I did a fresh install (because it's reccomended to do that as opposed to upgrade) of the Ubuntu 9.10 beta, and I can finally playtest my levels in WINE! The pointer displays oddly, but it's usable now.
Same as happened for me, although I used an older (non-beta) version with a default WINE install. No SFX and glitchy pointer, but otherwise it worked fine (apart from fast forward mode not being as fast as in windows).