5 How to Find, Install, Configure and Run Wine

Contents of this section

5.1 What happens when Windows '95 is released? Will 32-bit Windows applications run under Wine? Where can I get Wine?

Wine can now be found on quite a few systems throughout the Internet. Here is an incomplete list of some of the systems where you will find Wine:

It should also be available from any site that mirrors tsx-11 or sunsite.

Some of these ftp sites may archive previous versions of Wine as well as the current one. To determine which is the latest one, look at the distribution filename, which will take the form:

        Wine-[yymmdd].tar.gz

Simply replace yymmdd in the distribution filename with the numbers for year, month and date respectively. The latest one is the one to get.

Note that weekly diff patches are now available, so you don't have to download, install and configure the entire distribution each week if you are current to the previous release. Diff releases follow the same numbering conventions as do the general releases, and take the form:

        Wine-[yymmdd].diff.gz

Note that any mirror of tsx-11 will likely carry the Wine distribution as well, and may not be listed here in this FAQ. If you are mirroring the Wine distribution from the tsx-11 site and wish to be listed here in this FAQ, please send email to the FAQ author/maintainer listed in question faqauth

5.2 If I do not have an Internet account, how can I get Wine?

Some CD-ROM archives of Internet sites, notably those from Walnut Creek that archive ftp.cdrom.com and sunsite.unc.edu, do include Wine as part of the archive. However, the age of these distributions is always in question, as the "snapshot" of the site may have been taken anywhere from 1-4 months (or more) prior to purchase.

Your best bet to get the very latest distribution of Wine, if you do not have your own Internet account, is to find a friend who does have an Internet account and have him/her ftp the necessary files for you. If you have an email account on a BBS that can reach the Internet through a gateway, you may be able to use email to get the Wine release sent to you; check with your BBS system operator for details.

If you are running a BBS that is not connected to the Internet but does offer the Wine distribution for download, and would like to be listed in this FAQ, please forward such information to the FAQ author/maintainer as listed in question faqauth

5.3 How do I install Wine on my hard drive?

Just un-gzip and un-tar the file, and follow the instructions contained in the README file that will be located in the base Wine directory.

5.4 How do I compile the Wine distribution source code?

5.5 How do I configure Wine to run on my system?

All of the directions to perform these two steps are located in the README file that will be located in the base Wine directory after you untar the distribution file.

5.6 How do I run an MS Windows program under Wine?

Assuming you are running X already, call up a term window. Then, at the shell prompt, type:


        wine [/path/progname]

Another X window will pop up on top of the shell window and the binary should begin to execute.

Let's assume that you want to run MS Windows Solitaire. Under MS-DOS, you had installed MS Windows on your C: drive under the subdirectory /WINDOWS. Under Unix, you have mounted the C: drive under /dos/c. To run MS Windows Solitaire, you would type:


        wine /dos/c/windows/sol.exe

5.7 I have installed and configured Wine, but Wine cannot find MS Windows on my drive. Where did I go wrong?

First, make sure you have mounted your MS-DOS partition into your Unix filesystem, either by putting the entry into /etc/fstab, or by manually mounting it. Remember, it must not be located on a Doublespaced or Stackered partition, as neither Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD or Wine cannot currently 'see' files located in such compressed DOS partitions.

Next, check your path statements in the 'wine.conf' file. No capital letters may be used in paths, as they are automatically converted to lowercase.

5.8 I think I've found a bug. How do I report this bug to the Wine programming team?

Bug reports should be posted to the newsgroup:

        comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine

5.9 I was able to get various MS Windows programs to run, but their menus do not work. What is wrong?

Wine is not complete at this time, so the menus may not work. They will in time as more of the MS Windows API calls are included in Wine.

5.10 I have run various MS Windows programs but since the program menus do not work, how can I exit these programs?

Kill the shell window that you called up to run your MS Windows program, and the X window that appeared with the program will be killed too.

5.11 How do I remove Wine from my computer?

All you have to do is to type:


        rm -fR [/path/]Wine*

Make sure you specify the exact path when using the powerful 'rm -fR' command. If you are afraid you might delete something important, or might otherwise delete other files within your filesystem, change into each Wine subdirectory singly and delete the files found there manually, one file or directory at a time. Neither the Wine programmers nor the Wine FAQ author/maintainer can be held responsible for your deleting any files in your filesystem.

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