Giving Wine Access to My Local User on Linux: What Worked for Me

Posted byneifferhussian

I’m Kayla. I run Ubuntu 22.04 on a ThinkPad T480. I use Wine 9.0 for a few Windows tools I still like. Not fancy ones—Notepad++, an old tax app, and a tiny PCB viewer. Simple stuff. But they need my files. And that’s where I hit a wall. The apps could not see my home folders. Annoying, right?

If you want extra, no-fluff guides on squeezing the most from a Linux desktop with Windows apps, the tutorials at Desktop Linux Reviews are a solid companion. Their walkthrough titled Giving Wine Access to My Local User on Linux mirrors a lot of what I cover here and is worth a skim for additional context.

Here’s what I tried, what failed, and what finally clicked. Real steps. Real mess. Real fix.

Quick take: my setup

  • OS: Ubuntu 22.04
  • Wine: 9.x from the WineHQ repo
  • Prefixes: default ~/.wine and a second one for games
  • Desktop: GNOME on Wayland
  • My user: kayla

You know what? None of that should matter much. But when things break, details save time.

The first “duh” step: map my home as a drive

Wine sees Linux folders as Windows drives. If your app can’t see your files, it likely can’t “reach” them. For a deeper dive into how Wine maps Unix paths to Windows drives, check the Wine User’s Guide.

What I did:

  1. I ran winecfg.
winecfg
  1. I went to the Drives tab.
  2. I clicked Add and picked a letter. I used H:.
  3. I set the path to my home folder.
/home/kayla
  1. I clicked Apply, then OK.

Now in Notepad++, I could hit File > Open and see H: with my files under it. Before this, it showed only C: and Z:. Z: pointed to the whole Linux file system. That felt risky. I prefer a tight map.

Small note: I once set Z: to “/” and called it a day. It worked fast. It also made me sweat. Too much access. I pulled that back and went with H: to my home.

Real example: Notepad++ and a stubborn project folder

I had a project in Documents/BlogDrafts. Notepad++ could not find it at first. After mapping H: to /home/kayla, I did this in Notepad++:

  • File > Open
  • H: > Documents > BlogDrafts
  • Opened my “post.txt”

It worked. Saved file edits too. No fuss.

Second prefix, same trick: a clean space for a game tool

I keep a game mod tool in its own prefix. It keeps junk out of my main Wine. I made it like this:

export WINEPREFIX=/home/kayla/.wine-games
winecfg

Then I mapped a drive again:

  • Drives tab
  • Add H:
  • Path: /home/kayla/Games/Mods

Now the tool sees only the Mods folder. Clean. Safer.

If I switch back later, I do:

export WINEPREFIX=~/.wine

Little habit, big win. For choosing a distro that makes gaming painless in the first place, see The Best Linux for Gaming: My Hands-On Pick With Real Wins and Woes.

You can also make a link in Wine’s dosdevices. I use this when I don’t want to open winecfg.

For my default prefix:

ln -s /home/kayla/Documents ~/.wine/dosdevices/h:

Now H: shows Documents right away. No menu clicks.

For my games prefix:

ln -s /home/kayla/Games/Mods ~/.wine-games/dosdevices/m:

I like the control. I also like that I can remove it quick:

rm ~/.wine/dosdevices/h:

When you need access to another user’s files

One time I had to read files from a shared user named “build”. My account didn’t have rights. Wine won’t magic that. Linux rules still apply.

Two ways that worked:

  • Change group and add me to it (clean for shared folders):
sudo chgrp -R devs /home/build/shared
sudo chmod -R 770 /home/build/shared
sudo usermod -aG devs kayla
# log out and back in
  • Use ACLs for a single folder (surgical and tidy):
sudo setfacl -m u:kayla:rx /home/build
sudo setfacl -R -m u:kayla:rX /home/build/shared

If you’re fuzzy on ownership tweaks, my deeper dive—Changing File Owners on Linux: My Hands-On Review With Real Commands—walks through chown, chgrp, and ACLs with plenty of copy-paste examples.

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After that, I mapped that folder in winecfg like before. Then the Windows app could read it.

Flatpak quirks: Bottles and friends

I tried Bottles from Flatpak for a bit. Nice UI. But it runs in a sandbox. My app could not see my home folders at first. I had to allow file access in Bottles’ settings. If you use Flatseal, you can grant folder access there too.

Once I set access to my home and a Work folder, my apps saw the files at once. If you ever think, “Why can’t it see anything?” and you used a sandbox, check that first.

External drive and network share

  • USB SSD mounted at /mnt/Samsung_T7:

I mapped E: to that path in winecfg. No more copy-paste. The tax app wrote backups straight to E:.

  • SMB share at /mnt/teamshare:

I mounted it with fstab. Then I mapped T: to /mnt/teamshare. Worked fine. Write speed was okay. Nothing fancy, but good enough for docs and ZIPs.

Little gotchas I hit

  • Long paths. One CAD viewer hated deep folders. Shorter path under H: fixed it.
  • Read-only files. I saw “can’t save file” in Notepad++. Turned out the bit was set. Easy fix:
chmod -R u+rw ~/Documents/Writing

  • Weird characters in folder names. One old app choked on emojis. I renamed the folder. Boring, but it solved it.

  • Case sensitivity. Wine likes case-insensitive paths. Linux is strict. If your app loses files from A to a, you found the reason. The official Wine FAQ explains why this can trip some applications up.

What I liked

  • Fast setup with winecfg. No heavy tweaks.
  • Symlinks feel crisp for power users.
  • Separate prefixes keep work tidy.
  • ACLs are neat when you share with one more user.

What I didn’t

  • Z: to root is tempting. Also spooky.
  • Some apps hate long paths or funny names.
  • Flatpak sandboxes can hide files. Easy to forget.

My simple checklist

  • Does the Wine app see H: mapped to my home?
  • If not, did I add the drive in winecfg or a symlink?
  • If files are in another user’s folder, do I have rights with group or ACL?
  • If I use Bottles or Flatpak, did I grant file access?
  • Do I need a fresh prefix for this app?

If I can say “yes” to those, the rest runs smooth.

Final thoughts

This isn’t magic. It’s just good paths and fair file rights. Once I mapped my home and gave Wine clear routes, my old Windows tools felt at home on Linux. Kind of funny, right? A little map, a little care, and it all clicks.

If you’re stuck, try H: to your home, or a tight path like H: to Documents. Keep Z: off if you feel nervous. And breathe. One clean change can save a whole night.