How To Install Internet Explorer On Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn, Edgy Eft And Dapper Drake)

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
Last edited 04/11/2007

This guide shows how to install three different Internet Explorer versions (6.0, 5.5, and 5.0) on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, Edgy Eft and Dapper Drake desktops. This is good for people such as web designers who have switched to Linux but still need to test their web sites in Internet Explorer. In addition to that, there are still a few web sites out there that work only in Internet Explorer.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

There's a package called IEs4Linux that provides an easy way to install three Internet Explorer versions on your Linux desktop. I will show how to use that package in this tutorial.

However, you should read this page: http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Legal_notices before you proceed. IEs4Linux is GPL software, but Internet Explorer is not, it's proprietary software with its own license. If you want to install Internet Explorer on your Linux desktop, you must have a valid Microsoft Windows license, otherwise installing Internet Explorer is illegal.

Also, you should accept the Adobe Flash EULA as IEs4Linux also installs Adobe Flash.

Make sure you are logged in as a normal user (i.e., not root) on your Ubuntu desktop (my username in this tutorial is falko). Open a terminal to run the commands that are described in this tutorial.

2 Modify /etc/apt/sources.list

In order to install IEs4Linux, we must modify /etc/apt/sources.list.

2.1 Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

On Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, we must have the lines deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu feisty universe and deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt edgy main (yes, edgy is correct because that repository doesn't have packages for Feisty yet, but fortunately the Edgy packages work on Feisty, too) in /etc/apt/sources.list:

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

[...]
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu feisty universe
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt edgy main
[...]

Then run

sudo apt-get update

to update the package database.

2.2 Ubuntu Edgy Eft

On Ubuntu Edgy Eft, we must have the lines deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy universe and deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt edgy main in /etc/apt/sources.list:

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

[...]
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy universe
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt edgy main
[...]

Then run

sudo apt-get update

to update the package database.

2.3 Ubuntu Dapper Drake

On Ubuntu Dapper Drake, we must have the lines deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper universe and deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt dapper main in /etc/apt/sources.list:

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

[...]
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper universe
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt dapper main
[...]

Then run

sudo apt-get update

to update the package database.

3 Install wine And cabextract

Next we must install the packages wine and cabextract like this:

sudo apt-get install wine cabextract

If you are asked Install these packages without verification [y/N]?, answer y:

root@falko-desktop:~# sudo apt-get install wine cabextract
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
cabextract is already the newest version.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  wine
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 90 not upgraded.
Need to get 9476kB of archives.
After unpacking 44.4MB of additional disk space will be used.
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  wine
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? <-- y