Installing Wine on OS X Step by Step Guide

Installing Wine on OS X might appear difficult to the new UNIX users or those who are not used with Command Line Works. Here is a Step by Step Guide with Video. We previously described the methods to install Wine and Winebottler on Mac OS X – that is not mandatory to read for going through this guide, although it is good to at least have a quick look on that article before installing Wine on OS X. Official guides and supports are usually for MacPort users, however, we have shown here for the HomeBrew package manager users. It is obvious that, for this case too, you can install apt-get for OS X and symlink properly to get Wine up and running.

Installing Wine on OS X : Basics Must Be Prepared

Fixing UNIX Commands After OSX 10.8 Updates describes all the needed components for installing wine via HomeBrew. The missing component there is XQuartz, you must follow the guide on Links CLI Based Browser With Graphics to properly install XQuartz – it is again important, because the content writers in most websites do not know how to adapt with the changes after Apple has withdrawn support for X11. The remaining part is Wine, for what Installing Wine on OS X Step by Step Guide is intended for.

Installing Wine on OS X Step by Step Guide

You need to perform an update and upgrade, although this combine command should work :

It can throw errors so you will run the commands separately :

If your XCode is installed before Mavericks update, run :

to install the components properly. This is quite important step. Otherwise, libpng will not work. If your XQuartz was installed before upgrading to Mavericks, you must read and update it too :

Launch XQuartz and check the version. In fact, if you have not updated, XQuartz will prompt you. After performing these tasks; do a clean restart.

Now run :

This will detect and report any existing issues. If you have major issues, correct them, you can omit which are written as “Consider to…”. They are likely to get corrected when you will fix the major issues.

I also had issues, I fixed them by reading the on-screen instructions! Now, if brew doctor command does not throw errors and gives a green signal – Your system is ready to brew; you are ready to install Wine. You can try to run :

To install a Windows program, first download the installer file. Create a specific named folder and cd to the location from command line. Once you are in the correct directory, run the installer through Wine by running the following command in the Terminal:

INSTALLER-Name.exe is the .exe file’s name, usually they are setup.exe. It will normally open a Windows line installation window.

However, this can fail, we mean brew install wine command can fail. This is due to again, like Links installation – wrong compilation with X11 location. So, you have to build yourself. Download latest from this :

This is binary. So wget it :

uncompress it. Configure it :

add at the end –without-freetype if the command throws error. You will get what is the actual command at the end. Run make command :

If sudo throws error, omit it. Just use make command. Now you can use it. The video will be included sooner.