General Info

The main goal of the project is to make easier to test various Wine version on FreeBSD. At this moment it can be used in two ways:

1. As a simple download page with prebuild versions of Wine. This way is recommended for experienced users, as installation of a 32-bit version of Wine can be a bit tricky.

2. The tool to maintain various version of Wine installed in the same time in the system. It is the recommended way to use it.

You can also build your own version of the project. All files needed for it are available in the repository.

Wine versions

All available precompiled Wine versions are on Releases page. The releases are named in form [FreeBSD Version]-[architecture]. Thus, 13.2-amd64 means packages for FreeBSD 13.2 with amd64 architecture. There are 3 kinds of Wine packages available to use.

1. wine-devel or wine-proton: they are vanilla packages build in the same way as packages available in FreeBSD repository. As FreeBSD doesn't provide older versions of packages, they can be used to fast check without need to build them on your own.
2. wine-staging: this is wine-devel version with enabled staging patches. It may provide better or worse support for Windows programs than the vanilla packages.
3. wine-patched: wine-staging or wine-proton versions with added additional patches not available for vanilla packages. The kind of patches are depends on each package. Same as wine-staging, it may solve or cause some problems with running Windows programs on FreeBSD.

Using the project as tool to maintain Wine

To use the project to maintain various versions of Wine installed in the system, first you have to download the maintenance script freesbie.sh. It is recommended to put it somewhere in your PATH directory.

1. Download the script. ;) fetch https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thindil/wine-freesbie/main/freesbie.sh and put it somewhere in your system. This guide assumes that you put the script in your PATH directory.
2. (Optional) Change the location where the Wine versions and their dependencies will be installed. To do it, open the script in the preferred text editor and change value for variable FREESBIE_PATH. By default, the script install everything in directory freesbie in the user's home directory.
3. If you use a different version of FreeBSD than 14.0, you will need to change the configuration of the script. To do it, open the script in the preferred text editor and change value for variables abiVersion and freebsdVersion located at the top of the script.
4. Find the version of Wine which you want to install on Releases page. You can install it by running the maintenance script wit arguments install [wine version]. For example: freesbie.sh install wine-patched-7.4.1. It will download both versions of Wine, their dependencies, unpack Wine to proper locations and modify to work from the project's directory.

If you want to remove an installed version of Wine you can do this by running the script with arguments remove [wine version]. For example: freesbie.sh remove wine-patched-7.4.1.

To keep dependencies of packages updated, run the maintenance script with update argument: freesbie.sh update.

IMPORTANT: When executing a Windows program with any Wine-freesbie version of Wine, use for it wine64 script not wine. Even the 32-bit version of program. The proper way to run a program:

~/freesbie/amd64/usr/local/wine-patched-7.4.1/bin/wine64 myprogram.exe

The same is true for Wine utilities like winecfg, etc.

Limitations

At this moment the maintenance script is very simple. Also, the changes to run Wine from non-standard location are basic. If you are interested, feel free to send pull request with changes, but I suggest starting a discussion about what you want to change.

FAQ

How I can request existing in FreeBSD ports tree version of Wine to add to the project?

Use the project issues. Please read carefully information inside, because if the desired version of Wine doesn't exist in FreeBSD ports tree, it will be rejected.

How I can request a new version of Wine or some custom patches to it or even an existing version?

You can't. ;) The only way to have a new version or custom patches is to create it by yourself and use Pull requests feature. Again, please read carefully information in the request template. Wine versions without proof that they can be build will not be accepted.

My program doesn't work with the selected Wine version

Try to use another version of Wine. Don't report a problem if something doesn't work. It is beyond of scope of the project. The exception to the rule are bugs or issues created by the project, like the one mentioned in IMPORTANT paragraph above.

I have question not mentioned here, or I want to discuss something related to the project.

Please use discussions feature for it. Just please be civilized, at least at the level of ancients civilizations. :)

---

That's all for now, I have probably forgotten about something important ;)

Bartek thindil Jasicki