How to upgrade to Wine 4 on Linux

Wine 4 is the latest major release for Wine, a Windows program compatibility layer that makes it possible to run Windows apps, libraries, and programs on Linux and Mac OS.

The new version is exciting and brings in a whole lot of new improvements (Vulkan support, DirectX 12, support for Game controllers), many of which allow Windows apps and games to run more smoothly on the Linux desktop.

Installing Wine 4 is a complicated process on some Linux distributions, as many don’t introduce updates right away. In this guide, we’ll take the complexity out, and help you upgrade to Wine 4!

Ubuntu instructions

Ubuntu Linux comes with a relatively recent version of Wine, but it’s not the absolute latest (especially if you run 18.04 LTS). If you’d like upgrade to Wine  4.0 and newer in the future, ditch the version of Wine shipping with Ubuntu in favor of Wine’s dedicated software repository.

Enabling the Wine software repository starts by downloading their public GPG key. Don’t skip this step! If you do, Apt will not work correctly. Using wget, grab the key file.

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

Now that the key is done downloading, enable the 32-bit architecture so that you can install 32-bit libraries with Wine.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Next, install the Wine key file into Ubuntu, so that the Apt package manager can correctly communicate with the Wine software repository.

sudo apt-key add winehq.key

With the key working, you must now add the Wine software repository to Ubuntu, using the apt-add-repository command.

Ubuntu 18.10

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ cosmic main'

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

 sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ bionic main'

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ xenial main'

Following the apt-add-repository command, it’s time to run the update command, so that the newly added Wine software repository is added.

sudo apt update

Assuming the software update is successful, it’s time to install Wine. For the latest version (currently Wine 4) use the Apt command to install the winehq-stable package.

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

Alternatively, if you’re adventurous, you can grab the development or staging release of Wine with:

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-devel

Or

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging

Debian instructions

As many people are aware, Debian Linux doesn’t give users the newest packages, for stability sake. While this comes as an advantage from a workstation point of view, it means that Debian PC gamers don’t get the latest release of Wine when they want.

Thanks to the Wine project, it is indeed possible to get Wine 4 on Debian Linux, with the help of their third-party software repository.

To enable the Debian Wine software repository, you must first grab the Wine key file. Without it, the Apt-get package manager will not work with the Wine repository correctly.

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

With the Wine key done downloading, add the 32-bit architecture to the system, so that Debian has access to the 32-bit Wine libraries often used with video games.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Following adding the 32-bit architecture to the system, it’s time to add the key to the system with the apt-key command.

sudo apt-key add winehq.key

The Wine key file is set up, and the 32-bit architecture is ready to go on Debian. Next, you must use the apt-add-repository command to enable the Wine repo.

Debian 10 Buster

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ buster main'

Debian 9 Stretch

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ stretch main'

Debian 8 Jessie

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ jessie main'

Finally, install the Wine 4 app package on Debian Linux with the apt-get command.

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

Alternatively, for the development or staging branches, try:

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-devel

Or

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging

Arch Linux instructions

Wine 4+ has been shipping for Arch Linux users for a while now. If you’d like to install it, there’s no need to enable any special software repositories or anything like that. Instead, open up a terminal and use the Pacman package manager.

sudo pacman -S wine

Fedora Linux instructions

On Fedora Linux, the included software repositories carry Wine 4 and regularly release new updates. However, the version of Wine included in these software repositories could prove to be unstable, due to Fedora’s bleeding-edge nature.

If you’d like to try out Wine 4 from the official Wine software repository on Fedora Linux, start out by adding the repository through the config-manager.

Fedora 29

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/fedora/29/winehq.repo

Fedora 30

Fedora 30 isn’t out as of writing this post, so the Wine website doesn’t have a build available for it, so you’ll need to stick to the official Fedora release. That said, feel free to check this page. When “30” appears on the list of builds, run:

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/fedora/30/winehq.repo

After enabling the software repositories, install the latest release of Wine with:

dnf install winehq-stable

Alternatively, install the dev or staging versions with the following commands.

sudo dnf install winehq-devel

Or

sudo dnf install winehq-staging

OpenSUSE instructions

OpenSUSE Linux doesn’t have an official software repository on the Wine website, which is a shame. It makes sense though, as SUSE tends to be less popular than Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora.

Even though Wine doesn’t have an official software repository for SUSE, that doesn’t mean it’s not possible to get Wine 4 working. To start the installation on your system, head over to the OBS Wine page.

On the page, scroll through and find the release of SUSE you are using. Then, click the 1-click install button next to the release of Wine you intend to install.

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