Just Another Tech Blog

Today I completed my first very successful install of IE (version 6) on a Linux system. I had attempted this before, but had failed. As with last time, I used the Sidenet Wine Configuration Utility. This utility installs IE6 and WMP using WINE. To know what version to download, just input wine --version at the terminal, and see what output it brings up. My WINE version happened to be 20050725 (this number is the release date: July 25, 2005. Hey! This WINE version is one year and a day old! Dang... I really need to update). Anyway, download a version of the SWCU (that is what I will abbreviate Sidenet Wine Configuration Utility as) that is fitting to your version (as in, if you don't want to download the newest version, which I didn't, choose one that is know to work with your version of WINE. See "What's New" section of the SWCU page to find out what version will work with your WINE version). Ok... phew! I write too much... Anyway, once you have downloaded that, find out where you virtual C drive is present (you need to know this during setup). It may be located at the default ~c/ location, but I found out mine was located at /home/linnerd40/.wine/drive_c which is actually in a hidden file.... Ok, once you know that, extract the SWCU package and cd to the directory it is present in. Then, at the terminal, run

./setup

NOT AS ROOT! First off, you should never run anything as root unless instructed to do so, and second, the setup utility will not work when run as root. Then, answer some questions and choose which installation you want. You will need a working internet connection, as IE6 and WMP have to be downloaded. Then, a setup wizard (GUI) for IE6 should pop up. When it came up by me.... there was no text! So, I just kept pressing the default button, and... it worked! If I ever find out what the actual text is, I will let you know. That went very well, with no errors (or so I hope). Next came the WMP install, which didn't go as well. After the IE6 setup, wait a while and the WMP setup will appear. This, again, is done through a GUI, this time with TEXT! I went through, and selected the default options, and everything was going well, until the end, where it stated "Setup Failed" and some other MS crap. Oh well, I didn't need WMP anyway (MPLAYER all the way!). After that, IE6 launches... and there you have it. A working IE6 on Linux using WINE. If this worked for you.... CONGRATS! If not, I wish I could help, but I am not an expert with WINE. All I can suggest is to go trough the setup again, but with different options selected. Good luck! See screenshot above to see how IE6 looks running under WINE (yeah, crappy. Thought so too! BUT, it works... so Hey! Fine with me!).