Mp3tag on Linux Mint (via wine, bottles, flatpak)

General Discussion
1

Note: This was intended for the "Howto" category, but only now I noticed I don't have permission to post there. Please move it if you find it useful. Thanks!

After switching from Windows to Linux, mp3tag was one of the few programs I really missed and couldn't find a suitable replacement for. It took me a while to setup, so I figured I'd write a step-by-step guide to reference in the future :slight_smile:

To figure out the process, I did use an LLM, but this entire guide was hand-written by me. Throughout the guide, "quotes" are used for GUI menu entries, while code is used for file paths or terminal commands. The guide was tested with the following software versions:

  • Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon 6.4.8 (X11)
  • Linux Kernel 6.17.0-35
  • Bottles 64.1
  • mp3tag v3.33.1

There is also @Casual_Tee's guide, which apparently should work on mint too, but does not use bottles: Mp3tag on Linux via Wine. His guide also covers dark mode and the right-click menu, which this guide does not.

Step 0: Install Bottles

Linux Mint comes pre-installed with Flathub, allowing easy installation of Flatpak programs such as Bottles. Under the hood, Bottles uses Wine, but offers a user-friendly GUI and better isolation for your Windows programs.

  1. Open the "Software Manager"
  2. Search for "bottles"
  3. Click "Install"
  4. Launch Bottles

Step 1: Setup mp3tag Bottle

Each bottle must have a unique name, which will be used for the base directory. Please use the "mp3tag" name during setup; you can change the display name later in the GUI without altering the directory structure.

  1. Click the "+" in the top-left corner to create a new bottle
  2. Enter the name "mp3tag"
  3. Use the defaults: "Application", "Runner = soda-9.0.1", default directory, and confirm with "Create"
  4. Click on the bottle name to open its configuration
  5. Verify that under "Options > Dependencies" the following are installed by default: "arial32", "times32", "courie32", "mono", "gecko"
  6. Fix desktop scale > 1.0x: Open "Settings > Advanced Display Settings" and set "Screen Scaling" to "192dpi"

Note: Screen scaling works regardless of the actual display ratio because X11 renders everything at 2x and then down-samples it to whatever fractional scaling is requested. Do not apply this fix if you do not have a HiDPI screen or are using 1.0x scaling.

Step 2: Install mp3tag Portable

  1. Download the latest mp3tag version to e.g., the "Downloads" folder
  2. Open the mp3tag bottle
  3. Click "Run Executable...", navigate to the file location, and double-click mp3tag-v3.xx.x-x64-setup.exe
  4. In the Windows installer, choose "Portable Installation" when prompted
  5. In the Windows installer, choose the path C:\portable\Mp3tag\ when prompted
  6. Keep clicking "Next" and "Install" until the installer finishes
  7. In Bottles, click "Add Shortcuts..."
  8. Navigate to drive_c/portable/Mp3tag/ and double-click Mp3tag.exe
  9. To open mp3tag, click the "Play" icon next to the shortcut in the Bottles GUI

Step 3: Import mp3tag Settings

  1. On Linux, close mp3tag
  2. On Windows, in mp3tag, export your current settings: "File > Save Configuration..." and click "Save"
  3. On Windows, extract the file to a new folder named Mp3tagSettings
  4. On Linux, navigate to the mp3tag install folder: open the "Files" application, then press Ctrl+L (or click the path bar) to edit the address
  5. On Linux, paste ~/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/data/bottles/bottles/mp3tag/dosdevices/c:/portable/Mp3tag and press Enter
  6. On Linux, copy the contents of the Mp3tagSettings` folder into the installation path, and overwrite all files if prompted

Note: You can also unpack the Mp3tagSettings.zip on Linux. Depending on your archive software, you may need to convert backslashes (\) to forward slashes (/) manually.

Step 4: Create Desktop Shortcut

This is equivalent to a "Start menu entry" under Windows. Because Bottles runs as a Flatpak, we need to patch the Exec line in the .desktop entry.

  1. In Bottles, click the three dots next to the shortcut and select "Add Desktop Entry"
  2. Open a Terminal, either from the Start menu or with Ctrl+Alt+T
  3. Paste sed -i 's|^Exec=bottles-cli run |Exec=flatpak run --command=bottles-cli com.usebottles.bottles run |' ~/.local/share/applications/*.desktop and press Enter

Step 5: Grant File Access

By default, Flatpak (and therefore Bottles) isolates applications from the filesystem. For this example, we will grant access to the /data folder (located at the root directory) and the home directory ~. Note that home directory access excludes hidden folders (those starting with a .) for security.

  1. Open a Terminal, either from the Start menu or with Ctrl+Alt+T
  2. Add "/data": flatpak override --user com.usebottles.bottles --filesystem=/data
  3. Add "~": flatpak override --user com.usebottles.bottles --filesystem=home
  4. Restart Bottles: flatpak kill com.usebottles.bottles

Note: This grants file access to all bottles by default. You can restrict access per bottle by enabling sandbox mode in the Bottles GUI.

Step 6: Fix Drag & Drop

Wine needs to translate your Linux file paths to paths mp3tag can understand. Replace <username> with your actual Linux username.

  1. Open a Terminal, either from the Start menu or with Ctrl+Alt+T
  2. Navigate to the bottle location: cd ~/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/data/bottles/bottles/mp3tag/dosdevices/
  3. Add "/data" as drive "D:\\": ln -s /data d:
  4. Add "~" as drive "H:\\": ln -s /home/<username> h:
2

Interesting approach. Having multiple ways to achieve a goal is always good.

One small correction:

My guide is not Arch specific (except for the part where I mention installing Mp3tag via the AUR as an alternative to my approach). I use the same portable Mp3tag instance on CachyOS KDE and Fedora 44 KDE and I don't see why it shouldn't work on other distributions as well.

3

That's a worthwhile note, I updated the post.