How To Completely Uninstall Wine in Ubuntu 18.04

In this tutorial, we will be discussing the step-by-step process on how to completely uninstall Wine in Ubuntu 18.04. Wine is a compatibility layer that allows users to run Windows applications on Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, and macOS. However, there may be times when you need to uninstall Wine, either for freeing up disk space or because of some technical issues. Let’s dive in.

Uninstalling Wine

Step 1: Remove Wine Packages

First, open your terminal and enter the following command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove wine-*

This command will remove all packages related to Wine. The sudo command is used to run operations that require root permissions. The apt-get remove command is used to remove a package. The --autoremove option is used to remove packages that were automatically installed to satisfy dependencies for other packages and are now no longer needed. The wine-* is a wildcard that matches all packages starting with ‘wine’.

Step 2: Configure Any Pending Packages

If you encounter any errors during the removal process, you can try configuring any pending packages by running:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

The dpkg --configure -a command will configure all packages which are already unpacked but not yet configured.

Step 3: Check for Remaining Wine-related Packages

After removing Wine, it’s a good practice to check if there are any remaining Wine-related packages installed. You can do this by running:

apt list --installed | grep wine

The apt list --installed command lists all installed packages, and the grep wine command filters out the packages related to Wine. If there are any packages listed, you can remove them using the apt-get remove command.

Step 4: Manually Delete the Wine Executable

If you still have the /usr/bin/wine executable present, you can manually delete it using the command:

sudo rm /usr/bin/wine

The rm command is used to remove files or directories.

Step 5: Reinstall Wine (Optional)

Finally, if you need to reinstall Wine for a fresh start, you can install the stable version of Wine by running:

sudo apt install wine-stable

The apt install command is used to install a package. Here, wine-stable is the stable release of Wine.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you should be able to completely remove Wine and its related components from your Ubuntu 18.04 system. It’s always important to keep your system clean and free from unnecessary packages to ensure optimal performance. If you have any questions or run into any issues, don’t hesitate to ask for help from the Ubuntu community or check out the Ubuntu documentation.