How To Install Wine on Linux Mint 20

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Wine on Linux Mint 20. For those of you who didn’t know, Wine, which stands for “Wine Is Not an Emulator,” is an open-source software that enables Linux users to run Windows applications without needing a full Windows operating system. It translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls, allowing Windows programs to run natively on Linux.

Wine operates by implementing a Windows-like environment on Linux. It provides the necessary libraries and components that Windows applications rely on, allowing them to function as if they were running on a Windows machine. This makes it possible to run many popular applications, including games, productivity software, and utilities.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of Wine on a Linux Mint 20 (Ulyana).

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Linux Mint 20.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• You’ll need an active internet connection to download the Wine and its dependencies.
• Basic knowledge of using the terminal.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Wine on Linux Mint 20

Step 1. Before installing any new software, it’s crucial to update your system to ensure you have the latest packages and security patches. Open a terminal and run the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install software-properties-common wget

This command updates your package list and upgrades all installed packages to their latest versions.

Step 2. Installing Wine on Linux Mint 20.

Before the installation of Wine, you will need to enable support for 32-bit applications:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Now we add the Wine repository to the Linux Mint system:

wget -qO - https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main'

Once successfully added repository, install Wine using the following command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

 To verify that Wine has been installed correctly, check the version:

$ wine --version
wine-5.0.1

Step 3, Configure Wine.

Once Wine is installed, you can configure it to optimize its performance and compatibility with Windows applications. Run the following command to set up Wine:

winecfg

Step 4.  How to Use Wine to Run Windows Apps.

To start the Wine program, you must give the full path to the .exe program. For example, we will start the Notepad++ program through Wine:

wget https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases/download/v7.8.8/npp.7.8.8.Installer.exe

Use wine to install you’re downloaded .exe application:

wine npp.7.8.8.Installer.exe

If Wine crashes or freezes while running a Windows application, try running the application in a different compatibility mode. You can adjust the compatibility settings using the Wine configuration tool.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Wine. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the latest version of Wine on the Linux Mint system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Wine website.