Multiboxing on Linux

[godlike]

Hi all,

activity in this thread is a bit on the low side, but perhaps some of you are still active here :-)

I'm a long time Linux user myself and I used to multibox on Linux using Keyclone (I think that was the name) back in TBC. For WoW Classic, the game itself works pretty well on Linux - but I use ISBoxer on WIndows this time around. However, ISBoxer seems more advanced than I need it to be and I'd rather stay in Linux... So I started looking into starting multiple WoW instances at once, resizing WINE windows and tiling them as well as stripping window-decorations... And then I found this place :-)

So... Did any of you guys get it working nicely using native Linux tools and would you be willing to share scripts/macros/whatever? Perhaps even collaborate on some code? (I do a lot of scripting, so I might be able to help out with that kinda stuff).

Yeah I made a Python script that allows me to roughly multibox, no account limit other than what my PC can handle. It is not yet ready for prime time. I tried to PM you in case you might be interested but the forum won't even let me look at your profile. Perhaps is because this is my first post here xD (although it doesn't even let me look at *my* profile).

[JohnOwl]

I will detail what I have done in case anyone is interested.

I am using this script for Lord of the Rings Online, but the game's engine is very similar to WoW, meaning this would likely work for WoW too. LOTRO does not have native linux support, so I run it through wine. To get this to work, you need to use the option "emulate a virtual desktop." xdotool is also needed.

I set up a keybinding using the Custom Shorcuts program for KDE. I have tried the keybind software in both GNOME and XFCE, and didn't like what they offer. Xbindkeys works on any desktop environment, but I had some issues with it being buggy. It is at least worth a shot if the default keybind software doesn't work. I will post a guide below on how to use Xbindkeys.

I have this bound this to alt+1, where pressing alt and 1 at the same time execute this command:

xdotool search --name "The Lord of the Rings Online™" key --window %@ b

here is how this command works:
xdotool: states that this is a xdotool function
search --name: states that we are going to search by program name
"The Lord of the Rings Online™": this is the full program name for LOTRO. Change this for a different program
key: we are going to be pressing a key
--window: send this key to a specified window, rather than just whatever window is in focus
%@: sends the key to all windows in the stack. I will give a more detailed explanation of this below
b: presses the b key. This can be changed to whatever you like. Type xev into the terminal and then press a key. It will tell you the "code" for that key.


Other advice:
One command I tried that didn't work was xdotool key --window $(xdotool search --pid $(pidof lotroclient.exe)) b
It would press b, but it would also press c for some reason. If you run into a problem like this, where a random key is pressed, try making slight changes to your code.

When I ran the game in fullscreen mode, alt tabbing between clients was laggy. Changing this to borderless fullscreen made alt tabbing much faster.


How a window stack works (optional read):
When no window is specified, the command xdotool key b will send the keypress to whatever window is focused. To get around this, the option --window can be used with a window's code to send the keypress to that window. You can see the window code of a window using the command xdotool search --name "The Lord of the Rings Online™" An example output is:
102760453
132120613
To not just have these codes displayed, but to also send a key to one, this code can be used: xdotool search --name "The Lord of the Rings Online™" key b
The only problem is that it defaults to the first code of the two, which doesn't work. I hard coded both of these window codes into commands:
xdotool key --window 102760453 b
xdotool key --window 132120613 b
Only the bottom one worked. Fortunately, the top one did nothing at all, so sending the key press to both window "codes" is not a problem.
Revising xdotool search --name "The Lord of the Rings Online™" key b
into xdotool search --name "The Lord of the Rings Online™" key --window %@ b
sends the keypress to both windows. The input %1 sends to sends the command to the first in the list, %2 to the second in the list, %3 to the third if there was one, and %@ sends to all in the list.


How to use Xbindkeys (again, optional):
If you're using Ubuntu, or an Ubuntu based system, install with
sudo apt-get install xbindkeys
You should have a filed .xbindsrc in you home directory. If not, create one. An example script to put in the file is:

"bash ~/keybinds/kadd.sh"
KP_Add

KP_Add is the keypress to trigger the effect (again, use xev in the console to find the key press' code). The line above is what happens when the key is pressed. For me, it runs a simple bash file with the following contents:

#!/bin/bash
xdotool search --name "The Lord of the Rings Online™" key --window %1 1
xdotool search --name "The Lord of the Rings Online™" key --window %2 1

For some reason, using %@ doesn't work with either Xbindkeys or the Gnome custom keybind program. This means you have to specify them manually if you are not using KDE.

[Mordikai]

I just wanted to say this thread sent me on a dark path I had been planning for a while but finally made me pull the trigger I also have been wanting to switch to Linux full time, really the only thing holding me back was multi-boxing. I tried the Wine path but ultimately decided I could not live without ISBoxer. I had been dual booting for a while but I have finally gotten around to running Linux as my primary and I am running a VM of Windows 10 for WoW/ISBoxer. I am directly passing my 2080Ti and 9 of my 12 cores (18/24 with threads) to the VM. One nice thing is video card also has built in USB C so I bought a USB c to USB 3.0 hub and I can hang my headphones from that for sound. I am using evdev to pass my keyboard and mouse through but I think I am going to end up with a KVM for that just so I can run the native software. I bumped my system RAM up to 64Gb and I am passing 32 to Windows. I have not booted back to full Windows to verify but I believe I am getting close to 80-90% native performance in my VM. Scoring 6226 with Cinibench 20, 4880/4275 sequential in CrystalDiskMark (qemu RAW file on NVMe drive.) This is with no overclocking and no performance tweaks yet. I have a second smaller NVMe I was thinking of passing through and installing Windows directly on the drive but I don't think the performance would be any better.

[Svpernova09]

$current_year is the year of Linux on the Desktop!

I still believe, but it's not this year :/