How to install IE 5, 5.5 and 6 in Ubuntu Linux

by Ross McKillop on June 30, 2007

Internet Explorer Linux Web Design & Dev

This tutorial will guide you step-by-step through installing IE 5, 5.5 and/or 6 in Ubuntu – using the terrific software IEs4Linux. IEs4Linux was developed for web designers that want to move to Linux but still need to test their sites on IE and Linux users who have to open IE-only sites.

  1. Start by selecting Applications -> Accessories and then Terminal.

    2. ies4linux

  2. Type the command
    sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

    and enter your password when prompted.

    3. ies4linux
    click to enlarge

  3. Now you’ll need to uncomment the universe repositories. Look for the lines that are similar to http://xx.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu feisty universe and remove the ## marks (if they aren’t already) from the beginning of the lines. Note: if you’re using an older version of Ubuntu look for similar lines, but they’ll have edgy or dapper in them instead of feisty. Save the file and close gedit.

    4. ies4linux
    click to enlarge

  4. Now open the Synaptic Package Manager by selecting System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager. You’ll need to enter your password for Synaptic to launch.

    5. ies4linux
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  5. Click the Search button from the top of Synaptic, enter cabextract and click Search.

    6. ies4linux

  6. Click the box next to the cabextract entry and select Mark for installation.

    7. ies4linux

  7. Repeat the above two steps but search for wine and mark it for installation. Once both have been marked, click the Apply button.

    8. ies4linux

  8. A summary window will appear asking you to confirm that you wish to install the packages. Click Apply to continue. Note: I had actually already installed Wine, so the screenshot below won’t be identical to yours – yours will have more than 1 item to install.

    9. ies4linux
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  9. Synaptic will now download and install Wine and cabextract.

    10. ies4linux
    click to enlarge

  10. After the installations were successful, click the Close button.

    11. ies4linux
    click to enlarge

  11. Return to your Terminal window and enter the command:
    wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4linux-latest.tar.gz

    12. ies4linux
    click to enlarge

  12. Once the ies4linux-latest.tar.gz file has downloaded, enter:
    tar zxvf ies4linux-latest.tar.gz

    then

    cd ies4linu-*

    and finally

    ./ies4linux

    13. ies4linux
    click to enlarge

  13. You’ll be prompted with several yes (y) or no (n) questions. For example, if you wish to install IE 6 and 5.5, enter y when asked. If you don’t want to install IE 5, enter n. When asked if you’d like to create shortcuts to the versions of IE on your desktop, I’d suggest yes – you can always delete them later.

    14. ies4linux
    click to enlarge

  14. After the installation has completed, you should have one or more new IE icons on your desktop (depending on which versions you chose to install). Launch one of them by double-clicking its icon.

    15. ies4linux

  15. You’ll be taken to a congratulations page on the developers site.

    16. ies4linux
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  16. Test out your site by visiting it. And remember – only use IE in Linux for testing purposes. Keep your normal browsing to Firefox or a quality browser.

    17. ies4linux
    click to enlarge

  • Adam Kosmin

    This is just rediculous. It is totally wrong to assist people in the act of installing freedom-restricting bits on their freedom-granting operating systems. Please remove this content.

    Adam Kosmin

  • http://www.simplehelp.net Ross McKillop

    Adam -

    A couple of things you may have missed from the article itself:

    IEs4Linux was developed for web designers that want to move to Linux but still need to test their sites on IE and Linux users who have to open IE-only sites.

    Only use IE in Linux for testing purposes. Keep your normal browsing to Firefox or a quality browser.

    –

    Whether you or I like it very much, IE is the still the most used browser on the Internet. Web designers/developers cannot in good conscience develop a site that doesn’t render properly in IE. Hence the need to install IE in Linux.

  • Adam Kosmin

    Ross,

    Despite the justifications, we’re still talking about installing non-free bits. Worse still, is that we’re talking about teaching others how to do so. This is unethical regardless of the reason(s).

    As for development, content publishers need only adhere to W3C standards. If Internet Eroder chokes on them, well so be it.

    Adam

  • http://www.simplehelp.net Ross McKillop

    Adam,

    Honestly, I understand where you’re coming from. But your argument is still flawed – MP3 is a “non-free bits” and as much as Fedora encourages folks to switch to ogg – which I certainly think is a good thing – everyone installs MP3 codecs in their linux distribution. Same with DVD playback. It’s another ‘non-free bit’ – are we all not supposed to watch DVDs in linux?

    Every single serious web developer would love it if IE adhered strictly to W3C standards, but it doesn’t. To design a site that doesn’t display properly in IE is suicide. This next comment is absolutely not meant to insult you, but you’ve clearly never worked (as a developer) on a popular website.

    I will jump for joy when Firefox users (or Camino, Opera, heck even Netscape) outnumber IE users. I go out of my way to convert people to Firefox (my mum now runs Ubuntu instead of Windows). But until that day comes, web developers that work on sites for the masses HAVE to ensure that their sites work in IE.

    If you’d like to continue this conversation, please use the contact form so we can do it via email. Cheers!

    Ross

  • http://www.franquicia.myffi.biz/spanish/ Luis Medina

    A great doc to install IE on Linux, this is not for daily use just to see how a web development look on IE. This is make me keep on Linux, Flaxibility and Choice.

  • swap’s

    hi guyes,
    I install IE on my centOs but i have faceing probelm checking Apple in IE 6.0
    SO please help me regarding same

  • andrew

    Thanks for the handy tutorial, Ross! Worked like a charm for me on Xubuntu 7.04.

    And Adam, wake up buddy – you’re not worth a can of beans as a web developer if you don’t test your sites in IE 6. IE 5.5 might be more debatable (these days) but all current stats peg IE 6 as the dominant browser, and by a long shot (http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/stat.htm)

  • http://www.nylxs.com Ruben Safir

    Wasting time installing MS Internet Explorer on a GNU system is wasting valuable time and resources ***even for web developers***

    Adam Kosmin is mostly correct in his comment.

    Ruben

  • http://www.thetechsavyteen.com Gregory Lee

    Adam- I like how you are standing against IE, as I would do too, but IE is a large part of internet usage and until the day when it is not, (which i hope will come soon) we (meaning web devs) need it. :(

  • Diego Medaglia

    Folks, I’ve been using Linux for a year now and I think it’s great. I’m installing IE on Linux to access my router’s web page that (unfortunately) only works with IE. People don’t have to be so radical as forbid proprietary bits to be installed in Linux system, because we have to use whatever tool is necessary for each task. In my case, that’s the only option.
    Great tutorial, thanks a lot.

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  • Renae

    This is a great tutorial! We need IE to run our childrens’ CDs for school (we homeschool). If we can run IE on Linux (we just installed Ubuntu yesterday! Yay!), then we can switch over our machines. Without this tutorial, our other 5 machines would remain Windows machines. This should encourage you – the glass is half full, guys!

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  • http://pravin.insanitybegins.com pravin

    Thank you! Just what I was looking for. You might want to ignore die-hard open source fans. Some things aren’t practical. Without something like this, I’d have to keep booting into Windows to check my site design.

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  • Rick Houghton

    Ross, when installing IE on Linux as described, are you required to purchase a MSFT license of any kind??

    Thanks,

    Rick

  • sana

    Thanks,
    But when i install successfully and run it that time it give error:
    Downloading from microsoft.com:
    0% DCOM98.EXE!! An error ocurred when downloading. Please run IEs4Linux again. Corrupted file: DCOM98.EXE

    plz anybody help me

  • kate whittle

    Help please. When I typed sudo gedit/etc/apt/sources.list and entered my password I got the message: command not found.

    I have installed sudo from the synaptic package manager

    so what’s going on?

    Thanks, kate

  • http://www.simplehelp.net Ross McKillop

    kate – are you typing sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

    There’s a space between gedit and /etc/apt/sources.list

    Ross

  • amar

    Can anyone tell me how to install ie in linux5.0 ,I m unable to find this. Please help me with all process

  • thiago

    sou completamente noob em linux… tem 2 dias q estou tentando instalar o Internet explorer pois preciso acessar um site que somente aceita internet explorer…. to com wine instalado… peguei 2 ies4linux e mando instalar … ele fala q vai criar atalho etc e nada… ta complicado… eu to usando o ubuntu netbook remix 9.10.

    quem puder me ajudar… pois ja li 10 tutoriais.. fiz tudo certinho e nada…

    abs

    thiago.

  • http://WWW.chiletributa.cl IGNACIO

    Adam; Ross: gracias por vuestros puntos de vista. Ambos enriquecen, sin embargo no se expone la mirada del usuario corriente, que anhela que GNU exprese y sea el dominio de la gente emprendedora, en negocios o simplemente investigando en TI. Hoy como un simple empresario, emprendedor y creativo de los negocios sigo amarrado a una maquina con IE, para poder pagar impuestos, ya que el navegador Firefox aun no maneja el formato de fechas como acá en Chile (DDMMAAAA) y la gente de impuestos no hará desarrollo para “unos pocos”, ni tampoco nos da soporte, aun siendo Chile líder mundial en recaudación de impuestos. Es triste pero no es cierto que esto es un factor a considerar en el proceso que vive GNU y que tiene como objetivo practico el que creemos igualdad de oportunidades en un mundo que solo se empeña en vivir a costa de la desigualdad.

    Les animo en esto, gracias por el articulo y vuestras energías.

    Ignacio
    coolabor@gmail.com

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  • jhon

    The above mentioned commands worked fine in installing IE in my ubuntu 10.10 machine. I went into a issue when I run my IE browser it automatically closes after few seconds. Have any one faced this issue before. I could not find any comments relating to this topic. if any solution to solve this issue. Please kindly share. Advance thanks..

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