Running Baofeng DMR CPS on Linux with Wine

Baofeng’s Customer Programming Software (CPS) is Windows-only, but with a bit of Wine magic you can run it on Linux without a virtual machine. This guide walks through the full process for the DM-32UV and similar Baofeng DMR radios.

What You Need

• A Linux system with pacman (Arch/Manjaro) — adapt package names for your distro
• The Baofeng programming USB cable
• Internet access to download the CPS installer

Step 1 — Install Wine

Wine lets you run Windows executables natively on Linux. Install it along with the Mono runtime (needed for .NET-based installers):

sudo pacman -S wine wine-mono

Debian/Ubuntu users: sudo apt install wine winetricks then winetricks mono if needed.

Step 2 — Download the Baofeng CPS

Go to the official Baofeng download page and grab the latest CPS for your model:

https://www.baofengradio.com/pages/download

The download is a .zip file. Unzip it to find the installer executable inside.

Step 3 — Run the Installer

Navigate to where you unzipped the file and run the installer through Wine:

cd ~/Downloads
wine "CPS DMR Radio Setup v1.45.exe"

You will see some fixme: and err: lines in the terminal — these are normal Wine diagnostic messages and can be safely ignored as long as the graphical installer window opens. Follow the Windows-style installer steps to completion.

The software installs by default to:

~/.wine/drive_c/DMR CPS/CPS DMR Radio V1.45/

Step 4 — Identify Your USB-to-Serial Device

Plug in the Baofeng programming cable and connect it to the radio. Then check which device node Linux assigned to it:

ls -l /dev/ttyUSB* /dev/ttyACM*

You should see something like /dev/ttyUSB0. If nothing appears, check dmesg | tail -20 for the kernel recognising the cable’s chipset (commonly CH340 or Prolific PL2303).

Permission error? Add your user to the dialout (Debian) or uucp (Arch) group:

sudo usermod -aG uucp $USER   # Arch/Manjaro
sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER # Debian/Ubuntu

Then log out and back in.

Step 5 — Map the USB Port to a Windows COM Port

Wine maps COM ports via symlinks inside the Wine prefix. The simplest approach is to link /dev/ttyUSB0 to a COM port name that the CPS will see:

cd ~/.wine/dosdevices
ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 com33

You can use com1 through com99. Using a higher number like com33 avoids conflicts with any real serial ports the system might already have mapped. Inside the CPS, select COM33 from the port dropdown.

Step 6 — Launch the CPS

cd ~/.wine/drive_c/DMR\ CPS/CPS\ DMR\ Radio\ V1.45/
wine DMR\ CPS.exe

The Baofeng CPS window should open. From here you can read from the radio, edit your code plug, and write it back — all from Linux.

Troubleshooting

Further Reading

• Creating a DMR Code Plug from Scratch — once CPS is running, this guide walks through building your first code plug step by step.
• Baofeng downloads page — always use the latest CPS for your model.