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How to Install Wine on Debian 11 Bullseye
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Wine stands for “Wine Is Not an Emulator”. Wine is a free and open-source program that allows you to run windows programs in your Debian and other popular Linux distributions.
As its name suggests, it is not an Emulator but a runtime Environment that adds Windows compatibility layers. Using Wine on Debian 11 allows you to run your favorite Windows programs by adding compatibility layers of Windows to our Debian 11 System.
Table of Contents
Installing Wine on Debian 11 Bullseye
This is an easy process and won’t take you long because it just requires some 5 commands and that’s it. Get ready with your terminal and let’s start with our first step.
Step 1: Add Wine Repository to Debian System
We can’t just download wine by using apt download wine. You have to add Repositories by which we can download wine to our System. To add Wine Repositories, use the following commands:
sudo sh -c ‘echo ” deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ bullseye main” >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wine.list’
Step 2: Integrating the GPG key in our Debian System
To verify the packages being downloaded from Repositories, we are required to add a key. Use the given commands to Download key:
wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
Add wine key to Debian by given command:
sudo apt-key add winehq.key
Step 3: Enabling 32-bit package support for Debian System
There are many old Windows software and installers that only support 32-bit architecture and to run all the required software smoothly, enabling 32-bit Architecture is a good choice. Use the given commands to proceed further:
sudo dpkg –add-architecture i386
Step 4: Updating Repositories
By updating our Repositories, we can be sure that all the packages that we are going to download are the latest and greatest. Updating Repositories will also make use of changes that we have just made in our System like adding Repository and Key.
sudo apt update
Step 5: Installing Wine on Debian
After going through 4 steps, now it’s time we are going to install Wine in our Debian System. There are three branches of Wine – Stable, Development, and Staging. I prefer the Development version which is a sweet spot between stability and bleeding edge.
To download your preferred branch, follow the given commands:
For stable version:
sudo apt install –install-recommends winehq-stable
For Development version:
sudo apt install –install-recommends winehq-devel
For Bleeding-edge version:
sudo apt install –install-recommends winehq-staging
Step 6: Installing Winetricks on Debian (Optional)
Winetricks provides you GYI by which you can manage WinePrefix
sudo apt install winetricks
To open winetricks, use the following command:
winetricks
Click on Accept. It will start downloading.
Once the downloading is complete, you will be given a new window by which you can download Windows software as per your preference.
Uninstalling Wine from Debian
If you don’t require Wine anymore you can easily remove it from your system.
Uninstallation for stable version :
sudo apt remove wine-stable winetricks
You can remove the winetricks if you have not gone through that process installed
Uninstallation for development version:
sudo apt remove wine-devel
Uninstallation for bleeding-edge version:
sudo apt remove wine-staging
Frequently asked questions related to Wine
Does Wine work on Debian?
Yes, it works like a charm and is available in 3 different branches to choose from that are Stable, Development and Staging.
Do I need Winetricks?
No, it is not necessary to have it but it’s a good tool and you can use it to install and manage your Windows software in Linux.
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Conclusion
Installing Wine on Debian gives you the freedom to install Windows software in your Debian System. It is mainly used to play Windows-centric Games. It just adds a Windows compatibility Layer and gets you better performance than Virtual Machine. If you have just installed Debian then you should read our what to do after installing Debian 11 article.
