Overview
Some Mac and Linux ported games already use the commercial version of Wine called CrossOver[www.codeweavers.com] to run Windows versions of the games, System Shock 2 is an example of one such game. CrossOver is maintained by CodeWeavers[www.codeweavers.com], a team that funds the Open Source Wine[www.winehq.org] project.Wine is a free way of getting most of Windows versions of games running natively on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, Mac OSX, & BSD. This guide will show you how to install the Windows version of Steam and where to look if you are having trouble running it or running games on it.
What is Wine?
Wine (originally an acronym for “Wine Is Not an Emulator”) is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, Mac OSX, & BSD. Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop.
For more, see the about page on WineHQ:
[link]
Installing Wine
These instructions may often change, so it is better to head to WineHQ website for instructions on how to install Wine on your operating system, best is to choose the latest Development release as I personally haven’t had an issue with Wine stability, rather programs it is unable to run:
[link]
Installing Windows version of Steam using Wine and winetricks
winetricks[wiki.winehq.org] is a helper script to download and install various redistributable runtime libraries needed to run some programs in Wine. These may include replacements for components of Wine using closed source libraries.
There is a winetricks script that downloads, installs and works around bugs that you may face in Steam.
If you chose to install the latest version of Wine, then it has the winetricks script already included in the base installation. If it is not or you would also like to use the latest version of winetricks, check the Wiki on WineHQ on how to get the latest version[wiki.winehq.org].
Open a terminal window. Wine related commands should be accessible from the terminal window. Winetricks also has a GUI, so executing:
Should open a winetricks window.
Choose “Install an App” option and click ok.
The next window shows available scripts within winetricks. check the checkbox of “steam” only and click ok and the execution of the script will commence.
Unless the script has changed, the install directory(wineprefix*) will be under ~/.local/share/winetricks/steam in case of Ubuntu OS. The “wine prefix” shown in the titlebar of the window is ignored by the “steam” script.
The script may even create a shortcut on your Desktop.
A few notes:
* There is a term for Wine called “wineprefix”, it is a directory containing the registry and the mimicked Windows directories and files. Every wineprefix is independent and it can be moved and renamed. The win. For more information about wineprefix see the WineHQ FAQ:
[link]
If you encounter problems with Steam, see the AppDB page for Steam:
[link]
Launching Steam
The winetricks script should have created a shortcut on your Desktop. Launch Steam by clicking on the shortcut. Then Steam should be updating. If updates seem to freeze, close Steam and relaunch it. Steam will see this installation as being on another machine, you may choose to name it “wine”.
Here is a screenshot of native Linux version of Steam(on the left) and the Windows version of Steam launched with Wine(on the right) on Ubuntu OS.
Playing Steam games
Installing should go without a hitch.
But if playing results in bugs or crashes, it is best to check out if your specific game has a page on AppDB[appdb.winehq.org].
If the pages mention installing components. You may be able to install them using winetricks, but you have to have the directory path of wineprefix to be the correct one. In a terminal:
You may also get help on the Wine IRC[en.wikipedia.org] channel: irc:/irc.freenode.net/winehq