Logos Bible Software (Verbum)

What works

Features are listed and tested from left to right, top down. A full test takes about 1 hr to complete. Each option on each panel should be tested.

Versions: Logos version 9.7.0.0025. Wine 6.17

Tested (i.e. completed a task using): (*problems)
Basic Features
   Main Toolbar (panels, options, settings, shortcuts): Works
   Keyboard Shortcuts & Navigation: Works
   About Logos Panel: Works
   Home screen (inc clicking layouts and links): Works
   Library panel: Works   
   Opening and closing resources
      Books: Works
*      Read Aloud with System Narrator: Crash
*      Read Aloud with Audio: Can't see option
*     Audiobooks: Crash on play
*     Videos: Crash on Opening
      New tab panel: Works
   Downloading and indexing new resources: Works
   Factbook: Works
   Search Panel (inc each type of search): Works
*  Printing: Problems (to cups PDF driver Works with glitchy footer, to printer No).
   Draw on Screen: Works
*   Updating - In app update from previous version: Untested (usually deletes user data)
   History: Works
   Themes (Light and Dark Mode): Works

Docs
   Notebook: Works
   Passage List: Works
   Reading Plan: Works
?  Sermon: Works (Proclaim integration not tested)
   Collections: Works
   Visual Filter: Works
   Wordlist: Works
*  Bibliography: Crash can't open or create a Bibliography
*  Canvas: Works but very much too slow to load <1 minute
*  Handout: Crash on open
*  Clippings: Crash on create
   Morph Query Doc: Works
   Prayer List: Works
   Sentence Diagram: Works
   Syntax Search: Works
   Word Find Puzzle: Works

Tools
   Information Panel: Works
   Cited By: Works
   Factbook: Works
*  Notes: Works (Speed improved but still not snappy)
   Text Comparison: Works
   Sermon Manager: Works
   Atlas: Works
   Canvas: As Above
   Highlighting: Works
   Bible Sense Lexicon: Works
   Timeline: Works
*  Faithlife Assistant: Crash
   Media (As in Designing Media tool): Works
   Search: As above
   Copy Bible Verse: Works
   Favourites: Works
   
Guides
   Passage Guide: Works
   Exegetical Guide: Works
   Audio Pronunciations

   Word Study: Works
   Theology Guide: Works
   Topic Guide: Works
   Counseling Guide: Works
   Sermon Starter Guide: Works
   Workflows: Works

What does not

See starred above

Workarounds

Workarounds

   *Media can be played via the webapp.
   *Document exports add flexibility for printing.
   *Browser plugins add speech to web app.

What was not tested

This test was extensive and took about 3 hours to complete.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: Nvidia
• Driver: proprietary

Additional Comments

This was a more substantial test than I've ever done. I actually discovered a bunch of features I didn't know existed. Based on this experience, and with the caveats mentioned above, I would have a high degree of confidence using this and considering it 'stable'. The areas where I discovered crashes I would consider to be obscure or rarely used features. In fact I'm pretty sure that the 'clippings' feature is scheduled for deprecation. The media issues are unfortunate but the work around is realistic since if you are following a video in a browser window you can still use the app alongside it. We've had quite a lot of communication about working on the media. It uses evr. It's probably just a matter of time.

Please communicate with us on telegram. Support and shared files on the Running Logos Bible Software on Linux group found at - https://t.me/linux_logos 

If you just want it to work please use wasta or the ferion11 script
as many hours have been spent to make those as painless and easy as
possible - enjoy.

The app is a bit like kindle in so much as the engine is free but the resources cost so there is a free download. Unlike kindle it has many advanced research features and books link together etc. The main app is free but there are paid features, resources and subscriptions. To use the app you need a free account https://www.logos.com/product/194909/logos-9-basic. It uses a downloader app which doesn't work with wine. The actual msi link is https://downloads.logoscdn.com... (change version number for latest version).

If you are looking to get Logos working on Linux there are 2 easy choices, a legacy option and manual instructions below:

1. Installation script for 64bit Logos 9 use the bash install script with nice gui:
   Usually it is necessary to install some dependancies with your distros package manager: e.g. sudo apt install samba (sometimes contains winbind), winbind, cabextract, libjpeg8
   https://github.com/ferion11/LogosLinuxInstaller/releases
2. Packages for Ubuntu are available from wasta (now updated to Logos 9) these are considered stable and can be used for offline installation. Also provides a separate wine version from system for longer term stability details here: https://docs.google.com/docume...
3. **Legacy wasta packages support offline installation 32bit Logos 8 see the google doc guide
4. Manually install wine and configure everything yourself
   
   1. Install wine 7 or newer
      
   2. winetricks corefonts
   3. winetricks settings fontsmooth=rgb
   4. winetricks dotnet48 (might need to run using wine 5.11 https://bugs.winehq.org/show_b...
   5. winetricks settings renderer=gdi (you might need to set the reg key manually
   6. Install the Logos.msi download but don't run it.
   7. wine64 reg add "HKCU\\Software\\Wine\\AppDefaults\\LogosIndexer.exe" /v Version /t REG_SZ /d vista /f
   8. Run Logos

Manual instructions for 32bit - Please use 64bit where possible because 32bit is deprecated by faithlife.

enable multi-arch on an amd64 system:
dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update

Download and install the winehq repository key:

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
sudo apt-key add winehq.key

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list to add wine repos with: for other versions see: https://wiki.winehq.org/Download

Ubuntu (change focal according to the version you have installed)

sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main'

sudo apt-get update

Choose wine (6.4 devel known to work)
sudo apt-get install wine-staging winetricks winbind patch cabextract

Set up 64 or 32 bit wine bottle:
env WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine-logos sh winetricks arch=32 prefix=$HOME/ .wine-logos -q dotnet48 corefonts fontsmooth=rgb drr=gdi win7

click "Cancel" to avoid installation of Mono and Gecko neither are needed. (may take 30mins to finish even on a fast machine with ssd)

drr=gdi has been buggy in winetricks due to a change in the way the reg key was changed. Newer versions of winetricks should do it correctly but if you get graphical glitches (more likely on older hardware) then you can edit the registry accordingly.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]
"DirectDrawRenderer"="gdi"
"renderer"="gdi"

run Logos x32 download from https://downloads.logoscdn.com/LBS8/Installer/8.16.0.0002/Logos-x86.msi (or x64) the latest version number can be found from the forum at community.faithlife.com/forums

WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine-logos/ msiexec /i $HOME/Downloads/Logos-x64.msi

run Logos
WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine-logos/ wine64 $HOME/.wine-logos/drive_c/users/$USER/Local\ Settings/Application\ Data/Logos/Logos.exe

"Download your Logos Library" - it is recommended to choose minimal install and download the rest later.
"Downloading resources" (could take hrs)
"Preparing Library" (probs a few mins)
"Indexing" (could take a couple of hours depending on library size and hardware)

To enable/disable Logos own verbose logging which can be useful for any troubleshooting:
On: wine64 reg add "HKCU\\\\Software\\\\Logos4\\\\Logging" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0001 /f
Off: wine64 reg add "HKCU\\\\Software\\\\Logos4\\\\Logging" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0000 /f