visper · July 18, 2025, 7:59pm

Hello. Thanks for the help. It seems like it is not in the directory. How would I make sure it is in the correct directory?

Aravisian · July 18, 2025, 9:46pm

If you need Gecko, you can get them with:

wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine/wine-gecko/2.47.1/wine-gecko-2.47.1-x86.msi

wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine/wine-gecko/2.47.1/wine-gecko-2.47.1-x86_64.msi

Place them where Wine will see them:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/wine/gecko

sudo mv wine-gecko-2.47.1-*.msi /usr/share/wine/gecko/

Visper · July 22, 2025, 1:11am

I followed your instructions but it failed. I downloaded the gecko files and inserted them into the corresponding directory. I even tried two folders just in case. But now it is returning a different error - where it cannot init. Any guidance on this?

Thanks for all the help!

Aravisian · July 22, 2025, 2:19am

You might run

WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-test winecfg

to see if you can get a clean install of Gecko.

Have you asked on the WineHQ forums on this?

Visper · July 22, 2025, 10:17pm

I had not. But just did. I tried your solution but still not working.

Aravisian · July 22, 2025, 10:48pm

That may help. I can try to be generally helpful, but I am certainly no expert on Wine...
I am at a loss on what the issue is here.

chronosJ · July 22, 2025, 11:11pm

Wine prefixes are like tiny environments for running windows programs, and if there was any miscommunication between you and @Aravisian, it looks like things may be split across different prefixes.

Your original prefix was in a rhino7 folder.

.wine is the default "prefix."

So, combining the previous comments, I think gecko needs to be in:
~/.rhino7/drive_c/windows/system32/gecko

And you need to use the .rhino7 prefix and not the default one when you try to run the executable.

(as a relative wine newbie, I like using the Heroic Launcher to configure wine prefixes with winetricks in a GUI, myself).

Visper · July 23, 2025, 9:58pm

Hello chronosJ. Thanks for helping me out. How do I run the rhino7 prefix instead of the wine when calling the executable? Below is what I did - running it with the wine prefix. What exactly in the terminal command do I replace and with what?

chronosJ · July 23, 2025, 11:09pm

Okay, terminal wine prefixes aren't my bag, but let's make a desktop icon for it that matches the format of a different program I definitely do have working with a prefix (which you could run via terminal for error checking).

Put your rhino exe into ~/.rhino7/drive_c/

Make a text file on the desktop (call it rhino7.desktop).

Use the text editor to put in:

Name=Rhino
Exec=env WINEPREFIX="/home/nomis/.rhino7/" /var/bin/wine C:\\\\windows\\\\command\\\\start.exe C:\\\\rhino_en-us_7.38.24338.17001.exe
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Game;

Right click the rhino7.desktop icon and allow launching.

For debugging, you can run it in terminal with:
bash ~/Desktop/rhino7.desktop

If this doesn't at least get us further, we can try setting it up from scratch in the GUI (instead of terminal).

Visper · September 12, 2025, 1:34am

Hey @chronosJ , this is a bit over my head. I have seen that ZorinOS comes with Bottles - a GUI wine interface. Started to play with this as I have read other people having success with it to run Rhino. I get further using bottles, but still fail. This time whenever the licence manager comes up it just crashes and gives me the error of .Netframework. Images for reference.

After crashing I get a window saying to "repair" rhino. I click on it but that also fails. See image.

Would anybody be able to provide direction on this path?

Forpli · September 12, 2025, 6:04am

Did you try it with rhino 7? I found no posts that rhino 8 is running well on linux.

Visper · September 12, 2025, 9:26pm

Hey @Forpli, yes I tried rhino 7.

chronosJ · September 13, 2025, 12:00am

I've had mixed results trying installs in Bottles, but let's give it a shot.

What have you installed in your Bottle's Dependencies menu?

If you want to use Bottles specifically, I think this reddit post has what you will need to install and setup:

Set up a bottle, install dotnet48 and allfonts Dependencies

In Preferences, Leave "Improve Direct3d 9/10/11 Compatibility" and "Improve Direct3D 12 Compatibility" enabled

Go into Display Settings (subset of Preferences) and set the Renderer to GDI

Download the rhino installer, and copy it to the flatpak bottle download path

Run the installer silently with -quiet option. (Automating installation Rhino for Windows: Scripted Install [McNeel Wiki])

Optionally, watch for the MSI installer to finish up and exit.

Click the "Run Executable" and go dig for the Rhino.exe in the flatpak bottle path.

Change the launch options to disable both DXVK and VKD3D

Run Rhino, find the licensing dialog (might have to go back and run in glitchy desktop mode?) and log in to zoo or type your license key or whatever.

The second step's renderer settings may have changed places:

I couldn't find "Improve Direct3d 9/10/11 Compatibility" or "Improve Direct3D 12 Compatibility"
These are just "DXVK" and "VKD3D" in Settings > Components.

Edit: Ah, yes. Looking into your error code (-2147023293), it seems like you need to install the dotnet48 dependency: Install Error 1603 - Rhino 6 & 7 [McNeel Wiki]