Description

The system limits the amount of virtual memory an application can use (see ulimit -Hv). This is likely to prevent Windows applications from working. The reason is that Wine needs to reserve (but not allocate/use) wide swaths of the memory range to prevent Linux libraries from loading in places that Windows applications need for other things.

Resolution

Running ulimit -Hv on the command line should show you the current virtual memory limit. This should show you 'unlimited':

$ ulimit -Hv
unlimited

If you get any other result you should look for the location where that limit is set. This will typically be through a call to ulimit in /etc/profile, /etc/bash.bashrc, $HOME/.profile or $HOME/.bashrc.