How To Install Wine on openSUSE

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Wine on openSUSE. Wine “Wine Is Not an Emulator”  is a free and open-source compatibility layer that enables computer programs developed for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Unlike a virtual machine or an emulator, which replicates the entire operating system, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on the fly. This method eliminates the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allows you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop.

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 openSUSE.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: openSUSE.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• You will need access to the terminal to execute commands. openSUSE provides the Terminal application for this purpose. It can be found in your Applications menu.
• You’ll need an active internet connection to download Wine and its dependencies.
• You’ll need administrative (root) access or a user account with sudo privileges.

Install Wine on openSUSE

Step 1. Before embarking on the installation journey, it’s essential to ensure your system meets the necessary requirements. Wine can be installed on various versions of openSUSE, including Tumbleweed and Leap. However, it’s always a good practice to keep your system up-to-date. This can be achieved by running the following commands in the terminal:

sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper update

These commands will refresh your system’s package list and upgrade all your system’s packages, ensuring you’re working with the latest and most secure versions.

Step 2. Installing Wine on openSUSE.

The installation of Wine on openSUSE involves adding the Wine repository to your system and then installing Wine using the zypper command. Zypper is a command-line package management utility for openSUSE and other Linux distributions that use the RPM package manager.

To add the Wine repository to your system, open the terminal and enter the following command:

sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Emulators:/Wine/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/Emulators:Wine.repo

After adding the repository, you need to refresh your system’s package list to include the packages from the newly added repository. This can be done using the following command:

sudo zypper refresh

With the repository added and the package list updated, you can now install Wine using the following command:

sudo zypper install wine

Step 3. Configuring Wine.

Once Wine is installed, it needs to be configured for use. This is done using the winecfg command, which opens the Wine configuration panel. Here, you can set your preferred version of Windows. By default, Wine is set up as a Windows 10 environment.

To open the Wine configuration panel, enter the following command in the terminal:

winecfg

In the configuration panel, you can select the version of Windows you want to emulate from the “Windows Version” dropdown menu. After making your selection, click “Apply” to save your changes.

Step 4. Testing Wine Installation.

After installing and configuring Wine, it’s important to test it to ensure it’s working correctly. This can be done by running a Windows program using Wine. For example, if you have a Windows executable file (.exe) on your system, you can run it using the wine command followed by the path to the executable file.

For instance, if you have a file named program.exe in your home directory, you can run it using the following command:

wine ~/program.exe

If the program runs successfully, it means Wine has been installed and configured correctly.

Step 5. Troubleshooting Common Issues.

While installing and configuring Wine, you may encounter some issues. Here are solutions to some common problems:

1. Issues with 32-bit and 64-bit libraries: If you’re running a 64-bit version of openSUSE and trying to run a 32-bit Windows application, you may encounter issues due to missing 32-bit libraries. To resolve this, you can install the 32-bit versions of the required libraries.
2. Problems running a specific Windows program: Not all Windows programs are compatible with Wine. If you’re having trouble running a specific program, check the Wine Application Database (AppDB). This database contains user reports on the compatibility of various Windows programs with different versions of Wine.
3. Graphics issues: If you’re experiencing graphics issues when running a Windows program, it could be due to a problem with your graphics driver or a missing graphics library. Make sure your graphics driver is up-to-date and consider installing additional graphics libraries if necessary.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Wine. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing Wine on your openSUSE system. For additional or useful information, we recommend you check the official Wine website.