KotOR SaveGame Editor on Linux

KotOR SaveGame Editor, abbreviated KSE, originally created by tk102 and later maintained by Fair Strides, has been the go-to tool for editing save files of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series of video games since the early modding scene of KotOR in the 2000s.

Like almost every tool for the KotOR games, KotOR SaveGame Editor was developed for Windows, since the KotOR games themselves were initially developed for Windows and Xbox only. However, you can run KotOR SaveGame Editor on Linux.

What you need is to have Wine installed in your Linux system. Wine is a compatibility layer for running Windows programs in Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, macOS and BSD. Wine has been the go-to method for allowing users of Unix-like operating systems to run and use Windows programs, and thus is available in the software repository of major Linux distributions. You can search the web for how to install Wine for your Linux distro.

Once you have Wine installed, you can simply run KotOR SaveGame Editor by launching the .exe files, namely kse.exe for the main program, and KPF.exe for configuring your KotOR games' installation path so KSE will try to detect your save files based on where you installed the KotOR games.

However, if you play Steam's Linux port of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, which is the default when you install KotOR 2 on Linux with Steam, the original version of KSE will not be able to detect your KotOR 2 save files on your local machine. This is because Steam's Linux port of KotOR 2 places the game's local save files in a completely different location from the main game, while the cloud saves are within the main KotOR 2.

By default, Steam's installation path for KotOR 2 on Linux is $HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Knights of the Old Republic II, with $HOME being your home directory. For example, if you use jane as your username on your Linux system, your home directory would be /home/jane, and the default installation path for KotOR 2 on Steam would be /home/jane/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Knights of the Old Republic II. However, the location of the local save files of Steam's Linux port of KotOR 2 is always $HOME/.local/share/aspyr-media/kotor2/saves, even if you choose to install KotOR 2 on a different location than the default. This means Steam put the local save files of its Linux port of KotOR 2 outside the Steam folder.

On the other hand, the Windows version of the KotOR games put the save files in a "saves" sub-folder in the main folder of the game. As KSE was originally developed for Windows, it assumes your KotOR games' save files are within the same folder as your main KotOR game folder, so it will fail if your save files are in a completely different folder from your main KotOR game folder, which is the case for Steam's Linux port of KotOR 2.

Fortunately, you can still edit your local save files from Steam's Linux port of KotOR 2. What you need is nadrino's fork of KotOR SaveGame Editor.

nadrino's fork of KSE includes features not present in the original version of KSE, with the one most relevant to this guide is being able to individually set the installation path and save file location of the KotOR games, instead of only being able to set the installation path like in the original KSE, and let KSE assume the location of your save files. You still need Wine to run nadrino's fork of KSE, but as long as you can run it on Linux, you will be able to use it and edit your save files from Steam's Linux port of KotOR 2.

Follow the instructions to download nadrino's fork of KSE. When you reach the step where you need to make sure kse.ini contains the right paths to your KotOR games, open kse.ini with a text editor, and change the values of the KotOR 2 paths to the following:

K2_Path=\home\jane\.local\share\Steam\steamapps\common\Knights of the Old Republic II\steamassets
K2_SavePath=\home\jane\.local\share\aspyr-media\kotor2\saves
K2_SavePathCloud=\home\jane\.local\share\Steam\steamapps\common\Knights of the Old Republic II\cloudsaves

Replace jane with your username on your Linux system.

You need to set the KotOR 2 path to the steamassets sub-folder instead of the main KotOR 2 so KSE can detect the game's assets. It is worth noting that if you install mods for Steam's Linux port of KotOR 2, you need to install them in the steamassets sub-folder as well.

You need to set the paths with backslashes (\) instead of forward slashes (/), otherwise KSE may not be able to properly detect your paths.

After you have done editing kse.ini, save the .ini file and launch KSE.exe.

During my research for trying to use KotOR SaveGame Editor with Steam's Linux port of KotOR 2, I came across KSELinux. However, using it requires more technical expertise, since you need to build the program yourself, which involves installing the necessary modules for Perl, the programming language used for developing KSE. If your system lacks the necessary Perl modules, it can be time-consuming to install the modules and ensure things are set up correctly.

As the author of KSELinux noted, it is a hack with no guarantee it will work for you, so you may encounter errors, and some features may not work as intended.

You may try out KSELinux if you have the technical knowledge to build the program, but otherwise, I would recommend using adrino's Fork of KSE instead.

I decided to write this guide after spending a fair amount of time in figuring out how to use KotOR SaveGame Editor with Steam's Linux port of KotOR 2, so I hope fellow Linux players would find this guide helpful.