How To Install Wire On Linux
Wire is a popular internet messenger alternative for those who care about privacy. Their mission is to “provide secure messaging for everyone.” It’s a great product, and one of the best on the Linux platform when it comes to secure communication. In this guide, we’ll go over how to install Wire on Linux.
Use A VPN With Wire For Enhanced Privacy
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Install Wire
The application supports the Linux platform in many different ways. They have a DEB package available, a Debian repository, and an AppImage. To install Wire on your Linux PC, open up a terminal window and follow the instructions that correspond with your Linux operating system.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu users can install Wire in two ways: either by downloading the stand-alone Debian package or by adding the software repository to their system. In this tutorial, we’ll cover how to install Wire with the standalone DEB package, as the Debian repository doesn’t target Ubuntu users specifically.
Note: if you have to have regular updates, follow the Debian instructions. Keep in mind that the Debian Wire repository isn’t specifically for Ubuntu users so you may experience issues.
To start the Wire installation on Ubuntu, use the wget tool and download the latest package.
wget https://wire-app.wire.com/linux/debian/pool/main/wire_3.3.2872_amd64.deb
Alternatively, if you’re a 32-bit Ubuntu user, try this command instead:
wget https://wire-app.wire.com/linux/debian/pool/main/wire_3.3.2872_i386.deb
With the Wire DEB package on your Ubuntu PC, installation can begin. Using the dpkg command, install the Wire package.
sudo dpkg -i wire_3.3.2872_*.deb
During the installation, the Wire package may print out some errors. These errors happen when a DEB package can’t automatically satisfy all of the dependencies it needs to install correctly. Luckily, this is very easy to fix, by executing the apt install command.
sudo apt install -f
Once the Wire dependencies are taken care of, it’s ready to use! Launch Wire on Ubuntu by going to the “internet” section of your application menu, or, by searching for “Wire.”
Debian
Need to get the Wire messenger app on your Debian machine? Don’t worry! There’s a dedicated Debian repository for the app ready to go! To add it, follow the steps below!
Step 1: Using the apt-get command, install the “https-apt-transport” package. Getting this package working on your Debian PC will allow you to use apt-get to install packages over HTTPS sources.
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https
Step 2: Grab the Wire repository’s key and set it up your Debian PC.
wget -q https://wire-app.wire.com/linux/releases.key -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Step 3: Add the third-party Wire repository to Debian’s list of software sources.
echo "deb https://wire-app.wire.com/linux/debian stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wire-desktop.list
Step 4: Update Debian’s software sources with the update command.
sudo apt-get update
Step 5: Install all pending Debian system updates. Be sure to restart your PC if the update calls for it.
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
Step 6: Install Wire messenger on Debian.
sudo apt-get install wire-desktop
Arch Linux
Arch Linux has indirect support for the Wire Desktop application via the Arch Linux User Repository. To install it, you’ll first need to grab both the Git and Base-devel packages. In a terminal, use the Pacman package manager to get them going.
sudo pacman -S git base-devel
With Git and Base-devel on your Arch PC, the Wire installation can begin. Using the git clone command, grab the latest snapshot of Wire from the Arch Linux AUR.
Note: there are many Wire Desktop packages in the AUR. In this tutorial, we’ll go with wire-desktop-bin, as it requires no compilation.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/wire-desktop-bin.git
Move your terminal into the wire-desktop-bin folder with CD.
cd
Generate and install Wire Desktop for Arch Linux by executing the makepkg command. Please be sure to check the official Wire AUR page if errors occur during the build process.
makepkg -si
AppImage Instructions
Wire makes an AppImage available for easy download. Going the AppImage route allows Wire developers to support lots of Linux distributions — even the most obscure, with ease. To download the Wire AppImage, launch a terminal window and execute the following command.
wget https://wire-app.wire.com/linux/wire-3.3.2872-x86_64.AppImage
Wire also has a 32-bit version available. To get it, run:
wget https://wire-app.wire.com/linux/wire-3.3.2872-i386.AppImage
Wire is done downloading. The next step is to create a new AppImage folder to keep it in.
mkdir -p ~/AppImages
Move the Wire AppImage file into the new ~/AppImages folder.
mv wire-3.3.2872-*.AppImage
Update the permissions of the Wire AppImage using the chmod command.
sudo chmod +x ~/AppImages/wire-3.3.2872-*.AppImage
Finally, run the program for the first time with:
cd ~/AppImages ./wire-3.3.2872-*.AppImage
