How To Install Internet Explorer On Ubuntu

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!

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.

Modify /etc/apt/sources.list

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

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.

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
[…]

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.

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 Install IEs4Linux

To install IEs4Linux, we do this (still as a normal user!):

cd ~
wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
tar zxvf ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
cd ies4linux-*
./ies4linux

You will be asked a few questions:

Welcome, falko! I’m IEs4Linux.
I can install IE 6, 5.5 and 5.0 for you easily and quickly.
You are just four ‘enter’s away from your IEs.

I’ll ask you some questions now. Just answer y or n (default answer is the bold one)

IE 6 will be installed automatically.
Do you want to install IE 5.5 SP2 too? [ y / n ] <-- y And do you want to install IE 5.01 SP2? [ y / n ] <-- y IEs can be installed using one of the following locales: EN-US PT-BR DE FR ES IT NL SV JA KO NO DA CN TW FI PL HU AR HE CS PT RU EL TR Default is EN-US. Hit enter to keep it or choose a different one: <-- [Specify your preferred locale or hit ENTER to use EN-US.] By default, I will install everything at /home/falko/.ies4linux I will also install Flash 9 plugin and create Desktop shortcuts. Is that ok for you? (To configure advanced options type n) [ y / n ] <-- y Next a few files will be downloaded, and the three Internet Explorer versions will be installed: [...] Installing IE 6 Initializing Creating Wine Prefix Extracting CAB files Processing inf file Installing IE 6 Installing TTF Fonts Installing RICHED20 Installing ActiveX MFC40 Installing DCOM98 Installing registry Finalizing [ OK ] Installing Flash Player 9 Extracting files Installing flash on ie6 [ OK ] Installing IE 5.5 Copying ie6 installation Extracting files Installing registry Finalizing [ OK ] Installing IE 5.0 Copying ie6 installation Extracting files Installing registry Finalizing [ OK ] IEs 4 Linux installations finished! To run your IEs, type: /home/falko/bin/ie6 /home/falko/bin/ie55 /home/falko/bin/ie5 If you have 5 minutes, help me translating IEs4Linux to your language. Visit: http://tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2 That's it already. Test Now close the terminal window. On your desktop you should now see three Internet Explorer icons:

Now open each one (a test page from www.tatanka.com.br will load):

and go to Help -> About Internet Explorer in each of them to check the version. You should have the versions 6.0, 5.5, and 5.0 installled:
Internet Explorer 6.0:

Internet Explorer 5.5:

Internet Explorer 5.0: