Keen in Linux

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This page intends to be a complete tutorial on how to setup your Linux system to run Keen and other DOS applications. Therefor the DOS Emulator DOSBox is needed. Some distributions already include DOSBox in their installation media or online package repositories, but most likely it's an outdated version. In this Tutorial there are several ways shown on how to install and configure DOSBox on a Linux based machine (which is either by compiling, by installing via terminal or by installing via a graphical interface).

On a second note this tutorial discusses the compatibility layer tool WINE that aims to allow computer programs developed for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. This comes in handy especially for modding tasks due to the fact that most Keen modding tools were written for Windows based operating system.

What you need

DOSBox startup interface.
  • Optionally WINE to run Windows based modding tools.


If you get the latest version at DOSBox's website, you might need to install additional dependencies/development packages for building it from source code. The pro is you can get some machine-specific optimizations that may or may not improve DOS programs performance. The dependencies for version 0.70 are:

  • GNU C/C++ compilers, GNU Make: provided by most distributions
  • SDL library (+development package, see above): vital for DOSBox.
  • SDL Sound (+development package): ?
  • SDL Image (+development package): ?
  • C/C++ development files


Setting up DOSBox

Note: if you are not building from source code you can skip this section (go to: install DOSBox in Debian, Ubuntu, LinuxMint, ArchLinux or in RedHat).

Compiling DOSBox

Download DOSBox' source code (should be a tarball named dosbox-X.Y.tar.gz, with X and Y the version numbers) and decompress it in any folder where you have read/write access with your regular user account. You can do it via a graphical user interface tool (such as Ark) or manually from a text Terminal (you'll have to use it anyway):

$ tar -zxvf dosbox-X.Y.tar.gz

That will decompress the package to the current directory. Then, you might want to check the README and INSTALL files provided in the DOSBox source root directory. You'll probably want complete optimizations, so just:

$ ./configure --enable-inline

To generate the makefiles. You can use any switches with configure if you need them, but don't forget to run configure.

$ make

Running make in the same directory the configure script is located at, will start the building process. At the end, assuming everything built successfully, you can do:

$ make install

And everything will install to the target directory provided by you (./configure --prefix=somedir) or the default (/usr/local). If you are installing DOSBox in /usr/local or any other directory where only root can write to, you'll have to

$ sudo make install

instead. If you don't know the root password (i.e., it is not your computer), you might have wanted to use the --prefix switch in the configure call, so that make install is performed in a directory of your user without root privileges. For example:

$ ./configure --enable-inline --prefix=$HOME

Installs DOSBox to your user home directory when doing make install, so the final DOSBox executable should be in $HOME/bin/dosbox.


Installing DOSBox via Terminal

Note: If you followed the steps above (i.e. built the program from its source code) skip this section.

Debian/Ubuntu/LinuxMint

Installing DOSBox in Debian/Ubuntu/LinuxMint via Terminal, you need to have root permissions. Open the Terminal and type:

$ sudo apt-get install dosbox

DOSBox will be installed in the ~/.dosbox tree.

Alternative you can install DOSBox via your Software-Center or Synaptic.

ArchLinux

Dosbox is available on archlinux official repository.

$ sudo pacman -S dosbox

RedHat

Installing DOSBox RPM package in RedHat via Terminal, you need to have root permissions. Just access the root account and install the RPM:

$ su rpm -i dosbox-X.Y.rpm

DOSBox will be installed in the /usr tree.


Mounting Keen's directory in DOSBox

Run DOSBox via Terminal by typing:

$ dosbox -c mount C /media/hdaY/somepath

Where -c (etc.) is for automatically mounting /media/hdaY/somepath (real directory) to DOSBox's drive C: (replace the C with any letter you want). After that, assuming you have KEEN.EXE in /media/hdaY/somepath, you just have to enter in DOSBox's command prompt:

Z:\>c:
C:\>keen

Note: mods are getting started by calling their play.bat batch files.

Note: only mount directories which contain 8.3 filenames (8 letters filename, 3 letters extension) to avoid issues with your DOS-based programs.


Creating a shortcut to run Keen in DOSBox

To create a link in order to run a Commander Keen game in DOSBox, two files need to be created (Ubuntu/LinuxMint). One is a Shell-Script which mounts Keen's directory in DOSBox (seen above), the other one is a link for your Dash which calls this script.

Therefore open up your favourite editor (e.g. gedit, Kate, Mousepad, Leafpad) and type: 

#!/bin/bash
dosbox some/path/to/KEEN4E.EXE

The first line tells to execute the file using the shell. The second line calls DOSBox and mounts via the directory parameter the Keen executable into DOSBox. In this case the original KEEN4E.EXE is called. If you are going to link a mod, you might change this to Play.bat or whatever the very batch file is named.

Save this as a Shell-Script with a distinctive name like Keen4.sh.

To make this script executable open up a terminal and type: 

chmod +x /path/to/script/Keen4.sh

In a second step you need to create a Dash-link that calls this very script. Again open up an editor and type: 

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Keen 4
Comment=DosBox + Commander Keen
Type=Application
Exec=/path/to/script/Keen4.sh
Icon=/path/to/icon/or/image/Posion_Slug.png
Categories=Game

Save this file under the path ~/.local/share/applications and name it Keen4.desktop. Now you can open the game in DOSBox by simply typing Keen4 into your Dash.


Configuring DOSBox

Depending on your system specs running Keen might be a straightforward step. However, having problems to run Keen (i.e. it lags, sound does not work, it needs more memory) there is a configuration file included in the ~/.dosbox folder (dosbox.cfg / dosbox.conf). Being a well documented file, you can open it with a text editor of choice and manually edit it to solve your very problem.

Mounting Games folder automatically

You can save yourself some time by having DOSBox automatically mount your folders and change the drive to C:. In original DOS-based operating systems a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT contained any commands that the user wanted executed every time the computer booted up. This functionality is simulated by the [autoexec] section of the dosbox.conf file.

Browse into the ~/.dosbox/ folder and open the dosbox.conf. Then scroll down to the very end and add these lines: 

MOUNT C ~/OLDGAMES
C:
  • Note: ~/OLDGAMES is the path to your Keen games folder.

Alternative Frontend

Alternative you can look for a GUI frontend called DOSBox Game Launcher (DBGL). Simply download this for your Linux version (32-/64-Bit), unpack it and move the extracted folder to /opt/dbgl. To do this, use the Terminal and type:

sudo mv dbgl076_64bit /opt/dbgl

Create a link via the following command:

sudo ln -s /opt/dbgl/dbgl /usr/local/bin/dbgl

Now you can run the program by typing dbgl.

Unlock Cursor

If you want to stop the window from locking your cursor, look up ~/.dosbox/dosbox.conf for how to set autolock=false. If you have games that you need to move your cursor to the edge of the screen, this can be annoying if autolock is off. You can always toggle it on or off using CTRL+F10.

Full Screen

Just press ALT+ENTER to go into and out of full screen. Alternatively, you can open the ~/.dosbox/dosbox.conf file as mentioned above and change fullscreen=false to fullscreen=true. DOSBox will then run in full screen mode when you open it.

Keybindings

These are the default keybindings. They can be changed using the keymapper. Therefore open DosBox, press CTRL+F1 (or run it via Terminal: dosbox -startmapper). Then map the keys to your liking.

DOSBox KeyMapper interface.
Key Action
ALT-ENTER Switch to full-screen (and back).
ALT-PAUSE (ALT-F16 on OS X) Pause emulation.
CTRL-F1 Show the keymapper configuration screen,
CTRL-F4 Update cached information about mounted drives. Useful if you changed something on a mounted drive outside of DOSBox. Also cycles through disk images mounted using IMGMOUNT.
CTRL-F5 Save a screenshot (goes to ~/.dosbox/capture/ folder).
CTRL-ALT-F5 Start/Stop recording of AVI video. Attention: You may well have some problems with this, please see head to X-Server interception for more information.
CTRL-F6 Start/Stop recording sound output to a wave file (goes to ~/.dosbox/capture/ folder).
CTRL-ALT-F7 Start/Stop recording of OPL commands.
CTRL-ALT-F8 Start/Stop the recording of raw MIDI commands.
CTRL-F7 Decreases frameskip.
CTRL-F8 Increases frameskip.
CTRL-F9 Kill (close) DOSBox.
CTRL-F10 Capture/Release the mouse (if you need to use the mouse within DOSBox).
CTRL-F11 Decrease DOSBox cycles slows down the emulation).
CTRL-F12 Increase DOSBox cycles speeds up the emulation).
ALT-F12 Unlock speed (turbo button).

These default bindings are also documented in the README file accompanying the software.

X-Server interception

Attention: by default, DOSBox’ video capturing feature is triggered by pressing CTRL+ALT+F5 simultaneously. Unfortunately this key combination will never reach DOSBox, as it will typically get intercepted by the X-Server and drop you to the 5th text console instead. It is recommended to change the combination for the video capturing through the method mentioned above.


Upscale Video Recordings

By default the video recorded output solution in pixel is 320x200. There are many different ways to upscale and transcode this: pick a tool of your choice (for example VirtualDub or Handbrake).

Upscale via Script

However, to customise the parameters more precise for your own needs plus keeping the output pixel perfect without any artifacts, an alternative way has to be chosen. This could be done by using a few Terminal commands.

First, get the FFmpeg codec from the official packages or type:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg && sudo apt-get install libavcodec-extra

Next type into your terminal the following command:

ffmpeg -i in.avi -sws_flags neighbor+full_chroma_inp -s 1280x800 -r 30 -vcodec libx264 -crf 20 -acodec libmp3lame -aq 2 -f mp4 out.mp4

Change the parameter in.avi to the path where DOSBox saves its video recordings, by default this is ~/.dosbox/capture/keen4e_001.avi . Also change the parameter out.mp4 to the a path of your choice (for example ~/myvideos/nameoftheoutputfile.mp4). You can freely set the solution (here 1280x800). But it is recommended to use multiples of 320x200 (for example 640x400, 960x600, 1280x800...). Additionally you can choose the output container format. Here it is mp4 (alternatives: avi, mkv...).

Finally run the command and wait until everything is done. This might take some time, depending on the source size and your system specs.

Parameters

Parameters Action
in.avi name and path of the source video you recorded with DOSBox
out.mp4 name and path of the output video destination
mp4 name of upscaled and muxed output container.
1280x800 the output solution in pixel. Multiples of 320x200 (for eg. 640x400, 960x600, 1280x800...)
sws_flags controls the software scale
neighbor+full_chroma_inp lets the scaler perform nearest neighbor interpolation and forces it to take the full input chroma resolution into account
-r 30 output frame rate
-vcodec libx264 determines the video encoder
-acodec libmp3lame -aq 2 codec for a variable bitrate mp3 stream
-aspect 4:3 set up a custom display aspect ratio to scale the video uniformly


Setting up WINE

The compatibility layer tool WINE aims to allow computer programs developed for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. This comes in handy especially for modding tasks due to the fact that most Keen modding tools were written for Windows based operating system.

It is also recommended to install PlayOnLinux, which is a graphical Windows and DOS program manager. It contains many scripts to assist the configuration and running of programs.

Installing WINE via Terminal

Debian/Ubuntu/LinuxMint

To install WINE in Debian/Ubuntu/LinuxMint via Terminal, you need to have root permissions. Open the Terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install wine

If you are running a 32-bit system make sure to also install the following:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wine32

To install PlayOnLinux use the following command: sudo apt-get install playonlinux


Alternative you can install WINE via your Software-Center or Synaptic.

ArchLinux

sudo pacman -Syu playonlinux

You can find the PlayOnLinux PKGBUILD in AUR.

Running modding tools via WINE

Most modding tools are standalone applications that can be run without the need for installation procedure. After installing WINE and PlayOnLinux most modding tools should run out of the box by simply double clicking the *.exe file.

Else you can manually install the an application via PlayOnLinux. Therefor open up PlayOnLinux and follow the programs installing procedure.

Running batch scripts via WINE

A batch file is a script file in DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. It consists of a series of commands to be executed by the command-line interpreter, stored in a plain text file. Batch scripts can be detected by the *.bat extension. For e.g. most Keen mods come with a play.bat batch file which needs to be started to run the mod.

Once Wine is installed, open a Linux terminal/shell and run wine cmd. This will open a separate Windows-Console window. From here, users can run various Windows terminal commands. Batch files can be run by typing start FILENAME.bat.

At this point, many Linux users may find it difficult to need to open a terminal and run that command just to run a batch file. Thankfully, there is a way to fix that problem. The quickest fix is to add the line alias winbatch="wine cmd /c " to the alias file (~/.bash_aliases). Next, logout and log back in so that the alias file will re-initialize. Then, users can type winbatch FILENAME.bat to execute a batch file in a terminal.


External Links


See also

DOSBox Tutorial (Windows)

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