Photoshop CC 2015 is listed with a “Gold” rating at WineHQ which is great news. I can confirm that it runs under Ubuntu Xenial 16.04.
In addition there are a lot of other apps and games that can be installed. Below I give examples for installing Kindle and Notepad++.
We are going to be installing the latest development version of Wine from the official WineHQ PPA. We will also need the most recent development version of winetricks. See below for complete installation instructions.
Here is the page at WineHQ for Photoshop CC 2015 (there are also pages for other versions).
Here’s the entire process in a nutshell:
Install very latest Wine from the official Wine PPA:
wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/Release.key
sudo apt-key add Release.key
sudo apt-add-repository 'https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/'
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --install-recommends winehq-devel mono-complete
Download winetricks:
(Note: I like to put it in my ~/bin directory. If you do make sure your ~/.profile is set to include ~/bin in $PATH although it is not strictly required in the steps below.)
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks; chmod +x winetricks; mv winetricks ~/bin
Create 32-bit prefix exclusively for Photoshop:
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.photoshop32 ~/bin/winetricks
Select Install an application but once the list of available applications show, click Cancel.
In the next window that appears select Install a Windows DLL or Component. In the list of available components select and install the following:
atmlib gdiplus msxml3 msxml6 vcrun2005 vcrun2005sp1 vcrun2008
Back at the previous screen select Install a font and select and install the following:
corefonts lucida tahoma unifont
Back at the previous screen select Change settings. Select the following and click OK:
fontsmooth=rgb win7
Note that the list of above components reported to work by different people at the WineHQ site varies but for certain you need atmlib and gdiplus and you must set the Windows version to win7. You may want to try changing or removing other components.
As noted on the WineHQ page for Photoshop CC 2015 there may font rendering issues related to the gdiplus library. In winetricks select Run winecfg and then in the winecfg Libraries tab select *gdiplus and press the Edit button. Change it from Native (Windows) to Builtin (Wine).
Install Photoshop (32-bit):
WINEPREFIX=~/.photoshop32 WINEARCH=win32 wine Set-up.exe
The installer will open and you can run a normal install.
IMPORTANT: On my system at about 25% into the installation it appears to fail and says “Installation Failed. Your installation encountered errors.” However the installation is still running in the background. Its important to wait several minutes and allow the installation to complete. Wait for all hard disk activity to cease.
Once it is installed there will be an entry in ~/.local/share/applications/wine/Programs/ named Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (32 Bit).desktop
In the Plasma menu under Applications -> Wine -> Programs there is an entry for Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (32 Bit) and it does run.
If you need to wipe everything and try again
rm -rf ~/.photoshop32 ~/.local/share/applications/wine*
This wipes everything and gives you a completely clean slate. Obviously use with caution if you have other Wine apps installed.
Install Adobe Acrobat DC
In order to install Adobe Acrobat DC I had to first install it on a Windows system. When you install it it will ask where you want to extract the contents of the installation package. I choose to install it into a subfolder inside the same folder that the installation package is in. The extract subfolder will contain the Setup.exe that is needed to install Acrobat in Wine. Then copy the folder to your Linux system.
mkdir -p ~/.wine/acrobat_dc
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.wine/acrobat_dc ~/bin/winetricks
In Winetricks choose to install a Windows DLL or component and install atmlib and mspatcha
Now install Acrobat DC:
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.wine/acrobat_dc wine
Now use rsync to copy over some missing files from the Windows sytem. On my computer Windows was mounted under /mnt/win:
cd ~/.wine/acrobat_dc/drive_c/Program\ Files/Adobe/Acrobat\ DC/
rsync -rv --size-only /mnt/win/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Adobe/Acrobat\ DC/ .
cd ~/.wine/acrobat_dc/drive_c/Program\ Files/Common\ Files/Adobe/
rsync -rv --size-only /mnt/win/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Common\ Files/Adobe/ .
The first time Acrobat is run there will be a couple error messages that appear. They should not appear again.
Installing other apps (optional):
I recommend installing apps to their own directory, and using 32-bit over 64. To install Kindle just run:
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.kindle32 ~/bin/winetricks
Choose Install an application and you will find Kindle in the list of available applications.
To install Notepad++ you would do something like:
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.npp ~/bin/winetricks
then select Notepad++ from the list of applications.
You get the idea. Just remember the key things: you may need to install fonts and should usually set the Windows version to win7 in the Change settings section. You may also need to install Windows components or DLL's which is beyond the scope of this article.
When you run winetricks you'll see there's a good list of applications and games readily available.
You could also create a generic container for 32-bit applications:
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 WINEARCH=win32 ~/bin/winetricks
And you can also install an app directly with:
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine32 WINEARCH=win32 wine 32bit_app.exe
And for 64-bit use:
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine64 WINEARCH= ~/bin/winetricks
Or to install a 64-bit app directly:
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine64 WINEARCH= wine 64bit_app.exe
Final note
I hope this will inspire people en masse to ditch Windows permanently, choose to use Linux, and be more involved with free software. Please see my other guide KDE Plasma with Kubuntu – Setup, notes, ideas.
Credits, Thanks & Help:
askubuntu.com: How do I create a 32-bit WINE prefix?
wiki.archlinux.org: Wine
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