How to Install Wine on Ubuntu

Ubuntu is gaining more and more ground in the personal desktop use, but there are still a great number of programs which are only usable through Microsoft Windows. Fortunately, a program called Wine can run many of them from the comfort of your familiar Ubuntu desktop. Here are the basics of getting Wine installed and working on your computer.

Steps

1

First decide which of three possible options you want for Wine. These include:

• The version marked as stable in the official Ubuntu repositories
• The version marked as available in the repositories Wine keeps for Ubuntu users
• Compiling Wine from source code

Method 1 of 3: From Official Ubuntu Repositories

1. 
   1
   Graphically. Mark the program Wine for installation from your package manager. This may be found under Adept, Synaptic, KPackageKit, Software Management or some other menu item, based on your exact distribution. You may need to check the documentation for your distribution. 

2. 
   2
   If you cannot find the program Wine using the graphical user interface, you still have options! You can attempt to install Wine from the command line, the Wine repositories, or source code. The instructions for these are lower on this page.
3. 
   3
   From the Command Line. Open a command line and execute the following code: "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wine".
4. 
   4
   This will update your Aptitude software list and install Wine if it's in the repositories for your computer. If this step was successful, you should now be able to run Windows software with Wine. If this was not a success, don't panic: You can still attempt installation from the Wine repositories or from source.

Method 2 of 3: From Official Wine Repositories

1. 
   1
   Graphically. Add the Wine PPA Repository, ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa, to your system's sources by opening the Software Sources dialog. For stock Ubuntu systems, this is found at Applications --> Ubuntu Software Center and then selecting Edit-->Software Sources. In Kubuntu, it is found in the Origin of Packages section under the KPackageKit application.
2. 
   2
   Select the Other Software tab and the Add button, then paste ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa into the dialog box and select the Add Source button.
3. 
   3
   Mark the program Wine 1.3 for installation from your package manager. This may be found under Adept, Synaptic, KPackageKit, Software Management or some other menu item, based on your exact distribution. You may need to check the documentation for your distribution.
4. 
   4
   If you cannot find the program Wine using the graphical user interface, you still have options! Executing step 2 of 'From the Command Line' below will still install Wine now that you've added the repository to your system's list.
5. 
   5
   From the Command Line. At the command line, execute the following code: "sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa".
6. 
   6
   At the command line, execute the following code: "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wine1.3".
7. 
   7
   This will update your Aptitude software list and install Wine. If this step was successful, you should now be able to run Windows software with Wine. If this was not a success, you may need to check the list of warnings to ensure you meet all the prerequisites for installation.

Method 3 of 3: Installing Wine from Source

1. 
   1
   From the Command Line. Prepare your system to download the source code and compile it by running the following command: "sudo apt-get update && apt-get install git build-essential && apt-get install build-dep wine".
2. 
   2
   Download the source code and change into the source directory with the command: "git clone git://source.winehq.org/git/wine.git ~/wine-git; CD ~/wine-git".
3. 
   3
   Configure the Wine source with the command: "./configure".
4. 4
   Begin installation with the command: "make && sudo make install".