Setting up Dwarf Fortress in 64bit Debian

Downloading DF

You can get Dwarf Fortress (for free!) directly at Bay 12 Games (click on SDL: Linux), but I suggest downloading a version with a nice tileset (much easier for beginners, and much easier on the eyes — I've only tried Phoebus' set so far, but really like it.

Direct download links (for version 0.31.19, released on Feb 16):

• Original
  


• DF & Phoebus' Graphic Set

The rest of this article will work for both versions.

Unpacking

Assuming you are root (do su - if you are not), and that you have downloaded the tarball from above to /tmp/:

Installing 32bit libs

As DF is a 32bit-binary, it needs its libraries in 32bit-versions too. Most of them can be easily installed using


If you try to run ./df now, it won't work though; the ia32-libs package is missing 2 SDL-libs that are used by DF (SDL_ttf and SDL_image), so we need to manually put them into /usr/lib32. Also, some symlinks are needed (don't know if this is DFs or Debians fault).

Download the packages for i386-Debian (just download, don't try to install!):

• libsdl-ttf2.0-0
  


• libsdl-image1.2

I'm a lazy bastard, so we are going to unpack those downloaded packages using the wonderful Midnight Commander, so

Start mc, navigate to /usr/lib32/ in the left panel, press TAB to switch to the right one, navigate to the downloaded packages, press Enter, navigate to CONTENTS/usr/lib32/, and copy (using F5) the libs from there. Do this for both packages, then exit mc using F10 (or Esc-0 if F10 doesn't work)

Library symlinks

Sound configuration

Without any config, DF would now try to use PulseAudio for sound output. This will work for Ubuntu, but luckily Debian is still shipped without PA per default (not saying that PA is a bad system, quite the opposite! But as can be seen (and usually not heard ) in Ubuntu, it's not easy to get it right). So:

In /etc/openal/alsoft.conf, set

Startscript

To make starting this addictive game even easier, I suggest creating a small start script. I'll call it dorf. df would be a shorter, but there is already a command with that name

Start the game!

Now would be a good time to drop that root privileges, so exit, or if you are lazy, Ctrl-D

If you've done everything right, typing dorf should now start the best of all games.

Where to go from here

DF is extremely complex, and quite intimidating at first. Only tip I'll give you right now: Losing is Fun!

For some more help, check out The Dwarf Fortress Wiki, especially the Bentgirder tutorial. If you have questions, turn to the official DF Forum. For news and interesting discussions I prefer the DF Subreddit though.

I can't be held responsible if this game eats many hours of your time. And remember: Losing is Fun!