How to Install Wine on Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Wine is an open-source, free and easy-to-use program that enables Linux users to run Windows-based applications and games on Unix-like operating systems. Wine is a compatibility layer for installing almost all versions of Windows programs.

Wine 7.0 is finally released and it comes with an array of numerous enhancements and a total of 40 bug fixes. You can find out all the new features and changelog of this new release on the Wine announcement project page.

This article describes a few easy steps to install the latest stable version of Wine 7.0 under Debian 11/10, Ubuntu 22.04-18.04, and Linux Mint 20-19 systems, and also we will see how to configure wine, install windows software, and Un-install.

[ You might also like: How to Install Wine on RHEL-based Linux Distributions ]

On this page

• How to Install Wine on Ubuntu and Linux Mint
• How to Install Wine on Debian
• How to Install Wine Using Source Code on Ubuntu, Mint & Debian
• How to Use Wine to Run Windows Apps & Games

Installation of Wine on Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint

If you are looking to have the most recent version of the Wine 7.0 stable series, you have to use a new Wine repository PPA which offers both development versions and stable versions of Wine for Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint.

Install Wine on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

To install Wine 7.0 on Ubuntu and Linux Mint, open the terminal by hitting 'CTRL + ALT + T‘ from the desktop and run the following commands to install it:

$ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386    [Enable 32-bit Arch]
$ sudo wget -nc -O /usr/share/keyrings/winehq-archive.key https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

Add the repository:

For this version: Use this command: Ubuntu 22.04 sudo wget -nc -P /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/jammy/winehq-jammy.sources Ubuntu 21.10 sudo wget -nc -P /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/impish/winehq-impish.sources Ubuntu 20.04
Linux Mint 20.x sudo wget -nc -P /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/focal/winehq-focal.sources Ubuntu 18.04
Linux Mint 19.x sudo wget -nc -P /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/bionic/winehq-bionic.sources

Update packages and then install one of the following packages:

For this version: Use this command: Stable branch sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable Development branch sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-devel Staging branch sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging Install Wine on Debian

To install Wine on Debian.

$ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
$ sudo wget -nc -O /usr/share/keyrings/winehq-archive.key https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

Download the WineHQ sources file:

For this version: Use this command: Debian 11 (Bullseye) sudo wget -nc -P /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/bullseye/winehq-bullseye.sources Debian 10 (Buster) sudo wget -nc -P /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/buster/winehq-buster.sources

Now update the package repository database and install Wine as shown.

For this version: Use this command: Stable branch sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable Development branch sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-devel Staging branch sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging Installing Wine Using Source Code on Debian, Ubuntu & Mint

Another way to get the most recent stable version of Wine (i.e. 7.0 as of now), is to build wine from source tarball using the following commands.

$ wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine/source/7.0/wine-7.0.tar.xz
$ tar -xvf wine-7.0.tar.xz
$ cd wine-7.0/
$ sudo ./configure 
$ sudo ./configure --enable-win64   [For 64-bit platform]
$ sudo make && sudo make install

How to Use Wine to Run Windows Apps & Games

To demonstrate how we can run Windows program using wine, we have downloaded Rufus .exe file from the official Rufus download page.

To run Windows Rufus executable file, run the command:

$ wine rufus-3.19.exe

Run Windows Program in Ubuntu

Once you run the program, Wine will start creating a configuration file in the user’s home directory, in this case, ~/.wine as shown.

Wine Configuration

During Wine configuration, it will as you to install the wine-mono-package which is required by .NET applications, click the ‘Install’ button.

Wine Mono Installer

The download will soon start.

Downloading Wine Mono Installer

Additionally, it will also ask you to install the Gecko package which is required by applications embedding HTML.

Wine Gecko Installer

Choose whether you want to check for application updates from time to time.

Rufus Update Policy

Finally, the Rufus will be displayed as shown.

Rufus Program Running on Ubuntu

We have successfully installed Wine on Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint and shown you a preview of how you can run Windows applications in a Linux environment.

Uninstalling Wine in Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint

If you are not happy with the wine program, you can remove it completely by using the following command.

$ sudo apt purge winehq-stable

You can also download the Wine source package for other Linux distributions from the wine download page.