DOSBox 0.65 ... ftw [Archive] - Page 3 - maemo.org

Addison

2009-07-15, 03:43

You'll probably have to make a .bat file (I think) or add in a comment at the end of your dosbox.conf file [autoexec] and mount your game as a virtual CD.

Something along the lines of this:
mount d e:\ -t cdrom
mount d c:\dosgames\fallout -t cdrom

This is a wasted effort on your behalf trying to run this though...

It's going to run so chunky that it will feel like you're playing Fallout, the board game. *lol*

Good luck!

jself

2009-07-15, 03:56

The thing is I can't type anything, N800 and I couldn't get the xkbd to install, something about libpurple... god I can't remember.

I'm using Rubybox but of course I can't do CD-ROMs there

Addison

2009-07-15, 04:08

You're not going to be able to do too much without xkbd.

Ukki's Rubybox should be packaged with xkbd if you installed it correctly.

Otherwise, you'll need to go to ArnminS' site and manually install it yourself with the files he has available for download.
Xkbd (http://pupnik.de/xkbd.html)

jself

2009-07-15, 05:24

*EDIT* Got libxpm4 installed and xkbd. Hate these damn hassles..

Here was my problem with xkbd http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=273582 can't get libxpm4 to install

jself

2009-07-15, 06:14

Well going by your instructions but tweaked a bit...

DOSBox says MOUNT C "/media/mmc1/DOS/FALLOUT/"

when you run a setup through RubyBox... so I put in the bat file similar syntax for CD-ROM...

mount d "/media/mmc1/DOS/FALLOUT" -t cdrom
fallout.exe

and it still says "Could not find the master datafile. Please make sure the FALLOUT CD is in the drive and that you are running FALLOUT from the directory you installed it to.

aaargh.

Addison

2009-07-15, 07:31

I was in your boat more than once.

It's a turd sometimes for a newbie learning to install something that seems like it should be simple enough to do.

If I remember correctly, it took me an hour the first time to get every together for xkbd to be installed. Six months later, when I reflashed my Tablet, it took exactly the same darn time. :D

I think solution is to have that file on your memory card and install it directly from Xterm.

So download the libxpm4 file from the site mentioned previously, you can rename the file if it will make things easier for you, and then transfer it right there on your external memory card.

In Xterm:
cd /media/mmc2
dpkg -i libxpm4.deb (or whatever the full filename is) ENTER

That should get you over the hump.

Even though you'll never get Fallout working, at least you'll have a virtual keyboard. :)

For some interesting keyboard designs, you can check out an old post I made.
Xkbd Keyboards (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=218041)

Best of luck.

jself

2009-07-15, 18:32

I've got xkbd installed and it works although there was some error about umm... something unsupported. But it works. Sorry don't feel like firing my tablet up right now!

Anyway, I noticed how Daggerfall is slow enough I haven't gotten into the 3D world yet, so I'm likely not going to bother with Fallout. Thanks though!

elschemm

2009-07-22, 00:57

Well, I almost found a really good game to play with Dosbox.

Wizardry 1 (off the archives CD) needs things to be slowed down. Running emulated hardware does just that.

(I suppose I should mention that I am using a N810, I have .73-3, and got the nokia.sys and mapper file from page 41 of this thread)

The game plays almost perfectly. One small really annoying bug:
for some reason the '1' key (Fn-q) causes Wizardry to exit (with a 'Thank You for playing Wizardry message', so I don't think its a crash per-se).

I do not have this problem with the same executable running on DosBox under windows.

I hooked up an external USB keyboard, and the '1' key works perfectly there.

The rest of the numbers (at least 2-6) work fine in Wizardry.

The '1' key works fine from the Dos command prompt.

If I remove the 'keyb nokia.sys us' line from my autoexec.bat file, I lose the ability to type '1' with the nokia HW keyboard, but FN-q still causes the program to exit.

Any ideas?

Is it possible that Dosbox is using that sequence for something else internal? [Like an extra Ctrl-C or ESC or something?]

Schemm

Addison

2009-07-22, 10:05

CTRL-q would be "Quit", correct?

Maybe you have set "1" as a hotkey within the game.

Well, I've got some free time today and was going to restore Dosbox and Rubybox back up with the latest updates.

By the way, I always liked Wizardry.

In fact, maybe you should look at the translation patches I made for the Gameboy Color versions.
Wizardry Trilogy (http://www.angelfire.com/goth/patches/wizardry.html)

You can run them under the Gameboy Color emulator for the Tablet.

Anyway, I'll look into it and hopefully post back something tomorrow.

javispedro

2009-07-22, 10:16

The game plays almost perfectly. One small really annoying bug:
for some reason the '1' key (Fn-q) causes Wizardry to exit (with a 'Thank You for playing Wizardry message', so I don't think its a crash per-se).

This is known, and I'm working on it.

I made the unfortunate decision of mapping the FN key to AltGr, which of course I'm now regretting because of the behavior you described.

I assume pressing Alt+Q on the external keyboard makes the game quit too.

javispedro

2009-07-23, 11:39

Ok, 0.73-6 is up on extras-devel; or download and install with dpkg (application manager won't install it since i've dropped it from user/): dosbox_0.73-6_armel.deb (http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel/pool/diablo/free/d/dosbox/dosbox_0.73-6_armel.deb).
You'll also need newer nokia.sys (http://cosas.javispedro.com/dosbox/nokia.sys) if you're using it.

For non-N810 users there should be no changes. If there's any, bug me.

This only maps the N810 FN key to the "backquote" key instead of the right ALT key, so keyb can now handle it without interfering with applications.

I've been experimenting with a hildon-input-method compatible DOSBox now that I've got some minor experience tinkering with microb.

The main problem is that DOS applications read keyboard input through two methods: directly through the keyboard controller (method a, which of course gives key scancodes only), and through the BIOS (method b, which gives both scancode and ASCII value).

hildon-input-method sends utf8 strings instead, like "a", "á", "A", or even full words like "absolutely" (produced by the autocompleter).

In order to make applications using a) happy, I'd have to convert each utf8 char back into a scancode. "á"-like chars would need to be converted into the appropriate dead key presses, etcetera. This would be codepage, layout, and locale dependent: a ugly mess.

To make b) applications work, it's just a matter of choosing the appropriate codepage then converting utf8 chars to that codepage. Easier, but may limit compatibility.

There's also the problem with the hildon-input-method window. There's not enough space to even show the hw keyboard one without hiding part of the dosbox window, and from what I've seen so far scaling is SLOW. So it's either partially hide the dosbox window when the virtual keyboard is up or make it slow.

If you think I'm wrong, really want that feature, or have an idea please don't hesitate to reply.

elschemm

2009-07-30, 16:22

Thanks for the new version. Works good for wizardry! Well, after I slow down the CPU!

Would you be willing to post a link to your version of the source code for dosbox? Also to whatever you are using to setup the nokia.sys file? I'm curious how you handle the keyboard issues in there.

Thanks.

javispedro

2009-07-30, 16:47

Would you be willing to post a link to your version of the source code for dosbox? Also to whatever you are using to setup the nokia.sys file? I'm curious how you handle the keyboard issues in there.

Explanation:
I rewrote the DOSBox "keyb" based on the FreeDOS keyb documentation and my own understanding of the specification, because the original DOSBox keyb was missing some features, like User Modifiers support.

Then I used the KC compiler from FreeDOS (recompiled in Linux instead of DOS, easy since it is standard C) to build the nokia.sys from the following source Key language files:
ptes.key (http://cosas.javispedro.com/dosbox/ptes.key) (Portuguese-Spanish layout)
us.key (http://cosas.javispedro.com/dosbox/us.key) (US English layout)

The FN key is hardcoded in dosbox to the backquote key, and some other mappings I don't remember right now for the Chr and the Menu key.

You can get the pristine DOSBox source & patches in the Debian source package, available at http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel/pool/diablo/free/source/d/dosbox/ (if you don't have debian or dpkg-source contact me and I'll upload the patches somewhere).

Initially I wanted to push the new keyb upstream but noticed that many just let their "patches" float around in the dosbox world (specially those whose use does not seem clear) so be it.

BTW, I am waiting for permission to upload to the DOSBox garage project svn repository (asked the current maintainer a week ago: must be on holiday :)), since If I create yet another repository on my website DreamHost is going to kill me ;)

Lately I've been reading the DOSemu source code (which I personally prefer but unfortunately it's totally unportable), and seems to have solved the input problem in a totally different & maybe interesting way.

Addison

2009-07-31, 01:10

Many thanks again Javis!

Cherad

2009-08-05, 08:49

Um, where do I find a rubybox installer?
I've been trying for nearly 2 days now and all the links either don't work or I get the 'incompatible application package'.

Starting to get kinda frustrated now....

urnass

2009-08-05, 17:01

I believe I installed it using the Application Manager and the maemo Extra or Maemo Extra Developer (MED)catalogs/repositories. Sorry, I can't remember which one, but activate both & it should come up in the list of available applications. If you do enable the MED, but sure to deactivate after installing RubyBox, as not all the applications/updates are ready for primetime.

st5150

2009-08-07, 23:36

Ok, 0.73-6 is up on extras-devel;

Some basic questions, where is the config file to specify the auto mount dir on startup? Where should the .key file be placed?

javispedro

2009-08-08, 10:31

DOSBox is now on normal extras now too.

Some basic questions, where is the config file to specify the auto mount dir on startup? Where should the .key file be placed?

The config file is at ~/apps/DOSBox 0.73 Prefs.txt , should be autocreated at program startup with sane values.

.key files should not be place anywhere. The nokia.sys file should be place wherever you want, as long as it is accessible under DOSBox. To load it use "keyb C:\path\to\nokia.sys us".

st5150

2009-08-08, 16:47

Thanks for your efforts and the info javispedro. One more question for you or anyone else. What's the best way to get the xkbd below working? I've come up with a method, but it's sloppy.

New working double keyboard.

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9582/keyboardhe2.png

First, there is no Shift key, since it will break the Xkbd program.

However, there is a Caps Lock button, just below the red Backspace key.

Now, the Caps Lock button tends to carry it's flag when you close out the keyboard.

Meaning, that if you're typing in Caps, but the keyboard is all lower case, just press the Caps Lock button and close out the keyboard.

The next time you fire Xkbd up, everything should be all spiffy like, and you should only have to do this once.

Sorry for such an incredibly small font size.

Is there a way to customize each key as to how big the font is for it? I'd like to use three different font sizes in total.

I'm not finding how to do that. So any help on this would be really welcomed.

Also, anyone care to draw up an up, down, left, and right arrow keys?

Each button is 26 by 28 pixels I believe and the image needs to be in .xpm format. I have no clue on how to even begin doing that.

Edit your /usr/bin/dosboxxkbd file to
#!/bin/sh
xkbd -geometry +65536+65536 -k /media/mmc2/x2.xkbd & xkbd -geometry +722+65536 -k /media/mmc2/x.xkbd

Well, post any responses on the design or you can just pepper my stomach with tender kisses if you're feeling that grateful to me. :D

Cheers.

Here's the two files:
1215
1216

javispedro

2009-08-08, 20:13

I don't know the first thing about xkeyb (I'm using a N810), but just wanted to say that if you don't have a hardware keyboard you don't need nokia.sys at all (since it just does Fn keys).

Addison

2009-08-08, 20:24

Install Ukki's excellent Rubybox.
Rubybox (http://wiki.maemo.org/RubyBox)

Read up on everything about the Downloader and Xkbd.

It sounds like a lot of work but it's actually quite simple and you should have your keyboard set up within a few minutes after reading his wiki page.

Addison

2009-08-10, 02:49

Hey ukki and Javis!

I was prompted today to update Rubybox as well as Dosbox so I went ahead and downloaded the upgrades.

Now it's throwing fits on me. :(

If I type rbox in xterm, I get the following message:

/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/arm-linux-eabi/hildon.rb:11:in `require': no such file to load -- gtk2 (LoadError)
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/arm-linux-eabi/hildon.rb:11
from rbox.rb:2:in `require'
from rbox.rb:2

Any ideas on this?

Thanks!

elschemm

2009-08-28, 17:21

I've been trying to get 'Jones in the Fast Lane' working under DosBox. It's a mixed-mode CD (data and an audio track).

I had to update the drivers that the disk includes to get it to work, but I managed to get a working .cue and .bin file for it.

Those files work perfectly under Windows DosBox and an Ubuntu Dosbox.

However, they I get an MSCDEX error (MSCDEX: Failure: Path not valid.) when I try to use it on my N810.

(imgmount d /path/to/JONES.cue -t iso)

Interestingly, if I try to imgmount the .bin file, it works, but I only get the data (which is as per the DosBox wiki site).

So, my guess is that either:
a) Cue files are not supported on the Maemo version of DosBox?
b) Something is wrong with the internal path parsing for the Maemo version of DosBox.
c) I am missing something horribly obvious.

Yes, I have tried to rename the cue and iso files to all lower case (thinking that might be the problem). I also tried to hard code a full pathname to the bin inside the cue file. No joy.

Any ideas? or can anyone confirm either of my hypotheses?

Thanks

Addison

2009-08-28, 21:44

I had this running in Dosbox over a year ago and it wasn't that hard at all if I remember correctly.

I believe I ended up installing the game from my CD onto my Windows Desktop (you won't want to install any music drivers since Dosbox on the Tablet can't handle the processing speed) and then transferred the whole folder right onto my memory card.

From there I used Rubybox and tweaked the settings for best performance.

I'm not seeing any reason to mount the entire CD like you're doing directly on the Tablet.

Post back if you have any luck or have more questions. I can always hunt down my CD somewhere and try it again with a better explanation next time.

Edit:
Does anyone need a simple explanation on how to get Xkbd installed?
I broke open a new tablet a few days ago and getting Xkbd installed was quite the pain (I thought it was packaged with Rubybox, oh well) but anyway, I have a pretty simple solution for it now.

javispedro

2009-08-29, 01:22

a) Cue files are not supported on the Maemo version of DosBox?

You're right, CUE files with audio tracks are not supported in this version because of missing SDL_audio library (which is not ported AFAIK).

If you really want the feature I can have a look at it, but I'd suggest doing what Addison says.

Addison

2009-08-29, 16:52

Heya Javis!

I'm having a little trouble getting nokia.sys properly placed and loaded in Dosbox upon initial startup.

It's currently on my internal flash at
/home/user/apps/nokia.sys --> right next to the DOSBox preferences file.

So what command would I type at the end of the [autoexec] portion in the DOSBox 0.73 Preferences.txt file to get this working?

Thanks!

ukki

2009-08-29, 17:03

Edit:
Does anyone need a simple explanation on how to get Xkbd installed?
I broke open a new tablet a few days ago and getting Xkbd installed was quite the pain (I thought it was packaged with Rubybox, oh well) but anyway, I have a pretty simple solution for it now.

It used to be bundled, but now that RubyBox is in extras, I can't depend on it anymore since xkbd has no source available and therefore can't enter extras.

javispedro

2009-08-29, 19:14

So what command would I type at the end of the [autoexec] portion in the DOSBox 0.73 Preferences.txt file to get this working?

If you can, do it by adding the following under [dos] section:

keyboardlayoutfile=/home/user/apps/nokia.sys
keyboardlayout=us
codepagefile=auto
codepage=auto

This way you can use Linux paths, and there's no need to add "keyb" to autoexec.bat .

Addison

2009-08-30, 00:18

Okay. I think I'm seeing what the slight problem is here with getting the N800's hardware keys working correctly.

Hey ukki, when you have two minutes, can you upload the mapper.txt on your site to make it available for download next to Pushwall's mapper?

Thanks ahead big chief. :)

javispedro

2009-08-30, 00:54

Eh? Stop confusing me ;) The Nokia.sys file is only useful for N810, with FN and Chr keys.

Addison

2009-08-30, 00:59

I thought the nokia.sys was for all hardware keys for both tablet models.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I consider myself yelled at. :)

Addison

2009-08-31, 02:52

For those of you who would like to have the N800 hardware keys active and functional, ukki just uploaded his mapper file for them.

You can find it under his download feature in Rubybox and they work perfectly! :)

Addison

2009-08-31, 15:45

Hey javis!

Just one simple request in case you ever update Dosbox again.

When it's not in full screen mode, all I can see is "DOSBox - OE" in the upper left hand window, before it used to show the cycle speed.

It was a very nice feature to have previously.

For example, Death Gate required an exact cycle speed of 875 with a frame skip of 4 to make the voice acting perfect with no studdering.

It's hard to know what speed I'm at while testing if I can't see this value.

It's no biggie. And if you can't get to this, that's perfectly fine. :)

Cheers.

stacia

2009-09-14, 07:32

Hey there, does anyone know if dosbox is supposed to crash if I change core to dynamic? I can't tell if this was ever integrated. I found a link to here: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=19193

Which seems to suggest some work was being done for the ARM dynamic core. Will this be integrated into dosbox ever?

Also, a quick search couldn't find this answer: what are the buttons I press for scaling CPU/frameskip up or down? I have the n810 with the keyboard and would rather not use some crazy keyboard overlay app to achieve this.

And last but not least, does anyone have just a very general dosbox conf lying around? I know basic stuff but I always figured that part of the hard part of making a conf file is that everyone's box is differet, which isn't the case of the nokia. What's a good cpu cycle and frameskip speed? What's a good trick to keep the sound from skipping and slowing down the game? I can't seem to get rubybox to download any saved config files.

javispedro

2009-09-14, 08:40

Hey there, does anyone know if dosbox is supposed to crash if I change core to dynamic? I can't tell if this was ever integrated. I found a link to here: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=19193

Which seems to suggest some work was being done for the ARM dynamic core. Will this be integrated into dosbox ever?
An older version of it was integrated in 0.73, the build in extras uses risc_armv4le-thumb-niw .

AFAIU, it's only enabled if either:
-"core" is set to "auto" and protected mode is enabled.
-"core" is set to "dynamic".

Also, a quick search couldn't find this answer: what are the buttons I press for scaling CPU/frameskip up or down? I have the n810 with the keyboard and would rather not use some crazy keyboard overlay app to achieve this.
Fully programmable. You can boot the key mapper with "dosbox -startmapper", and map them to the zoom -/+ keys.

ukki

2009-09-14, 18:55

I can't seem to get rubybox to download any saved config files.

Was the server down or is this problem still present?

Addison

2009-09-15, 04:21

I realized about two months ago that all of the settings I uploaded to your site Ukki are probably incorrect.

I had changed the default dosbox.conf file so I didn't have to keep making the necessary tweaks on each and every game.

Anyway, for some reason, those changes didn't carry over when uploading them so all of those game configurations are probably much stupid to use.

I might go back over them in a week or two and try to fix them up a bit. :)

Stereoprism

2009-09-24, 21:07

I'm a newbie with an n800, trying to play Ultima 4/5/6 on dosbox. I might be missing something obvious, but how do I move around? the cursor keys aren't moving the avatar, and none of the xkbd keys work, either. I'd rather not spring for a hw bluetooth keyboard, but I definitely like the idea of playing ultima in transit.

Oh, also, I've been trying to play ultima underworld, but the mouse pointer is waaay off from where I'm poking the stylus. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Addison

2009-09-24, 22:43

As for cursor weirdness, go to the advanced settings in Rubybox and change "sdl autolock" to false.

If you haven't already, grab and use ukki's mapper file in his download feature.

Stereoprism

2009-09-24, 23:25

which mapper file? I've downloaded both in the download feature, and have tried mappercsa and mapper72 with ultima iv, and niether seem to work.

As for the sdl autolock w/ UW, I changed it to false, but the mouse pointer is far to the left and slightly up from where I'm touching the screen with the stylus, still off.

Addison

2009-09-25, 02:44

which mapper file? I've downloaded both in the download feature, and have tried mappercsa and mapper72 with ultima iv, and niether seem to work.

Yep. Very good.

"mapper72" is the way to go for all games and applications unless you're playing around with some of Pushwall's suggestions in the Games that work well with Dosbox thread... then you would be using his instead.

The first time you tap the stylus on the screen, I match it up with wherever the cursor is at that time. Doing this, I never have an issue with the pointer behavior being off.

If you still find that the stylus and pointer aren't quite matching up together, drag the stylus to one corner of the screen so that it "catches up" to the mouse pointer. Should do the trick.

If this doesn't work, then you most likely have some funky Dosbox settings. If you've got the cycle speed cranked too high or some ridiculous frame skipping, it could very well be the cause of such behavior.

Not sure why you're not seeing any movement with your avatar.

There's also a Rightdosbox2 or Leftdosbox2 keyboard that you can place on the other side of the display screen. It has a "numlock" key that might activate the keypad. It also has the four cursor keys there as well which are represented by four circles.

Know what? I'll try looking into this a little later tonight if I can find the time to do so unless one of these suggestions ends up working for you. :)

Cheers.

Stereoprism

2009-09-25, 03:21

Yeah, still nothing. I tried Rightdosbox2 and using the circle keys, as well as NL and the keypad, and still no movement. The select button in the middle of my directional keys is working as "enter", but for some reason the directional keys aren't working at all.

Would it help if I told you I installed xkbd via rubybox? I know I have libxpm4 installed, so that shouldn't be an issue. It's kinda frustrating, I feel like I'm right on the edge of exploring Britannia again, but the avatar has his feet glued to the grass : P

Your method for the mouse pointer in UW works fantastically, I can't believe I hadn't thought to do that. Now I just need to figure out if I can get it to not run like a slug.

I'd still appreciate any help, and thanks again.

Addison

2009-09-25, 03:27

Okay. I'll find some time later tonight to help you problem solve for this.

Give me about 3 hours or so after the wife passes out. :)

In the meantime, maybe you should have a look at these:

Aklabeth - Ultima 0 (http://pupnik.de/aklabeth.html)

xu4 - Ultima 4 RPG Engine (http://pupnik.de/xu4770.html)

Exult Ultima 7 RPG remake (http://pupnik.de/exult770.html)

Pentagram - Ultima 8 Engine (http://pupnik.de/pentagram.html)

I haven't installed any of these myself because it seemed a little too complicated to do so.

If you "Search" the forums however, there's been a few discussions on these games.

Pushwall

2009-09-25, 16:33

I just tried the Ultima IV that you can download through RubyBox, since that is the one with enhanced graphics and music. The directional keys work fine for me on the map. I'm using the mapper72 file like Addison suggested. Here's a reference for all the key commands too if that helps:
http://www.paradroid.net/u4/refguide/refguide.html

ukki

2009-09-25, 17:07

which mapper file? I've downloaded both in the download feature, and have tried mappercsa and mapper72 with ultima iv, and niether seem to work.

Did you try rebooting your tablet? xkbd can sometimes really mess up the input.

Stereoprism

2009-09-25, 17:44

I tried rebooting, still no movement.

For what it's worth, I do have the upgraded in-program download version of U4, and here are the options I have checked on in the rubybox settings:

Basic:

cpu cycles max
render frameskip 4
sdl fullscreen true

advanced:

dos keyboardlayout auto
dos keyboardlayoutfile auto
mixer prebuffer 400
sdl autolock false
sdl mapperfile /home/user/.rubybox/.mappers/mapper72.txt

I tried it with and without the keyboardlayout options enabled, niether made a difference. : /

Pushwall

2009-09-25, 19:05

For what it's worth, I do have the upgraded in-program download version of U4, and here are the options I have checked on in the rubybox settings:

Basic:

cpu cycles max
render frameskip 4
sdl fullscreen true

advanced:

dos keyboardlayout auto
dos keyboardlayoutfile auto
mixer prebuffer 400
sdl autolock false
sdl mapperfile /home/user/.rubybox/.mappers/mapper72.txt

FWIW, here are my settings that I have checked...

Basic:
cpu cycles max
render frameskip 2
sdl fullscreen false
Advanced:
mixer prebuffer 400
sdl autolock true
sdl mapperfile /home/user/.rubybox/mappers/mapper72.txt

I'll check when I have time and see if I can see why you're having problems.

UPDATE: Try the setting: sdl fullscreen false when starting the game. (You can go fullscreen once the game is launched.) See if that helps. I just tried launching the game fullscreen and ran into your problem. When I start the game in a window I don't have the problem.

Stereoprism

2009-09-26, 18:37

I tried starting w/ windowed mode... still no luck. I should also add that i have this problem with all of the dosbox games. my directional keys work fine with everything else, though.

ironically, if i could just kill some skeletons or orcs, it might relieve some frustration!

is it to the point of a necessary uninstall/reinstall of dosbox?

Addison

2009-09-26, 19:37

Setting CPU cycles to max is a really bad idea. :)

It's much better to set that value with a number, somewhere between 800 and 1800 I believe.

Stereoprism, open up Xterm while you have a Xkbd keyboard on the screen and start pressing the number pad. Post back on your results.

Let's start from there to better problem solve what's happening on your end.

Stereoprism

2009-09-26, 20:13

Stereoprism, open up Xterm while you have a Xkbd keyboard on the screen and start pressing the number pad. Post back on your results.

Let's start from there to better problem solve what's happening on your end.

Okay, opened up rubybox, ran U4 in windowed mode, started xterm, and all the keys in xkbd seem to be working in xterm, including the directional/dot keys. It's only the directional keys in dosbox that aren't working.

I did get one of the directional keys to work in duke nukum I - The down key fires his gun : P none of the others do anything, though.

Addison

2009-09-26, 20:19

Okay. That's one closer step in figuring out what's wrong on your end.

And you're sure that you have "mapper72" active with each game you're testing?

Stereoprism

2009-09-26, 20:37

yes, mapper72. It's just weird that only the directional keys aren't working.

Addison

2009-09-26, 22:08

Okay. Next test.

Have Rubybox point to any file in a game folder that's not an .exe file causing it to crash and go to the Dos Command prompt.

Try using the keypad at that prompt and post back.

Stupid question, but you don't have the setting for joystick enable do you?

Stereoprism

2009-09-26, 22:14

Okay, I tried that, same thing, I can type in anything on the xkbd, but the directional keys still don't work. And no, I don't have any of the joystick options enabled.

Maybe I just need to consider a bluetooth keyboard or connecting a keyboard through usb... though it seems goofy to use a full size keyboard on a handheld device : ) Though it might not matter if I can't get what I have now to work.

Addison

2009-09-26, 22:28

Okay, I tried that, same thing, I can type in anything on the xkbd, but the directional keys still don't work. And no, I don't have any of the joystick options enabled.

So numbers 1 through 9 work correctly?

I personally have yet to find a game that requires the directional keys. You're talking about the up, down, left and right buttons on a standard keyboard, correct?

Just to be sure on this, you're having problems with the four buttons that have a circle to them in either the Rightdosbox2 or Leftdosbox2 xkbd keyboard?

Stereoprism

2009-09-26, 22:37

So numbers 1 through 9 work correctly?

I personally have yet to find a game that requires the directional keys. You're talking about the up, down, left and right buttons on a standard keyboard, correct?

Just to be sure on this, you're having problems with the four buttons that have a circle to them in either the Rightdosbox2 or Leftdosbox2 xkbd keyboard?

yep. as well as the directional keys on the upper left on the face of my n800.

and yes, number keys on xkbd 1-9 work fine... I did try the NL key, figuring it was numlock, and it doesn't allow the keypad to move the avatar. Plus, I'd just prefer my hardware directional keys to work.

Addison

2009-09-26, 22:41

Okay. Give me a few minutes and I'll look into it.

What game are you using again so I can test this?

Stereoprism

2009-09-26, 22:45

ultima iv (the upgraded edition from the rubybox download feature)

Addison

2009-09-26, 22:46

Okay. I'll post back in a little bit. :)

Pushwall

2009-09-26, 22:49

Let me throw in one suggestion.....run XTerm and from the command line type in rbox to run RubyBox. Now see if the directional key works in the games.

Addison

2009-09-26, 23:36

Think I might have even a better suggestion than Pushwall's.

Okay.

Press the hardware "Home" key on the tablet during your game.

This should pull up a Dosbox tab thingie on the left side.

Next, tap the stylus anywhere on the screen except for that tab area. This will close the tab.

See if everything works after that and post back.

Stereoprism

2009-09-27, 19:56

sorry, tried both methods, and niether suggestion worked : /

Addison

2009-09-27, 20:45

Well shoot!

I know that there are times when xkbd doesn't respond at all in Dosbox and the above trick immediately resolves the situation.

I tried running Ultima IV, the upgrade version but it's been crashing on me.

What are your settings for this?

Stereoprism

2009-09-27, 21:00

Basic:

cpu cycles 1400
render frameskip 2
sdl fullscreen false

advanced:

mixer prebuffer 400
sdl autolock true
sdl mapperfile /home/user/.rubybox/.mappers/mapper72.txt

Addison

2009-09-27, 21:45

Sorry, but do you also have a save file as well?

I can look it over while watching football. :)

Pushwall

2009-09-27, 22:08

Stereoprism, just for kicks try this.....copy my old /usr/share/dosbox directory to your internal memory (a copy this directory can be obtained here (http://intermag.magnode.com/pushwall/usr_share_dosbox.zip)). Now see if your directional pad works when you run games through RubyBox. This was an initial fix for me awhile back. If it doesn't work, just delete the /usr/share/dosbox directory from your internal memory.

Stereoprism

2009-09-28, 00:21

pushwall: how do I copy it to my internal memory? I'm a complete newbie at this. I've read instances where one has to put files in directories like that, but all I've seen is what's on the file manager. I can't browse the internal memory except what's in my document, audio clip, etc. directories.

Addison:

This is what showed up in xterm while I ran U4:

~ $ rbox

^[[A^[[B^[[Sorry - server Keyboard map doesn't contain either 2 or 4 KeySyms per Keycode - unsupported!

Sorry - server Keyboard map doesn't contain either 2 or 4 KeySyms per Keycode - unsupported!

Sorry - server Keyboard map doesn't contain either 2 or 4 KeySyms per Keycode - unsupported!

DOSBox version 0.73

Copyright 2002-2009 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.

---

CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /home/user/apps/DOSBox 0.73 Preferences.txt

CONFIG:Loading additional settings from config file /home/user/.rubybox/Roleplaying_Games/ultima_iv_-_upgrade_version.conf

ALSA lib seq.c:935:(snd_seq_open_noupdate) Unknown SEQ hw

ALSA:Can't open sequencer

MIDI:Opened device:none

MAPPER: Loading mapper settings from /home/user/.rubybox/.mappers/mapper72.txt

killall: dosbox: no process killed

Sorry - server Keyboard map doesn't contain either 2 or 4 KeySyms per Keycode - unsupported!

Sorry - server Keyboard map doesn't contain either 2 or 4 KeySyms per Keycode - unsupported!

Sorry - server Keyboard map doesn't contain either 2 or 4 KeySyms per Keycode - unsupported!

DOSBox version 0.73

Copyright 2002-2009 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.

---

CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /home/user/apps/DOSBox 0.73 Preferences.txt

CONFIG:Loading additional settings from config file /home/user/.rubybox/Roleplaying_Games/ultima_iv_-_upgrade_version.conf

ALSA lib seq.c:935:(snd_seq_open_noupdate) Unknown SEQ hw

ALSA:Can't open sequencer

MIDI:Opened device:none

MAPPER: Loading mapper settings from /home/user/.rubybox/.mappers/mapper72.txt

killall: dosbox: no process killed

killall: xkbd: no process killed

killall: dosbox: no process killed

~ $

Addison

2009-09-28, 04:23

Hey Pushwall!

If you ask me, we should just give up on Stereoprism, he's probably a freak anyway. :)

Okay.

So looking over all of those errors you posted, they actually look about right.

Strange as it might seem, as far as I know, they're nothing to worry about. So you should be good.

I'm thinking it's got to be the game you're running and there's something simple we're missing.

Try this and we'll know for sure.

Download Nethack:
Nethack (http://www.nethack.org/v343/ports/download-msdos.html)

Fire it up, create a quick character and see if you can move him with the number pad as well as your hardware D Pad.

Let's us know your results.

I'm guessing that it should work.

Stereoprism

2009-09-28, 16:29

I tried nethack (which seems really fun btw), and it's the same problem. No directional movement on the hardware d pad or the xkbd directional keys.

I'm trying to use xarchiver to place pushwall's directory files, but it won't let me extract into the main file library, claiming that I don't have the right permissions.

I believe I've gained root access via xterminal by downloading rootsh and typing "gain root" in xterm. I should be able to extract to these directories, right?

Pushwall

2009-09-28, 18:32

I believe I've gained root access via xterminal by downloading rootsh and typing "gain root" in xterm. I should be able to extract to these directories, right?
In XTerminal after you have gained root access, see if you can type in these commands:
cd /usr/share
mkdir dosbox

If that works, then try using xarchiver to place the files into the directory:
/usr/share/dosbox

Stereoprism

2009-09-28, 18:48

Okay, I've tried it, and xarchiver is still saying I don't have permission to extract to usr/share/dosbox : [

should I activate red pill mode, or does that matter at all?

Pushwall

2009-09-28, 19:01

Before you do that,.....I just remembered that the files in my zip file have the directory structure /usr/share/dosbox as part of the zip file. Try using xarchiver to place the files in this new zip file (http://intermag.magnode.com/pushwall/dosboxx.zip) into /usr/share/dosbox (this zip file doesn't have the file structure associated with it).

Stereoprism

2009-09-28, 19:42

yeah, it's still saying I don't have the right permissions to extract to that directory.

Pushwall

2009-09-28, 19:54

Okay my next suggestion is to install the file manager EmelFM2 (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=26068&highlight=emelfm2). Once that is installed, you can use a cardreader (if you don't already have one, they are cheap and found most anywhere) to transfer the individual files in that zip file from Windows to a directory on your tablet's media card. And then use EmelFM2 to copy those files from the media card to the /usr/share/dosbox directory.

(BTW, I personally use WinSCP to transfer files back and forth from WIndows to my tablet and vice versa, but that's too complicated to get into right now. I do suggest you learn about WinSCP and use it since it makes file transfers like this so much faster and easier.)

Stereoprism

2009-09-28, 20:32

Pushwall

2009-09-28, 20:54

I extracted the files into a dir on my external sd card, and tried to move them over with emelfm2, but it's not letting me again. It seems like there's something still denying access. I don't know if a cardreader would make any difference. I have a usb cable I use to connect to my pc at home, but I don't think I can get access to the root internal memory from a pc, can I?
Yes you can access the tablet's internal memory from a PC using WinSCP. That's one of its great features.

Since you have the files over on your media card, you should be able to copy them over to /usr/share/dosbox directory. One question,...did you run emelfm2 while in root mode in XTerm? If not, try running emelfm2 in root mode and then copy the files. If this doesn't work and you still don't have access permissions, you can use emelfm2 to read and change directory permissions. In emelfm2, go to the /usr/share directory and tap on the dosbox directory. Press the menu key (the middle one on the left below the Escape key) and it will pull up a menu. Select Actions, and then select Change permissions. You'll see what the current permissions are for the directory with boxes you can check and uncheck to change the permissions.

Stereoprism

2009-09-28, 21:14

I tried running emelfm2 w/ root enabled on xterm, didn't work, and then I tried changing permissions. When I bring up the change permissions window, it says I don't have authority to make any changes.

I wonder why nokia didn't just make the entire file system open to begin with...

Pushwall

2009-09-28, 21:34

Okay, I'm running out of ideas but let's try this. Since this is an access permissions problem, let's double-check your root status. Go into xterm and enable root. Type in:
whoami

It should say 'root'. If it says something else like 'user' then you aren't logged in as root.

Stereoprism

2009-09-28, 21:59

Okay, it does indeed say "root" when I type in "whoami". I'm still unable to change permissions with the directory.

btw, I realize just how ridiculous this is getting. I promise I'm not just making up problems to solve : P

Pushwall

2009-09-28, 23:30

Ridiculous stuff is Addison's territory. Addison? Addison? Where are you when I need you bud?!! :D

Okay let's try this. Enable root in xterm, type in and run emelfm2, and then try to copy any file from your media card to the /usr/share directory. What happens?

Stereoprism

2009-09-28, 23:48

Ok, I'll try that later tonight after I've recharged it. I'm at work right now and it's gone dead :P

Maybe I should also state that I bought my n800 used, if that makes a difference.

Addison

2009-09-29, 00:18

Hey Stereo, would it kill you just to reflash the whole darn tablet? :D

Only thing left that I can think of is that you either had or have "Maemo Extras-Develop" added as one of your catalogs at some point in time.

If that's correct than you basically would have been ungrading to an older, broken version.

Happened to me about a month ago.

Chatted with ukki over at #knots on freenode and he had me delete something but I forgot what.

And with that, I'm out of suggestions.

Take luck and care! *lol*

Stereoprism

2009-09-29, 13:36

GADZOOKS, PUSHWALL!

it worked!

I've always wanted to say gadzooks.

I ran the file manager from xterm after gaining root, and now I'm able to use the directional keys. Thanks for all the effort, both of you. Very much appreciated.

Pushwall

2009-09-29, 15:48

Haha that's great! :cool:

So was it copying my dosbox directory into the /usr/share directory the thing that worked? I'm curious since that was how I got the directional keys to work initially for me with new version of DosBox. Or was it something else?

Stereoprism

2009-09-29, 16:12

No, that was it, copying your files into usr/share/dosbox/. I have no idea how or why it worked, but I'm happy it did!

Addison

2009-09-29, 21:18

I liked my simple solution better............ all 10 of them. :)

It's great to hear you got it working. One last suggestion though.

The default dosbox.conf file is not at all optimized to run on the tablet.

You basically need to go through numerous options, both basic and advanced, to boost up little bits of speed here and there.

Well, nice to see another Dosbox fan.

For a while there, I thought it was only Pushwall and myself left. :)

Stereoprism

2009-09-29, 21:23

I love dosbox, and I'm quite glad it's on my n800.

Any links to instructions on boosting dosbox speeds? It should all be pretty standard, since we're looking at the same hardware, no matter what n8x0 you're looking at.

javispedro

2009-09-30, 10:39

Just for the record, I am a DOSBox fan too (of course), only I use it for old applications more than games (thus the reason I'd like DOSemu better, but that's not possible).

Addison

2009-10-01, 04:31

Well Stereoprism, the list of what to do in boosting speed can be rather long and extensive.

Main thing to realize is that removing Soundblaster in Dosbox and installing a game without music support is the strongest method to enhance performance.

I'll try to post several little suggestions though in a couple of days.

Sorry Javis for not mentioning you like DOS as well.

How could I have forgotten the dude who compiled this for us? :D

Thor

2009-10-01, 04:57

Hi all, I've been reading this thread with interest and hoping the N900 will handle this and other emulators like MAME etc.

Great stuff :)

Addison

2009-10-02, 19:29

Maybe we should start a new thread on Dosbox performance tricks or something.

Maybe with enough feedback from a few of us we could get better final results by adding the compiled suggestions of everyone.

I'll start with the first trick:
I believe having the game folder located in your internal flash memory gives you about an extra 50 cycles speed boost when compared to using a memory card.

Okay. Who's found something else worth noting? :)

javispedro

2009-10-02, 19:54

Maybe we should start a new thread on Dosbox performance tricks or something.)

Do you have a benchmark or some game you can easily measure performance?

If so, may I ask you to try a modified build of DOSBox I just made?
Debian package:
dosbox_0.73-7maemo4test1_armel.deb (http://depot.javispedro.com/dosbox/dosbox_0.73-7maemo4test1_armel.deb)
Gzipped binary:
dosbox.gz (http://depot.javispedro.com/dosbox/dosbox.gz)
Use one of the above, not both (whatever is easiest for you).

Addison

2009-10-02, 21:25

Oooooh!

Okay, I think I just got a little too excited there but any new release from you touches me in dirty places. :D

Well, I've got tonight off so I'll definitely give it a try! I can just download the .deb and then install it over the current version, correct?

The "benchmark" game, if you will, was X-COM: UFO Defense (http://www.mobygames.com/game/x-com-ufo-defense/screenshots).

That 50 increase in cycle speed by putting on internal flash was only subjective.

Anyway, with every little tweak here and there, I actually got it running quite nicely. Big surprise on that! :)

The thing is, I finally gave up since there was no way to get around using the right click function required in the game.

Can't wait to test it out later tonight.

Many thanks!

javispedro

2009-10-02, 21:27

Well, I've got tonight off so I'll definitely give it a try! I can just download the .deb and then install it over the current version, correct?
Yes, but this build may be even slower (it is for some test cases of mine). That's why I am asking :)

Addison

2009-10-03, 18:05

Okay, I give up.

Subjectively I'm not seeing much of any difference in this new build.

It does "feel" more rock steady and stable though.

What changes are in this latest version?

javispedro

2009-10-03, 18:10

I only changed the way it's compiled (-O2 vs previous -Os), if you don't think it's any faster then I'm keeping -Os since my djgpp test program works a bit faster too (contrary to common sense, but those things happen).

Addison

2009-10-03, 18:18

I would have to say that the old version is a little faster but the difference is pretty much negligible.

Is there any way to incorporate a right click feature?

I know that it's not programmed directly in Dosbox to allow such a thing so you would have to write the entire script yourself.

I'm guessing that it wouldn't be worth the headache.

Stereoprism

2009-10-03, 19:26

Addison

2009-10-03, 20:13

It'd be neat to be able to hold down one of the buttons to change the touchpad to right-click.

Such an innovation would make it possible to play the Ultima Underworld games on the go, which would be absolutely fantastic.

You're really strung up on Ultima aren't you? :)

I'd say use Javis' latest SNES emulator.

I think there's three or four Ultima games that were released for that system and you're going to get better performance than what Dosbox can bring.

Stereoprism

2009-10-03, 20:44

not necessarily strung up... I just grew up with the games and am delighted to be able to play them on a mobile device : )

Addison

2009-10-04, 04:48

I remember playing the first Ultima on Nintendo for almost two months.

It's amazing how I was willing to overlook graphics, music and gameplay.

Runes of the Avatar was my favorite. I lent it out to a friend who decided not to give it back to me.

He was shot in the shoulder once so I had no problem letting him keep it.

ArnimS

2009-12-10, 09:31

It'd be neat to be able to hold down one of the buttons to change the touchpad to right-click.

Such an innovation would make it possible to play the Ultima Underworld games on the go, which would be absolutely fantastic.

I've spent about 3 hours trying to tweak Underworld to playability on dosbox. Speed is almost there if you turn off all the tiles. But steering is next-to-impossible due to the mouse interface.

There are projects to reverse-engineer Underworld out there. If you love the game, contribute to them. Otherwise i doubt you will be playing Underworld on N900.

Ever ;)

ArnimS

2009-12-18, 14:44

javispedro

2009-12-22, 18:07

pupnik, I've just pushed a new build today (no performance changes at all) but didn't notice this. What have you been playing with?

2disbetter

2009-12-23, 13:31

I'm happy to report Dosbox running stable on my N900. Sound is a bit choppy being pushed through as soundblaster. I've got it running Wizardry 7. Works like a champ, although the missing escape key makes me watch the entire intro every time I load it up.

One of these days I'll get around to remapping the keyboard.

At any rate there is certianly room for improvement performance wise, but I'm content as is.

Thanks for all the hard work!

For the record I'm a total dosbox fan. I grew up on dos.

shapeshifter

2009-12-23, 14:05

I'm looking forward to some red alert 1. I wonder how stylus input will be going...

LordJuanlo

2009-12-23, 16:54

I just tried DOSBox, I installed the game AlQuadim Genie's Curse, with no sound it works, a little slow, but it works. However the N900 resets when I choose Gravis UltraSound (it's properly detected and enabled by the game sound configurator). Will try Sound Blaster mode later.

DOSBox is an emulator at it shouldn't be able to reset the phone, everything that happens inside it should keep inside it.

Addison

2009-12-24, 00:47

Playing with new dosbox builds atm- getting up to 2000 cycles with steady sound, with this bin and conf...

If you want to help compare speed to current dosbox build, cat the zips to a .tbz and uncompress. be sure to have a ssh session open so you can kill the process,

No luck getting SDL to talk straight to alsa yet.

2,000 for cycle speeds was the best you could get?

Don't get me wrong, I'll totally buy into that from you.

Qole promised awhile back that 3,000 would be possible. What happened?! :D

Well shoot, that's probably still not good enough to run music files for early 90s games then, is that correct?

ArnimS

2009-12-27, 16:59

What is ouir wishlist for a dosbox that doesnt suck?

here is mine
- screen as touchpad for relative mouse control: rocker button-+become left / right click
edit: harder than you would expect.. cursor keeps jumping.
- N900 accel as mouse or joystick with screen sensor fire button
- N800 and 900 hw scaling
- N900 pasuspender output for low cpu use in audio (400-700 cycle win)
- Suspend on loss of window focus
- Mapper convertor from nokia map to mapper.txt

How about your wishes, addison? Lets get goin.

edit javispedro im not sure my build is faster. sometimes things get weird. lots of cflag experimenting.
here is profile build http://pupnik.de/dosbox_pup26.tgz

javispedro

2009-12-27, 17:18

- Mapper convertor from nokia map to mapper.txt
The problem with this is that your average PC keyboard doesn't have ";" key. It has "," key, and "Shift"+"," producing ";", which is handled by the BIOS/keyb.

The DOSBox mapper acts at a scancode level. Thus it cannot map anything to ";" because there's no ";" scancode. At best, the mapper could allow you to create macros like "Press Shift -> Press , -> release , -> Release Shift" (which is something it doesn't allow currently).

Keyb/Nokia.sys/Rover.sys acts at BIOS level. Thus it gets to decide which string "Shift" + "," scancode produces.

The only problem with the keyb approach is that some games potentially may bypass it. But those games wouldn't work with international PC Keyboard layouts either.

Addison

2009-12-27, 18:19

- screen as touchpad for relative mouse control: rocker button-+become left / right click

I just might have a surprise for you. :D

I'll try and post this later tonight.

As far as I know, it's an awesome solution that hasn't been done before outside of qole's easy debian project.

Anyway, my wishlist?

Honestly it's not much.

I still get goofy just being able to play something like Nobunaga's Ambition 2 without the need of a computer. :)

I guess for me though, being able to run Legend Entertainment games with full, unbroken music and sound without the need to drop the cycle speeds down to 275.

Sure I can get something like Eric the Unready working great on my N800. It's just not the same without the excellent music to support the gameplay.

I think we're still a good 10 years away before we see a small handheld capable of 30,000 cycles.

So for me, I'm happy enough to keep it old, old school for now. :)

forcer

2009-12-28, 11:48

I'm looking forward to some red alert 1. I wonder how stylus input will be going...

I have command & conquer: tiberian dawn on my n900, it's too slow. I tried to tweak dosbox.conf, but no luck squeezing more power from it, so I guess we will need to wait for better dosbox build.

And I would be very glad to see better mouse handling, when you get to edge of the screen(top/down or left/right), mouse cursor just looses calibration.

cddiede

2009-12-28, 12:40

Playing with new dosbox builds atm- getting up to 2000 cycles with steady sound, with this bin and conf...

No luck getting SDL to talk straight to alsa yet.

2000 cycles is great and all, but when can we expect a version of DOSbox that lets us type numbers?

javispedro

2009-12-28, 12:53

2000 cycles is great and all, but when can we expect a version of DOSbox that lets us type numbers?

How many threads there are where I have explained this? Search for rover.sys .

ArnimS

2009-12-28, 15:57

What is ouir wishlist for a dosbox that doesnt suck?

here is mine
- screen as touchpad for relative mouse control: rocker button-+become left / right click
edit: harder than you would expect.. cursor keeps jumping.

Implemented, i think!

I patched javispedro's maemo5 tree - build is here: http://pupnik.de/dosbox_pup53_bin.tgz
Before launching,
1) set environment variable
~$ export SDL_MOUSE_RELATIVE='0'
2) turn off autolock in your dosbox config /home/user/.dosbox/dosbox-0.73.conf

tested with Wing Commander and mouse sensitivity set to 50 in config

[EDIT]
Works with:
- Wing Commander
- Arena
- Ultima VI
- Rex Nebular
- Betrayal at Krondor

Broken with
- Ultima Underworld 1

Addison

2009-12-28, 16:51

Implemented, i think!

I patched javispedro's maemo5 tree - build is here: http://pupnik.de/dosbox_pup53_bin.tgz
Before launching,
1) set environment variable
~$ export SDL_MOUSE_RELATIVE='0'
2) turn off autolock in your dosbox config /home/user/.dosbox/dosbox-0.73.conf

tested with Wing Commander and mouse sensitivity set to 50 in config

[EDIT]
Works with:
- Wing Commander
- Arena
- Ultima VI
- Rex Nebular

Broken with
- Ultima Underworld 1

Good job dude! :D

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post my solution for this last night, I'll try to do that later this evening.

Basically I've got a xbindkeys executable that works perfectly under Diablo OS.

No issues with using it so far, the mouse has yet to jump even once and it's highly customizable in that it allows great flexibility on how to implement a right and left mouse click.

You can also launch apps and scripts by simply pressing a defined hardware key. Very nice!

I just haven't gotten around to writing up a post on it.

Will these newer builds of Dosbox be a N900 exclusive?

I think you know what I'm trying to hint at.... :D

ArnimS

2009-12-28, 17:08

Good job dude! :D

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post my solution for this last night, I'll try to do that later this evening.

Basically I've got a xbindkeys executable that works perfectly under Diablo OS.

No issues with using it so far, the mouse has yet to jump even once and it's highly customizable in that it allows great flexibility on how to implement a right and left mouse click.

You can also launch apps and scripts by simply pressing a defined hardware key. Very nice!

I just haven't gotten around to writing up a post on it.

Will these newer builds of Dosbox be a N900 exclusive?

I think you know what I'm trying to hint at.... :D

I have no changes for N800 dosbox, and am not qualified to make packages for diablo or fremantle anything.

My mousehack needs more testing. I'll test your solution, but i don't see how it could possibly work. But then again, i don't understand these layers of translation of mouse movement at all. I stripped all of dosbox and sdl's "interpretations" of what was happening away.
EDIT2: try just
export SDL_MOUSE_RELATIVE='0'

before running regular dosbox... use mouse scaling 100...

EDIT maparn.txt attached - gives numbers (but no :). just copy it somewhere and edit dosbox.conf to point to the maparn.txt file

Addison

2009-12-28, 18:14

Matan wrote me and said that xbindkeys required some dependency that Diablo never supported.

He then emailed me back a little later and basically said, here try this.

It works. No idea what he did. But all credit goes to him.

5262
xbindkeys goes to /usr/bin/

Make it executable.

.xbindkeysrc needs to be created and goes to /home/user/

Here's a really bad example of how to use it.

"xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1""
m:0x0 + c:72

"xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3""
m:0x0 + c:73

You need to also install xmodmap found here:
http://maemo.lancode.de/?path=./diablo/binary

To find the keycode that you want to enable
xbindkeys -k

You get it working with
xbindkeys

To end it
killall xbindkeys

For additional resources, refer to
xbindkeys --help

Sorry for the poor documentation on this but I figure you would know more on what to do with this than me. :)

stobbsc

2010-01-17, 18:30

does anyone know how i map keys. or have a key mapper file for me. i am playing homm:kings bounty and i need esc key to move through screens thanks

Addison

2010-01-20, 23:36

does anyone know how i map keys. or have a key mapper file for me. i am playing homm:kings bounty and i need esc key to move through screens thanks

You forgot to mention what device you have.

Hey Armin or Javis, what computer speed would you guess this equates to in comparison of a real, x86 machine for the N900?

I'm guessing maybe a 12 or perhaps a 14 mghz computer.

Just curious.

ArnimS

2010-01-21, 12:50

You forgot to mention what device you have.

Hey Armin or Javis, what computer speed would you guess this equates to in comparison of a real, x86 machine for the N900?

I'm guessing maybe a 12 or perhaps a 14 mghz computer.

Just curious.

I'd say that's spot-on for most games. A program that doesn't use sound or draw to screen would run as a 66mhz 486 or so.

Spotfist

2010-02-07, 17:25

Does anyone know when a version of dosbox will be put into the downloads section?

javispedro

2010-02-07, 17:50

Dosbox is on extras-testing. The only thing it's missing is votes.

yorg

2010-02-07, 18:05

did anyone figure out how to do right click? :o

Ronaldo

2010-02-07, 19:08

can this run dos apps like megadrive emulator?

Spotfist

2010-02-07, 19:29

hehe thats brilliant, using and emulator to run another emulator, a better step would be to use dosbox so as to install windows 98 so that one could install gens for windows hehe ;)

On a serious note though, a megadrive emulator would be good!

Also, how come dosbox only has 5 votes?

Ronaldo

2010-02-07, 20:53

if i upload the megadrive emu can some who knows how to use dosbox properly try and see if it will work?

Spotfist

2010-02-07, 21:04

would be interesting to know but on the dosbox download page in extras there is mentioned the wingcommander and ultima underworld work ok, now these are old games requiring low level of CPU and memory, I seem to recall that back in the day i could not play roms on my 486 as it was too slow so i doubt it would on dosbox at the moment... i could be horribly wrong though.

Im gagging for a game of Streets of rage though! ;)

Ronaldo

2010-02-07, 21:05

sonic 1!, shinobi 3, shadow dancer, altered beast but a few lol

Addison

2010-02-13, 08:14

Has anyone tried XCOM UFO Defense on their N900?

Just wondering if the little extra boost with the CPU is enough to run this at an acceptable speed.

ArnimS

2010-02-14, 22:59

Has anyone tried XCOM UFO Defense on their N900?

Just wondering if the little extra boost with the CPU is enough to run this at an acceptable speed.

I wouldn't get a N900 just for the modest dosbox speedboost addison. It is faster though. Just did a wing commander side-by-side, and N900 was solidly faster. Still not playable.

The thing is, the IBM PC was a demon spawn from hell, full of evil crappy hardware, and emulating that is much slower than emulating an amiga of the same era.

Addison

2010-02-16, 05:01

The thing is, the IBM PC was a demon spawn from hell, full of evil crappy hardware, and emulating that is much slower than emulating an amiga of the same era.

Nice value judgements there, Arnim. :D

I actually have great results playing XCOM right now (about 8 fps which looks very impressive) but requires VNC viewer.

But yeah, I was curious if there was a notable difference between the two tablets where it would be worth dropping the extra money.

Thanks for the honesty. :)

javispedro

2010-02-21, 03:22

So in case you're wondering, this is what I'm working on...
http://javispedro.com/maemo/captures/dosboxhwr.png

MWAHAHAHAHAHA

"Proper" Hildon input method support, which brings support for all virtual keyboards (handwriting, finger, stylus), and also the usual hardware keyboard goodies, like proper automatic layout detection, sticky keys, etc. but also the n810's hardware keyboard status bar at the bottom of the screen :(

Addison

2010-02-21, 03:50

Whoah, where did this come from, Javis?

You're the first to understand how to launch the keyboard in an application that's not hildonized.

That's so awesome! :D

So hey, do you know enough about the keyboard where you could post a response to a thread I made a few days ago?
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=44937

Ronaldo

2010-02-22, 14:50

i got snes dos emu to load mario all starts showed the mario coin and then closed lol

trying to find megadrive emu that works

Ronaldo

2010-02-22, 15:06

got megadrive working but 1fps or less lol running sonic 1

emu name genecyst

nax3000

2010-02-22, 22:45

So are we going to get an update in which the N900's keyboard is actually useful?
________
OUTDOOR TUBES (http://www.****tube.com/categories/30/outdoor/videos/1)

taril

2010-02-24, 15:26

Does Tomb Raider 1 playable via dosbox on N900?

Spotfist

2010-02-24, 21:54

Nax the keyboard is usefull, a sys file has been made available giving acces to most of the keys required.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=35244&highlight=dosbox

Tomb Raider probably not as playable as you would like...

vitasam

2010-03-25, 06:45

haberc

2010-03-25, 12:11

has anyone here managed to play constructor on the dosbox? on the n900

Pushwall

2010-03-25, 12:42

Hi,
sorry if question is obvious.

I have DosBox 0.73 on N810. How to configure DosBox?

For example, in Debian I can do it like
config -writeconf .dosboxrc

and it creates a configuration file.

In N810 there is an error message:
Can't open file .dosboxrc

Many pages back, javispedro said this...
"The config file is at ~/apps/DOSBox 0.73 Prefs.txt , should be autocreated at program startup with sane values."

So if you need to configure DosBox, just edit the DOSBox 0.73 Prefs.txt file. The full path is...
/home/user/apps/DOSBox 0.73 Prefs.txt

I use the text editor in emelFM2.

vitasam

2010-03-26, 06:37

Hi,

yes it works. Thanks!

javispedro

2010-03-26, 22:45

That's interesting. The config file in all N900 versions and -devel N8x0 ones has been .dosbox/dosbox-0.73.conf (like on Fedora, which is the DOSBox upstream default).

HtheB

2010-04-13, 08:10

I have command & conquer: tiberian dawn on my n900, it's too slow. I tried to tweak dosbox.conf, but no luck squeezing more power from it, so I guess we will need to wait for better dosbox build.

And I would be very glad to see better mouse handling, when you get to edge of the screen(top/down or left/right), mouse cursor just looses calibration.

Care to share the DOS version of this game?
EA has given that game out for free. So it's not illegal to share this game :p

I could only find the Windows 95 version of C&C Tiberian Dawn... :(

forcer

2010-04-13, 08:15

Care to share the DOS version of this game?
EA has given that game out for free. So it's not illegal to share this game :p

I could only find the Windows 95 version of C&C Tiberian Dawn... :(

http://www.abandonia.com/en/downloadgame/378

HtheB

2010-04-13, 08:21

http://www.abandonia.com/en/downloadgame/378
Isn't this the Demo version?

Edit: Thanks! :)
it's the Full version indeed :)

Spotfist

2010-05-08, 18:39

ArnimS

2010-05-19, 13:35

any chance of a faster version of dosbox for the n900? it's good for old games but not so good for the likes of heretic, cnc... I would love to be ab le to play Dark Forces on my n900.

Surely these games will run on a 486DX60... so shouldn't that work well on a 600mhz? ie 10 times the power?

[EDIT] most dos games were designed for systems between 4.78mhz 8088 to approximately 133mhz 80586. A 486DX-60 is at the high-end of historic MS-DOS performance.

Trololololo, lololo, lololo, lololo, lolololllll....

Spotfist

2010-05-21, 14:22

"Normal Dos computer is like 12-16mhz"??? Are you high???

Perhaps by "normal" you suggest the middle of the dos time scale, if so then yes I could with a sack of salt agree but to say a pc running at 60mhz is a fast dos pc, well that's crazy! quake would not be playable and I know from experience. 90mhz - 110mhz (pentium) that's fast, fast. 60mhz is fastish.

Anyways I take the answer to my questions is "NO!" ;)

ArnimS

2010-05-21, 14:58

"Normal Dos computer is like 12-16mhz"??? Are you high???

Perhaps by "normal" you suggest the middle of the dos time scale,

Yeah that's exactly what i meant. I was just editing the post to indicate that... sorry.

[EDIT again] going crazy with edits i know, but it's better than trailing posts... You can see the 'Javis1' (repository binary) performance in the latest graph, vs attempts by me to speed it up. JavisPedro was _right_ when he said 'don't expect big performance wins'.

javispedro

2010-05-21, 15:30

One experiment would be to update to 0.74,and another experiment is to try the armv4 recompiler instead of the current THUMB one (whose performance on the N900 sucks).

Spotfist

2010-05-21, 16:50

ye I just thought I read somewhere that as a "general rule of thumb" it's something like current processor speed devided by 10 gives u the speed u can emulate i.e the n900 has a 600 mhz so therefore 60 would be doable...

I honestly dono much about dosbox so i may have it completely wrong ;)

ArnimS

2010-05-26, 12:26

What we can see here is that - disregarding sound (which was generated @8khz but not streamed in those benchmarks) - current dosbox is topping out around 3200 cycles, running doom timedemo, on stock N900.

However, setting dosbox cycles to "auto" gives a lot lower numbers, with glitchy sound. There are some things we can try doing to get sound more stable at higher cpu loads and cycles-settings. If anyone has time i can dig up some places to start tweaking.

Spotfist

2010-05-29, 22:46

javispedro

2010-10-19, 19:20

Hello,

dosbox 0.74-0maemo2 is building at this moment and will come to the extras-devel repositories soon for diablo & fremantle.

Basically, what has been changed is:
- Updated to 0.74, check the changelog in http://dosbox.com/
- Enabled IPX tunneling & virtual modem (so you should be able to play some multiplayer between N900s)
- There is a new .com in z:\, "mapper.com". The only thing this does is launch the mapper from within the dos shell, so no need to press a weird key combination nor drop to a xterm: just type "mapper" from the initial dosbox window.
- Mouse autolock is now disabled by default, it didn't work properly either way and makes no sense.
- I'm still using Thumb dynrec as it seems there's no gain switching to nonThumb one.
- No changes to keyb files.

Also, I'm considering adding an SDL_haa based scaler.

Addison

2010-10-19, 21:58

Wicked Javis!

Yeah, I caught that there was an upgrade earlier and came her to take a peek at what all was done.

I'm super punchy with joy right now!

Thanks!!!! :D

stooobs

2010-10-19, 22:03

so happy to see this is still making progress thatnks for all your work

javispedro

2010-10-20, 08:31

btw, config file got renamed around, again :( (this time due to 0.73->0.74 bump).

TiagoTiago

2010-10-21, 03:46

Where can i fins a step by step guide telling me how to setup everything i need to start playing games with DOSBOX on the N900?

Rajjain

2010-10-27, 13:30

m having problems running .exe files on dosbox... suppose i have a file called abc.exe located in Nokia n900/documents/abc.exe.... wat r d commands in series m supposed to use to run this file?

Magik

2010-10-27, 13:50

Rajjain, read the dosbox manual.

Write this in autoexec section:
mount c /home/user/MyDocs/documents/
cd c:
abc.exe

This should work.

TiagoTiago

2010-10-27, 16:39

Is there a guide somewhere at least for setting up the keyboard?

Magik

2010-12-09, 17:23

BT mouse + dosbox + settlers 2... lovin' it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjZE7aj4itI

Anybody maybe have a good config file for settlers 2? :)

pepe55

2010-12-25, 12:38

Is there any posible way to show actual cycles onscreen (ingame)? Thank you for reply =).

ArnimS

2011-01-01, 05:13

@Arnim

Any response from anyone? Seriously it would be great to get some work on this emu, so many games that do work just aren't playable due to screen res issues, mouse etc. Some of these can be fixed with tweaks but would be nice to get a gui with maybe options ore something...

I was thinking of trying to find an old dos text editor and maybe a menu type system. hehehe maybe a load of batch files ;)

Echo on!

Hey Spotfist! got me a new Archos A70S tablet and a little bit of time.

1) Menu: We do have a menu called 'rubybox'! Search the forums for it.

2) Mouse problems: will never be solved perfectly because IBM PCs weren't designed for mouse input. Here's my idea for dealing with them - allow user to toggle between the existing "try to emulate absolute mouse coords" code and a new "touchpad" mode that lets you move mouse by stroking the screen to get relative movement (like a trackpad).

I don't kwow whether i'll be able to code this up or whether someone who understands the mouse code needs to do it though - right now my build environment isn't working yet.

Cheers! Happy New Year!

ArnimS

2011-01-01, 05:15

ArnimS

2011-01-13, 12:18

btw, config file got renamed around, again :( (this time due to 0.73->0.74 bump).

Just had a look-through your dosbox work - good job / keep it up man!

I just compiled with M-HT's arm-dynrec (with a little help) and it got me from ~3000 to ~4000-5000 cycles!

However it requires editing config.h and some files in src/cpu. This would break the maemo autobuilder, since i haven't figured out how to apply the changes to the ./configure script.

Do you want to do this javispedro? It makes Ultima Underworld playable with adv2xmame scaler (maybe 15 fps @ 1ghz).

cheers!

javispedro

2011-01-13, 13:03

Do you want to do this javispedro? It makes Ultima Underworld playable with adv2xmame scaler (maybe 15 fps @ 1ghz).

I already did that long ago! You can see the configure script patch in debian/patches/arm-target .

Is this a new version of M-HT's backend? Didn't find a newer one. I'm using the one that was added in 0.73.

On the config file, core=auto (the default) will enable the recompiler only for protected mode applications. Core=dynamic will enable it for both real mode and protected mode applications.

Unfortunately on my tests I never got large speedups; but yesterday on IRC someone did tell to me that at least one (real mode) game works faster in core=dynamic mode.

Oracle

2011-02-20, 16:45

What key combination do I need to use to increase/decrease the number of cycles?

I have the rover.sys file...
I looked around but didn't find the awnser

thnx!

javispedro

2011-02-21, 17:27

What key combination do I need to use to increase/decrease the number of cycles?

It's currently not mapped to anything. You can map it to any combination you'd like using the DOSBox mapper (type "mapper" at the command prompt) _save_ for the volume keys.Those need more logic (I personally don't want to lose the volume keys functionality).

Addison

2011-04-24, 11:31

Hey Javis!

N800 user who just upgraded to 0.74.

Everything looks real good except that fullscreen=true crashes this.

Any advice?

I have:
/home/user/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
and also
/usr/share/dosbox/dosbox.conf (since I'm using Rubybox)

I'm just a little confused if I'm doing something wrong on this.

Thanks!

Addison

2011-04-25, 03:59

If someone has 0.74 running in full screen, could you please post your dosbox.conf file for me so I can take a look?

I would be very super thankful. :)

javispedro

2011-04-25, 13:48

Hey Javis!

N800 user who just upgraded to 0.74.

Everything looks real good except that fullscreen=true crashes this.

I've reproduced it -- it also dies when you switch into fullscreen at runtime. No idea at this point why it does not happen on N900 :P

Sadly, I do not think you can fix it via the config file.... you will have to wait until next version.

Addison

2011-04-25, 21:26

Ah poopers.

But hey, thank you for at least rubbing it in that all of you special N900 users get to enjoy the full screen treatment of happiness. This makes me feel so much better. :)

I really should upgrade my tablet here soon.

Addison

2011-04-26, 01:38

So is there any possible chance you would be willing to look at this within the following weeks perhaps?

I'm sure your plate if full with other junk requests from the people here. :)

Pushwall

2011-05-03, 15:44

Now that I've booted up my N800 again, I'm fearful to upgrade to 0.74 because of the fullscreen problem. I'll watch this thread optimistically! :)

Addison

2011-05-03, 16:17

Yeah, as of right now, full screen is definitely goosed for Diablo.

Too bad since I was seeing significant speed gains in this version. :)

Kevstacey

2011-05-03, 18:16

sorry for being too lazy to read through the thread but has the mouse problem been fixed?

and is there a way to install .exe files now?

thanks :)

Pushwall

2011-05-03, 18:16

Oh that speed bump makes me want to upgrade to 0.74. Addison, was the upgrade an easy one? Does it work with RubyBox and your keyboard layouts too?

Addison

2011-05-03, 20:31

The Xkbd fix can be found here.
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=35841

Honestly though, I put everything together in better folders and made it so there is less clutter on your memory card which can be found here:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=70484

That will also install ADOM though. It takes up very little extra on your internal flash plus you can play my favorite game on the tablet. Not quite sure how you feel about D & D games though.

Anyway, Rubybox points to the dosbox.conf file differently from where Dosbox 0.74 does but that's really not the issue here.

The only problem is that it now breaks if you try and go full screen.

Also, the old keyboards that you can download from Rubybox is complete junk. So after you downloaded them from Ruby, you'll want to transfer and copy over the new ones from either of the two threads from above which will be stored on your memory card.

They need to overwrite the files located here:
/home/user/.rubybox/.xkbd_layouts

And yeah, I saw quite the boost in speed when playing Scorched Earth.
http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/5638/screenshot2011050207182.png

I don't think running it in windowed mode would have caused that much of a difference in what I was seeing.

Anyway, the upgrade is super easy, just install 0.74 from Extra Devel.

I'm still crossing my fingers that Javier will catch what is happening with this though.

If not, I'll just stick with 0.73-7 since it still gets me all bubbly. :)

javispedro

2011-05-03, 21:35

A workaround seems to be setting "machine=vgaonly" in the config file.

Pushwall

2011-05-03, 22:51

Addison, thanks for all that info. Now with the javispedro workaround and your instructions, I'm going to be updating tomorrow! I'm looking for some speedy games!! :)

Addison

2011-05-03, 22:59

Don't forget to upgrade or install the latest version of SCUMM as well Push.

It now supports a super ton of junk. :)

javispedro

2011-05-03, 23:04

I pushed a new build that fixes it (0.74-0maemo4) -- without workaround. This should also slightly increase the fullscreen speed on the N900.

This build also has the work I did long ago on calibration-less Win 3.11 mouse -- I extended the emulated PS2 mouse protocol so that it has a new "tablet" mode. Hopefully no games shall break, as the new protocol defaults to off.

In order to use it on Win3.x however you need a specific mouse driver that I hope to publish soon.

Addison

2011-05-03, 23:07

Squee! :D

Thank you so much chief!!!

park

2011-05-03, 23:48

v.0.74 actually resolved the sound stutter issue I had in Ultima 6!
Pure awesomeness. Thanks!!

HtheB

2011-05-03, 23:52

Thanks for the update ! :)

I tried AnDOSbox today on NITDroid, and it's REALLY amazing! :)

I really hope that the DOSBox on Maemo can even get better then the one on Android.... (because I rather love to boot Maemo then Android :) )

javispedro

2011-05-04, 20:11

And here (http://depot.javispedro.com/nit/dosbox/w3x-mouse/tablet.drv) is the win3.x modified mouse driver... to use, copy to \windows\system and change system.ini so that the mouse.drv line inside looks like

mouse.drv=tablet.drv

(changing system.ini.. ah, the memories...)

If for some reason you regularly boot w3.x in Maemo's DOSBox (don't be ashamed, I do :D ) this will make it [B]way more accurate -- and a bit more usable if you can stand the speed. Let's say this is still under "testing" so it might break stuff.

Note: requires the latest 0.74-0maemo4 or later from extras-devel.

I tried AnDOSbox today on NITDroid, and it's REALLY amazing! :)

AnDOSBox, another GPL violation (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1032970)?
Sigh -- I'm truly starting to severely dislike Android.

In what sense is it better than the upstream DOSBox?

Addison

2011-05-04, 21:54

So just to know that I'm using this correctly, how does your latest version go together with Rubybox on Diablo?

Do I overwrite
/usr/share/dosbox/dosbox.conf
with the file from
/home/user/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
?

EDIT:

I have
/usr/share/dosbox/
created from this post
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=335492&postcount=578

HtheB

2011-05-04, 23:10

AnDOSBox, another GPL violation (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1032970)?
Sigh -- I'm truly starting to severely dislike Android.

In what sense is it better than the upstream DOSBox?

From the website of AnDOSBox:

GPL FAQ

1. Where is the source code?
Source code will be available starting from 26th April, 2011. Any user obtained a copy of AnDOSBox from us can email us with proper subject title and a trackable evidence of being our AnDOSBox user (e.g. an Android Market purchase code) and we will provide the source code, usually on the next working day.

2. Why charge a fee when most work is done by DOSBox Team and they provided it free of charge?
We only charged on our part of involvement, otherwise, the whole project worth far more than that price. Per our selling price, we get more incentive to continue, users glad to access their favour software for a little price, other existing ports get minimal impact, and that doesn't against the license.

source:
http://sites.google.com/site/andosbox/

AnDOSBox:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.locnet.dosbox

Well... I tried many other DOSBox ports, I just have to be honest that AnDOSBox is really so far the best of them all for the Android.
It's the smoothest and it works great with the N900 Keyboard :)
Unfortunately, the keyboard of the N900 doesn't work very well with the other ports of DOSBox...

javispedro

2011-05-04, 23:22

Source code will be available starting from 26th April, 2011
Yes, that's exactly what the 64 guy did... Profit early, and when the threat of lawsuits appear... disappear.

Well... I tried many other DOSBox ports, I just have to be honest that AnDOSBox is really so far the best of them all for the Android.
Well, technically, you now have the right to use that source to improve the upstream DOSBox. However, I'm 99.99% sure the miracle DOSBox build that is "the smoothest" of all has no changes at all, and it's just a bit of dressing and a lot of marketing.

javispedro

2011-05-04, 23:57

So just to know that I'm using this correctly, how does your latest version go together with Rubybox on Diablo?
It's been a long time since I last used Rubybox :(

Do I overwrite
/usr/share/dosbox/dosbox.conf
with the file from
/home/user/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
?

Not that much has changed between the config files. Probably won't matter much if you copy it or not. I don't think it would be bad though :)

Oh, unless the one in /usr/share was customized. In which case it's not worth the hassle, just keep it as is.

2disbetter

2011-06-06, 08:29

Javispedro, I'm having a mouse pointer error when initalizing a game. This did not occur with .73, do you know what all was switched with regard to the mouse driver, and if it's possible to revert back to .73's implementation of the mouse within .74?

Thanks for the awesome program, I've been having a blast the past few years playing all the greats on my n900.

2d

javispedro

2011-06-06, 09:22

Javispedro, I'm having a mouse pointer error when initalizing a game. This did not occur with .73, do you know what all was switched with regard to the mouse driver, and if it's possible to revert back to .73's implementation of the mouse within .74?
Can you try,,,
- Desktop DOSBox 0.74?
- Any Maemo DOSBox older than 0.74-0maemo4?

If it works on any of those it is probably by the mouse changes I made, in which case I'm not going to be happy if I need to remove them (both win31 and many dos text mode apps work so much better...).

VulcanRidr

2011-06-06, 16:25

Okay, here is [probably] a stupid newbie question. I just discovered DOSbox (and abandonia.com and all of those old, lost games I used to play back in the day). I've been playing on my pc, but then discovered that dosbox is available for my N900.

Installed it, put a couple of games on the N900, mounted c, but then found that apparently, the keys are remapped in DOSbox. I can't type c:, because the : key on the N900 keyboard becomes the > in DOSbox. None of the <function> (blue) keys work, as the <function> key itself has been mapped to `.

Even the intro blurb says to "to activate the keymapper, ctrl-F1". Nope. No F-keys.

So how do you use special keys?

Thanks,
--b

slender

2011-06-06, 16:35

@VulcanRidr
702 messages in this thread. Do you really think that you are the first one to ask that ;) Yes...you can find answer within this thread. Read couple of pages back for first.

VulcanRidr

2011-06-06, 16:55

@VulcanRidr
702 messages in this thread. Do you really think that you are the first one to ask that ;) Yes...you can find answer within this thread. Read couple of pages back for first.

Hi slender,

Yeah, I figured it would be somewhere within this thread, but some threads gain a critical mass, where it becomes easier for to ask than to read the entire thread, and 700+ posts is way past that point. :eek:

In any case, I'll start working backward. Thanks slender.

2disbetter

2011-06-07, 12:28

Can you try,,,
- Desktop DOSBox 0.74?
- Any Maemo DOSBox older than 0.74-0maemo4?

If it works on any of those it is probably by the mouse changes I made, in which case I'm not going to be happy if I need to remove them (both win31 and many dos text mode apps work so much better...).

Thank you for the quick reply, it is really appreciated.

It is just one game. (Unfortunately the main game I enjoy in DOSbox. (Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant)

I'll see if I can pull the older DOSbox build off of FAPMAN. I've never tried getting anything other than the current build. Is .74 pushed through to testing repo? If not I should be able to grab .73 from there right?

Edit: I got .73 from extras-testing. Still same error. I just tried .74 on the laptop (win 7 64) same mouse pointer issue. So i don't believe it's anything you changed rather dosbox's change on the mouse.

Would you by any chance have the old deb for an earlier build before what is currently available?

Edit #2: So tried it on .65 desktop and still the same error, so now I'm thinking my files might have been corrupted when I mounted the drive a few days ago. I'll try that, in the mean time I've already reinstalled maemo's .74 version. Thanks for your help!

Edit #3: Just to confirm. It was my game files. Re-added fresh files and it worked no problem. Now to finally tackle remapping the escape key. ;)

2d

Flandry

2011-06-10, 07:49

Thanks for your work on this, javispedro. I got a hankering for a bit of MOO today, installed DOSBox and copied the directory from my GOG.com install of MOO1 to my N900, et viola! Works great!

Couldn't find a wiki page so i created a basic one. http://wiki.maemo.org/DOSBox

Feel free to flesh it out, you DOSBox experts!

javispedro

2011-06-10, 09:56

Edit #3That is why you don't edit a post that many times after the initial one -- never got any mail notifications. Either way, glad to hear I won't have to remove mouse patches.

2disbetter

2011-06-10, 18:00

That is why you don't edit a post that many times after the initial one -- never got any mail notifications. Either way, glad to hear I won't have to remove mouse patches.

por favor, perdóname...

I just wanted to further comment that mapping the keyboard was really easy once I took the time to read the .74 user manual.

For those wondering you can make changes without any hacking or extra comps. You do it on the N900.

From xterm, type:

dosbox -startmapper

This will start the mapper immediately and from here you can map the keys you need. However this works on keys not requiring more than 1 key to trigger. I'm not sure if this would work for number keys.

Also Javis thank you very very much for your efforts with DOSbox. I remember being 12 and starring at dos prompts for hours as I played games and messed with Borland C++ 2.0. Amazing I can re-experience all of it on my phone.

2d

javispedro

2011-06-10, 21:09

From xterm, type:

dosbox -startmapper
One can also just type "mapper" on the DOSBox command prompt.. this is a hidden trick :)

I'm not sure if this would work for number keys.
Unfortunately not, but the excellent wiki page Flandry made explains the alternative approach.

stooobs

2011-09-10, 00:31

did anybody find a way to map a right click with this im just wondering if how they got it working for gemrb would be useful

Addison

2011-09-10, 03:01

Just use Xmodmap along with Xbindkeys. :)

/home/user/.xbindkeysrc_dos
"xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1""
Right

"xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3""
Left

Remap Left and Right to whatever key press you would like for your right and left clicks.

stooobs

2011-09-10, 10:02

does it work on the n900 i tried before but couldnt get it to work, i tried folloing the guide on page 67 i think it was but when i run xbindkeys -k i just get a white screen that doent register any key presses,
i then tried adding the 2 lines to the file in home/user/ and ran the program, it was running when i typed top in xterm but coulnt get a result in dosbox and gave up lol

Addison

2011-09-10, 14:46

I'm not sure.

It seems like you should have a build of Xbindkeys somewhere for the N900, if not, the older version for Maemo 4 should work..

If xbindkeys -k does nothing on your end, that's super weird.

stooobs

2011-09-10, 17:05

ok i found xmodmap and xbindkeys are available via apt get so have been packaged for the n900, xbindkeys still just opens a white screen and doesnt do anything im wondering if any body know what the command is i should put in the file for volume up and down for right click and left so i could just copy and paste and see if it works that way, im unsure if the key bindings will be the same for the n810 and dont have any idea what im doing lol just an educated guess

Estel

2011-09-10, 17:18

Also try with xdotool.

stooobs

2011-09-10, 17:37

ok i think ive seen that 1 on easy debian ll have a google about and see what i can learn but im no programmer i wish my mam would come and make it all better lol

i found this link which is pretty intresting still dont know what im doing like im gona stare at it till it makes sense lol
http://www.semicomplete.com/projects/xdotool/xdotool.xhtml

Addison

2011-09-11, 02:33

So does xbindkeys -k not register any input at all or did you just try with the volume rockers?

stooobs

2011-09-11, 09:16

it doesnt register any imput and and xbindkeys -mk is the same no imput, i think thkis is to far outa my understanding to do myself.
the xdotool has an option to run with the pid of an open window which seems usefull but ive not the skill to do anything with it lol

jnep

2011-09-16, 16:48

hi how di i write : on maemo 5 n900?

stooobs

2011-09-17, 00:34

search for rover.sys in this thread to get keyboard imput on the n900

robert37

2011-11-03, 05:23

I just found this post on DosBox, and I don't know where else to ask my question, which is:

On the N900, and using the key mapper, is Dosbox now working with all of the keys accessible? I mean, is DosBox fairly stable and quick on the N900, and can I use any key from the N900's keyboard, including the numbers keys and + - / \ : ; etc. and will all keypresses be understood by any program running in DosBox?

Thanks.

[

dosbox now running on Nokia 770!

: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.

[

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.[/QUOTE]

bingomion

2011-11-03, 09:02

looks stable... i have never used it tho... youtue it you'll see a bunch of ppl using to emulate win3.11/win95 etc.

Estel

2011-11-08, 09:24

Recently, I got a strange problem with Dosbox on N900. When i try to use it with:
output=overlay
...in config, Dosbox crash with segfault. Here is output I get, when running it from within terminal:
DOSBox version 0.74
Copyright 2002-2010 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.
---
CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /home/user/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory
ALSA:Can't open sequencer
MIDI:Opened device:none
Segmentation fault

I thought it is something sound-related, but messing with sound emulation settings doesn't help, and just setting:
output=surface
..."fixes" the problem. Ho ever, surface doesn't allow scalling, so I get original resolution (even in fullscreen) = most games are unplayable, or too small to be enjoyable.

The most weird thing is, that it worked with same setting ~2 months ago. I haven't used dosbox in meantime, nor changed it's settings. Ho ever, for sure I've updated some packages - I got no idea, which one may be related. I'm using latest CSSU and kp48 (also was updated in time between last use of dosbox, and today failure)

I tried to search this thread for similar issues, without any luck. Help *much* appreciated...

/Estel

Estel

2011-11-11, 19:14

Ok, some new research data about "problem":

output=overlay still result in segmentation fail, no matter of settings. ho ever, I "discovered", that error lines just before segfault - about alsa, snd etc - are not related to problem. They appear also, when using output=surface.

It seems now, that surface is only one working mode for N900. Ho ever, it's possible to use it with image stretched to full screen - using <any scaner>2x (3x ones result in segfault, probably for resolution reasons). It seems ok - still I think surface=overlay with scaler=none and fullscreen resolution set to 800x480 could be faster, but it isn't working. And, I'm not sure about any speed advantage, it's just guesswork (hardware scaling).

It seems that I might be mistaken - maybe it was surface, that worked month or two ago. It's possible that I experimented, and by accident, left output=overlay for a long time, resulting in "me thinking" that such settings worked before.

Estel

2011-11-12, 22:22

Shameless bump, + another small question - is there a way to achieve right mouse click in dosbox? I got it working in Maemo by using alt_gr(also called - wrong - FN, aka blue arrow) + tap, but dosbox ignores Maemo settings...

Thanks for help in advance, if, by any chance, someone is still reading this. Which, I'm beginning to doubt ;)

HtheB

2011-11-12, 23:05

Estel

2011-11-13, 00:58

To be honest, unless someone give rationale why it should run smoother on incomplete (for N900) OS, I count it as placebo effect. I remember, that you were advocating aDosbox as "faster" few months ago - then, after requests for source code (due to adosbox violating GPL), it turned out to be worth of *none* speedup changes, compared to real dosbox. So, it worked exactly the same way as normal dosbox.

If this time You're using regular dosbox on Android, it is also placebo, cause code is exactly same.

---

Anyway, volume rockers are F8 and F7, respectively. Finally, I found a way to assign F10 and other non-standard keys - without need for external keyboard. I was interpreting mapper wrong way - keyboard show on it is virtual, and pressed keys are "real", hardware ones. I thought it is the way other (displayed keys real, pressed is binded virtual).

So, it was just matter of choosing F10 on screen, pressing key I like to assign as F10 (lets say x), then, deleting binding virtual x to real x (otherwise, pressing x would result in casting x and F10 at the same time).

Still, I have no idea how to assign right mouse button in dosbox - it is crucial in some programs and games.

/Estel

Addison

2011-11-13, 01:28

While it might not be sexy, I use xbindkeys with xmodmap.

/usr/bin/left
xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3"

/usr/bin/right
xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1"

/home/user/.xbindkeysrc
"usr/bin/left"
F8

"usr/bin/right"
F7

To find the correct key code to change the bindings
xbindkeys -k

To start the key bindings
xbindkeys

To end it
killall xbindkeys

Cheers. :)

Addison

2011-11-13, 01:39

I asked this awhile ago to make it easier but never got a response.
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=1065744&highlight=xbindkeys#post1065744

HtheB

2011-11-13, 15:16

To be honest, unless someone give rationale why it should run smoother on incomplete (for N900) OS, I count it as placebo effect. I remember, that you were advocating aDosbox as "faster" few months ago - then, after requests for source code (due to adosbox violating GPL), it turned out to be worth of *none* speedup changes, compared to real dosbox. So, it worked exactly the same way as normal dosbox.

If this time You're using regular dosbox on Android, it is also placebo, cause code is exactly same.

I think you mean anDosbox, not adosbox.
And yes, if you do compare them, you WILL see that it IS much smoother then the Maemo version.

Also, the use of special keys are just working VERY well on anDosBox. I will make a video where you can see that it IS actually MUCH better then the original Maemo port.

I'll be back with a video comparison.

Estel

2011-11-13, 15:38

HtheB

2011-11-13, 18:21

Ok, here you go, a video comparison with DOSBox on Maemo 5, anDosBox on NITDroid, and anDOSBOX also on NITDroid.

See for your self and stop wasting time using DOSBox on Maemo 5...
It really is more usefull with anDOSBox

YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIy4DQY4aFA

Edit:
Somehow, I typed the last video as "DOSBox on Maemo 5", that should be "anDOSBox on NITDroid".
Corrected with an annotation

Estel

2011-11-13, 18:44

Sorry, but this doesn't comply for "why it should work faster, from technical point of view". Show me parts of source code from dosbox for android or andosbox, that make it faster - if it is true, I'll immediately suggest including it in mainstream dosbox ;)

To be honest, with correct settings in dosbox config, frequency range 500-900 and swap on microSD, performance on Maemo is outstanding - even System Shock (1) is *almost* playable. Try that on Nitroid ;)

It always wonder me, how easily a little "marketing" ramble, with 0% meritocratic value, can make people "fanboys" of certain things. Really, is it *so* hard to understand, that any "miracle" speedup in source code inside dosbox for Android, would be immediately included in mainstream?

Stop wasting Your time with GPL violations/adware/fail platforms - or, stay with it, if You want (it's free world) - but, please, don't advocate depreciated things, unless You can meritocrately argument rationale for it.

---

On the other hand, my question about right mouse click is still actual... Any help - even explanation of methods from Diablo - would be *very* appreciated - I would love to use programs/games that include right mouse click.

/Estel

HtheB

2011-11-13, 18:47

Estel

2011-11-13, 19:07

HtheB

2011-11-13, 19:16

Ok, after briefly examining anDOSBox sources (checking for differences), I don't see *any* reason, why it should work faster. In fact, it may be even less reliable, in case of some games (it seems that is "dumped down", breaking support for games that would not run with playable speed on most android devices).

So, my question "how it is better" is still open. We already know, how it is worse (GPL violation, changing code in non-documented way, that should be smashed with fire).

/Estel

As I already said, it is the old version. I should find the newest version for you.

I don't see *any* reason, why it should work faster.

As a "default user", I just look how usefull it is and if it's just working with my old dos games.
I just cant play my old games with all the other ports...

Why isn't the DosBox on Maemo and even aDosBox (the other opensource port for android) so much crappier than anDosBox?

By the way, you can get the source of anDosBox by just mailing the guy

Estel

2011-11-13, 19:45

I'm non-experienced as coder too, but even user should - IMO - take much care, to filter out placebo effect, from regular gain. Also, it's possible, that andosbox got some options "locked" (no matter of config) for maximum performance, hence dropping support for games requiring other settings.

With dosbox, One can - like me - tweak settings for max performance, and, for games that have specific needs, just keep other customized config files too.

My question "if it is so miraculous and Open Source at the same time, why You think magic code would not be included in mainstream by dosbox devs, working hard on achieving best performance?" still remains. That is why I ask for rationale, not subjective user experience.

/Estel

HtheB

2011-11-13, 19:49

To be honest, with correct settings in dosbox config, frequency range 500-900 and swap on microSD, performance on Maemo is outstanding - even System Shock (1) is *almost* playable. Try that on Nitroid ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUqmioQO-H0

:) :) :)

Estel

2011-11-13, 20:21

OK, I admit that SystemShock work on anDosbox with similar performance to dosbox on Maemo, with correct settings.

By the way, andosbox is doing pernament framedrop (see sources) - normally, You can set this value in dosbox settings. This is how many frames dosbox skip (without processing) before drawing one. Setting 1-3 give quite a boost to performance, without much visible effects - higher start to being visible.

So, basically, Andosbox is doing framedrop constantly = constantly lowering output graphic quality, no matter if it is needed or not. That's all the "mystery". Sure, You may not notice it on Android device, but, why to use it, if You can set exactly same things on normal dosbox (or tweak it exactly to Your likings)?

/Estel

HtheB

2011-11-13, 20:57

OK, I admit that SystemShock work on anDosbox with similarperformance to dosbox on Maemo, with correct settings.

By the way, andosbox is doing pernament framedrop (see sources) - normally, You can set this value in dosbox settings. This is how many frames dosbox skip (without processing) before drawing one. Setting 1-3 give quite a boost to performance, without much visible effects - higher start to being visible.

So, basically, Andosbox is doing framedrop constantly = constantly lowering output graphic quality, no matter if it is needed or not. That's all the "mystery". Sure, You may not notice it on Android device, but, why to use it, if You can set exactly same things on normal dosbox (or tweak it exactly to Your likings)?

/Estel

Be my guest and improve the DosBox on Maemo...
Because all I want is just playing old dos games (without much tweaks.. anDosBox doesn't need any tweaks to run any game)

That's the only reason why I just use anDosBox... It just works very well..

Estel

2011-11-13, 21:37

I see Your point. If You could point me to most-demanding (in terms of performance) dos game, that is at the same time fully playable in andosbox, I could prepare settings for it, to work the same (or better) on Maemo, and publish it here. Maybe it is going to need some after-tweaking or testing, so Your help - as tester pointing out where it could be better - would be also appreciated ;)

I thought about dos-version C&C, but maybe You know more demanding (yet, playable) title?

/Estel

HtheB

2011-11-13, 22:22

Addison

2011-11-14, 01:58

Hey, I also use xbindkeys (right click is for me "blue arrow" + tap), and it works on Maemo and ED. Still, it doesn't work on dosbox (due to keyb rover.sys, I suppose - it's using "blue arrow" other way).

Have You achieved right click functionality in dosbox with Your method? If yes, what I'm missing? sorry for dumb question, but I'm quite lost in this case.

Keep in mind, that I'm using N900, on Diablo it may look a little different.

/Estel

For us that still run Diablo, no complaints. :)

It could be a faulty xmodmap. I just now remember reading about this awhile ago on this site. Try searching for xmodmap here.

What behavior do you get after typing this in Xterm?
xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1"

momcilosystem

2011-11-19, 13:33

Hi guys,

I wanted to ask if anyone can help me configure my dosbox to run Mortal Kombat 3 smoothly?

I managed to make game run and screen size is perfect but I couldn't make it smooth by editing my dosbox.conf.

The game loads very slowly and it is very choppy, in fact it's unplayable.

I disabled the sound to make it more playable but it didn't help.

I attached my dosbox.conf (had to rename it to .txt to be able to upload, also removed commented lines to make it smaller).

Got the game form Abandonia:
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/29060/Mortal+Kombat+3.html

Any help would be appreciated :)
P.S. If I posted in the wrong section, please move the post, or point me in the right direction. Thanks.

Estel

2011-11-19, 22:00

You may want to update dosbox for maemo - 0.74 is latest version (it requires You to have extras-devel enabled, at least for this single update)

After update (remember, You will get new config with 0.74 in it's name - changes in 0.73 won't be used in 0.74 version, unless specified as startup argument!), change the following lines (I'm posting, how they *should* look, not how they look now):

fulldouble=false
output=surface
priority=higher,pause
memsize=16

... by the way, are You insane man?! Putting 64 MB into dosbox emulated machine? It doesn't work like that, increasing it below sane limits, actually slow things down. And, actually, never ever use more than 32 MB, even on desktop computer. On N900, use max 16MB, for most games 8 or 4 is sufficient. Games from that era won't (most of the time) use additional memory, but You're still taking it out from Maemo reserve.

frameskip=3
aspect=true
scaler=normal2x
core=auto [You may try forcing dynamic here, if You're sure it works better for that particular game, auto is best for most cases]
cputype=auto
cycles=auto
[mixer]
nosound=false
rate=22050
blocksize=1024
prebuffer=20

...now, if You want to have sound, use:

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplemu=default
oplrate=22050
...otherwise, use:
[sblaster]
sbtype=none

And report back about Your findings. Also, using overclocked max frequency is recommended (900 upper limit, i don't recommend going higher than this).

If You still got problems with fluidity, first thing to do is disabling sound. Then, You may try increasing frameskip (by 1 on every try). I don't recommend going higher than 5 frameskip, cause it's going to cause tear-down look, no matter of performance.

Also, keep in mind, that in dosbox 0.74 output=overlay doesn't work, but output=surface does. That's why I changes it in config. If You insist on using dosbox 0.73, You can leave it as overlay, but keep aspect=true, and change scaler to scale=none

/Estel

Ghouli

2012-03-15, 08:18

An Corp! As I posted on another thread, I just got my hands on N900 and started to mess around with it. Got frustrated for the lack of right click in DOSBox, and decided to give it a swing. I set up SDK, downloaded Javis Pedro's sources for 0.74 in extras-devel and added functionality for right click when you hold down shift. Cool, but it eats away one button from already small keyboard, so I changed it so it works when you cover proximity sensor, same way as in JA2 (looked into its source code, so thanks go to Janne Mäkinen on this one :)). No buttons sacrificed. Packaged, and tested to be working, just need to do little tidying.

Anyone interested? Any way my changes could get implemented in package in extras-devel? Where to go from here? :o

javispedro

2012-03-15, 08:37

If you can make the feature optional (say configurable from the config file) I will add them to my patchset and publish a new version.

ivgalvez

2012-03-15, 09:04

Hi Javispedro, have you seen latest version of Dosbox Turbo for Android? It works really well, is there any improvement that might worth to port to Maemo version?

javispedro

2012-03-15, 10:29

Hi Javispedro, have you seen latest version of Dosbox Turbo for Android? It works really well, is there any improvement that might worth to port to Maemo version?

I do not have any love for Android *ware. Considering my past experiences, that software probably is a payware, gpl-violating ripoff of someone else's port that either does nothing new at all -- apart from the necessary bells and whistles to be featured on the payware store -- or just has a different set of defaults that works better for a few games at the cost of several thousand others.

So, no, I'm not touching that :).