Installing Itunes 12 on lubuntu 17.04 32 bit using wine

Question

So normally I wouldnt have any sort of problem installing a wine program, that is until a ran across the latest itunes installer. When I run it, it explains how I don't have windows 7 service pack 1 installed. Does wine have a configuration where I can change which system the apps are emulating under? Thanks and regards, Thomas

Solution

I am using Ubuntu 16.04.

I am running iTunes12.1.3 32-bit and I was able to purchase a song by VISA on Ubuntu 16.04's iTunes 12.1.3's Store.

I do not have iPhone and iPad, so I cannnot test the integration with those devices. If anyone can test that, please do comment.

How to install iTunes12.1.3 32bit:

1. Please install Wine2.x Staging.

2. Please check you have Wine2.18 Staging or newer:

   $ wine --version
   wine-2.18 (Staging)
   

3. If you are running the older version of winetricks before 2017 August, winetricks throws a 404 error, caused by a change of address by Microsoft.

   If you encounter that problem, you can run this command.

   sudo winetricks --self-update
   

   (I am using the compiled version from winetricks's github)

4. Run these commands from terminal:

   WINEPREFIX=~/.WineiTunes WINEARCH=win32 wineboot
   WINEPREFIX=~/.WineiTunes winetricks -q d3dx9 d3dx9_36 directx9 dsound mfc42 vcrun6sp6 comctl32ocx comdlg32ocx gdiplus gdiplus_winxp quicktime72 vcrun2013 ipamona fakejapanese corefonts cjkfonts
   WINEPREFIX=~/.WineiTunes wine uninstaller
   

   The packages ipamona fakejapanese corefonts cjkfonts may not be needed for English language. We need them for Japanese.

5. Install iTunes 12.1.3 32-bit(iTunesSetup.exe) using 'wine uninstaller'. The installer creates the iTunes icon for the desktop automatically.

   If you turn on the Autorun option, iTunes is not set to first run automatically. In this case, you run iTunes from its desktop icon. I think that the Autorun option is a bit dangerous, so test that iTunes is working first, then reinstall it enabling Autorun.

   At the last step of installation, you must turn on the first time run option, because if you don't allow it to show the iTunes Quick Tour, it crashes.

   If this happens, you must close iTunes Quick tours window extremely quickly, and press the escape key a lot to close.
   This is very difficult to close!

6. To avoid this trouble, at the first run of iTunes, you must open Help > iTunes Quick Tour and close.

7. Run Quicktime:

    WINEPREFIX=~/.WineiTunes wine ~/.WineiTunes/drive_c/Program\ Files/QuickTime/QuickTimePlayer.exe
   

   Automatically update option is turned off. If there's a URL error just press OK

   Open Edit > Settings > Quicktime settings
   Change Video section's DirectX to safe mode (GDI only)
   Press [required?] OK

8. During the installation process, if you encounter an error dialog such as mscorsvw.exe causes trouble seriously dialog????, to kill the zombie process, remove the ~/.WineiTunes folder and reboot Ubuntu, and re-install iTunes.

If you want to uninstall, please remove ~/.WineiTunes folder.

I also explained this procedure in this YouTube video, and in this post on the Japanese Ubuntu forum. I think iTunes 12.7 is a bit unstable on Ubuntu 16.04, but I made a videoof my test of iTunes12.7 32-bit and how to install for Japanese.

Comments

[Charles Green]

Itunes compatability is very questionable - even if you get it to work today, there is little guarantee that it will work with the next update. My solution for this was to install itunes in a virtual machine.

[You'reAGitForNotUsingGit]

You can use winecfg to change the Windows version

[Tom Hancock]

I know, but I dont think Im really gonna be using itunes for a long time. Im sticking with ios 10.2.1 on my se and I still (and yes, you can make fun of this) use an ipod 4th gen greyscale with an ssd mod.

[Tom Hancock]

I just updated it to windows 8 compatibility. Doesn't seem to even open although it does show in the programs menu.

[Admin]

So perhaps this is a good time to rethink your "project" as there's no real advantage in having iTunes emulated. Even when installed and running it works as a media player only, cannot connect to the Apple Store or devices. You already have native media players installed and dozens of others can be installed if you want. As recommended by @CharlesGreen use a VM for that.

[midnight express ginga81]

Hello, Mr.Zanna. Thank you very,very much for re-translate!! My English is so awful... The native English is so smart and cool! I hope this information for helps all of need to use iTunes on Ubuntu and all Linux user!

[Tom Hancock]

Just tried this worked great! All I needed to install the latest version of wine using this link here. If you are running Zesty as well just replace xenial with zesty: gist.github.com/schorschii/a22c17e21ec48f4931e9a2b2ea5a01bb I archived the site on web archive just in case the link goes old.

[Tom Hancock]

Think I just ran into a problem, well, two. I first tried to modify the settings so it recognized the system as windows 7 and then it changed the top right close and open buttons. No big right? But then songs wouldn't play. Also I personally tried to plug in my ipod and it wouldn't recognize it even after I enabled J: drive on winecfg. Itunes store is working great though!

[midnight express ginga81]

Thank you for comment. and I am very happy that I heared that at the English language edition, the Store works well! After installed, winecfg shows the setting of 'WindowsXP'. As you know, most of the people knows the WindowsXP and Windows7 is the extremely different OS. So I think you should not change the OS settings easily.

[midnight express ginga81]

I think that iPod issue is at least it must can mount USB mass-storage to Ubuntu/Lubuntu. I do not know what this information can solve your problem, but please look at this answer link of 'askubuntu.com/questions/93540/ipod-touch-not-mounted?rq=1' and also check at 'itsfoss.com/mount-iphone-ipad-ios-7-ubuntu-13-10'

[Tom Hancock]

I'd feel it would be different from ios devices since they are more modern, perhaps its even easier since ios devices have mounting problems. I reinstalled and it seemed to work properly, but nevertheless it seems one of the problems it has is that. I think it might be due to the fact Ituneshelper cannot run in the background, I don't know.