How to run Adobe Photoshop 2024 on Wine (Linux)

[MattKC]

The following is instructions on getting the (currently) latest version of Photoshop running on Wine.

For reference, I'm using Arch Linux and Wine 8.20, however these instructions should work just as well on other distros too with a similar Wine version.

---

Installation

Unfortunately, Adobe Creative Cloud - i.e. the main installer hub for Adobe software - does not currently work on Wine. Thankfully, Adobe apps are not picky about running from the same place they were installed from, and can therefore be copied straight from a Windows install with few issues.

1. Set up a Windows VM (or computer) if you don't have one already. Either Windows 10 or 11 should be fine.
2. Install Adobe Creative Cloud and use it to install Photoshop.
   • This process will require an Adobe account, and may ask for a credit card even if you're only installing the free trial. A tool called CCStopper can be used to bypass the credit card check.
3. Once Photoshop has finished installing, you'll now want to transfer the following folders from your Windows computer into your Wine prefix:

   Code: Select all

   C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2024
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe
   

   These folders are essential. If you get an error that says "Could not complete your request because Photoshop was unable to communicate with Creative Cloud Desktop.", adding the second folder should fix it (note it's the "Common Files" folder in "Program Files (x86)" specifically, not just "Program Files").
   • Optionally, you may want to grab the following folder(s) too, though they don't affect basic operation (they appear to contain lens profiles for Camera Raw):

     Code: Select all

     C:\ProgramData\Adobe
     

4. Once those folders are in place in your Wine prefix, you'll also need to transplant some DLLs from Windows too. Grab the following files from Windows and place them in your "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2024" folder:

   Code: Select all

   C:\Windows\system32\CoreMessaging.dll
   C:\Windows\system32\netapi32.dll
   C:\Windows\system32\msvcp110_win.dll
   C:\Windows\system32\dsreg.dll
   C:\Windows\system32\srvcli.dll
   C:\Windows\system32\wkscli.dll
   

   • CoreMessaging is a WinRT DLL that's simply missing in Wine. Simply copying it over seems to do the trick.
   • netapi32 must be replaced to fix a random yet frequent crash that occurs when Photoshop tries to phone home. For the record, it attempts to contact "ic.adobe.io/service/status/v1" for unknown reasons. All remaining DLLs are required dependencies of Windows' version of netapi32.
5. You'll need to add a DLL override for netapi32.dll. To do this, open "winecfg" (in your Wine prefix), browse to the "Libraries" tab, and add "netapi32" as a new override. It should be set to "native, builtin".

   

6. Photoshop should now launch, however it'll present you with a broken login page. At this time, I'm not sure if there's any way to get it to accept login information correctly. For this reason, you'll probably need to bypass this using GenP.
7. Optionally, run the following Winetricks to improve Photoshop's appearance/user interface:

   Code: Select all

   winetricks gdiplus fontsmooth=rgb
   

8. Done! If everything went correctly, you should now have a functional Photoshop 2024 build on Linux!

Known Issues

Currently an issue prevents Photoshop from using OpenCL, meaning regardless of your GPU's capabilities, Photoshop will use software rendering only. This means it will run somewhat slower than it otherwise would on the same hardware.

Adobe Premiere currently has the same issue, and I'd like to try investigating this further at some point, but currently have no real information about why it happens or how to fix it.

---

I hope this tutorial was helpful, enjoy Photoshopping!

[TheBloodyScreen]

First of all, amazing that you took the time to write down the process for others to potentially follow.

Secondly, I tried getting PS2024 running like this and ran into a hand full of issues.

For one, even after copying all the files you listed it still cried about missing a bunch of additional dlls, which I of course did not have the foresight to write down before getting them.
I am also now running into a problem where it still cries for

Code: Select all

AID.dll

and

Code: Select all

api-ms-win-core-localization-ansi-l1-1-0.dll

despite them being already there and even getting different versions from different sources does not change that it complains.

However what I expect to be the issue here, largely because I do not know what it's talking about and googling just spitting out worthless reviews of azure, is the following error message preceding the remaining dll complaints.

Code: Select all

00ec:err:module:find_forwarded_export module not found for forward 'DSREG.DsrGetJoinInfo' used by L"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop 2024\\netapi32.dll"

Any help and ideas naturally appreciated.

[MattKC]

First of all, which version of Wine are you using? It's possible you might need more DLLs on older versions than mine.

Secondly, the "DSREG.DsrGetJoinInfo" error should be solved by transplanting "dsreg.dll". Perhaps you need to add another DLL override for that? Did you get your Windows DLLs from Windows 10 or Windows 11? From memory, I got mine from Windows 10, perhaps the Windows 11 DLLs have different requirements.

Finally, try running "winetricks vcrun2022" in your prefix. I didn't have to do that on mine, but maybe other setups need it.

[TheBloodyScreen]

Well now I feel moderately stupid.
I was using wine-6.0.3 which appears to have been the issue indeed.
I had already resigned myself to accepting that CS6 has already been running without any problems and is really all I need anyway.
But as is the brain of a nerd, it wouldn't leave me alone and I upgraded wine to wine-8.0.2 which still required me to get msvcp140_codecvt_ids.dll but then immediately ran as expected.

So I guess we can assume with moderate certainty that wine 8 is indeed a requirement. Or at least anything later than 6.

[MattKC]

Ahh makes sense, that's good information to know regardless. Thanks for testing!

I *think* msvcp140_codecvt_ids.dll comes with one of the vcruns, I should double check and maybe add that to the OP.

[TheBloodyScreen]

That may well be the case, yeah. I only tried to run winetricks vcrun2022 while still on wine 6 which just complained about invalid arguments so I didn't even think to try again after updating wine.
Either way just getting the dll file online was evidently enough.

However I have noticed some rather odd behavior.
While Photoshop 2024 now launches and, as far as I can tell, runs as it should... it doesn't close as it should.
I was playing around wanting to switch between 2024 and CS6 (the latter of which btw seamlessly integrates in my system and can launch .psd files while 2024 merely starts and complains) when I suddenly could not launch either version anymore.
Come to find out, 2024 simply did not actually shut down, meaning it didn't see a reason to start when told to. Similarly preventing CS6 from starting too.

When I launch 2024 Main Thread, Adobe Crash Pro and wine processes launch. (sometimes wine does not appear and Main Thread is just called Photoshop.exe but otherwise the behavior is identical)
When closing 2024 by any means other than killing the process directly, the window disappears but none of the mentioned processes do. Main Thread does reduce CPU usage to 0.06 though.
Interestingly also, killing wine or Main Thread also kills the other while Adobe Crash Pro just doesn't care. While I don't see a significance here, it's interesting to note.

On the other hand CS6 just launches one Photoshop.exe process and dies just as it should when closed.

While having to kill at least two processes by hand isn't a major issue as long as the software runs fine, it could be something to note for others who might end up wondering why they could only start photoshop once and don't think to check for processes.
Me being not very well versed in the way linux and wine operate at this point (I've been running Mint for about a year now), I'm also not certain if this is a configuration issue or just a result of us doing something that is not meant to be done.

[wisecar]

Massive thumbs up for this guide, I can't help but notice just how ridiculously good Linux is getting on the desktop lately. No doubt that a lot more technically minded people are going to start to make the switch.

[Mervius]

Do you know the requirements for other creative cloud applications such as illustrator or indesign? Technically I can get some of those launched as well but all of them except photoshop has errors that either make it unusable, crashes instantly, or fails to fully launch. So there must be some requirements for those other ones that I'm missing. Illustrator can launch but the interface is completely broken and bugged to the point where it's technically usable if you've memorised every button, but that's just a pain.

[ArchiverXP]

I should add that the same steps work for Animate 2022+ to get the setup to appear, you can actually install mshtml or IE8.

[chanoc]

Wanted to drop my thanks for writing this guide. Krita is nice, but I'm just too attached to Photoshop for certain tasks.

Photoshop seems to work fine for the most part, but there is a strange issue with the Liquify window -- when you hover any UI element, every control will "grey out" as if they are disabled.

I think, normally, this is supposed to happen when the window loses focus. It seems like hovering over any UI element seems to make Photoshop think the Liquify window has lost focus. Maybe its an issue with my window manager (KWin)?

The one liquify brush I can select works fine, though, so it seems like the only issue is the UI bugging out.

I am using Arch with the 6.7.5 kernel, wine-8.21 (staging), and KDE.

[ReleaseTheGeese]

Forgive me if I'm straying offtopic, but does anyone rock an older PS on Wine? The versions that stand out most in my mind are 7.0 and CS2. They have the advantage of not being SaaS. And I'd rather anything than the GIMP with its inscrutable keyboard shortcuts.

[Linzeen]

the method to slove GPU issue : 1. creat PSUserConfig.txt
2.Add the following code to PSUserConfig.txt

Code: Select all

# Force GPU On
GPUForce 1

3. and copy PSUserConfig.txt into

Code: Select all

 C:\users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe/Adobe Photoshop 2024\Adobe Photoshop 2024 Settings\

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

one more issue i try to run CameraRaw in photoshop but display a popup prompt saying " CameraRawnot found".

[chanoc]

the method to slove GPU issue : 1. creat PSUserConfig.txt
2.Add the following code to PSUserConfig.txt

Code: Select all

# Force GPU On
GPUForce 1

3. and copy PSUserConfig.txt into

Code: Select all

 C:\users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe/Adobe Photoshop 2024\Adobe Photoshop 2024 Settings\

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

one more issue i try to run CameraRaw in photoshop but display a popup prompt saying " CameraRawnot found".

Hey, thanks! This does seem to make the GPU work, however it does break the Liquify tool for me, citing a "disk error".

Speaking of, disabling tooltips altogether seems to fix the Liquify window losing focus when hovering over stuff. Another workaround if you're using KDE is to set mouse focus to be under the cursor exclusively, but that's a bit hacky and it's annoying if you don't want that behavior enabled all the time.