---
title: Running Winlink and VARA on Linux
summary: >
  A quick and dirty summary of my Winlink installation on my linux laptop.
date: 2021-10-03
categories: [amateur-radio]
tags: [linux,winlink,vara,windows,emulation,wine]

---

This article is about using VARA FM and/or VARA HF on a linux laptop---or
computer.

## Quick and dirty

~~~console
$ sudo apt-get install wine-stable winetricks exe-thumbnailer

$ export WINEPREFIX=/home/dominic/.wine-winlink
$ export WINEARCH=win32

$ winetricks winxp
$ winetricks sound=alsa

$ winetricks -q dotnet35sp1
$ winetricks vb6run
$ winetricks vcrun2015

## now, as an update when my already working winlink express installation
## failed, i had to install also the following dotnet applications with winetricks
$ winetricks -q dotnet40
$ winetricks -q dotnet46

## Optional, if you want backups
$ tar -cJf wine-backup_$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S)_initial-setup.tar.xz .wine-winlink

$ wine Downloads/Winlink_Express_install.exe

## Optional, if you want backups after you installed Winlink
$ tar -cJf wine-backup_$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S)_winlink-installed.tar.xz .wine-winlink

$ wine Downloads/VARA\ setup\ \(Run\ as\ Administrator\).exe
$ wine Downloads/VARA\ FM\ setup\ \(Run\ as\ Administrator\).exe

## Optional, if you want backups, after you installed Winlink and VARA
$ tar -cJf wine-backup_$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S)_vara-installed.tar.xz .wine-winlink
~~~

If your VARA window is empty after it gets started from Winlink, just minimize
it and restore it and you should see it's content again.

## Resources

This article is practically based on the instructions found over at
<http://k6eta.com/linux/installing-rms-express-on-linux-with-wine>.

The following files have been re-uploaded on my website to create a duplicate
resource for download, but primarily to prevent them from going offline in the
case the resource goes down for whatever reason.

{{< alert circle-info >}}
I do not claim them to be my creation, I just want them to be online on a place
that I find again.
{{< /alert >}}

- <a href="/files/VARA_components.zip" onclick="window.fathom.trackGoal('JHEASKUX', 0);">VARA_components.zip</a>
- <a href="/files/pdh.dll.zip" onclick="window.fathom.trackGoal('PLBC0UKD', 0);">pdh.dll.zip</a>

Visit the website `k6eta.com` above if you want to know more details about
Winlink on Linux.

Thanks to Steven K6ETA for his excellent explanations on his website, so I could
narrow this down to the quick copy-and-paste-box above.