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Some Windows applications work better under an older version of WINE. From time to time it is even necessary to use a previous WINE version in order to get an application to start. However, the repository provides only one version of it, and it may require some hassle to downgrade it.

What is the best way of installing an older version of WINE?

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    You could make use of PlayOnLinux create a .pol file that requires a specific version of Wine to install your software- May 19, 2012 at 22:36
  • I discuss using different wine versions in playonlinux in this answer. That is by far the easiest way to manage multiple versions of wine.
    – user76204
    Apr 10, 2013 at 23:10

3 Answers 3

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I have been using the development version of wine (winehq-devel) for some time. Recently there was a regression bug when going between v5.21 and v5.22, so one of my applications wouldn't run. Here's what I did to roll back to version 5.21:

sudo apt-cache policy winehq-devel                        (shows available versions)
sudo apt-get install wine-devel-amd64=5.21~bionic
sudo apt-get install wine-devel-i386=5.21~bionic
sudo apt-get install wine-devel=5.21~bionic
sudo apt-get install winehq-devel=5.21~bionic

After a reboot of the system, version 5.21 is now active, and my application works again.

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  • thanks, I did it successfully.
    – Dean Chen
    May 21, 2022 at 11:39
  • It worked! Thanks! :-) Didn't need to reboot the system, thou. And one can run all of in one line: sudo apt install wine-devel-amd64=5.21~bionic wine-devel-i386=5.21~bionic wine-devel=5.21~bionic winehq-devel=5.21~bionic. And it worked fine for wine-staging too (in fact I was downgrading from 7.18 to 7.17).
    – Cromax
    Sep 26, 2022 at 20:11
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From the Wine FAQ:

Can I install more than one Wine version on my system?

Yes, but you will have to build Wine yourself (see How to compile Wine from source), as it is not possible to have multiple distro packages installed. The easiest way to do this is to run Wine from the build directory (don't do make install). If you want to actually install multiple versions, use --prefix when building Wine to designate a different install directory for each version, e.g.

./configure prefix=/path/to/install/directory && make 

then install it with

sudo make install 

On Linux, even this step is not enough: you must also set environment variables so that the wine executable on your $PATH finds the right shared libraries. Assuming that /path/to/install/directory is $W, then for Wine version 1.4, the following settings appear to be sufficient:

export WINEVERPATH=$W 
export PATH=$W/bin:$PATH  
export WINESERVER=$W/bin/wineserver  
export WINELOADER=$W/bin/wine  
export WINEDLLPATH=$W/lib/wine/fakedlls  
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$W/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" 

The LD_LIBRARY_PATH is definitely required.

Note that regardless of whether you install multiple versions or run them from the build directory, you will still have to designate which version of Wine you wish to use when running applications. It is also recommended that applications being run with different Wine versions be installed into separate wineprefixes.

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I can recommend to You to use PlayOnLinux. In this app You can manage Wine version depends which program You want to install, even installed You can change Wine version as You like.

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  • Welcome to Ask Ubuntu mihoo! Although your post attempts to answer the question, is it better to include more explanation on how to "manage wine versions" in PlayOnLinux. Because if you think about it, when other people read your answer, they'll start wondering "how do I install PlayOnLinux" and "how can I manage wine versions using it"? You could include steps or screenshots of PlayOnLinux on how to do this. Additionally, you can include a command or install link to install PlayOnLinux.
    – Alaa Ali
    Jul 28, 2013 at 12:12

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