How to safely install Wine dependencies

[spring.snow]

Is there a recommended way to install Wine32 dependencies from debian?

I was looking at this link from lutris documentation https://github.com/lutris/docs/blob/ma ... encies.md and it seems I need these to install the league client. I have also seen them needed in a guide for installing RPGMaker libraries.
I've been trying to read up a bit more on how things generally work to have a better idea what I'm doing in MX, but I still wouldn't add these with CLI without knowing whether it breaks anything. It says in the manual to not add debian libraries randomly with CLI commands so I thought I'd stick to that.

On another related note, I've been meaning to ask: What is the best way to have Wine installed on MX21 and keep it updated?

I have a slight problem with the package installer, apps that are from Flatpak and on the popular tab don't seem to be individually updateable. I understand Flatpak is not MX's concern so I don't mind looking up other sources for that, but I'd still like to know if we should actually use the popular apps tab if we want to update these apps.
I have installed a lot of additional Wine packages from the MX Testing tab and if I uninstall Wine from the popular apps tab, I would be left with these packages not being completely wiped from the disk. Is there a command that safely looks up all Wine libraries and removes them? Would I have to check individually which package is installed and remove it one by one?

Thanks!

[Stevo]

We decided to go with wine-staging for MX repos; standard Wine is always available from Debian repos.

Installing "wine" on 64-bit MX in MX Package Installed is supposed to install wine-staging and all its dependencies for both 64 and 32-bit. You then have to set up the installed wine prefix to be either 64-bit or 32-bit by default.

The alternate method is to install playonlinux from the standard repos, which can in turn install self-contained Wine "bottles" ( a standalone Wine executable) in your home folder--you can use a different bottle for different applications, and not install a system Wine at all.

[pbear]

Be aware, Wine pulls in a lot of dependencies. Before doing that, I'd make sure I had a manual Timeshift snapshot, so I could revert the system in things go sideways.
Won't help down the road, though. If you uninstall Wine a few months or a year from now, you would use autoremove to remove dependencies no longer needed.

[spring.snow]

We decided to go with wine-staging for MX repos; standard Wine is always available from Debian repos.

Installing "wine" on 64-bit MX in MX Package Installed is supposed to install wine-staging and all its dependencies for both 64 and 32-bit. You then have to set up the installed wine prefix to be either 64-bit or 32-bit by default.

The alternate method is to install playonlinux from the standard repos, which can in turn install self-contained Wine "bottles" ( a standalone Wine executable) in your home folder--you can use a different bottle for different applications, and not install a system Wine at all.

I searched through a bunch of posts and tried some packages from the MXPI until I came across a post from ubuntu where someone suggested installing wine-developer, that one actually worked (it's in the package installer). But the problem is that now I have updates pending, pointing out that the wine development package is no longer needed. I don't really have a clear idea what's going on, maybe Lutris isn't completely self contained (probably still needs some wine packages from the OS). At the same time, it might just be chance, I reinstalled it and it worked the second time around.

Be aware, Wine pulls in a lot of dependencies. Before doing that, I'd make sure I had a manual Timeshift snapshot, so I could revert the system in things go sideways.
Won't help down the road, though. If you uninstall Wine a few months or a year from now, you would use autoremove to remove dependencies no longer needed.

Wait, does this mean there is no way of completely wiping Wine if you mess up some packages? Is it so bad that I have to pretty much reinstall OS? That sounds like a bummer, Wine has soo many packages, feels like it's really easy to mistake one for another.

Offtopic: I was pretty sure there was another post with interesting information, don't know what happened but it's not showing up after refreshing.

[pbear]

Let's start with the last point, yes, I edited my post to remove some information about number of packages, download size and installed size. I did that because I don't know how Lutris works or which statistics are relevant to your problem. You can get the information yourself, though, and in more detail than I posted, by doing the installation in Terminal as a trial run. The other issue I mentioned, and removed, was whether Lutris wants only the base dependencies or also recommended packages. Wine is usually installed with the recommended packages. I don't know what Lutris wants or assumes.

As for the uninstall problem, you might be giving that more weight than it deserves. None of these packages are going to hurt your system. It's mostly just housekeeping and saving a little bandwidth on updates. Where the Timeshift snapshot comes into play is if there is a package management error. This sometimes happens, especially with something as complicated as Wine. In that case, if you didn't do a Timeshift snapshot, you might be unable to get a clean slate, which is what you need to try the Wine installation again. That's the scenario where you might need to reinstall. Instead, use Timeshift to get a clean slate.

If you're not familiar with Timeshift, I suggest you give it a look. It's one of the most useful system apps for Linux ever written (imho).

[Stevo]

Wuhhhh.....

MX Package Installer has a search function, which will bring up our Wine(=wine-staging) in the Misc section. Installing that will run our install script that automatically installs everything you need.

Please, we aren't simple Debian or Ubuntu, and much of what you find on a web search for those is outdated or just plain wrong for MX. Use our great tools instead.

About messing up your system: you should already be making regular system backups or Timeshift restore points anyway, but making one with Timeshift right before doing something you don't really feel confident about removes any risk.

[fehlix]

Wuhhhh.....

MX Package Installer has a search function, which will bring up our Wine(=wine-staging) in the Misc section. Installing that will run our install script that automatically installs everything you need.

To add/clarify:
Within MX Package Installer (MXPI) -> Populare Applications -> "Misc" / or add "wine" into the search box:
you will get wine-staging installed
followed by "Wine Config" invoked for the logon user.
Also you can uninstall within MXPI, which would make any those wine-lib's a candidate for autoremoval.

[pbear]

To close the circle, autoremove is a command you run in Terminal. The full command is sudo apt autoremove. It remove packages that were installed as dependencies for apps which have since been uninstalled. Which is to say, autoremove does exactly what you asked: "if I uninstall Wine ... is there a command that safely looks up all Wine libraries and removes them?"

So, Timeshift in the short term, to protect against package management error, and autoremove in the long term, to clear out no-longer-needed dependencies if you uninstall Wine.

[~FLOW~]

So to conclude the thread's title/question, what is the recommended way, in MX21 to install and maintain the latest Wine version ?
From MX Test Repo, install and then from time to time check and install if a new version has arrived in the reppos ?

Screenshot_20220902_110325.png

[~FLOW~]

ping ?