DOS ain't dead

DOSBox-X 0.84.1 has now been officially released! Designing to be a cross-platform DOS emulator, it is the goal of DOSBox-X to support different types of DOS software and implement accurate emulation, accurate enough to help make new DOS developments possible with confidence the program will run properly on actual DOS systems.

DOSBox-X provides official DOS versions in addition to other platforms. Several accessory files (such as fonts and languages) have been added to the DOS package in this release, and support for TTF output has also been improved in the DOS version. You can download the DOSBox-X 0.84.1 DOS package from the DOSBox-X project homepage:

https://dosbox-x.com/

There are a number of improvements in this latest version, and you can find the release notes for this version (containing the change history) here:

* https://dosbox-x.com/release-0.84.1.html

The DOS package is self-contained so that you can simply unzip the file and type DOSBOX-X to run in DOS. It is confirmed to work in DOS, and read the included README.TXT file for more information.

I tried version 0.84.1 for true dos (hx-dos extender). Why the guess is only 8MB of total memory. In previous versions it was 16MB. NDN (Necromancer's Dos Navigator) cannot be started even after changing the memory size in the configuration file. The last version this worked on was probably 0.83.19.
Windows version works fine.

Thanks for the feedback. I changed the default memory size to 8MB for the HX-DOS version in the hope to lower RAM requirements for the DOS system, but it is easily configurable via “memsize” option, e.g. “DOSBOX-X -SET MEMSIZE=16” for 16MB of RAM. I also tried Necromancer's Dos Navigator v3.00.0007 (D32), and it appears to run in the HX-DOS version with 12MB of RAM or more. I did not notice issue with this other than the RAM requirement. In any case, I had reverted the default memory size of the HX-DOS version to 16MB, and you can download the latest development versions of DOSBox-X from:

https://dosbox-x.com/devel-build.html

Thanks for your support.

Wengier

> I tried version 0.84.1 for true dos (hx-dos extender). Why the guess is
> only 8MB of total memory. In previous versions it was 16MB. NDN
> (Necromancer's Dos Navigator) cannot be started even after changing the
> memory size in the configuration file. The last version this worked on was
> probably 0.83.19.
> Windows version works fine.

I run DOSBOX with the "-SET MEMSIZE=16" option.
Still not NDN working. Sometimes it runs without a problem and sometimes it doesn't. The emulator freezes then and it helps to select CPU-> Emulate CPU speed-> Pentium III from the menu.

The menu options in the "Emulate CPU speed" group simply change the emulation speed (by increasing/decreasing CPU cycles), so if selecting "CPU-> Emulate CPU > speed-> Pentium III" helps then it means the configured emulation speed is quite slow. Try set "cycles=max" (and probably also "core=dynamic"), e.g. "DOSBOX-X -SET CYCLES=MAX -SET CORE=DYNAMIC" (with the default memory of 16MB as in latest builds). Every time I launch NDN from DOSBox-X (HX-DOS version) it appears to run, but the wait time for the UI to appear does vary depending on the settings on the DOSBox-X side. Hope this helps.

Wengier


> I run DOSBOX with the "-SET MEMSIZE=16" option.
> Still not NDN working. Sometimes it runs without a problem and sometimes it
> doesn't. The emulator freezes then and it helps to select CPU-> Emulate CPU
> speed-> Pentium III from the menu.

> The menu options in the "Emulate CPU speed" group simply change the
> emulation speed (by increasing/decreasing CPU cycles), so if selecting
> "CPU-> Emulate CPU > speed-> Pentium III" helps then it means the
> configured emulation speed is quite slow. Try set "cycles=max" (and
> probably also "core=dynamic"), e.g. "DOSBOX-X -SET CYCLES=MAX -SET
> CORE=DYNAMIC" (with the default memory of 16MB as in latest builds). Every
> time I launch NDN from DOSBox-X (HX-DOS version) it appears to run, but the
> wait time for the UI to appear does vary depending on the settings on the
> DOSBox-X side. Hope this helps.

It didn't help.

The DOS/DPMI64 version of Necromancer's Dos Navigator requires specific (high-end) CPU features and it won’t run in the HX-DOS version, but I have no problem of getting the DOS/DPMI32 version of Necromancer's Dos Navigator to run in it. For LFN support in NDN one can load DOSLFN beforehand and then start DOSBox-X with lfn=true, but apart from the minimum memory requirement of 12MB I have not found any issue so far that may prevent the DOS/DPMI32 version of Necromancer's Dos Navigator from working on it. So it is indeed pretty strange to hear that it may not work on your end.

Wengier

> > The menu options in the "Emulate CPU speed" group simply change the
> > emulation speed (by increasing/decreasing CPU cycles), so if selecting
> > "CPU-> Emulate CPU > speed-> Pentium III" helps then it means the
> > configured emulation speed is quite slow. Try set "cycles=max" (and
> > probably also "core=dynamic"), e.g. "DOSBOX-X -SET CYCLES=MAX -SET
> > CORE=DYNAMIC" (with the default memory of 16MB as in latest builds).
> Every
> > time I launch NDN from DOSBox-X (HX-DOS version) it appears to run, but
> the
> > wait time for the UI to appear does vary depending on the settings on
> the
> > DOSBox-X side. Hope this helps.
>
> It didn't help.

> So it is indeed pretty strange to hear that it may not work on your end.

For me it works with NDN (01/2022).
But I have to say, things have a bit worsened: the keyboard is now rather "sticky", older versions ( last I tried was from 2020 ) do better.

edit: forget the above! I was running NDN in a much higher resolution than 80x25, and this might overstress dosbox-x, causing such strange effects.

---
MS-DOS forever!

> For me it works with NDN (01/2022).
> But I have to say, things have a bit worsened: the keyboard is now rather
> "sticky", older versions ( last I tried was from 2020 ) do better.
>
> edit: forget the above! I was running NDN in a much higher resolution
> than 80x25, and this might overstress dosbox-x, causing such strange
> effects.

FWIW, I've found that the keyboard in general doesn't work very well in Virtual Machines (some VM's are worse than others, but I've found that they all seem to have keyboard issues at times, at lest under Windows). The the "stickiness" is usually with the modifier keys (Shift, Control, and/or Alt) not being released properly, but sometimes various key presses are also missed.

Sometimes, I also use TightVNC to "remote control" one computer's Screen, keyboard, and mouse from another computer, and then on the controlled computer sometimes run a VM. When I do this (essentially two layers of "virtualization") the keyboard problems get even worse.

Again, that's just been my experience, but others may not have these problems.