Install Latest WINE in Debian / Linux Mint (LMDE)

We love Linux and free/open source softwares. Unfortunately, we live in a world where most people are still using proprietary software in Windows OS, so that many applications are still only available for the Microsoft's OS. Fear not, the Linux community has a very useful application called WINE, short of Wine Is Not an Emulator, a software that can run a Windows application on Linux machine.

Most Linux distro (including Debian/Mint) have WINE in its official repository, all we have to do is running a single-line command like sudo apt-get install wine to install it. Unfortunately, at least in Debian system official repository (including Debian Squeeze (stable), Wheezy (testing), or LMDE which is based on Debian Testing, WINE package is a bit obsolate. WINE version in the repo is 1.0, while latest stable version of WINE is 1.4, let alone the beta version which currently has reached WINE 1.5. The latest version of WINE brings many features and improvements compared with previous one, supports more Windows apps/games, and also bug fixes.

According to WINE official page, we can install latest WINE on Debian system via this website. The page does not provide a repository that we can simply add it to the Debian source list, but we have to download all necessary packages of latest WINE and install them all manually.

Here I will show you how to install lates WINE in Debian.


I have this latest WINE installed in my Debian machine and have been using it without any problem, but, be aware though, WINE packages that we will install here is beta version (unstable), use it at your own risk.

1. Download all binary (.deb)

   You can download the packages from here. The page provides *.deb packages for  amd64 and i386 architecture. Download only the packages suitable for your machine. Place them in one folder.
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2. Pre-installation: Install required dependencies

   This step is optional. Do this if you don't want to see an error message saying something like broken dependencies. You can skip this step though, you can fix it later (after WINE installation) by using Synaptic or by running sudo apt-get install -f. FYI, from my exprerience, a WINE library need a package called oss-compat_2 to be installed first.
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3. Install WINE packages

   First, in Terminal, change current working directory to the location where you put the downloaded wine packages (in step 1). For example, if you put the packages in Donwloads folder in your home directory, run this command in Terminal:
   

   cd /home/[YourUserName]/Downloads

   Now continue with next installation process:
   
   1. Install WINE library
      Run this command in Terminal:
      

      sudo dpkg -i libwine*

   2. Install WINE binary
      Run this command in Terminal:
      

      sudo dpkg -i wine-bin-unstable*

   3. Install WINE application
      Run this command in Terminal:
      

      sudo dpkg -i wine-unstable*

   If you encounter dependencies error while installing WINE, try run this command in Terminal:
   

   sudo apt-get install -f

   .

4. Install WINE Gecko

   This is optional. If you need running an internet based application like a browser in WINE, you need to have a package called "Wine Gecko". You can download it from here. After downloading the app, move or copy it to /usr/share/wine/gecko/ (create the folder if not exist; root previlage needed). This way, you have WINE Gecko available for all users.
   You can also choose to let WINE download it for you, but the downloaded file will be used only for current user, and also it will be removed when you remove .wine folder in you home directory.

Congrats! Enjoy your wine :)

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Install Latest WINE in Debian / Linux Mint (LMDE) by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)