Install WINE and/or IE 6.0 in Ubuntu


Note:  With the inception of Ubuntu Gutsy and later WINE is now in Ubuntu's repositories.  The installation of WINE's repositories in no longer necessary.

This page will show you how to install WINE and Internet Explorer 6.0 if you so desire.

Installing WINE is easy and it allows you to run Windows based programs.

The question you are asking is "Why would anyone want to install IE on Linux?".  Simple, there are a few sites out there that don't play well with Firefox.  There are less and less site out there that fit this criteria, but they do exist.  Another reason is that if you are a webpage developer you will want to see how the majority of people will see your webpage.  To get IE to work with Ubuntu WINE needs to be installed.  If you have WINE installed you can skip the first section.

Lets get to work, shall we?



Install WINE

To install WINE follow the procedure below.  This procedure was taken from WINE's website on Ubuntu installation.  Thanks to the folks over there.

Add the repository key to your system's list of trusted APT keys by copy and pasting the following in a terminal:

wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

You should be greeted with an "OK" after pressing enter.

Next, add the repository to your system's list of APT sources by typing one of the following in a terminal:

Note:  WINE is now in the universe repository for Gutsy

For Ubuntu Hardy (8.04)
sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

For Ubuntu Gutsy (7.10)
sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

For Ubuntu Feisty (7.04)
sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

For Ubuntu Edgy (6.10):
sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/edgy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

For Ubuntu Dapper (6.06):
sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/dapper.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

For Debian Etch (4.0)
sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/etch.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

Next update the package manager:
sudo apt-get update

Install WINE and install cabextract package on your system as well.  The cabextract package allows Ubuntu to extract Microsoft .cab files if you wish to install Microsoft software.  To install WINE and cabextract type the following in a terminal:
sudo apt-get install wine cabextract

That is it for WINE installation.  WINE is a n excellent program to install and run Windows programs.  All you have to do is just type in a terminal wine <windows .exe program> to run them.  Will WINE run 100% of Windows programs?  No, but it does run quite a few.

If you desire to install Internet Explorer 6.0 then proceed to the next section.

Note WINE does not support 64 bit version of Ubuntu Edgy or earlier.  You can get the 64bit stuff for Feisty or later.


Install Internet Explorer 6.0 for Linux

 The following procedure was taken from Tatanka's website on Internet Explorer for Linux installation.  Thanks to the folks over there.

Next open a terminal in the folder where you downloaded the ies4linux installation.  DO NOT use sudo as Internet Explorer is inheritly unsecure.  Installing IE without sudo will actually make IE more secure than it has ever been.  The install program will even bark at you if you use sudo to install ies4linux.

Here is a procedure to install IE6 for Linux.

Change to your home folder.
cd ~

Get the IE for Linux installation.
wget http://www.stchman.com/tools/ies4linux-latest.tar.gz

We need to unpack the tar archive:
tar -zxvf ies4linux-latest.tar.gz

This will create a folder with ies4linux-2.05, type the following (DO NOT use sudo):
cd ies4linux-*

Run the installation
 ./ies4linux

You will be prompted by a few questions.  I selected to install Internet Explorer 6.0, but you can install either 5.5 or 5.0 if you so desire.  This installer goes to Microsoft's website and will download the proper .cab files and installs them using the cabextract package.  The installer will install IE to your home folder by default, if you wish to change it then do so by giving a different path.  The installation will install Adobe Flash as well.  The installer will install an ie4linuxbin folder and in that folder will be a script named ie6 to launch IE as well.

When the installation is complete you will have an IE icon on your desktop.  You are one double-click away from IE.  If you wish you can copy the ie6 script to your /usr/local/bin folder.  This will let you launch IE from a terminal.  To do so open a terminal in the ie4linuxbin folder containing the ie6 script and type the following.

sudo cp ./ie6 /usr/local/bin

Remove the installation archive and the folder it created as they are no longer needed.
rm -f ~/ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
rm -r -f ~/ies4linux*

As you can see installing WINE and IE was not a difficult matter.  It just goes to show you that you can do far more with Ubuntu than you can with Windows, even Windows stuff.

The installation of ies4linux is a free program, but Internet Explorer is not.  To view the license information and legal issues about Internet Explorer please visit here.


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