Wine is a compatibility layer that allows running Windows applications on Linux systems (www.winehq.org). But when it comes to Raspberry Pi, things are getting a bit more complicated. And here is why.

Windows apps are mostly compiled for x86 CPU architecture and they won’t run on ARM-based Raspberry Pi with Wine. ExaGear Desktop can solve the problem. It provides x86 Linux environment on your ARM device making it possible to run x86 Windows apps with Wine.

Another complexity comes from Raspberry Pi specificity with user/kernel virtual memory split. You should build Wine for 2G/2G split systems (by default it is configured for 3G/1G). We did it and added the right version of Wine to default repositories of ExaGear’s guest x86 system. So now to run Wine on Raspberry Pi using ExaGear Desktop you just need to follow setup instruction given below.

Raspberry Pi test stand configuration

Wine setup instruction

1. Put ExaGear Desktop archive with installation packages and ExaGear Desktop license key in the same folder. Open Terminal (command line), move to this folder and unpack the archive using the following command:

$ tar -xvzpf exagear-desktop-rpi3.tar.gz

2. Install and activate ExaGear by running the install-exagear.sh script:

$ sudo ./install-exagear.sh

That’s it.

3. Enter the guest x86 system by entering the following command:

$ exagear

Starting the shell in the guest image /opt/exagear/images/debian-8

You’re in the x86 environment that can be checked by running the ‘arch’ command:

$ arch

i686

4. It is recommended to update apt-get repositories on the first launch of the guest system:

5. Install Wine in Terminal inside the guest system:

$ sudo apt-get install wine

Package manager will offer you to install a bunch of packages. Agree and start the installation.

6. Once the installation process is finished make sure that you have the Eltechs build of Wine installed:

$ wine --version

wine-1.8.1-eltechs

Now you can run .exe files with Wine and get x86 Windows programs installed and running on your Raspberry Pi.

Let’s take Microsoft Word Viewer as an example.

7. Download MS Word Viewer installer:

$ wget https://download.microsoft.com/download/6/a/6/6a689355-b155-4fa7-ad8a-dfe150fe7ac6/wordview_en-us.exe

To be able to view .docx format download MS Office Compatibility Pack:

$ wget https://download.microsoft.com/download/9/2/2/9222D67F-7630-4F49-BD26-476B51517FC1/FileFormatConverters.exe

8. Install MS Word Viewer using Wine:

$ wine wordview_en-us.exe

After a while, you will see the “Default – Wine desktop” window and MS office Word Viewer installer with a dialog window inside. Follow the prompts to start the installation.

9. Install MS Office Compatibility Pack using Wine the same way:

$ wine FileFormatConverters.exe

10. Configure Wine window size.

By default, the Wine window has a fixed size that is not convenient to view Word documents. You can configure Wine to be able to run MS Word Viewer in a separate window with adjustable size. To do this run winecfg tool from Terminal:

$ winecfg

Then in “Wine configuration” window open the “Graphics” tab and unset “Emulate a virtual desktop” checkbox. Click on “Apply” and then “Ok” buttons.

This is it. Now you can close guest x86 terminal and run MS Word Viewer from the Raspbian start menu.

11. Run MS Word Viewer:

Final notes

This way you can install and run other Windows applications compatible with Wine on Raspberry Pi with ExaGear Desktop. Here is the Wine Application Database where you can get information on application compatibility with Wine as well as tips and tricks on Wine configuration for a...