DOS ain't dead

DOSBox-X 0.83.8 is now officially released. As a cross-platform DOS emulator, it provides official DOS version (in addition to other platforms), which is self-contained so that you can simply unzip the file and type DOSBOX-X to run in DOS.

You can directly download the latest 0.83.8 packages from the project homepage:

https://dosbox-x.com/

There are quite a few new features and improvements in the latest version (although the new TrueType font output is not supported in the DOS version). The release notes for version 0.83.8 can be found here:

http://dosbox-x.com/release-0.83.8.html

Direct download for the DOS version:

dosbox-x-mingw-hx-dos-20201130192809.zip

Note: The DOS package has been verified to run without external requirements as in the previous version.

The updated DOS LOADLIN package for DOSBox-X 0.83.8 by grapeli is now also available, available from:

https://github.com/joncampbell123/dosbox-x/files/5625195/dosbox-x-dos-0.83.8-loadlin.zip

Its supports the new TrueType font (TTF) output, so you can either set it from the config file (output=ttf) or from the menu ("Video" => "Output").

Yes, it boots under real DOS within 1s but still useless as no soundcards and SATA drivers...
Menu seems to be OK, left some minor artifact when moving mouse over it.

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> DOSBox-X 0.83.8 is now officially released. As a cross-platform DOS

Could i ask a few questions?

1. Does Dosbox-x have some kind of clipboard API for real-mode programs ? (little bit stupid question with answer "no", but who knows)
2. Is it possible redirect printer to my usb-device? (I have lpt-sound cards like tandy-lpt and opl2lpt and usb->lpt cable, and asking possibility run it). I think, host-os will see this usb->lpt as serial devices.

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Make DOS great again!
Make Russia small again!

> Could i ask a few questions?
>
> 1. Does Dosbox-x have some kind of clipboard API for real-mode programs ?
> (little bit stupid question with answer "no", but who knows)
> 2. Is it possible redirect printer to my usb-device? (I have lpt-sound
> cards like tandy-lpt and opl2lpt and usb->lpt cable, and asking possibility
> run it). I think, host-os will see this usb->lpt as serial devices.

Sure, you can ask them.

DOSBox-X does have extensive clipboard features. As mentioned in the following Wiki page, DOSBox-X has support for copying to and pasting from the host system clipboard in several ways:

https://dosbox-x.com/wiki/Guide%3AClipboard-support-in-DOSBox%E2%80%90X

All these clipboard features are supported on the Windows platform. On Linux and macOS platforms, the clipboard device (CLIP$) and the clipboard DOS APIs are not supported (but clipboard pasting etc should work). For the HX-DOS package, I have confirmed that if you run it from Windows, then the clipboard DOS APIs should work fine (see the above page for usage details). However, if you run it from MS-DOS, the clipboard DOS APIs may not work properly, probably due to the limitations of the HX DOS Extender.

USB devices should be supported at least in the Windows platform too. Support for USB devices is not the job of DOSBox-X, but the availability of OS-specific drivers. Since Windows does provide such drivers, it should work in Windows. On the other hand, if you run it from a real DOS system, it really depends on the availability of such a DOS driver. Hope this helps.

Hello,

I tried to update to 0.38.9 but it doesn't work with the msvcrt.dll provided in the package nor could I effectively replace the file with another version.

The error message with the .dll you distributed:

DPMILD32: import not found: _fstat64

DPMILD32: file msvcrt.dll

DPMILD32: z:\d\msvcrt.dll: cannot resolve imports


Other versions of msvrt.dll gave even more catastrophic errors while trying to call imports from ntdll.dll or other files mostly non-existent in HX and no matter which combinations of .dll files I tried to add (works sometimes) I didn't manage DOSBox-X.EXE to run.

Here's the error message with your msvcrt.dll setting DPMILDR=128:

LOG: Early LOG Init complete

LOG: Logging init: beginning logging proper. This is the end of the early init logging

LOG: Logging: No logfile was given. All further logging will be discarded.

LOG: DOSBox-X version 0.83.9 (Windows SDL1)

LOG: Windows keyboard layout ID is 0x0409

LOG: Host keyboard layout is now us (US English)

LOG: Mapper keyboard layout is now us (US English)

DPMILD32: unresolved import called




dkrnl32: exception 80000003, flags=0 occured at EF:2EA7

ax=3BC4658 bx=0 cx=3F60A38 dx=790000

si=3BC75FC di=3F62F40 bp=3BC7ED8 sp=3BC463C

[eip] = FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

[esp] = 00A918F1 00000000 00000000 00A845D0 03BC4658 03E7BE30

dkrnl32: fatal exit!

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DOS isn't about why. It's about why not.

Hm, I though that someone test it before release, is shold be possible to make some minimal automated tests using VMs after build... OK, I'll wait.

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> Hm, I though that someone test it before release, is shold be possible to
> make some minimal automated tests using VMs after build... OK, I'll wait.

The releases are sort of tested: I test them immediately after release and report the problems I find. This time I could not sign in to Github, so I reported here hoping Wengier will see. Otherwise I'll report ön GH after work.

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DOS isn't about why. It's about why not.

I tested it just for sure...
It switched to GFX mode so I saw a mouse cursor for a 1/10s and exited back to dos. No stderror log file was created neither any message on screen. I didn't play futher.

But a good new is that Linux version of dosbox-x was significantly updated:
https://github.com/joncampbell123/dosbox-x/files/5759306/dosbox-x.linux.zip
https://github.com/joncampbell123/dosbox-x/release...osbox-x-v0.83.9/dosbox-x-dos-0.83.9-loadlin.zip
Now it detect my disks and SB Audigy. One must do a trick after boot to make it working - switch to linux console and mount the real partition to /mnt because dosbox-x still cannot mount it - complain cannot mount physFS, then you need aslo to mount it in dosbox window e.g. "mount d /mnt". Also I had to run alsamixer to boost master volume that was 0 by default. Then I could play games on my dos partition BUT when any game or my VESATEST tool try to swith in VESA LFB mode the whole thing hung - I mean also the host linux and I had to press reset button. Games like NFS1 that probably don't use LFB worked in SVGA mode.
Well not perfect but it starting to be usable...

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> No stderror log file was created
> neither any message on screen. I
> didn't play futher.

I captured the error messages using "DOSBOX-X > X". It's typical for HXGUI that the error messages are otherwise lost.

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DOS isn't about why. It's about why not.

> I captured the error messages using "DOSBOX-X > X". It's typical for HXGUI
> that the error messages are otherwise lost.

Even with stderr=.\hxstderr.log in HXGUIHLP.INI?

I also found that in higher VESA mode 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 the Quake start in VESA mode but when switching to other modes the full freeze happens.

Also found a problem that new win32 dosbox-x 0.83.9 doesn't run under WinXP - PE header need to be fixed OS version 6.0 -> 5.1 then it runs but when packed by UPX it again complains "invalid win32 app" but I could compress with pklite32w but with worse compression ratio (7,5MB intead of 5,1MB)...

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

Wengier published a new version that works.

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DOS isn't about why. It's about why not.

> Hm, I though that someone test it before release, is shold be possible to
> make some minimal automated tests using VMs after build... OK, I'll wait.

The HX-DOS build KormaX mentioned earlier was a pre-release build. It was never posted in the DOSBox-X website (https://dosbox-x.com). The following HX-DOS package (which both him and I have verified it to work) is the final HX-DOS build of DOSBox-X 0.83.9 (which also appears in the DOSBox-X website):

* dosbox-x-mingw-hx-dos-20210102130253.zip

> Wengier published a new version that works.

Yes, this is the final HX-DOS build for DOSBox-X 0.83.9. The previous one was never posted in the DOSBox-X website.

> > I captured the error messages using "DOSBOX-X > X". It's typical for
> HXGUI
> > that the error messages are otherwise lost.
>
> Even with stderr=.\hxstderr.log in HXGUIHLP.INI?
>
> I also found that in higher VESA mode 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 the Quake
> start in VESA mode but when switching to other modes the full freeze
> happens.
>
> Also found a problem that new win32 dosbox-x 0.83.9 doesn't run under WinXP
> - PE header need to be fixed OS version 6.0 -> 5.1 then it runs but when
> packed by UPX it again complains "invalid win32 app" but I could compress
> with pklite32w but with worse compression ratio (7,5MB intead of 5,1MB)...

You can try the MinGW builds for DOSBox-X 0.83.9 instead, which I have verified to run under Windows XP.

> Wengier published a new version that works.

OK, DL it and now it works.
In meantime I played with new dos-linux version and I was able to set mixer volume to desired value and add automount via fstab. So now it's well customized for instant DOS usage, except it freeze on some VESA modes switching.

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> You can try the MinGW builds for DOSBox-X 0.83.9 instead, which I have
> verified to run under Windows XP.

Yes, it works under XP also after UPXing. And it's ~1-2FPS faster in quake than MSVC build.

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

I don't actually understand the LOADLIN package. AFAIK loading Linux from DOS with LOADLIN deletes DOS from memory. But according to what you're saying, it doesn't. What's more when I tried it, it just crashed my system and rebooted the computer.

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DOS isn't about why. It's about why not.

Yes, it deletes DOS from memory and you cannot return to DOS, only reboot. But it starts very quickly and you don't need to mess with installing whole linux distro, repartition your HDD, just unpack the 10MB package on your FAT partition. Compared to HXDOS version it now includes more modern soundcards supports. Grapeli just released optimized 64-bit version that is significantly faster than older mentioned 32b version (I got 2-times FPS in Quake). Old version crashed on my PC too but this recent works fine for me.

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

hi all,

a question : the dosbox X packege FOR DOS can run win 3.11 programs?

Thanks

Roberto

I think there should not be difference between HX and other versions and it shoudl support up to Win98/Me but never tried. I still can run W3.x native.

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.