David Fiorini

Dear All,
I just want to share my workflow of successfully installing Box86-Box64, Wine32-Wine64 and Winetricks on Arm64
Big thanks to @NicoD for sharing his source code of Armbian-Gaming. I modified some of his code to be used in Armbian Focal (or any Arm64 distro) and fix the armhf dependencies issue by using the "arm-linux-gnueabihf" Library from TwisterOS. I also used some of Box86 Manual. So many thanks to all of them.
 
Ok Let's Start:
 
1. Add armhf multiarch
sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf sudo apt-get update 2. Install dependencies for box86 & box64
sudo apt-get install git cmake cabextract gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf libc6-dev-armhf-cross
Then download these "arm-linux-gnueabihf" files and extract them on folder /usr/
(Alternatively, you can manually copy paste the "/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf" folder from TwisterOS and transfer it to your arm64 OS. This file contains dependencies for Box86)
*NOTE: I split the files because Armbian site doesn't allow me to upload more than 1,5MB.
arm-linux-gnueabihf.7z.001 arm-linux-gnueabihf.7z.002 arm-linux-gnueabihf.7z.003 arm-linux-gnueabihf.7z.004
 
3. Compile box86 for general ARM64 board (read box86 manual for more info about your board)
cd git clone https://github.com/ptitSeb/box86 cd box86 mkdir build cd build cmake .. -DARM_DYNAREC=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo make -j3 sudo make install sudo systemctl restart systemd-binfmt cd 4. Compile box64 for general ARM64 board (read box64 manual for more info about your board)
cd git clone https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64 cd box64 mkdir build cd build cmake .. -DARM_DYNAREC=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo make -j3 sudo make install sudo systemctl restart systemd-binfmt cd 5. Restart your Computer
6. Install Wine32 & Wine64 (Merged is the best option, and please follow the sequence accordingly. Currently at the time of writing, wine 5.21 & Wine 6.0.2 have the best support from Box86-Box64. You can also try a different version of wine if you want)
    #Wine 5.21
cd cd ~/Downloads wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/buster/main/binary-i386/wine-devel-i386_5.21~buster_i386.deb wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/buster/main/binary-i386/wine-devel_5.21~buster_i386.deb wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/buster/main/binary-amd64/wine-devel-amd64_5.21~buster_amd64.deb wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/buster/main/binary-amd64/wine-devel_5.21~buster_amd64.deb dpkg-deb -xv wine-devel-i386_5.21~buster_i386.deb wine-installer dpkg-deb -xv wine-devel_5.21~buster_i386.deb wine-installer dpkg-deb -xv wine-devel-amd64_5.21~buster_amd64.deb wine-installer dpkg-deb -xv wine-devel_5.21~buster_amd64.deb wine-installer mv ~/Downloads/wine-installer/opt/wine* ~/wine rm -rf wine-installer cd     #Wine 6.0.2 Stable
cd cd ~/Downloads wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/buster/main/binary-i386/wine-stable-i386_6.0.2~buster-1_i386.deb wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/buster/main/binary-i386/wine-stable_6.0.2~buster-1_i386.deb wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/buster/main/binary-amd64/wine-stable-amd64_6.0.2~buster-1_amd64.deb wget https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/buster/main/binary-amd64/wine-stable_6.0.2~buster-1_amd64.deb dpkg-deb -xv wine-stable-i386_6.0.2~buster-1_i386.deb wine-installer dpkg-deb -xv wine-stable_6.0.2~buster-1_i386.deb wine-installer dpkg-deb -xv wine-stable-amd64_6.0.2~buster-1_amd64.deb wine-installer dpkg-deb -xv wine-stable_6.0.2~buster-1_amd64.deb wine-installer mv ~/Downloads/wine-installer/opt/wine* ~/wine rm -rf wine-installer cd  
7. Create Symlink to Wine
sudo ln -s ~/wine/bin/wine /usr/local/bin/wine sudo ln -s ~/wine/bin/wineboot /usr/local/bin/wineboot sudo ln -s ~/wine/bin/winecfg /usr/local/bin/winecfg sudo ln -s ~/wine/bin/wineserver /usr/local/bin/wineserver sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/wine /usr/local/bin/wineboot /usr/local/bin/winecfg /usr/local/bin/wineserver 8. Setting Wine32 Folder in ~/.wine (set win32 as wine default, because currently winetricks doesn't work in win64. I would gladly use win64 as my default setup only if winetricks works in win64 in the future).
 
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine WINEARCH=win32 wine winecfg 9. Setting Wine64 Folder in ~/.wine64
WINEPREFIX=~/.wine64 WINEARCH=win64 wine winecfg 10. In Home Folder Create alias in .bashrc (to make shorter command for wine64)
cd nano .bashrc        --> enter this command
alias wine64="WINEPREFIX=~/.wine64 wine"       --> then save (ctrl+x, choose yes)
      --> then logout & login
 
11. Installing & Running 32bit Windows app
wine uninstaller wine /File/can/be/drag/and/drop/32bit.exe 12. Installing & Running 64bit Windows app
wine64 uninstaller wine64 /File/can/be/drag/and/drop/64bit.exe  
13. Install Winetricks
sudo apt-get install cabextract -y cd ~/Downloads && wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks sudo chmod +x winetricks && sudo mv winetricks /usr/local/bin/ 14. Using Winetricks (ex: Corefonts & Dotnet 4)
BOX86_NOBANNER=1 winetricks BOX86_NOBANNER=1 winetricks corefonts dotnet40 15. Creating Wine Desktop Launcher
Now create a launcher in the desktop with this code in the command section:
wine explorer /desktop=shell,1280x720 explorer.exe  
As an alternative, I personally like explorer++ mainly because of its GUI and additional feature compared to the original wine explorer. You can download it from here: https://explorerplusplus.com/software/explorer++_1.3.5_x86.zip and then extract it, and then rename to "explorer++.exe" (with small e, not capital E), then copy-paste it to the ~/.wine/drive_c/windows. Then create a launcher in the desktop with this code in the command section:
wine explorer /desktop=shell,1280x720 explorer++.exe  
 
 
**NOTE:
- With this setting I am able to run Box86 and Box64 without having dependencies conflict between armhf package and arm64 package.
- I used the win32 as my default wine. Alternatively you can also use win64 as your default ~/.wine setup. It is up to you (In fact, by default it will create win64 setup in your ~/.wine folder).
- For RK3399 users, you can use these scripts to Install and Update Box86 & Box64:
install_box86.sh install_box64.sh update_box86.sh update_box64.sh
 
I hope this could help somebody out there. Have a Nice Day!
RNA
 
 

A little update of my previous post about box86 install. I found on ptitSeb github project a reference for apt install of precompiled box86 builds. With that everything should be easier.
So I'm posting here steps taken from https://github.com/ptitSeb/box86/blob/master/docs/COMPILE.md and https://github.com/fengxue-jrql/box86-and-box64-for-arm64. All credits to them, I just combined the two.
 
# dependency install
sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf
sudo apt update
sudo apt install zenity:armhf libasound*:armhf libstdc++6:armhf mesa*:armhf
 
# apt install
sudo wget https://itai-nelken.github.io/weekly-box86-debs/debian/box86.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/box86.list
wget -qO- https://itai-nelken.github.io/weekly-box86-debs/debian/KEY.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt update && sudo apt install box86 -y
 
# additional steps in chroot
edit with text editor /etc/profile and put at the end this:
export BOX86_PATH=~/wine/bin/
export BOX86_LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/wine/lib/wine/i386-unix/:/lib/i386-linux-gnu:/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/
(Last part for box64:sudo apt install mesa* zenity*)
export BOX64_PATH=~/wine64/bin/
export BOX64_LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/wine64/lib/i386-unix/:~/wine64/lib/wine/x86_64-unix/:/lib/i386-linux-gnu/:/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/
 
# a note about mesa*:armhf install on arm64.
I read on ptitSeb github that installing it on arm64 without chroot can break GPU acceleration. Just a warning, I had so far no issues.