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DOSBox (dosbox-staging) 0.81.0-alpha Manual
======
INDEX:
======
1. Quickstart
2. Start (FAQ)
3. Command Line Parameters
4. Internal Programs
5. Special Keys
6. Joystick/Gamepad
7. KeyMapper
8. Keyboard Layout
9. Serial Modem: Multiplayer and BBS Gaming
10. How to speed up/slow down DOSBox
11. Troubleshooting
12. DOSBox Status Window
13. The configuration (options) file
14. The language file
15. Building your own version of DOSBox
16. Special thanks
17. Contact
==============
1. Quickstart:
==============
Type INTRO in DOSBox for a quick tour.
It is essential that you get familiar with the idea of mounting, DOSBox does not
automatically make any drive (or a part of it) accessible to the emulation. See
the FAQ entry "How to start?" as well as the description of the MOUNT command
(Section 4: "Internal Programs").
===============
2. Start (FAQ):
===============
START: How to start?
AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these "mount" commands?
FULLSCREEN: How do I change to fullscreen?
FULLSCREEN: My fullscreen is too large.
CD-ROM: My CD-ROM doesn't work.
CD-ROM: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.
MOUSE: The mouse doesn't work.
SOUND: There is no sound.
SOUND: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate?
SOUND: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.
KEYBOARD: My keyboard's F1-F12 keys don't work.
KEYBOARD: Common key-presses conflict with system actions on macOS.
KEYBOARD: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox.
KEYBOARD: Right Shift and "\" doesn't work in DOSBox. (Windows only)
KEYBOARD: The keyboard lags.
CONTROL: The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction!
SPEED: The game/application runs much too slow/too fast!
CRASH: The game/application does not run at all/crashes!
CRASH: DOSBox crashes on startup!
GAME: My Build game(Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior) has problems.
SAFETY: Can DOSBox harm my computer?
OPTIONS: I would like to change DOSBox's options.
HELP: Great Manual, but I still don't get it.
START: How to start?
At the beginning you've got a Z:\> instead of a C:\> at the prompt.
You have to make your directories available as drives in DOSBox by using
the "mount" command. For example, in Windows "mount C D:\GAMES" will give
you a C drive in DOSBox which points to your Windows D:\GAMES directory
(that was created before). In Linux, "mount c /home/username" will give you
a C drive in DOSBox which points to /home/username in Linux.
To change to the drive mounted like above, type "C:". If everything went
fine, DOSBox will display the prompt "C:\>".
AUTOMATION: Do I always have to type these commands?
DOSBox configuration files contain an [autoexec] section that holds
one or more commands, listed line by line, just as you would type them
into the DOSBox command prompt. The [autoexec] section is run on startup.
When multiple configuration files are loaded that each have [autoexec]
sections, DOSBox Staging by default joins these sections into a combined
[autoexec] that's run.
If you prefer to only run the most recently processed [autoexec] when
multiple configuration files are provided, you can set the "autoexec_section"
setting to "overwrite", in the [dosbox] section. When in this mode, the
the overwrite-order is as follows:
1. Highest priority are those command(s) provided on the command line.
2. Second is the [autoexec] section from the last processed custom conf file.
This would be custom2 if: dosbox -conf custom1.conf -conf custom2.conf
3. Third is the [autoexec] section from the local conf, ie: when
dosbox.conf is present in the current directory
4. Last is the [autoexec] section from the user's portable or primary conf,
where:
- The portable conf is dosbox-staging.conf that (may) reside along-side
the DOSBox executable.
- The primary conf is dosbox-staging.conf that (may) reside in the
user's configuration directory, which varies by operating system.
This ordering of configuration files is also discussed in Section 3:
"Command Line Parameters", and specific configuration file settings are
discussed in Section 13: "The configuration (options) file".
FULLSCREEN: How do I change to fullscreen?
Press alt-enter. Alternatively: Edit the configuration file of DOSBox and
change the option fullscreen=false to fullscreen=true. If fullscreen looks
wrong in your opinion: Play with the options: fullresolution, output and
aspect in the configuration file of DOSBox. To get back from fullscreen
mode: Press alt-enter again.
FULLSCREEN: My fullscreen is too large.
This is can be a problem on Windows 10, if you have display scaling
set to a value above 100%. Windows in that case will resize the screen
on top of dosbox resizing the screen, which can happen for the output:
texture, texturenb, opengl, openglnb. You can disable this Windows behaviour
by enabling a specific compatibility setting:
- Right-click the DOSBox icon and select "Properties".
- Go to the "Compatibility" tab.
- Click on "Change high DPI settings".
- Tick "Override high DPI scaling behaviour" and set it to "Application".
- Apply the changes by clicking on "OK".
Unfortunately, this compatibility option causes some side effects in
windowed mode, and in this case you will need to change the windowresolution
setting in your config file to either a fixed size (e.g. 1024x768) or
a relative size: (e.g. small, medium, or large).
Alternatively, you can disable the display scaling and or use a lower
fullresolution value.
CD-ROM: My CD-ROM doesn't work.
To mount your CD-ROM in DOSBox you have to specify some additional options
when mounting the CD-ROM.
To enable CD-ROM support (includes MSCDEX) in Windows:
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom
in Linux:
- mount d /path/to/cdrom -t cdrom
In some cases you might want to use a different CD-ROM interface,
for example if CD audio does not work:
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0
explanation: - d driveletter you will get in DOSBox (d is the best,
don't change it!)
- f:\ location of CD-ROM on your PC. In most cases it will
be d:\ or e:\
- 0 The number of the CD-ROM drive, reported by "mount -cd"
See also the next question: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.
CD-ROM: The game/application can't find its CD-ROM.
Be sure to mount the CD-ROM with -t cdrom switch, this will enable the
MSCDEX interface required by DOS games to interface with CD-ROMs.
Also try adding the correct label (-label LABEL) to the mount command,
where LABEL is the CD-label (volume ID) of the CD-ROM.
Try creating a CD-ROM image (preferably CUE/BIN pair) and use the
DOSBox's internal IMGMOUNT tool to mount the image (the CUE sheet).
This enables very good low-level CD-ROM support on any operating system.
MOUSE: The mouse doesn't work.
Usually, DOSBox detects when a game uses mouse control. When you click on
the screen it should get locked (confined to the DOSBox window) and work.
With certain games, the DOSBox mouse detection doesn't work. In that case
you will have to lock the mouse manually by pressing Ctrl+F10 (or Cmd+F10
on macOS).
SOUND: There is no sound.
Be sure that the sound is correctly configured in the game. This might be
done during the installation or with a setup/setsound utility that
accompanies the game. First see if an autodetection option is provided. If
there is none try selecting SoundBlaster or SoundBlaster 16 with the default
settings being "address=220 irq=7 dma=1" (sometimes highdma=5). You might
also want to select Sound Canvas/SCC/MPU-401/General MIDI/Wave Blaster
at "address=330 IRQ=2" as music device.
The parameters of the emulated sound cards can be changed in the DOSBox
configuration file.
If you still don't get any sound set the core to normal in DOSBox
configuration and use some lower fixed cycles value (like cycles=2000). Also
assure that your host operating sound does provide sound.
In certain cases it might be useful to use a different emulated sound device
like a SoundBlaster Pro (sbtype=sbpro1 in the DOSBox configuration file) or
the Gravis Ultrasound (gus=true).
SOUND: What sound hardware does DOSBox presently emulate?
DOSBox emulates several legacy sound devices:
- Internal PC speaker/Buzzer
This emulation includes both the tone generator and several forms of
digital sound output through the internal speaker.
- Creative CMS/Gameblaster
The is the first card released by Creative Labs(R). The default
configuration places it on address 220. It is disabled by default.
- Tandy 3 voice
The emulation of this sound hardware is complete with the exception of
the noise channel. The noise channel is not very well documented and as
such is only a best guess as to the sound's accuracy. It is disabled as
default.
- Tandy DAC
Some games may require turning off SoundBlaster emulation (sbtype=none)
for better Tandy DAC sound support. Don't forget to set the sbtype back to
sb16 if you don't use Tandy sound.
- Adlib
This emulation is almost perfect and includes the Adlib's ability to
almost play digitized sound. Placed at address 220 (also on 388).
- SoundBlaster 16 / SoundBlaster Pro I & II / SoundBlaster I & II
By default DOSBox provides SoundBlaster 16 level 16-bit stereo sound.
You can select a different SoundBlaster version in the configuration of
DOSBox. AWE32 music is not emulated as you can use MPU-401 instead
(see below).
- Disney Sound Source and Covox Speech Thing
Using the printer port, this sound device outputs digital sound only.
Placed at LPT1
- Gravis Ultrasound
The emulation of this hardware is nearly complete, though the MIDI
capabilities have been left out, since an MPU-401 has been emulated
in other code. For Gravis music you also have to install Gravis drivers
inside DOSBox. It is disabled by default.
- MPU-401
A MIDI passthrough interface is also emulated. This method of sound
output will only work when used with external device/emulator.
Every Windows XP/Vista/7 and Mac OS X has got a default emulator
compatible with: Sound Canvas/SCC/General Standard/General MIDI/Wave
Blaster. A different device/emulator is needed for
Roland LAPC/CM-32L/MT-32 compatibility.
SOUND: The sound stutters or sounds stretched/weird.
You may be using too much CPU power to keep DOSBox running at the current
speed. You can lower the cycles, skip frames, reduce the sampling rate of
the respective sound device, increase the prebuffer. See Section 13: "The
configuration (options) file".
If you are using 'cycles=max' or 'cycles=auto', then make sure that there is
no background processes interfering! (especially if they access the harddisk)
Also look at Section 10: "How to speed up/slow down DOSBox" as well as
Section 11: "Troubleshooting".
KEYBOARD: My keyboard's F1-F12 keys don't work.
This can happen on macOS, mini-keyboards, and some laptops.
Find and hold the 'Function' or 'Fn' key while pressing an F-key.
The 'Fn' key is often located in the lower-left corner of the keyboard.
On macOS, you can change the top row of keys to work as standard F-keys
without holding the 'Fn' key. In your system's keyboard preferences:
select "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys". Learn more
here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204436
Note: some custom keyboards might still intercept one or more F-keys, even
after the above steps have been performed. Please refer to your keyboard's
documentation for more information.
KEYBOARD: Common key-presses conflict with system actions on macOS
Conflict: Command+F5
Where: Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Accessibility
What: Disable the "Turn VoiceOver on or off" shortcut
Conflict: F11
Where: Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control
What: Disable the "Show Desktop" shortcut
Conflict: Control+arrow keys
Where: Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control
What: Disable the following shortcuts:
- "Mission Control" to deconflict Control+Up
- "Application windows" to deconflict Control+Down
- "Move left a space" to deconflict Control+Left
- "Move right a space" to deconflict Control+Right
KEYBOARD: The numlock and capslock state isn't correct.
A known issue prevents SDL from reading the numlock and capslock
states on startup. Until this is resolved, we recommend toggling these
off prior to starting DOSBox. After startup, you may use numlock and
capslock as desired.
KEYBOARD: I can't type \ or : in DOSBox.
This can happen in various cases, like your host keyboard layout does not
have a matching DOS layout representation (or it was not correctly
detected), or the key mapping is wrong.
Some possible fixes:
1. Use / instead, or Alt+58 for : and Alt+92 for \.
On macOS, use the Option key, for example: Opt+58 and Opt+92.
2. Change the DOS keyboard layout (see Section 8: "Keyboard Layout").
3. Add the commands you want to execute to the [autoexec] section
of the DOSBox configuration file.
4. Open the DOSBox configuration file and change the usescancodes entry.
5. Switch the keyboard layout of your operating system.
Note that if the host layout can not be identified, or keyboardlayout is
set to none in the DOSBox configuration file, the standard US layout is
used. In this configuration try the keys around "Enter" for the key \
(backslash), and for the key : (colon) use Shift and the keys between
"Enter" and "L".
KEYBOARD: The keyboard lags.
Lower the priority setting in the DOSBox configuration file, for example
set "priority=normal,normal". You might also want to try lowering the
cycles (use a fixed cycle amount to start with, like cycles=10000).
CONTROL: The character/cursor/mouse pointer always moves into one direction!
See if it still happens if you disable the joystick emulation:
First try setting joysticktype=none or joysticktype=disabled in
the [joystick] section of your DOSBox configuration file.
Also try unplugging any joysticks or gamepads.
If you want to use the joystick in the game, try setting
timed=false and be sure to calibrate the joystick (both in your OS
as well as in the game or the game's setup program).
SPEED: The game/application runs much too slow/too fast!
Look at Section 10: "How to speed up/slow down DOSBox" for more
information.
CRASH: The game/application does not run at all/crashes!
Look at Section 11: "Troubleshooting".
CRASH: DOSBox crashes on startup!
Look at Section 11: "Troubleshooting".
GAME: My Build game(Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior) has problems.
First of all, try to find a port of the game. Those will offer a better
experience. To fix the graphics problem that occurs in DOSBox on higher
resolutions: Open the configuration file of DOSBox and search for
machine=svga_s3. Change svga_s3 to vesa_nolfb
Change memsize=16 to memsize=63
SAFETY: Can DOSBox harm my computer?
DOSBox can not harm your computer more than any other resource demanding
program. Increasing the cycles does not overclock your real CPU.
Setting the cycles too high has a negative performance effect on the
software running inside DOSBox.
OPTIONS: I would like to change DOSBox's options.
Look at Section 13: "The configuration (options) file".
HELP: Great Manual, but I still don't get it.
You'll find answers to most DOSBox-related questions throughout
this document. If you still have problems with running your game,
create a bug report or ask your question on:
https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/issues
===========================
3. Command Line Parameters:
===========================
An overview of the command line options you can give to DOSBox. Although
in most cases it is easier to use DOSBox's configuration file instead.
See Section 13: "The configuration (options) file".
To be able to use Command Line Parameters:
(Windows) open cmd.exe or command.com or edit the shortcut to dosbox.exe
(Linux) use any terminal emulator
(macOS) start terminal.app and navigate to:
/Applications/DOSBox Staging.app/Contents/MacOS/dosbox
The options are valid for all operating systems unless noted in the option
description:
dosbox [-fullscreen] [-startmapper] [-noautoexec] [-securemode]
[-noprimaryconf] [-nolocalconf] [-conf congfigfile] [-lang langfile]
[--list-glshaders] [-machine machine-type] [-socket socketnumber]
[-c command] [-noconsole] [-exit] [NAME]
dosbox --version
dosbox --printconf
dosbox --editconf [editor]
dosbox -eraseconf
dosbox -erasemapper
NAME
If "NAME" is a directory it will mount that as the C: drive.
If "NAME" is an executable it will mount the directory of "NAME"
as the C: drive and execute "NAME".
If "NAME" in an execuatble and the startup_verbosity configurable
setting is "auto" (or "low" or "quiet"), then the text help banner
will not be shown.
-exit
DOSBox will close itself when the DOS application "name" ends.
If the above conditions for instant-launch are true, then the -exit
flag is implied, and DOSBox will quit as soon as the executable
"NAME" terminates.
-c command
Runs the specified command before running "name". Multiple commands
can be specified. Each command should start with "-c" though.
A command can be: an Internal Program, a DOS command or an executable
on a mounted drive.
-fullscreen
Starts DOSBox in fullscreen mode.
-noprimaryconf, -nolocal, and -conf:
DOSBox Staging uses a layered configuration approach, as follows:
1. If a dosbox-staging.conf file is found along-side the
DOSBox executable, known as a portable layout, then this
configuration file is loaded first. In this case, the
executable's directory is used to load other assets such as
glshaders, mt32-roms, and soundfonts.
If a portable layout isn't found, the user's primary
configuration file is loaded from the operating system's
user configuration directory. This can be thought of as
your "global" configuration file, The -noprimaryconf flag
can be used in cases where you want to avoid loading your
primary conf file.
2. Second, if the local directory contains a dosbox.conf file,
its settings override those previously set by your portable
or primary file. The -nolocalconf flag can be used in cases
where you want to avoid loading the local dosbox.conf file.
3. Finally, custom configurations are layered on, in order,
using one or more -conf <filename> arguments. For example:
dosbox -conf myshader.conf -conf myaudio.conf
These settings override those previously set by either the
Local or Primary configurations.
This layered approach means you can start with general settings
(from your Primary conf) and increasingly fine-tune them for a specific
game.
If the [dosbox] "autoexec_section" setting is "overwrite", then
the same priority order applies when multiple configuration files
provide the [autoexec] section: DOSBox Staging will execute [autoexec]
only from the end-most (or highest priority) configuration file.
Additionally, if you've passed commands as arguments directly on the
command line, ie: dosbox /path/game/run.bat, then these take priority
over any prior [autoexec] sections - to avoid mount and launch
conflicts.
If you wish to use the original behavior where [autoexec] sections
are joined into a combined set of commands, then set the [dosbox]
"autoexec_section" setting to "join". This is also the default.
-lang languagefilelocation
Start DOSBox using the language specified in "languagefilelocation".
See Section 14: "The Language File" for more details.
--list-glshaders
List available GLSL shaders and their directories.
Results are useable in the "glshader = " conf setting.
-machine machinetype
Setup DOSBox to emulate a specific type of machine. Valid choices are:
- hercules - Hercules Graphics Card (monochrome)
- cga - IBM Color Graphics Adapter
- cga_mono - IBM CGA attached to monochrome display (monochrome)
- pcjr - IBM PCjr
- tandy - Tandy Graphics Adapter (Tandy 1000)
- ega - IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter
- vesa_oldvbe - VESA SVGA - VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE) 1.2
- vesa_nolfb - VESA SVGA - VBE 2.0 with Linear Frame Buffer disabled
- svga_paradise - VESA SVGA - Paradise Systems PVGA1A - VBE 2.0
- svga_et3000 - VESA SVGA - Tseng ET3000 - VBE 2.0
- svga_et4000 - VESA SVGA - Tseng ET4000 - VBE 2.0
- svga_s3 - VESA SVGA - S3 Trio - VBE 2.0
The default is svga_s3.
The machinetype affects the video card and the available sound cards.
-noconsole (Windows Only)
Start DOSBox without showing the DOSBox status window (console).
Output will be redirected to stdout.txt and stderr.txt
-startmapper
Enter the keymapper directly on startup. Useful for people with
keyboard problems.
-noautoexec
Skips the [autoexec] section of the loaded configuration file.
-securemode
Same as -noautoexec, but adds config.com -securemode at the
bottom of AUTOEXEC.BAT (which in turn disables any changes to how
the drives are mounted inside DOSBox).
--version
Output version information and exit. Useful for frontends.
--editconf [editor]
Open the default configuration file in a text editor. If no editor name
is given, then use the program from EDITOR environment variable,
otherwise DOSBox will try to guess the name.
--printconf
Print the location of the default configuration file.
-resetconf
removes the default configuration file.
-resetmapper
removes the mapperfile used by the default clean configuration file.
-socket
passes the socket number to the nullmodem emulation. See Section 9:
"Serial Multiplayer feature."
Note: If a name/command/configfilelocation/languagefilelocation contains
a space, put the whole name/command/configfilelocation/languagefilelocation
between quotes ("command or file name"). If you need to use quotes within
quotes (most likely with -c and mount):
Windows users can use single quotes inside the double quotes.
Other people should be able to use escaped double quotes inside the
double quotes.
Windows: -c "mount c 'c:\My folder with DOS games\'"
Linux: -c "mount c \"/tmp/name with space\""
A rather unusual example, just to demonstrate what you can do (Windows):
dosbox D:\folder\file.exe -c "MOUNT Y H:\MyFolder"
This mounts D:\folder as C:\ and runs file.exe.
Before it does that, it will first mount H:\MyFolder as the Y drive.
In Windows, you can also drag directories/files onto the DOSBox executable.
Environment variables
---------------------
Any configuration option can be overridden using an environment variable.
Environment variables starting with prefix "DOSBOX" are processed and
interpreted as follows: DOSBOX_SECTIONNAME_PROPERTYNAME=value
For example, you can override render aspect with:
$ DOSBOX_RENDER_ASPECT=false dosbox
=====================
4. Internal Programs:
=====================
DOSBox supports most of the DOS commands found in command.com.
To get a list of the internal commands type "HELP" at the prompt.
In addition, the following commands are available:
MOUNT "Emulated Drive letter" "Real Drive or Directory"
[-t type] [-usecd number] [-size drivesize]
[-label drivelabel] [-freesize size_in_mb]
[-freesize size_in_kb (floppies)]
MOUNT -listcd (or -cd)
MOUNT -u "Emulated Drive letter"
Program to mount local directories as drives inside DOSBox.
"Emulated Drive letter"
The driveletter inside DOSBox (for example C).
"Real Drive letter (usually for CD-ROMs in Windows) or Directory"
The local directory you want accessible inside DOSBox.
-t type
Type of the mounted directory.
Supported are: dir (default), floppy, cdrom.
-size drivesize
(experts only)
Sets the size of the drive, where drivesize is of the form
"bps,spc,tcl,fcl":
bps: bytes per sector, by default 512 for regular drives and
2048 for CD-ROM drives
spc: sectors per cluster, usually between 1 and 127
tcl: total clusters, between 1 and 65534
fcl: total free clusters, between 1 and tcl
-freesize size_in_mb | size_in_kb
Sets the amount of free space available on a drive
in megabytes (regular drives) or kilobytes (floppy drives).
This is a simpler version of -size.
-label drivelabel
Sets the name of the drive to "drivelabel". Needed on some systems
if the CD-ROM label isn't read correctly (useful when a program
can't find its CD-ROM). If you don't specify a label and no lowlevel
support is selected (that is omitting the -usecd # parameter):
For Windows: label is extracted from "Real Drive".
For Linux: label is set to NO_LABEL.
If you do specify a label, this label will be kept as long as the drive
is mounted. It will not be updated !!
-listcd (or -cd)
Lists the host PC's physical CD-ROM drives and their corresponding
numerical IDs for use with the -usecd argument below.
-usecd number
Specifies the numerical ID for a physical CD-ROM drive as
provided by the -listcd argument. Note that the -usecd argument is
optional and only needed if the wrong CD-ROM drive is mounted.
-u
Removes the mount. Doesn't work for Z:\.
Note: It's possible to mount a local directory as CD-ROM drive,
but hardware support is then missing.
Basically MOUNT allows you to connect real hardware to DOSBox's emulated PC.
So MOUNT C C:\GAMES tells DOSBox to use your C:\GAMES directory as drive C:
in DOSBox. MOUNT C E:\SomeFolder tells DOSBox to use your E:\SomeFolder
directory as drive C: in DOSBox.
Mounting your entire C drive with MOUNT C C:\ is NOT recommended! The same
is true for mounting the root of any other drive, except for CD-ROMs (due to
their read-only nature).
Otherwise if you or DOSBox make a mistake you may lose all your files.
Also never mount a "Windows" or "Program Files" folders or their subfolders
in Windows Vista/7 as DOSBox may not work correctly, or will stop working
correctly later. It is recommended to keep all your dos applications/games
in a simple folder (for example c:\dosgames) and mount that.
You should always install your game inside DOSBox.
So if you have the game on CD you always (even after installation!)
have to mount both: folder as a harddisk drive and a CD-ROM.
HardDisk should always be mounted as c
CD-ROM should always be mounted as d
Floppy should always be mounted as a (or b)
Basic MOUNT Examples for normal usage (Windows):
1. To mount a directory as a harddisk drive:
mount C D:\dosgames
2. To mount a directory E:\CD as CD-ROM drive D in DOSBox:
mount D E:\CD -t cdrom
3. To mount your drive A: as a floppy:
mount A A:\ -t floppy
Advanced MOUNT examples (Windows):
4. To mount a hard disk drive with ~870 mb free diskspace (simple version):
mount C D:\dosgames -freesize 870
5. To mount a drive with ~870 mb free diskspace (experts only, full control):
mount C D:\dosgames -size 512,127,16513,13500
6. To mount C:\dosgames\floppy as a floppy:
mount A C:\dosgames\floppy -t floppy
Other MOUNT examples:
7. To mount /home/user/dosgames as drive C in DOSBox:
mount C /home/user/dosgames
9. To mount the directory where DOSBox was started as C in DOSBox:
mount C .
Note the . which represents the directory where DOSBox was started,
on Windows Vista/7 don't use this if you installed DOSBox
to your "Program Files" folder.
If you want to mount a CD image or floppy image, check IMGMOUNT.
MOUNT also works with images but only if you use external program,
for example (both are free):
- Daemon Tools Lite (for CD images),
- Virtual Floppy Drive (for floppy images).
Although IMGMOUNT can give better compatibility.
MEM
Program to display the amount and type of free memory.
VER
VER set version_number
VER set major_version [minor_version]
Display the current DOSBox version and reported DOS version
(parameterless usage).
Change the reported DOS version with the "set" parameter,
either with a version number, or in "major_version [minor_version]" format.
For example: "VER set 7.1" to have DOSBox report DOS 7.1 as version number.
Alternatively, "VER set 6 22" lets DOSBox report DOS 6.22 as version number.
You can also set the DOS version via the "ver=" setting in the [dos] section
of the DOSBox configuration file so that DOSBox will activate it at start.
CONFIG -writeconf filelocation
CONFIG -writeconf
CONFIG -wcp filelocation
CONFIG -wcd
CONFIG -writelang filelocation
CONFIG -axadd
CONFIG -axclear
CONFIG -axtype
CONFIG -r [parameters]
CONFIG -l
CONFIG -help
CONFIG -help sections
CONFIG -help section
CONFIG -help section property
CONFIG -securemode
CONFIG -set "section property=value"
CONFIG -get "section property"
CONFIG can be used to change or query various settings of DOSBox
during runtime. It can save the current settings and language strings to
disk. Information about all possible sections and properties can
be found in Section 13: "The configuration (options) file".
-writeconf filelocation
(or -wc filelocation)
Write the current configuration settings to a file in a specified location
relative to the DOSBox config directory. Relative and absolute paths are
possible. "filelocation" is located on the local drive, not a mounted
drive in DOSBox.
The configuration file controls various settings of DOSBox:
the amount of emulated memory, the emulated sound cards and many more
things. It allows access to AUTOEXEC.BAT as well.
See Section 13: "The configuration (options) file" for more information.
-writeconf
(or -wc)
Write the configuration to the primary loaded config file.
-wcp filelocation
Write the current configuration settings to the specified file in or
relative to the DOSBox program start directory. Relative and absolute
paths are possible. This is located on a drive on the host, not a mounted
drive in DOSBox. It is useful if you keep DOSBox on a removable media.
If file is omitted, the configuration will be written to dosbox.conf.
-wcd
Write the current configuration to the default config file.
-writelang filelocation
(or -wl filelocation)
Write the current language settings to a file in a specified location.
"filelocation" is located on the local drive, not a mounted drive
in DOSBox. The language file controls all visible output of the internal
commands and the internal DOS.
See Section 14: "The Language File" for more information.
-axadd "line1" "line2" ...
Adds a command line to the autoexec section.
-axclear
Clears the autoexec section.
-axtype
Prints the content of the autoexec section.
-r [parameters]
Restart DOSBox, either with the parameters that were used to start the
current instance or any that are appended.
-l
lists DOSBox parameters:
- the configuration directory
- the config files that were used when starting this session
- the command line parameters DOSBox was started with
-h, -help, -?
Displays an overvie of the config commands.
-h, -help, -? sections
Displays the list of sections in the config file.
-h, -help, -? section
Displays the list of properties contained in the specified section.
-h, -help, -? section property
Shows information about the specified property in the specified section:
- purpose of the property
- possible values, current value, default value
- whether it can definitely not be changed at runtime
-securemode
Switches DOSBox to a more secure mode. In this mode the internal
commands MOUNT, IMGMOUNT and BOOT won't work. It's not possible either
to create a new configfile or languagefile in this mode.
(Warning: you can only undo this mode by restarting DOSBox.)
-set "section property=value"
CONFIG will attempt to set the property to new value.
-get "section property"
The current value of the property is reported and stored in the
environment variable %CONFIG%. This can be used to store the value
when using batch files.
Both "-set" and "-get" work from batch files and can be used to set up your
own preferences for each game. Although it may be easier to use separate
DOSBox's configuration files for each game instead.
Examples:
1. To create a configuration file in your c:\dosgames directory:
config -writeconf c:\dosgames\dosbox.conf
2. To set the cpu cycles to 10000:
config -set "cpu cycles=10000"
3. To turn EMS memory emulation off:
config -set "dos ems=false"
4. To change the key mappings
config -set "sdl mapperfile=/path/to/mapper-file.map"
5. To check which cpu core is being used.
config -get "cpu core"
6. To view the list of possible cpu cores:
config -help cpu core
7. To change the machine type and restart:
config -set "machine cga"
config -wc -r
8. To configure the autoexec section to auto-mount a directory at start:
config -axadd "mount c c:\dosgames" "c:"
config -wc
9. To create a specific config file in the config directory:
config -set "dos ems=false"
config -set "cpu cycles=10000"
config -set "core dynamic"
config -axadd "mount c c:\dosgames" "c:" "cd my_game" "my_game"
config -wc my_config.conf
10. To restart DOSBox from a specific config file in the config directory:
config -r -conf my_config.conf
LOADFIX [-size] [program] [program-parameters]
LOADFIX -f
Program to reduce the amount of available conventional memory.
Useful for old programs which don't expect much memory to be free.
-size
number of kilobytes to "eat up", default = 64kb
-f
frees all previously allocated memory
Examples:
1. To start mm2.exe and allocate 64kb memory
(mm2 will have 64 kb less available):
loadfix mm2
2. To start mm2.exe and allocate 32kb memory:
loadfix -32 mm2
3. To free previous allocated memory:
loadfix -f
RESCAN [Drive:] [-All]
Make DOSBox reread the directory structure. Useful if you changed something
on a mounted drive outside of DOSBox. Ctrl+F4 (or Cmd+F4 on macOS) does
this as well!
Drive:
Drive to refresh.
-All
Refresh all drives.
if both a Drive: and -All are missing, then the current drive will be
refreshed.
MIXER
Makes DOSBox display its current volume settings.
Here's how you can change them:
mixer channel left:right [/NOSHOW] [/LISTMIDI]
channel
Can be one of the following: MASTER, DISNEY, SPKR, GUS, SB, FM [, CDAUDIO].
CDAUDIO is only available if a CD-ROM interface with volume control is
enabled (CD image).
left:right
The volume levels in percentages. If you put a D in front it will be
in decibel (Example: mixer gus d-10).
/NOSHOW
Prevents DOSBox from showing the result if you set one
of the volume levels.
/LISTMIDI
Lists your PC's MIDI devices. To use one, set the 'midiconfig' attribute
in your configuration file to the device's numerical ID or any part of
its textual name. For example:
Examples:
(any OS) midiconfig = name # matches any part of name, case-insensitive
(Linux) midiconfig = 128:0 # connects to specific port
(Windows) midiconfig = 2 # connects to specific port
IMGMOUNT
A utility to mount disk images and CD-ROM images in DOSBox.
IMGMOUNT DRIVE [imagefile] -t [image_type] -fs [image_format]
-size [sectorsbytesize, sectorsperhead, heads, cylinders]
IMGMOUNT DRIVE [imagefile1 imagefile2 .. imagefileN] -t cdrom -fs iso
imagefile
Location of the image file to mount in DOSBox. The location can be
on a mounted drive inside DOSBox, or on your real disk. It is possible
to mount CD-ROM images (ISOs or CUE/BIN or CUE/IMG) too.
If you need CD swapping capabilities, specify all images in succession
(see the next entry).
CUE/BIN pairs and cue/img are the preferred CD-ROM image types as they can
store audio tracks compared to ISOs (which are data-only). For
the CUE/BIN mounting always specify the CUE sheet.
imagefile1 imagefile2 .. imagefileN
Location of the image files to mount in DOSBox. Specifying a number
of image files is only allowed for CD-ROM images.
The CD's can be swapped with Ctrl+F4 (or Cmd+F4 on macOS) at any time.
This is required for games which use multiple CD-ROMs and require the CD
to be switched during the gameplay at some point.
-t
The following are valid image types:
floppy: Specifies a floppy image. DOSBox will automatically identify
the disk geometry (360K, 1.2MB, 720K, 1.44MB, etc).
cdrom: Specifies a CD-ROM image. The geometry is automatic and
set for this size. This can be an iso or a cue/bin pair or
a cue/img pair.
hdd: Specifies a harddrive image. The proper CHS geometry must be set
for this to work.
-fs
The following are valid file system formats:
iso: Specifies the ISO 9660 CD-ROM format.
fat: Specifies that the image uses the FAT file system. DOSBox will
attempt to mount this image as a drive in DOSBox and make
the files available from inside DOSBox.
none: DOSBox will make no attempt to read the file system on the disk.
This is useful if you need to format it or if you want to boot
the disk using the BOOT command.
When using the "none" filesystem, you must specify a drive number:
Drive number Will be mounted as ...
------------ ----------------------
0 A: in DOS
1 B: in DOS, if A: is already mounted
2 C: in DOS
3 D: in DOS, if C: is already mounted
For example, if C: has already been mounted and you want
to mount a 70MB image as D:, you would use:
imgmount 3 d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142 -fs none
Note how this differs versus imgmount'ing an image with
read-only access, which is:
imgmount e: d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142
-size
The Cylinders, Heads and Sectors of the drive.
Required to mount hard drive images.
An example how to mount CD-ROM images (in Linux):
1. imgmount d /tmp/cdimage1.cue /tmp/cdimage2.cue -t cdrom
or (which also works):
2a. mount c /tmp
2b. imgmount d c:\cdimage1.cue c:\cdimage2.cue -t cdrom
(in Windows):
imgmount d f:\img\CD1.cue f:\img\CD2.cue f:\img\CD3.cue -t cdrom
imgmount d "g:\img\7th Guest CD1.cue" "g:\img\7th Guest CD2.cue" -t cdrom
Don't forget that you can also use MOUNT with images, but only if you use
external program, for example (both are free):
- Daemon Tools Lite (for CD images),
- Virtual Floppy Drive (for floppy images).
Although IMGMOUNT can give better compatibility.
BOOT
Boot will start floppy images or hard disk images independent of
the operating system emulation offered by DOSBox. This will allow you to
play booter floppies or boot other operating systems inside DOSBox.
If the target emulated system is PCjr (machine=pcjr) the boot command
can be used to load PCjr cartridges (.jrc).
BOOT [diskimg1.img diskimg2.img .. diskimgN.img] [-l driveletter]
BOOT [cart.jrc] (PCjr only)
diskimg1.img diskimg2.img .. diskimgN.img
This can be any number of floppy disk images one wants mounted after
DOSBox boots the specified drive letter.
To swap between images, hit Ctrl+F4 (or Cmd+F4 on macOS) to change from
the current disk to the next disk in the list. The list will loop back
from the last disk image to the beginning.
[-l driveletter]
This parameter allows you to specify the drive to boot from.
The default is the A drive, the floppy drive. You can also boot
a hard drive image mounted as primary by specifying "-l C"
without the quotes, or the drive as secondary by specifying "-l D"
cart.jrc (PCjr only)
When emulation of a PCjr is enabled, cartridges can be loaded with
the BOOT command. Support is still limited.
IPX
You need to enable IPX networking in the configuration file of DOSBox.
All of the IPX networking is managed through the internal DOSBox program
IPXNET. For help on the IPX networking from inside DOSBox, type
"IPXNET HELP" (without quotes) and the program will list the commands
and relevant documentation.
With regard to actually setting up a network, one system needs to be
the server. To set this up, type "IPXNET STARTSERVER" (without the quotes)
in a DOSBox session. The server DOSBox session will automatically add
itself to the virtual IPX network. For every additional computer that
should be part of the virtual IPX network, you'll need to type
"IPXNET CONNECT <computer host name or IP>".
For example, if your server is at bob.foobar.com, you would type
"IPXNET CONNECT bob.foobar.com" on every non-server system.
To play games that need Netbios a file named NETBIOS.EXE from Novell is
needed. Establish the IPX connection as explained above, then run
"netbios.exe".
The following is an IPXNET command reference:
IPXNET CONNECT
IPXNET CONNECT opens a connection to an IPX tunneling server
running on another DOSBox session. The "address" parameter specifies
the IP address or host name of the server computer. You can also
specify the UDP port to use. By default IPXNET uses port 213 - the
assigned IANA port for IPX tunneling - for its connection.
The syntax for IPXNET CONNECT is:
IPXNET CONNECT address <port>
IPXNET DISCONNECT
IPXNET DISCONNECT closes the connection to the IPX tunneling server.
The syntax for IPXNET DISCONNECT is:
IPXNET DISCONNECT
IPXNET STARTSERVER
IPXNET STARTSERVER starts an IPX tunneling server on this DOSBox
session. By default, the server will accept connections on UDP port
213, though this can be changed. Once the server is started, DOSBox
will automatically start a client connection to the IPX tunneling server.
The syntax for IPXNET STARTSERVER is:
IPXNET STARTSERVER <port>
If the server is behind a router, UDP port <port> needs to be forwarded
to that computer.
On Linux/Unix-based systems port numbers smaller than 1023 can only be
used with root privileges. Use ports greater than 1023 on those systems.
IPXNET STOPSERVER
IPXNET STOPSERVER stops the IPX tunneling server running on this DOSBox
session. Care should be taken to ensure that all other connections have
terminated as well, since stopping the server may cause lockups on other
machines that are still using the IPX tunneling server.
The syntax for IPXNET STOPSERVER is:
IPXNET STOPSERVER
IPXNET PING
IPXNET PING broadcasts a ping request through the IPX tunneled network.
In response, all other connected computers will respond to the ping
and report the time it took to receive and send the ping message.
The syntax for IPXNET PING is:
IPXNET PING
IPXNET STATUS
IPXNET STATUS reports the current state of this DOSBox session's
IPX tunneling network. For a list of all computers connected to the
network use the IPXNET PING command.
The syntax for IPXNET STATUS is:
IPXNET STATUS
KEYB [keyboardlayoutcode [codepage [codepagefile]]]
Change the keyboard layout. For detailed information about keyboard layouts
please see Section 8: "Keyboard Layout".
[keyboardlayoutcode] is a string consisting of five or less characters,
examples are PL214 (Polish typists) or PL457 (Polish programmers).
It specifies the keyboard layout to be used.
The list of all layouts built into DOSBox is here:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=21824
[codepage] is the number of the codepage to be used. The keyboard layout
has to provide support for the specified codepage, otherwise the layout
loading will fail.
If no codepage is specified, an appropriate codepage for the requested
layout is chosen automatically.
[codepagefile] can be used to load codepages that are yet not compiled
into DOSBox. This is only needed when DOSBox does not find the codepage.
If no codepagefile is specified, but you place all ten ega.cpx files
(from FreeDOS) in the DOSBox program folder, an appropriate codepagefile
for the requested layout/codepage is chosen automatically.
Examples:
1. To load the polish typist keys layout (automatically uses codepage 852):
keyb pl214
2. To load one of Russian keyboard layouts with codepage 866:
keyb ru441 866
In order to type Russian characters press Alt+Right+Shift.
On macOS, use the Option key intead of Alt: Opt+Right+Shift.
3. To load one of French keyboard layouts with codepage 850 (where the
codepage is defined in EGACPI.DAT):
keyb fr189 850 EGACPI.DAT
4. To load codepage 858 (without a keyboard layout):
keyb none 858
This can be used to change the codepage for the FreeDOS keyb2 utility.
5. To display the current codepage and, if loaded, the keyboard layout:
keyb
AUTOTYPE [-list] [-w WAIT] [-p PACE] button_1 [button_2 [...]]
Types the button sequence on your behalf, as if entered manually.
It can be used to reliably skip intros, answer Q&A style questions that
some games ask on startup, or to script a simple demo.
Typing is initially delayed by the WAIT time, which defaults to 2 seconds.
The delay between keystrokes is defined by the PACE time, which defaults
to 0.5 seconds.
The comma character "," adds an extra delay similar to modern phone numbers.
-list: prints all available button names.
Examples:
autotype -w 3 -p 0.7 up enter , right enter
autotype -w 1.3 esc esc esc enter p l a y e r enter
autotype -p 1 e x i t enter
Sample batch file for Microprose F-19 Steath Fighter:
autotype n 1
f19.com
It types 'n' when asked if you have a joystick and '1' to select VGA mode.
The game then proceeds to load with these settings applied.
For more information use the /? command line switch with the programs.
================
5. Special Keys:
================
Alt+Enter Switch between fullscreen and window mode.*
Alt+Pause Pause/Unpause emulator.*
Ctrl+F1 Start the keymapper*.
Ctrl+F4 Change between mounted floppy/CD images. Update directory cache
for all drives*.
Ctrl+F5 Save a screenshot*. (PNG format)
Ctrl+F6 Start/Stop recording sound output to a wave file*.
Ctrl+F7 Start/Stop recording video output to a zmbv file*.
Ctrl+F9 Shutdown emulator*.
Ctrl+F10 Capture/Release the mouse*.
Ctrl+F11 Slow down emulation (Decrease DOSBox Cycles)*.
Ctrl+F12 Speed up emulation (Increase DOSBox Cycles)* and **.
Alt+F12 Unlock speed (turbo button/fast forward)***.
Ctrl+Alt+Home Restart DOSBox.*
F11, Alt+F11 (machine=cga) change tint in NTSC output modes* and ****.
F11 (machine=hercules) cycle through amber, green, white colouring****.
*NOTE: On macOS, use Command+F<key> instead of Ctrl+F<key>, and the Option key
instead of the Alt key. For help enabling or pressing your top-row F-keys,
see the FAQ at the top.
**NOTE: Once you increase your DOSBox cycles beyond your computer CPU resources,
it will produce the same effect as slowing down the emulation.
This maximum will vary from computer to computer.
***NOTE: You need free CPU resources for this (the more you have, the faster
it goes), so it won't work at all with cycles=max or a too high amount
of fixed cycles. You have to keep the keys pressed for it to work!
****NOTE: These keys won't work if you saved a mapper file earlier with
a different machine type. So either reassign them or reset the mapper.
These are the default keybindings. They can be changed in the keymapper
(see Section 7: "KeyMapper").
Saved/recorded files can be found in:
(Windows) C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\DOSBox\capture\
(Linux) ~/.config/dosbox/capture/
(macOS) ~/Library/Preferences/DOSBox/capture/
This can be changed in the DOSBox configuration file.
====================
6. Joystick/Gamepad:
====================
The standard joystick port in DOS supports a maximum of 4 axes and 4 buttons.
For more, different modifications of that configuration were used.
To force DOSBox to use a different type of emulated joystick/gamepad, the entry
"joysticktype" in the [joystick] section of the DOSBox configuration file can
be used.
none - disables controller support.
auto - (default) autodetects whether you have one or two controllers connected:
if you have one - '4axis' setting is used,
if you have two - '2axis' setting is used.
2axis - If you have two controllers connected, each will emulate a joystick
with 2 axes and 2 buttons. If you have only one controller connected,
it will emulate a joystick with only 2 axis and 2 buttons.
4axis - supports only first controller, emulates a joystick
with 4 axis and 4 buttons or a gamepad with 2axis and 6 buttons.
4axis_2 - supports only second controller.
fcs - supports only first controller, emulates ThrustMaster
Flight Control System, with 3-axes, 4 buttons and 1 hat.
ch - supports only first controller, emulates CH Flightstick,
with 4-axes, 6 buttons and 1 hat, but you cannot press more
than one button at the same time.
You also have to configure controller properly inside the game.
It is important to remember that if you saved the mapperfile without joystick
connected, or with a different joystick setting, your new setting will not work
properly, or not work at all, until you reset DOSBox's mapperfile.
If controller is working properly outside DOSBox, but doesn't calibrate properly
inside DOSBox, try a different 'timed' setting in DOSBox's configuration file.
=============
7. KeyMapper:
=============
Start the DOSBox mapper either with Ctrl+F1 (Cmd+F1 on macOS) also see
Section 5: "Special Keys") or pass the -startmapper argument to the DOSBox
executable (see Section 3: "Command Line Parameters").
You are presented with a virtual keyboard and a virtual joystick.
These virtual devices correspond to the keys and events DOSBox will
report to the DOS applications. If you click on a button with your mouse,
you can see in the lower left corner with which event it is associated
(EVENT) and to what events it is currently bound.
Event: EVENT
BIND: BIND (the real key/button/axis you push with your finger/hand)
Add Del
mod1 hold Next
mod2
mod3
EVENT
The key or joystick axis/button/hat DOSBox will report to DOS applications.
(the event that will happen during the game, (eg. shooting/jumping/walking)
BIND
The key on your real keyboard or the axis/button/hat on your real
joystick(s) (as reported by SDL), which is connected to the EVENT.
mod1,2,3
Modifiers. These are keys you need to have to be pressed while pressing
BIND. mod1 = Ctrl and mod2 = Alt. These are generally only used when you
want to change the special keys of DOSBox.
Add
Add a new BIND to this EVENT. Basically add a key from your keyboard or an
event from the joystick (button press, axis/hat movement) which will
produce the EVENT in DOSBox.
Del
Delete the BIND to this EVENT. If an EVENT has no BINDS, then it is not
possible to trigger this event in DOSBox (that is there's no way to type
the key or use the respective action of the joystick).
Next
Go through the list of bindings which map to this EVENT.
Example:
Q1. You want to have the X on your keyboard to type a Z in DOSBox.
A. Click on the Z on the keyboard mapper. Click "Add".
Now press the X key on your keyboard.
Q2. If you click "Next" a couple of times, you will notice that the Z on your
keyboard also produces an Z in DOSBox.
A. Therefore select the Z again, and click "Next" until you have the Z on
your keyboard. Now click "Del".
Q3. If you try it out in DOSBox, you will notice that pressing X makes ZX
appear.
A. The X on your keyboard is still mapped to the X as well! Click on
the X in the keyboard mapper and search with "Next" until you find the
mapped key X. Click "Del".
Examples of remapping the joystick:
You have a joystick attached, it is working fine under DOSBox and you
want to play some keyboard-only game with the joystick (it is assumed
that the game is controlled by the arrows on the keyboard):
1. Start the mapper, then click on one of the left keyboard arrow.
EVENT should be key_left. Now click on Add and move your joystick
in the respective direction, this should add an event to the BIND.
2. Repeat the above for the missing three directions, additionally
the buttons of the joystick can be remapped as well (fire/jump).
3. Click on Save, then on Exit and test it with some game.
You want to swap the y-axis of the joystick because some flightsim uses
the up/down joystick movement in a way you don't like, and it is not
configurable in the game itself:
1. Start the mapper and click on Y- in the first joystick field.
EVENT should be jaxis_0_1-.
2. Click on Del to remove the current binding, then click Add and move
your joystick downwards. A new bind should be created.
3. Repeat this for Y+, save the layout and finally test it with some game.
If you want to remap anything to your d-pad/hat you will have to change
'joysticktype=auto' to 'joysticktype=fcs' in configuration file. Maybe this
will be improved in the next DOSBox version.
If you change the default mapping, you can save your changes by clicking on
"Save". DOSBox will save the mapping to a location specified in
the configuration file (the mapperfile= entry). At startup, DOSBox will load
your mapperfile, if it is present in the DOSBox configuration file.
Additionally, the mapperfile configuration entry can by changed with the CONFIG
program, and will take effect immediately.
config -set "sdl mapperfile=/path/to/mapper-file.map"
===================
8. Keyboard Layout:
===================
To switch to a different keyboard layout, either the entry "keyboardlayout"
in the [dos] section of the DOSBox configuration file or the internal DOSBox
program keyb.com (Section 4: "Internal Programs") can be used. Both accept
DOS conforming language codes (see below), but only by using keyb.com a
custom codepage can be specified.
The default keyboardlayout=auto currently works under Windows only. The language
is chosen according to the OS language, but the keyboard layout is not detected.
Layout switching
DOSBox supports a number of keyboard layouts and codepages by default,
in this case just the layout identifier needs to be specified (like
keyboardlayout=PL214 in the DOSBox configuration file, or using "keyb PL214"
at the DOSBox command prompt). The list of all layouts built into DOSBox is
here: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=21824
Some keyboard layouts (for example layout GK319 codepage 869 and layout RU441
codepage 808) have support for dual layouts that can be accessed by pressing
Left Alt+Right Shift for one layout and Left Alt+Left Shift for the other.
(on macOS, use Option+Right Shift and Option+Left Shift).
Some keyboard layouts (for example layout LT456 codepage 771) have support
for three layouts, third can be accessed by pressing Left Alt+Left Ctrl
(on macOS: Left Option+Left Ctrl).
Supported external files
The FreeDOS .kl files are supported (FreeDOS keyb2 keyboard layoutfiles) as
well as the FreeDOS keyboard.sys/keybrd2.sys/keybrd3.sys libraries which
consist of all available .kl files.
See http://www.freedos.org/ for precompiled keyboard layouts if
the DOSBox-integrated layouts don't work for some reason, or if updated or
new layouts become available.
Both .CPI (MS-DOS and compatible codepage files) and .CPX (FreeDOS
UPX-compressed codepage files) can be used. Some codepages are compiled
into DOSBox, so it is mostly not needed to care about external codepage
files. If you need a different (or custom) codepage file, copy it into
the directory of the DOSBox so it is accessible for DOSBox.
If you place all ten ega.cpx files (from FreeDOS) in DOSBox folder,
an appropriate codepagefile for the requested layout/codepage is
chosen automatically.
Additional layouts can be added by copying the corresponding .kl file into
the directory of the DOSBox configuration file and using the first part of
the filename as language code.
Example: For the file UZ.KL (keyboard layout for Uzbekistan) specify
"keyboardlayout=uz" in the DOSBox configuration file.
The integration of keyboard layout packages (like keybrd2.sys) works similar.
Note that the keyboard layout allows foreign characters to be entered, but
there is NO support for them in filenames. Try to avoid them both inside
DOSBox as well as in files on your host operating system that are accessible
by DOSBox.
============================================
9. Serial Modem: Multiplayer and BBS Support
============================================
Multiplayer Gaming: nullmodem connection over TCP
-------------------------------------------------
DOSBox can emulate a serial nullmodem cable allowing connectivity over
a TCP/IP network. It can be configured through the [serialports] section
in the configuration file.
To create a nullmodem connection, one side needs to act as the server and
the other as the client.
- The server-side is configured as follows:
serial1 = nullmodem
- The client-side:
serial1 = nullmodem server:<IP or name of the server>
Now start your game and choose nullmodem / serial cable / already connected
as multiplayer method on COM1. Set the same baudrate on both computers.
Furthermore, additional parameters can be specified to control the behavior
of the nullmodem connection. These are all parameters:
* port: - TCP port number. Default: 23
* rxdelay: - how long (milliseconds) to delay received data if the
interface is not ready. Increase this value if you encounter
overrun errors in the DOSBox status window. Default: 100
* txdelay: - how long to gather data before sending a packet. Default: 12
(reduces Network overhead)
* server: - This nullmodem will be a client connecting to the specified
server. (No server argument: be a server.)
* transparent:1 - Only send the serial data, no RTS/DTR handshake. Use this
when connecting to anything other than a nullmodem.
* telnet:1 - Interpret Telnet data from the remote site. Automatically
sets transparent. This should only be used when the server
is being hosted behind a Telnet server.
* usedtr:1 - The connection will not be established until DTR is switched
on by the DOS program. Useful for modem terminals.
Automatically sets transparent.
* inhsocket:1 - Use a socket passed to DOSBox by command line. Automatically
sets transparent. (Socket Inheritance: It is used for
playing old DOS door games on new BBS software.)
Example: Be a server listening on TCP port 5000.
serial1=nullmodem server:<IP or name of the server> port:5000 rxdelay:1000
BBS Support: softmodem connection over TCP
------------------------------------------
DOSBox emulates a hardware modem allowing one to either host or dial a BBS
across the Internet.
To host a BBS:
1) Configure DOSBox's serial port as follows:
[serial]
serial1 = modem telnet:1 listenport:2323
A port greater than 1024 allows you to run DOSBox as a normal user instead
of requiring root or administrator rights.
2) Launch and configure your preferred DOS-based BBS software such as Renegade,
Synchronet, or WWIV.
3) To allow someone on the Internet to connect to your DOSBox BBS,
you will (likely) need to open a port on your router/firewall and
forward it into your DOSBox BBS machine. We suggest opening port 23,
the standard Telnet port, and forwarding it into your DOSBox machine's
IP listening on port 2323. Consult your router's manual or a How-to
guide for more information regarding port-forwarding and service hosting.
To "dial" a BBS:
1) Configure DOSBox's serial port as follows:
[serial]
serial1 = modem listenport:2323
If you're positive that all the BBSes you plan to dial are hosted
behind Telnet servers, then Configure DOSBox's serial port as
follows:
[serial]
serial1 = modem telnet:1 listenport:2323
2) Set the phone number of the BBS to its hostname or IP, optionally
followed by the port number, as follows:
- BBS on standard Telnet port (23): remote.bbs.com
- BBS on a non-standard port: remote.bbs.com:10024
3) If the BBS is hosted behind a Telnet interface and the telnet:1
configuration option is not applied to your serial port (described
in step 1), then customize your dial-prefix to enable telnet-mode
as follows:
AT+NET1DT
If file-transfers fail or are corrupted for a particular, BBS then it's
likely hosted directly on the Internet using a TCP-to-serial gateway as
used by vintage BBSes (e.g. Commodore, Apple, Atari, etc.). In this case,
use the default dial-prefix or explicitly disable telnet-mode for this BBS:
ATDT (default)
AT+NET0DT (explicitly disable telnet-mode)
In general, the default communication port settings should be left as-is.
Typically these are:
COM1:
- COM port 1
- 8N1, meaning: data-bits (8), parity (none), and stop-bits (1).
- 57600 baud, which can be changed to 300 <= VALUE <= 57600 with the
baudrate:VALUE setting.
- 03F8 address
- IRQ4 interrupt
- 16550 fifo enabled
- Software flow control (Xon/Xoff) enabled
- Hardware flow control (CTS/RTS) enabled
- Hardware flow control (DSR/DTR) disabled
Phone book
----------
You can map fake phone numbers to Internet addresses which is useful for programs
where limitations on the phone number input field are too strict.
Create a text file with the name specified in "phonebookfile" entry in [serial]
section in the DOSBox configuration file and add phone-address pairs per line,
for example:
5551234 towel.blinkenlights.nl:23
Now you can dial the specified phone number and the emulated modem will connect
to the address it's mapped to. Note that phone book does not allow any
characters in the phone number that are ignored or denied by a real Hayes
compatible modem.
=====================================
10. How to speed up/slow down DOSBox:
=====================================
DOSBox emulates the CPU, the sound and graphic cards, and other peripherals
of a PC, all at the same time. The speed of an emulated DOS application
depends on how many instructions can be emulated, which is adjustable
(number of cycles).
CPU Cycles (speed up/slow down)
By default (cycles=auto) DOSBox tries to detect whether a game needs to
be run with as many instructions emulated per time interval as possible
(cycles=max, sometimes this results in game working too fast or unstable),
or whether to use fixed amount of cycles (cycles=3000, sometimes this results
in game working too slow or too fast). But you can always manually force
a different setting in the DOSBox's configuration file.
You can force the slow or fast behavior by setting a fixed amount of cycles
in the DOSBox's configuration file. If you set for example cycles=10000, the
DOSBox window will display a line "CPU speed: fixed 10000 cycles" at the top.
In this mode you can reduce the amount of cycles even more by hitting Ctrl+F11
(Cmd+F11 on macOS), as low as needed, or raise it with Ctrl+F12 (Cmd+F12 on
macOS) but you will be limited by you PC's single-threaded performance.
You can see how much free time your real CPU's cores have by looking at
the Task Manager in Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 and the System Monitor
in Windows 95/98/ME. Once 100% of the power of your computer's real CPU's one
core is used, there is no further way to speed up DOSBox (it will actually
start to slow down), unless you reduce the load generated by the non-CPU parts
of DOSBox. DOSBox can use only one core of your CPU, so If you have
for example a CPU with 4 cores, DOSBox will not be able to use the power
of three other cores.
You can also force the fast behavior by setting cycles=max in the DOSBox
configuration file. The DOSBox window will display a line
"CPU speed: max 100% cycles" at the top then. This time you won't have to care
how much free time your real CPU cores have, because DOSBox will always use
100% of your real CPU's one core. In this mode you can reduce the amount
of your real CPU's core usage by Ctrl+F11 or raise it with Ctrl+F12 (or
Cmd+F11 and Cmd+F12 on macOS).
CPU Core (speed up)
On x86 architectures you can try to force the usage of a dynamically
recompiling core (set core=dynamic in the DOSBox configuration file).
This usually gives better results if the auto detection (core=auto) fails.
It is best accompanied by cycles=max. But you may also try using it with
high amounts of cycles (for example 20000 or more). Note that there might be
games that work worse/crash with the dynamic core (so save your game often),
or do not work at all!
Graphics performance (speed up)
1. Ensure your video drivers are up-to-date. There are currently no
known driver-specific regressions with DOSBox Staging.
2. Ensure your DOSBox Staging configuration file is set to use your PC's most
performant rendering backend. If you're using a typical x86-64 or Apple M1
PC platform, then the default settings should be OK. However, if you're
using an ARM-based SBC like the Raspberry Pi 3 or 4, then we highly
recommend using the configuration settings mentioned here:
https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/wiki/Config-file-examples
If you're using settings from DOSBox upstream (<= 0.74x or DOSBox SVN)
or another DOSBox fork, then we suggest backing those up and starting
with a new configuration. To do so, open a command prompt where your
DOSBox Staging executable is located.
Launch DOSBox Staging with internal defaults:
dosbox -noprimaryconf -nolocalconf
At the Z:\> prompt, write a new configuration file:
Z:\> config -wc
You can open this newly written config with:
dosbox -editconf
3. Test your settings using a graphically-intensive benchmark such as using the
shareware version of Quake in Phil's DOS Benchmark Pack (google search for
it).
Before launching it, ensure your web browser is shutdown and your system is
otherwise idle. Run the Quake 320x200 low-resolution benchmark five times
and record the results (reports FPS might vary by up to ~10%).
Now open your configuration file (launch "dosbox -editconf") and try
adjusting one of the following settings and rerun the benchmark, Be sure to
only make one conf change at a time between runs.
1) Compare OpenGL versus Texture rendering modes:
- output = opengl (or openglnb), versus
- output = texture (or texturenb)
2) Compare your windowing environment's compositing ability:
- windowresolution = 640x480, vesus
- windowresolution = medium, versus
- windowresolution = desktop
3) Compare your GPU's fullscreen scaling modes:
- "fullscreen = true" with "fullresolution = desktop"
- "fullscreen = true" with "fullresolution = original"
4) Check if it makes sense to enable vsync:
- "fullscreen = true" with "vsync = true"
- "fullscreen = true" with "vsync = false"
5) Compare the cost of using GLShaders:
- Setup the base configuration first:
"output = opengl"
"fullscreen = false"
"windowresolution = 1280x960"
- Now compare shader performance:
[render] "glshader = none", versus
[render] "glshader = crt-easymode-flat"
Based on the above results, you should have a good understanding of which
settings provide the fastest performance versus those settings that are
slower.
Audio performance (speed up)
- Consider disabling the audio-device filters (they are off by default).
General tips:
On Linux, check if your distribution supports the "gamemode" package. Launch
with "gamemoderun dosbox", which is good for any game or program needed
low-latency CPU scheduling.
Try to close every program but DOSBox to reserve as many resources as possible
for DOSBox.
Advanced cycles configuration:
The cycles=auto and cycles=max settings can be parameterized to have
different startup defaults. The syntax is
cycles=auto ["realmode default"] ["protected mode default"%]
[limit "cycle limit"]
cycles=max ["protected mode default"%] [limit "cycle limit"]
Example:
cycles=auto 5000 80% limit 20000
will use cycles=5000 for real mode games, 80% CPU throttling for
protected mode games along with a hard cycle limit of 20000
=====================
11. Troubleshooting:
=====================
General tip:
Check messages in the DOSBox status window. See Section 12: "DOSBox Status Window".
DOSBox crashes right after starting it:
- use different values for the output= entry in your DOSBox
configuration file
- try to update your graphics card driver and DirectX
- (Linux) set the environment variable SDL_AUDIODRIVER to alsa or oss.
Running a certain game closes DOSBox, crashes with some message or hangs:
- see if it works with a default DOSBox installation
(unmodified configuration file)
- try it with sound disabled (use the sound configuration
program that comes with the game, additionally you can
set sbtype=none and gus=false in the DOSBox configuration file)
- change some entries of the DOSBox configuration file, especially try:
core=normal
fixed cycles (for example cycles=10000)
ems=false
xms=false
or combinations of the above settings,
similar the machine settings that control the emulated chipset and
functionality:
machine=vesa_nolfb
- use loadfix before starting the game
The game exits to the DOSBox prompt with some error message:
- read the error message closely and try to locate the error
- try the hints at the above sections
- mount differently as some games are picky about the locations,
for example if you used "mount d d:\oldgames\game" try
"mount c d:\oldgames\game" and "mount c d:\oldgames"
- if the game requires a CD-ROM be sure you used "-t cdrom" when mounting and
refer to the above section "CD-ROM: My CD-ROM doesn't work" for more help.
- check the file permissions of the game files (remove read-only attributes,
add write permissions etc.)
- try reinstalling the game within DOSBox
=========================
12. DOSBox Status Window:
=========================
DOSBox's status window contains useful information about your current
configuration, your actions in DOSBox, errors which occurred and more.
Check these messages in case you encounter any problems with DOSBox.
To display the DOSBox status window:
(Windows) The status window is being started together with main DOSBox window.
(Linux) You may have to start DOSBox from a console to see the status window.
(Mac OS X) Right click on DOSBox.app, choose "Show Package Contents"->
->enter "Contents"->enter "MacOS"->run "DOSBox"
=====================================
13. The configuration (options) file:
=====================================
The configuration file is automatically created the first time you run DOSBox.
The default directories storing config file are:
(Windows) C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\DOSBox\
(Linux) ~/.config/dosbox/
(macOS) ~/Library/Preferences/DOSBox/
You can quickly find exact path by running dosbox with parameter "--printconf".
Linux users:
The configuration's parent-directory can be customized by setting
the XDG_DATA_HOME environment variable, per the XDG Base Directory
Specification. If set, DOSBox will use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dosbox/ for
its configuration path.
Windows users:
In Windows Vista or newer, the configuration file won't work correctly
if it is located in "Windows" or "Program Files" folder or their subfolders,
or directly on C:\, so the best place for storing extra configuration files
is next to the default config directory or for example: C:\oldgames
The file is divided into several sections. Each section starts with a
[section name] line. The settings are the property=value lines where value can
be altered to customize DOSBox.
# and % indicate comment-lines.
An extra configuration file can be generated by CONFIG.COM, which can be found
on the internal DOSBox Z: drive when you start up DOSBox. Look in the Section 4:
"Internal programs" for usage of CONFIG.COM. You can start DOSBox with
the -conf switch to load the generated file and use its settings.
DOSBox will load configuration files that are specified with -conf. If none were
specified, it will try to load "dosbox.conf" from the local directory.
If there is none, DOSBox will load the user configuration file.
This file will be created if it doesn't exist.
======================
14. The Language File:
======================
A language file can be generated by CONFIG.COM, which can be found on the
internal DOSBox Z: drive when you start up DOSBox. Look in the Section 4:
"Internal programs" for usage of CONFIG.COM.
Read the language file, and you will hopefully understand how to change it.
Start DOSBox with the -lang switch to use your new language file.
Alternatively, you can setup the filename in the configuration file
in the [dosbox] section. There's a language= entry that can be changed with
the filelocation.
The DOSBox Staging release is bundled with a "Resources/translations"
directory containing translated language files. Translations are provided
for German (de), Spanish (es), Fench (fr), Italian (it), Polish (pl), and
Russian (ru). Select your prefered language using short-hand notation,
as shown in these examples:
Via LANG environment variable:
set LANG de (on Windows)
export LANG=it (on macOS and Linux)
Via conf setting:
[dosbox]
language = es
Via command-line flag:
dosbox -lang pl
dosbox -lang ru
Note: macOS users can find the "Resources/translations" directory after
expanding the .dmg package.
========================================
15. Building your own version of DOSBox:
========================================
Download the source.
Check the README.md and BUILD.md files in the source distribution.
===================
16. Special thanks:
===================
See the THANKS file.
============
17. Contact:
============
Project home:
https://dosbox-staging.github.io/
You can report bugs and ask questions in our bugtracker:
https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/issues
If you want to chat, you'll find fellow users and developers on #dosbox-staging
channel on Luxtorpeda project Discord server:
https://discord.gg/WwAg3Xf
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