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Set Up Wine 10.17+ for Affinity Apps on Linux

Why This Guide?

Affinity apps need Windows Runtime (WinRT) APIs, which older Wine versions lacked. You need Wine 10.17 or newer to fix a missing file that previously blocked the installer. The actual WinRT functionality is then provided by adding a separate helper DLL and metadata file.

Thank you Wanesty for being the first one to discover this update! You may check out her guide for installing and running Affinity with Wine.

⚙️ Requirements

  • Wine 10.17+ (mainline/devel build)
  • Winetricks
  • curl
  • About 10 GB of free disk space
  • Internet connection

🧩 Installation Steps

Note

As an alternative to manually set up Wine 10.17+ to install Affinity with the following steps, you may try out our experimental Affinity On Linux installer script to help streamline Affinity installation under Wine. Follow the instructions on the page to download and run the installer script.

Step 1: Install Wine and Winetricks

Fedora / Nobara (Recommended method)

Official Fedora mirrors often mix versions, so use WineHQ’s repo for correct 10.17+ packages.

sudo dnf install curl -y
sudo rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/winehq.repo
sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/winehq.repo <<'EOF'
[winehq-devel]
name=WineHQ packages for Fedora 41
baseurl=https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/fedora/41/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
EOF
sudo dnf makecache
sudo dnf install winehq-devel -y

If installing winetricks via dnf fails or tries to downgrade Wine, use the manual script (safe for any distro including Nobara, please see Manual Winetricks Install).

Arch / Manjaro

sudo pacman -S --needed wine winetricks curl
# or, on AUR-based distros:
# yay -S wine winetricks

Ubuntu / Pop OS / Debian

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo mkdir -pm755 /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq.asc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/winehq.asc] https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list'
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-devel winetricks curl -y

Verify your version:

wine --version

Should return wine‑10.17 or newer.

Step 2: Create a clean Wine prefix

export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.affinity"
wineboot --init

Warning

You might need to change "$HOME/" to your full home folder path like "/home/YourUsername/" so it points to the absolute location. This is a common problem if you're using a shell that doesn't follow standard POSIX rules.

Step 3: Install runtime dependencies

Install core components Affinity depends on with Winetricks.

winetricks --unattended --force remove_mono vcrun2022 dotnet48 corefonts win11

Note

The .NET 4.8 installation is large and may take 10–20 minutes.

Additional components you may want to install with winetricks if you encounter issues with running Affinity with Wine:

  • renderer=vulkan
  • dxvk
  • tahoma (if you are getting pixelated fonts)

Step 4: Install Affinity

Note

  • Affinity apps can be found here: Affinity by Canva | Version 2 | Archived
  • Make sure you have your installation file in ~/Downloads.
  • "$HOME" you may not work and you may need to put in your full path depending on your distro.
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.affinity" wine "$HOME/Downloads/Affinity x64.exe"

Adjust *.exe in the path above for V2 Photo/Designer/Publisher, and run 3 times for each installer.

Follow normal installation prompts.

After you finish installing Affinity, if your Wine version is 11 or newer, you can immediately skip to launching Affinity as instructed at Step 8. Otherwise, continue to Step 5 to 7.

Step 5: Download required helper files

These add Windows Runtime metadata support Affinity expects.

cd /tmp
curl -L -o Windows.winmd https://github.com/microsoft/windows-rs/raw/master/crates/libs/bindgen/default/Windows.winmd
curl -L -o wintypes.dll https://github.com/ElementalWarrior/wine-wintypes.dll-for-affinity/raw/refs/heads/master/wintypes_shim.dll.so

If your download ends with .dll.so, rename it:

mv /tmp/wintypes.dll.so /tmp/wintypes.dll 2>/dev/null || true

Step 6: Copy metadata + shim files

mkdir -p "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/windows/system32/winmetadata"
cp /tmp/Windows.winmd "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/windows/system32/winmetadata/"
cp /tmp/wintypes.dll "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files/Affinity/Affinity/"

If you installed Photo 2, Designer 2, or Publisher 2 separately, copy into each of their directories.

Step 7: Configure the wintypes DLL override

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.affinity" winecfg

In Libraries tab:

  1. Type wintypes under “New override for library”.
  2. Click Add, then Edit, choose Native (Windows).
  3. Click Apply, then OK.
image

Step 8: Launch Affinity

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.affinity" wine "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files/Affinity/Affinity/Affinity.exe"

Adjust the drive_c/Program Files path for Photo 2, Designer 2, or Publisher 2 paths if needed.

🧠 Troubleshooting

Manual Winetricks Install

If the Fedora/Nobara package manager fails or tries to remove Wine:

cd ~
curl -L -o winetricks https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks
chmod +x winetricks

Use your local copy instead of the system command:

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.affinity" ~/winetricks remove_mono
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.affinity" ~/winetricks --force dotnet48

Optional: install it globally:

sudo mv ~/winetricks /usr/local/bin/winetricks

🪄 Optional Enhancements After Installation

Install Affinity Plugin Loader + WineFix

Author: Noah C3
Project: AffinityPluginLoader + WineFix
This patch is community‑made and not official, but it greatly improves runtime stability and fixes the “Preferences not saving” issue on Linux.

Purpose

  • Provides plugin loading and dynamic patch injection via Harmony
  • Restores on‑the‑fly settings saving under Wine
  • Temporarily skips the Canva sign‑in dialog (until the browser redirect fix is ready)

Quick Install (Recommended Method)

Replace paths dynamically as these commands adapt automatically to your prefix and Affinity directory:

# Define Wine prefix
export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.affinity"
cd "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files/Affinity/Affinity/"

# 1.) Download & extract AffinityPluginLoader + WineFix bundle
curl -L -o /tmp/affinitypluginloader-plus-winefix.tar.xz \
  https://github.com/noahc3/AffinityPluginLoader/releases/latest/download/affinitypluginloader-plus-winefix.tar.xz

tar -xf /tmp/affinitypluginloader-plus-winefix.tar.xz -C .

# 2.) Replace launcher for compatibility
mv "Affinity.exe" "Affinity.real.exe"
mv "AffinityHook.exe" "Affinity.exe"

Now your existing launchers still work. wine .../Affinity.exe automatically loads AffinityPluginLoader & WineFix.

Verify Installation of AffinityPluginLoader

Run Affinity as before:

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.affinity" wine "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files/Affinity/Affinity/Affinity.exe"

- You should now see Affinity Plugin Loader output in your terminal log on startup.
- Preferences and settings should now save correctly on Linux.

Note

  • Updates to Affinity may overwrite Affinity.exe.
    • If that happens, re‑extract the affinitypluginloader-plus-winefix.tar.xz bundle.
  • WineFix currently disables Canva sign‑in. It will be restored in a future patch once the redirect handler is stable.
  • Always download from Noah C3’s official GitHub releases.

Add Icon to Dock or Panel

  • GNOME / Fedora / Pop OS / Ubuntu default: open Activities → search Affinity → right‑click → Add to Favorites.
  • KDE Plasma / Manjaro / Arch: right‑click the menu entry → Add to Panel / Pin to Task Manager.
  • XFCE / others: panel right‑click → Add New Item → Launcher → Affinity.

After doing this, Affinity will appear alongside your native apps with its custom blue squircle SVG icon.

If you also install Photo 2, Designer 2, and Publisher 2, you can duplicate and rename the .desktop file and just change the Name, Exec, and Icon fields accordingly.

🗑️ Uninstall Affinity and Wine

See our guide for uninstalling Affinity and Wine.

✅ Verified Environments

  • Wine 10.17 (mainline / devel)
  • ✅ Affinity 3.x (64‑bit)
  • ✅ Affinity 2.x (64‑bit)
  • ✅ Fedora 42
    • ✅ Nobara 42
  • ✅ Arch 2025.03
  • ✅ Ubuntu

🧾 Credits