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README
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README
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DOSBox v0.74-2 Manual (always use the latest version from www.dosbox.com)
=====
NOTE:
=====
While we are hoping that one day DOSBox will run all programs ever made for
the PC, we are not there yet.
At present, DOSBox running on a high-end machine will roughly be the equivalent
of a Pentium I PC. DOSBox can be configured to run a wide range of DOS games,
from CGA/Tandy/PCjr classics up to games from the Quake era.
======
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 Multiplayer feature
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"). If you have your game on a cdrom you may try
this guide: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=8933
===============
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: 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?
In the DOSBox configuration file is an [autoexec] section. The commands
present there are run when DOSBox starts, so you can use this section
for the mounting. Look at 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:
ddraw, opengl, openglnb, overlay. 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 resolution
in the config/Options file for windowresolution (e.g. 1024x768).
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 /media/cdrom -t cdrom
In some cases you might want to use a different CD-ROM interface,
for example if CD audio does not work:
To enable SDL-support (does not include low-level CD access!):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -usecd 0 -noioctl
To enable ioctl access using digital audio extraction for CD audio
(Windows-only, useful for Vista):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_dx
To enable ioctl access using MCI for CD audio (Windows-only):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_mci
To force ioctl-only access (Windows-only):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -ioctl_dio
To enable low-level aspi-support (win98 with aspi-layer installed):
- mount d f:\ -t cdrom -aspi
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"
(note that this value is only needed when using SDL
for CD audio, otherwise it is ignored)
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.
Under Windows you can specify -ioctl, -aspi or -noioctl. Look at the
description of the mount command in Section 4: "Internal programs"
for their meaning and the
additional audio-CD related options -ioctl_dx, -ioctl_mci, -ioctl_dio.
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.
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: 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 \.
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: Right Shift and "\" doesn't work in DOSBox. (Windows only)
This may happen if Windows thinks that you have more than one keyboard
connected to your PC when you use some remote control devices.
To verity this problem run cmd.exe, navigate to DOSBox program folder
and type:
set sdl_videodriver=windib
dosbox.exe
check whether keyboard started to work properly. As windib is slower it is
best to use one of the two solutions provided here:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=24072
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,
set joysticktype=none in the [joystick] section of your DOSBox
configuration file. Maybe also try unplugging any joystick/gamepad.
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.
For more questions read the rest of this Manual. You may also look at:
guides located at https://www.vogons.org/viewforum.php?f=53
the wiki of DOSBox https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/
the site/forum: https://www.dosbox.com
===========================
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 console
(Mac OS X) start terminal.app and navigate to:
/applications/dosbox.app/contents/macos/dosbox
The options are valid for all operating systems unless noted in the option
description:
dosbox [name] [-exit] [-c command] [-fullscreen] [-userconf]
[-conf congfigfilelocation] [-lang languagefilelocation]
[-machine machine type] [-noconsole] [-startmapper] [-noautoexec]
[-securemode] [-scaler scaler | -forcescaler scaler] [-version]
[-socket socket]
dosbox -version
dosbox -editconf program
dosbox -opencaptures program
dosbox -printconf
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".
-exit
DOSBox will close itself when the DOS application "name" ends.
-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.
-userconf
Start DOSBox with the users specific configuration file. Can be used
together with multiple -conf parameters, but -userconf will always be
loaded before them.
-conf configfilelocation
Start DOSBox with the options specified in "configfilelocation".
Multiple -conf options may be present.
See Section 13: "The configuration (options) file" for more details.
-lang languagefilelocation
Start DOSBox using the language specified in "languagefilelocation".
See Section 14: "The Language File" for more details.
-machine machinetype
Setup DOSBox to emulate a specific type of machine. Valid choices are:
hercules, cga, ega, pcjr, tandy, svga_s3 (default) as well as
the additional SVGA chipsets listed in the DOSBox configuration file.
svga_s3 enables VESA emulation as well.
For some special VGA effects the machinetype vgaonly can be used,
note that this disables SVGA capabilities and might be slower due to the
higher emulation precision.
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).
-scaler scaler
Uses the scaler specified by "scaler". See the DOSBox configuration file
for the available scalers.
-forcescaler scaler
Similar to the -scaler parameter, but tries to force usage of
the specified scaler even if it might not fit.
-version
output version information and exit. Useful for frontends.
-editconf program
calls program with as first parameter the configuration file.
You can specify this command more than once. In this case it will
move to second program if the first one fails to start.
-opencaptures program
calls program with as first parameter the location of the captures
folder.
-printconf
prints 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 and OS/2 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.
=====================
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] [-aspi] [-ioctl] [-noioctl] [-usecd number] [-size drivesize]
[-label drivelabel] [-freesize size_in_mb]
[-freesize size_in_kb (floppies)]
MOUNT -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 #
and/or -aspi parameters, or specifying -noioctl):
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 !!
-aspi
Forces use of the aspi layer. Only valid if mounting a CD-ROM under
Windows systems with an ASPI-Layer.
-ioctl (automatic selection of the CD audio interface)
-ioctl_dx (digital audio extraction used for CD audio)
-ioctl_dio (ioctl calls used for CD audio)
-ioctl_mci (MCI used for CD audio)
Forces use of ioctl commands. Only valid if mounting a CD-ROM under
a Windows OS which support them (Win2000/XP/NT).
The various choices only differ in the way CD audio is handled,
preferably -ioctl_dio is used (lowest workload), but this might not
work on all systems, so -ioctl_dx (or -ioctl_mci) can be used.
-noioctl
Forces use of the SDL CD-ROM layer. Valid on all systems.
-usecd number
Valid on all systems, under Windows the -noioctl switch has to be
present to make use of the -usecd switch.
Enables to select the drive that should be used by SDL. Use this if
the wrong or no CD-ROM drive is mounted while using the SDL CD-ROM
interface. "number" can be found by "MOUNT -cd".
-cd
Displays all CD-ROM drives detected by SDL, and their numbers.
See the information at the -usecd entry above.
-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 folder as a harddisk drive:
mount c d:\dosgames
3. To mount your CD-ROM drive E as CD-ROM drive D in DOSBox:
mount d e:\ -t cdrom
2. 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
1. To mount c:\dosgames\floppy as a floppy:
mount a c:\dosgames\floppy -t floppy
Other MOUNT examples:
3. To mount system CD-ROM drive at mountpoint /media/cdrom as CD-ROM drive D
in DOSBox:
mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom -usecd 0
6. To mount /home/user/dosgames as drive C in DOSBox:
mount c /home/user/dosgames
7. 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 major_version [minor_version]
Display the current DOSBox version and reported DOS version
(parameterless usage).
Change the reported DOS version with the "set" parameter,
for example: "VER set 6 22" to have DOSBox report DOS 6.22 as version number.
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. Realtive 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
- wether 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 check which cpu core is being used.
config -get "cpu core"
5. To view the list of possible cpu cores:
config -help cpu core
6. To change the machine type and restart:
config -set "machine cga"
config -wc -r
7. To configure the autoexec section to auto-mount a directory at start:
config -axadd "mount c c:\dosgames" "c:"
config -wc
8. 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
9. 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 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, ioctl_dx).
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
In Windows lists the available midi devices on your PC. To select a device
other than the Windows default midi-mapper, change the line 'midiconfig='
in the [midi] section of the configuration file to 'midiconfig=id', where
'id' is the number for the device as listed by LISTMIDI. eg. midiconfig=2
In Linux this option doesn't work, but you get similar results by using
'pmidi -l' in console. Then change the line 'midiconfig=' to
'midiconfig=port', where 'port' is the port for the device as listed by
'pmidi -l'. eg. midiconfig=128:0
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 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 the drive number (2 or 3,
where 2 = master, 3 = slave) rather than a drive letter.
For example, to mount a 70MB image as the slave drive device,
you would type (without the quotes):
"imgmount 3 d:\test.img -size 512,63,16,142 -fs none"
Compare this with a mount to be able to access the drive
within DOSBox, which would read as:
"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 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 master by specifying "-l C"
without the quotes, or the drive as slave 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.dosbox.com, you would type
"IPXNET CONNECT bob.dosbox.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.