How to (easily) install the latest builds of MT4 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

[jack]

UPDATED FOR UBUNTU 16.06 LTS HERE

And here if you're looking for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

MetaTrader 4 is a Windows based application, but it can be installed on alternative OS' and even OSX through the use of software called "Wine".

Wine aims to reproduce the windows libraries required to run windows apps on non-windows platforms.

Getting MT4 to run on Linux with Wine is relatively easy, however, the instructions below are for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.. your mileage may very on other Linux distros.

From the terminal:

apt-get update
apt-get install wine

Or from the Ubuntu Software Center, search "wine" and install the wine meta package (aptly called "wine".)

apt-get or the USC will make sure you get all the required fonts and packages needed.

Once wine is installed, it's time to download and install MT4: Grab your desired broker's MT4 installer package. (The broker I'll be using in this tutorial is Pepperstone Financial, but this process should work with any MT4 broker.)

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS sets the file manager to associate windows installers and apps to open with the "wine windows program loader" as an optional way of loading once wine is installed, so we start the MT4 install package by right clicking the install package and opening with the "wine windows program loader" option. It's that easy.

Right click on installer file > Open With > "wine windows program loader"

Alternatively, you can run wine from the terminal, if you feel so inclined, just change to your downloads directory and "wine installer.exe".. like below:

Loading for the first time might take a moment, so be patient instead of trying to open it a few times in a row.. you'll just end up with multiple installers started.

Now go through the installer process. By default the installer launches MT4 upon completion and it sets an icon on your desktop. Wine knows to put the icon on your desktop and you can now launch MT4 from there moving forward.

And that's it! Enjoy your MT4!

 

[Computater707]

I tried this using an old computer that ran XP but did not meet the minimum system requirements to upgrade to Windows 7. I found that the OOTB Ubuntu was painfully slow; the graphics of window opening or closing seem to overwhelm the video driver.

So I tried 2 of the lite versions of Ubuntu; Lubuntu and Zorin. Both were much faster on my machine. I settled on Zorin because it had Wine preinstalled and it had a more windows like "feel".

I had problems installing MT4 and also getting the initial updates to run for the basic Ubuntu, Zorin and Lubuntu installations. I was using an old usb wifi card and I finally came to the conclusion that this was probably the problem.

I moved the computer from my "office" to the router and cable modem and connected by ethernet cable to the router. That solved the update issues.

Once the system and Wine were up to date the MT4 installations went smoothly as Jack described.

A newer faster Linux compatable usb wifi should solve the connection issues.