How to install WINE and run Windows application in Ubuntu 20.04

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We have seen that in ubuntu we can not execute files with .exe file extensions. .exe files are Windows executable files. In order to use the .exe files or windows application, we need some type of compatible layer.

WINE is a package that is developed for Linux to provide this compatibility with the help of WINE we can run Windows applications on top of Ubuntu.

WINE literally means Wine Is Not an Emulator. The core idea behind the WINE is that when we run windows executable files on a Linux machine it converts windows system calls to Linux ones.

Wine Installation

Nowadays most computers have 64-bit architectures but there are many windows applications that run on top of 32-bit machines. It is recommended that we enable 32-bit support on or ubuntu server and also install WINE to support the 32-bit applications.

The below command will enable 32-bit support in the Ubuntu system and then update the system

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update

In this article, we will explain how to install the default WINE package from the Ubuntu repository. For more information, you can check out https://www.winehq.org/ URL regarding the latest update.

The following command is used to install the wine, here we will install it for 32 and 64-bit applications.

sudo apt install wine64 wine32

Verify

You can verify the installation by checking out its version number. See the following code section for the wine --version output.

foofunc@ubuntu:~$ wine --version
wine-5.0 (Ubuntu 5.0-3ubuntu1)
foofunc@ubuntu:~$ 

Wine Configuration

To configure the wine you have to run the following command from the terminal

sudo winecfg

While running winecfg the command you will see the GUI window shown in the below snapshot. It will ask which Windows version you want for the WINE and also there are more configurational parameters you can use those parameters according to your requirements.

Running our first windows app

In this section, we will run our first windows application on top of WINE. We will install iTunes software. First, download the itune.exe file from that file we are going to install the iTunes software in ubuntu.

Use the following command to download the iTunes .exe file

wget https://secure-appldnld.apple.com/itunes12/001-97787-20210421-F0E5A3C2-A2C9-11EB-A40B-A128318AD179/iTunes64Setup.exe

Once you have iTunes64Setup.exe file now you can use wine to install iTunes. Use the following command.

foofunc@ubuntu:~$ wine /home/foofunc/Downloads/window_files/iTunes64Setup.exe

After running the above command you will get below-mentioned screen press the next button to start the installation

Above mentioned screenshot shows when iTunes installation is done.

Verify

You can use the search option in the Show Application window to find out the ITune application is installed or not. See below mentioned snapshot from my system.

Summary

In this article, we explained why WINE is used in Linux. We also explained the installation and a use case in Ubuntu 20.04.

If you face any issues in the article, don’t hesitate to comment.

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