DOSBox 0.72 update
 

http://pupnik.de/dosbox_lederhoden.png

dosbox now running on Nokia 770!

http://pupnik.de/Dosbox_0_65__001_N770__ultimaV.jpg

:D

Download at http://pupnik.de/dosbox.html

Changes: Packaged to .deb, updated to 0.72+ cvs with new alignment fixes. Support for xkbd autostart. Mouse auto-calibration should work in some games - drag stylus slowly across all four corners of the game screen.

Update Feb 16: New N800/N810 version up - should install without dependencies - fixed N810 keyboard problem - should install on OS2007 also (not tested).

Update Feb 27: Thanks to ukki we now have Rubybox! a dosbox frontend launcher specifically for maemo/ITOS.

Rubybox requires two ruby packages:
ruby1.8
ruby1.8-maemo
To install these on OS2008, click on the following link to the .install file for the GPL Systems Repository (repository containing ruby) then in application manager go to the section 'programming' and install the ruby packages.

http://gronmayer.com/it/dl.php?id=216
http://pupnik.de/rubybox_0.1.deb

Update March 04: New dosbox bundled with vertical/left-hand-side keyboard map. You can now change the .xkbd map by editing /usr/bin/dosboxkbd to point to whatever .xkbd layoutfile and -geometry positioning you want.

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Just found some ~major~ speedups in dosbox.conf...

PC speaker working fine.

Sb16 emulation working (but Adlib/OPL3 FM synthesis is very cpu intensive, as is to be expected).

UMB/XMS/EMS working

Dosbox mmap2() can't allocate more than 2MB of ram for emulated PC

8088/8086 compat. games tested (Alleycat, UltimaIV) run nice and fast, and look beautiful with advmame2x smoothing scaler. :D

80286 games tested so far are unplayable.

(edit) Dosbox 0.70 is unplayably slow so far.:confused:

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

How do I install it?

thanks!

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

neeeeeed it to ! Mega THX

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Update: I've gotten dosbox 0.70 running fast now, (the auto cycle option was causing problems) but the VGA emulation is broken - garbage on screen.

(edit) "Fast" means roughly equivalent to a 4.77mhz 8088 in overall performance. If you can write a Just In Time compiler for x86 onto ARM, that'd help a lot. :p

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Download this

http://pupnik.de/dosbox_maemo_065_001.tgz

and extract with

tar xzvf dosbox_maemo_065_001.tgz

I think you'll need to grab this to run it

http://rapidshare.com/files/41234729...armel.deb.html

Let me know how things work for you. Favorite games, dosbox.conf tweaks.

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

The link is broken and exactly what is it? Thanks.

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

I'm not the best at this, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but when I try and run it from xterm I get the error:

/media/mmc2/dosbox_maemo_065_001 $ dosbox --conf dosbox.conf

/bin/sh: dosbox: not found

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

What a lame free hosting site. I uploaded that a couple of hours ago.

It's a library that allows sdl apps to use networking.

To obra, i should have mentioned in the README that the dosbox executeable has to be placed on your root filesystem.

The nokias can not run programs off the mmc card (or SD card, AFAIK).

So i just put dosbox in my home directory and put my dos games on the mmc card. Then i mount the directory with the dos games inside dosbox.

Stop by #maemo chat on irc.freenode.net for faster answers.

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

ArnimS: could you reupload libSDL please?

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Thanks ArnimS!

This is awesome, and really brings me back to the old days.

...now if I only had someway of generating keyboard input I'd be set!

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

http://rapidshare.com/files/41293937...armel.deb.html

http://pupnik.de/libsdl-net1.2_1.2.5-7_armel.deb

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Можно запустить с помощью Dosbox игры Dos ( к примеру HMH 2 , Warcraft 2 , Fallout ) ?

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

http://pupnik.de/libsdl-net1.2_1.2.5-7_armel.deb

If you're on a n800 or IT2007HE i think you have to force the install by using dpkg -i libsdl-net1.2_1.2.5-7_armel.deb, or use the bora version by
cjackiewicz

http://blackax.net/Pub/wesnoth/dists....5-7_armel.deb

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Get a bluetooth keyboard. Very useful for gaming in general, as well as all the emulators.

If someone wants a little project, there's a virtual keyboard for X in the Windowmaker project (search ITT forums). There's also a package called xvkbd you can compile but it requires some dependencies i haven't had time to build.

Then there's the issue of triggering the virtual keyboard to display, without hacking the source of dosbox and the other emus. I'm not sure how that'd be done without taking-up one of the hardware buttons. Perhaps the vkbd program could monitor for a button sequence, or possibly screen taps on the edges.

(edit) Problem solved! (mostly)

http://pupnik.de/xkbd_m_bottom.gif

you can grab the xkbd and config file at http://pupnik.de/xkbd.html

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

is there a way to zoom into a game? very small res.

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

I with they could.. Then I could also use C64 emulator :)

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

There's no reason they can't. The cards are marked as "noexec" in /etc/fstab because the FAT filesystem can't maintain the "executable" bit, so everything becomes executable.

If you remove "noexec", or format your cards as ext2 (for example) you can run code directly off the cards.

Also note there's nothing stopping an application storing data on the card if necessary (e.g. emulator disk images containing emulated programs).

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

you can edit dosbox.conf and enable 2x scaling.

You can also make a copy of dosbox.conf for every game you run, then pass that dosbox filename to the program when you start it.

This is very useful on the nokias because tweaking settings individually per-game can optimise performance.

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Its a huge longshot, but I was wondering if One Must Fall 2047 could run playably on dosbox on the tablets? Bit of an OMF fanboy, have the original cd, a signed copy of OMF:BG, and a signed poster from OMF:BG too... *misses the days of the bg beta but decides to stop getting off topic*

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

On the 770 i was getting about 1 fps for OMF 2047. Maybe if you could slow your brain down 30x it would be fun? :)

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

I know I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to Linux so excuse me if this is a stupid question but...

I have managed to download and install xkbd , 'Run application system monitor' and DosBox .

If I start DosBox , the run application system monitor icon disappears from the system tray , if I then minimize DosBox , the Nokia freezes so I can't start xkbd . If I start xkbd , no commands are received by any other program until xkbd is closed , so I can't then start DosBox .

How do I make both run together ? I have tried entering the command /home/user/dos/dosbox --conf dosbox.conf ; xkbd in the 'Run box' but that doesn't seem to work .

I am also struggling to get my configuration file to load , I have edited it on my Mac to load the program I want to run ( the Psion Series 3a emulator ) but it seems to not be recognised , still if I can't get the keyboard to load I can't go any further any way .

Sorry if this is a dumb question ... I am sure there is an easy way - if I only knew what that was .

Yet another silly question - Where are the commands for the 'Run Box' stored ? I have a number of failed attempts on the menu , but I can't see how to get rid of them ...

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Well following my previous post , I have figured out how to run both xkbd and DosBox from the same command ( xkbd | /home/user/dosbox --conf /home/user/psion.conf ) however , typing that command into the 'Run box' provided by Load-Applet-Run doesn't work as I expected . It fails to load the configuration file ( psion.conf ) even entering the command with no config file specified fails to load the default config file ( dosbox.conf ) despite it being stored in the same directory as the dosbox application .

After many wasted hours , I found that issuing the same command in xterm did work as expected , and I was finally able to load dosbox , and the Psion Series 3a emulator . If only that was the end of it . I could only get the emulator to load successfully one in every three launches , one attempt might fail with no catastrophe , one would fail locking the entire machine ( Nokia 770 ) leading me to need to pull the battery out to reset it , and one would work correctly .

None of this would have been too bad , but ... In order to control the Applications and the emulated Psion Series 3a itself menu shortcuts are issued by means of the Psion key ( on an original Psion machine ) or the Alt key on an emulated Series 3a , in combination with a letter . So the install command is Psion+I ( Alt+I ) , the exit command is Psion+X ( Alt+X ) . xkbd does not seem to handle this type of input correctly , whether 'Scancodes' is set to true or false ( in the DosBox config file ) . This would not be too much of a problem if xkbd was able to supply the function keys ( F1 , F2 , F3 etc. ) as it would then be possible to work through the menu system using the cursor keys , initiating the menu with F9 .

I know , I could have edited the xkbd layout file , and altered it to provide the 'F' keys ... But then I would have needed to figure out the correct command protocol to launch my layout , and it was 2.30am with me needing to be up at 6.30am for work ... So I deleted the lot , and have given up for now . Perhaps a cleverer person than I will have the inspiration to get this all working together , the Psion Series 3a emulator will run on the Nokia , it probably only needs polishing up a little , sadly I don't understand enough about Linux to do that polishing . Should anyone else have managed to figure all this out , please get in touch .

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

The xkbd layout file is pretty simple to edit, but i haven't seen examples with Function Keys in em.

Try substituting F11 for 'm' in the config file and see if you can hit an F11

It took me about an hour or two of tweaking to make my custom xkbd layout files.

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Thanks for your suggestion . Once I have altered the layout file , how do I then load it ? It is working this sort of thing out that takes me so long .

Assuming my keyboard layout is on the mmc I imagine that I would need to issue the following command :
xkbd -k /media/mmc1/keyboardfolder/mykeyfile.xkbd | /home/user/dos/dosbox

I thought ( but could be wrong ) I saw in another thread that you have some experience with bochs on the 770 , is that any more stable than DosBox ? I was going to give it a try but realised that I would probably still need xkbd and a modified layout file , and so I gave it a miss ...

Sorry , I really don't understand Linux , this is my first 'real' Linux device apart from my Mac and HiFidelio , both of those have managed to 'hide' the Linux part of their OS fairly well , and I rarely need to venture into command line territory . I'd like to get the Psion Series 3a emulator to run though , as I wrote some useful ( to me ) applications for it that would come in very handy to have on a daily basis , hence the reason I want to master this .

Thanks for your reply , and thanks to anyone who feels generous enough to lend a hand .

New Dosbox Release!
 

Yep, that should be fine. Xkbd requires a non-fullscreen dosbox for me, so i suggest you disable that in dosbox.con. How is it working for you?

Bochs wouldn't build for me, and i don't think it would run acceptably.

Update: New DosBOX 0.72 with deb package goodness!

Timings for sound emulation seem to be improved. It has a rewritten VGA/EGA core which is giving strange artefacts on the Nokia, so I use Tandy graphics (which are faster anyway).

http://pupnik.de/dosbox.html

Give it a go and let me know how it works for you! :)

Re: New Dosbox Release!
 

Hello , and thanks for your advice .
I have modified the keyboard layout for xkbd and have included the function keys as needed , and given them the names as they would be on the Psion Series 3a ( F1=System ... F11=Menu ) so I can now access the menus and other functions . I have however hit a snag , apart from the alphabet keys , none of the 'shifted' keys send the correct values when the shift key is pressed . I thought it might be a problem with the way the shift key worked so included on my keyboard layout a row above the number keys which held the 'shifted' key values , without the need to press the shift key , but the keys still sent the values that would have been present , if they had been the number values . For example : I setup a key with the label of '!' and set to send the character of '!' , but the Psion emulator showed '1' instead . I believe this is due to the way the Psion machine was originally designed to receive keypresses on the original hardware , expecting to scan the keyboard and find the Shift key down , and the 1 key pressed , not to be sent a value of '!' which it knows as the 1 key , and with ( as far as it sees ) no shift key pressed , interprets this as a '1' . As the alphabet keys only go into upper case with the CapsLock on ( not with the shift key ) , I fiddled with the settings of the 'obey CapsLock' value in the keyboard layout , but this has not helped . So for the time being , I've come unstuck ...

I tried Bochs , and got it to run correctly , slow it was ( possibly slower than DosBox ) but it never crashed the 770 once , in all the hours I messed about trying to perfect my keyboard layout . DosBox did literally only work for 33% of the launch attempts , often causing the 770 to need its battery pulling out to enable me to reset it .

Re: New Dosbox Release!
 

Where did you get bochs?

Which dosbox version crashed? On what OS? (2006/2007he)

Be sure to invoke dosbox to load the tweaked dosbox.conf.

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

what about xkbd - it looks like it doesn't install on the new 2007he os...

Re: New Dosbox Release!
 

I thought I downloaded Bochs from the main Bochs site , though I could be wrong there . I have a copy of the install should you want it .

I was trying DosBox on my 770 , with the ( factory installed ) 2006 s/w , the version of DosBox was 0.6xx , the version prior to your most recent release ( sorry I can't be more specific I don't have it loaded any more ) .

I eventually did get DosBox to load my .conf file , this was a slightly modified version of your example provided with the install , altered to provide the required M: drive that the Psion emulator needs in order to run correctly . As I said , launching it was rather hit and miss - with more miss than hit . It may well be my Linux ignorance that caused my problems , I'll be happy to admit that my knowledge of Linux is no more than 0.1%...of nothing !

Re: New Dosbox Release!
 

Maybe but you're obviously motivated and intelligent.

I'm sad that dosbox 0.65 was buggy. It was real stable here. Thanks for mentioning your OS. My only problems with dosbox were on it2007he. (hacker edition). Can you write an email to the psion emulator developers asking if they would consider making an open-source/linux version?

Update on the 0.72 build: the dosbox developers gave me a video mode testing app, and i could identify vga/ega modes that were causing problems. Not all of them do.

Re: New Dosbox Release!
 

Psion themselves no longer exist , they eventually morphed into Symbian so I don't think this has any chance , if I even knew who to email .

I hope I did not imply that you were to blame for DosBox not working . The Psion emulator was notorious for not working , even on the targeted hardware . It needed very specific hardware , and would often only work on certain DOS versions , with certain system parameters set .

The fact that Boch runs slowly is not such a problem as you might think , the original Psion Series 3a used an 8088 processor running at 8Mhz , hardly cutting edge . The main limitation I now have is the keyboard , and as I stated previously , I think this may ultimately halt any practical use of the system .

I'll keep trying as and when inspiration strikes .

Many thanks for your kind help .

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Hello, I'm using dosbox 0.65 and tryed to run a few dos games like civilization, the game seem to run fine except for two things. One is that the mouse pointer is missplaced, seems like it missplaces the same pixels as the width of n800's startmenu and top menu. Is there some easy way to solve that?
The other problem might be more complicated, when i run dosbox it can't find an MIDI device. It says "MIDI:Can't find device" I tried alsa,oss and default. Mabye this is not working yet.

But is it possible to get the mouse in the right place?

Great work by the way!! :-)

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

... By the way, the download link to v0.72 deb is broken. :-/

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

I pulled 0.72 due to brokenness. 0.65 is better atm.

The dosbox and maemo gurus have been helping me identify and fix bugs with EGA mode introduced into the 0.70 dosbox branch.

DOSBox checks for a MIDI sequencer in /dev and spits out an error if it cant find it. ITOS doesn't have one, but it would be a fun project to add a simple midi sequencer to maemo alsa that runs on DSP. Use dosbox internal soundblaster emulation for midi musit (see dosbox.conf)

Thanks for pointing out the mouse errors. Do they also occur when you run dosbox with the -fullscreen option? (or fullscreen set in dosbox.conf)?

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Haha had missed that it did have an fullscreen mode.
Can't try with civilization because now I don't know how to start xkbd should I print "./dosbox -fullscreen|xkbd" it does not work...

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

in worms it seemes like the pointer gets displaced the other way around (to the left) when in fullscreenmode. Does the mouse work fine for you? Could not try in civilization couse dosbox don't get the signals from xkbd, I probobly start it in the wrong way.. Need the keys to get past the first menus to try the mouse pointer. xkbd works fine in window mode if I start i after dosbox from the menu...

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Thanks for the feedback! I found a fix for another SDL program so i will look into dosbox SDL mouse to see if i can correct this.

Sorry bout that - currently xkbd can't work with any app running in fullscreen mode. Somebody who understands more about X11 will have to take a look into this.

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

Thanks, would be so glad if the original civilization could work. It's an advanced game and yet it runs without problem on anything with 640kb+ ram.

Wich I knew more about C and how to help modify dosbox but I got stuck in setting up the compile eniornment... Tell me if you want some kind of testing help or something.

Would it not be possible to fast add something afterwards the input value that corrects the pointer position until the real problem gets fixed, it seemed to kind of regulary missplaced...

Re: DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw
 

I spent a few minutes looking at this and i think it's impossible. MS-DOS games expect relative mouse movement. There's no way for DOSBox/linux to determine how much relative movement is required to move to an absolute screen position.

Note to self: do not try to set self-imposed deadlines on new releases - pointer alignment problems continue to plague dosbox 0.72.