Skip to main content

DOSBox-X for Mageia Linux

DOSBox-X is a DOS emulator that provides the most flexibility possible for  DOS emulator as it can not only run the DOS games that DOSBox can run, but the Win3.1, Win9X and WinME operating systems. DOSBox-X is available for Mageia8 in a flatpak repository, something new to Mageia, so we'll cover the installation of DOSBox-X via this method, then move on to configuring a working DOSBox-X installation.

1. Install flatpak using urpmi.

$ sudo urpmi flatpak

On the test system, this installed about 26MB of additional applications.

Install the flatpak repositories.

$ sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Locate the DOSBox-X file in the repo using the search function.

$ flatpak search dosbox-x

Which returns, in part,

Name             Application ID                         Version
DOSBox-X       com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X         0.83.19

To install this package for all users (it can also be installed for a single user),

$ sudo flatpak install com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X

Which returns, in part

Looking for matches…
Found similar ref(s) for ‘com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X’ in remote ‘flathub’ (system).
Use this remote? [Y/n]: y
Required runtime for com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X/x86_64/stable (runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/21.08) found in remote flathub
Do you want to install it? [Y/n]: y

com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X permissions:
    ipc     network     pulseaudio     x11    devices    file access [1]

    [1] home


        ID                                             Branch            Op           Remote            Download
 1.     org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default                21.08
 2.     org.freedesktop.Platform.Locale                      21.08 
 3.     org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264                 2.0 
 4.     org.freedesktop.Platform                                21.08 
 5.     com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X                               stable   
 
Proceed with these changes to the system installation? [Y/n]: 

The installer will announce that it has completed the installation.

You can find more information about using flatpak at their homepage.

2. Run DOSBox-X from flatpak

$ flatpak run com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X 




3. Configure DOSBox-X

The default configuration file is found at ~.dosbox/ and named dosbox-0.74.conf. It is well commented and provides a set of sane defaults. Additional details can be found at the DOSBox Wiki. 

There is no GUI for two more important areas: Where your DOS "drives" are located and what the contents of the autoexec.bat file are to be (which include the "drive" mounting instructions), which cab be done with the DOSBox-X Drop-Down Menus.

Locally, a DOSBox directory with sub-folders C, D and E were created for the local user. The menu under Drive was used to select the directories as "drives" and the system state was saved. Consult the DOSBox-X wiki for configuration details which are beyond the scope of this article.

RESOURCES

DOSBox-X in other package formats









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DOS4GW.EXE Version 2.01a and Alternative DOS Extenders

DOS4GW.EXE The Tenberry DOS extender DOS4GW.EXE was used by many early DOS games. I still enjoy playing many of these games and DOS4GW.EXE is usable with DOSBox , so they can be played on Linux. However, the version of DOS4GW.EXE that was included with the game was whatever was current at the time. The most recent version that includes many bugfixes that possibly affected the games when used with DOSBox have been fixed in the latest version, 2.01a. It's not free at US$49, but you can downloaded it here . Simply substitute it for whatever version of DOS4GW.EXE your game provided and enjoy the bug-fixed goodness. Tenberry also makes a "high-performance" "pro" version of DOS4GW.EXE, but it costs $300. I think that they could sell quite a few of these to hobby users (since, you know, DOS is dead) for US$5. Open Souce to the Rescue There are better performing, free and Open Source alternatives available and worth a look. DPMI Explained Let's unders
1 comment
Read more

Return to Castle Wolfenstein for Modern Linux

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a first-person shooter originally released on November 19, 2001. The game, like many other classic games, is available at GOG.com and costs only US$5.99. iortcw for Linux Don't bother with old and crusty Linux binaries offered by idsoft; they are problematic and it's painful to use them on a modern Linux. Fortunately for us, there are more modern GPL-licensed Linux binaries available for 32- and 64-bit systems as well as high resolution textures packages. The project at GitHub provides source code that can also be compiled for MS Windows using MinGW. iortcw for Windows and Mac You can download pre-compiled binaries for 32- and 64-bit Linux, MS Windows and Mac from here . Let's put our files in /usr/local/games/rtcw . As root, extract the downloaded .ZIP file for your architecture to  /usr/local/games/rtcw . All we are missing are the game data files. I purchased them from GOG.com. The game installer downloaded from GOG.com can be
1 comment
Read more

Unreal Tournament GOTY/UT99 for Modern Linux

Released on November 16, 1999, Unreal Tournament (also known as UT99) is an arena first-person shooter for Multiplayer on-line competition or you can play against bots off-line. It features several game types, with more details provided at Wikipedia . The game was re-released on February 25, 2000 as Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition (GOTY) which included the three bonus packs released previously and additional mods, or game modifiers that had become popular. It is the GOTY version that is available from STEAM or  GOG.com . The GOG version for Windows installs in Linux and plays well using WINE , PlayOnLinux or Codeweaver's Crossover . There is a Linux binary available in two versions, one for the original game and one for the GOTY edition . Also provided at that site is the Official Bonus Pack with a Linux installer. All these Linux installers are created with makeself . There are some issues using such a crusty old Linux binary. Let's see why getting a Lin
2 comments
Read more