UbuntuHandbook

Wine, the compatibility layer for running MS Windows apps in Linux and macOS, announced new stable 8.0 release after 1 year of development.

Wine 8.0 has finally completed PE conversion. All modules can be built in PE format. Meaning various features to be supported, such as copy protection, 32-bit applications on 64-bit hosts, Windows debuggers, x86 applications on ARM, etc.

Wow64 (Microsoft’s subsystem for running 32 bit applications on 64-bit Windows) is implemented for essentially all Unix libraries. Once the legacy calls removed, it will be possible to run 32-bit Windows applications on Linux without any 32-bit Wine libraries.

Other changes in Wine 8.0 include:

• Print Processor architecture implemented.
• Enable light theme for configuration by default.
• Convert the graphics drivers to run on the Unix side of the syscall boundary.
• Effects are supported in Direct2D.
• Direct3D improved with more graphics cards support.
• Greatly improved the controller hotplug support.
• Support Sony DualShock and DualSense controllers when the hidraw backend is used.
• Introduce Windows.Gaming.Input API with hotplug notifications, force feedback effects and haptics, as well as trigger rumble support.
• Mono engine updated to 7.4.0

How to Install Wine 8.0 in Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Winehq website now has a good tutorial teaching about how to install Wine packages in Ubuntu based systems. And, here is a re-write with more descriptions.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

This command makes it possible to install 32-bit packages in 64-bit Ubuntu, since Wine at the moment still requires a lot of 32-bit libraries.

2. Then, run command in terminal to create “keyrings” folder under ‘/etc/apt’ directory for storing the keys. With -p flag, it ignores error if that folder already exist.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings

3. Next, use wget command line downloader to download the GPG key for winehq repository, and store in the folder you created in last step.

sudo wget -O /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

4. Now, run command to download the config file for Winehq apt repository and store in ‘/etc/apt/sources.list.d/’.

sudo wget -NP /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/$(lsb_release -sc)/winehq-$(lsb_release -sc).sources

IMPORTANT: This command is for Ubuntu 23.04, 22.04, 20.04, 18.04 only! For Linux Mint, Zorin OS, etc, you have to replace the “$(lsb_release -sc)” in command with the codename of Ubuntu version your system is based on:

• For Ubuntu 23.04 based system, use lunar.
• For Ubuntu 22.04 based system (e.g., Linux Mint 21), use jammy instead.
• For Ubuntu 20.04 based (e.g., Zorin OS 16.x), use focal.
• For Ubuntu 18.04 based system, use bionic

5. After setting up the Wine’s official apt repository, run the command below to fetch package index:

sudo apt update

In the output, there should be a output line indicates Get x https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu xxxxx InRelease.

6. Finally, install Wine stable 8.0, as well as dependency libraries via command:

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

7. After successfully installed Wine packages, run command to generate the config files and open the configuration dialog.

winecfg

There you can verify Wine version and change the settings of this layer.

8 Finally, right-click on your EXE file in file manager and select “Open With Wine Windows Program Loader” (or select it from open with other applications dialog). See if Wine supports your Windows app.

How to Remove Wine 8.0

To remove the software package as well as dependency libraries, simply open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove winehq-stable

Also, remove the Wine apt repository by removing the source file:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-*.sources

And remove the key file via:

sudo rm /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key

Finally, remember to refresh package index via sudo apt update command.

To run Microsoft Windows applications in Ubuntu Linux, Wine or CrossOver (paid version) is a good choice. And here’s how to install and use Wine in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04, and Ubuntu 20.04

In this tutorial, you’ll see 2 ways to install Wine in Ubuntu. Choose either one that you prefer.

NOTE: NOT all Windows apps can install & run through Wine. See this page for the list of apps compatible with Wine.

Option 1: Install Wine from Ubuntu repository:

Ubuntu included Wine package in its own repository, though it’s old. User may simply press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command to install it:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 && sudo apt install wine

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to authentication for sudo.

After installed package run winecfg in terminal to generate configuration file. And, run command to make link the .desktop file:

sudo ln -s /usr/share/doc/wine/examples/wine.desktop /usr/share/applications/

Finally, you may right-click on an EXE file to run via “Wine Windows Program Loader” option:

Option 2: Install Latest Wine 11.0 from its official repository:

The Wine developer team provides an official apt repository for Debian/Ubuntu based systems. Now the repository contains Wine 11.0 stable, and the new Dev versions.

The repository so far supports Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 25.04 and 25.10! It also works for Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, and 16.04, but old versions will be installed (Wine 5.0.3 for 16.04, and Wine 8.0.1 for 18.04).

1. Install Wine key

The repository now has updated with new method to install the key to follow Debian policy, as apt-key is deprecated. However, it’s still ASCII-armored key so far.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, create the directory for storing the keys:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings

Then, run the single command to download the key, dearmor, and move to “/etc/apt/keyrings” directory:

wget -qO - https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key

Type user password (no visual feedback) when it asks. And, the command should output unreadable text as the screenshot below shows you:

2. Add Wine repository:

Next run the commands below one by one to download the repository setup file and move to “/etc/apt/sources.list.d” directory.

sudo wget -NP /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/$(lsb_release -sc)/winehq-$(lsb_release -sc).sources

NOTE: This command is for Ubuntu only. “$(lsb_release -sc)” returns system’s code-name. For Linux Mint and other Ubuntu based systems, replace it with jammy (22.04), focal (20.04), or noble (24.04) depends on which Ubuntu edition your system is based on.

If you don’t know which Ubuntu edition your system is based on, run cat /etc/os-release to tell through UBUNTU_CODENAME section.

3. Update cache

Before installing any package from that repository, you need to refresh system cache by running command in terminal:

sudo apt update

In the output, it should include a line look like Get/Hit:x https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu xxx

4. Install Wine:

The Wine repository provides three Wine packages:

• winehq-stable – the stable version (v11.0 so far)
• winehq-devel – the latest development release.
• winehq-staging – the testing version with patches applied on top of the corresponding wine-devel

Select install one of the packages by running command below in terminal:

• To install the stable edition use command:

  sudo apt install winehq-stable

• Install wine development release via:

  sudo apt install winehq-devel

• Or install wine-staging via command:

  sudo apt install winehq-staging

NOTE: It does not re-build old packages for new Linux systems. winehq-stable so far is not available for Ubuntu 22.04, since the new LTS is released after wine stable 7.0. User may wait for the next stable release (v7.0.1 or v8.0).

After installation, right-click on your EXE file and start it via Wine program loader option. See if your app works with wine.

How to Remove Wine:

1. To remove the Wine package, simply open terminal and run commands:

sudo apt remove wine winehq-stable winehq-staging winehq-devel

There will be local configuration files and app data left under .wine and .local/share/applications. They are hidden folders, press Ctrl+H in file manager to toggle display and remove them as you want.

2. To remove the Wine repository, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-*.sources

And remove the repository key via command:

sudo rm /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key

Finally apply changes by running sudo apt update to refresh system package cache.