[solved] dosbox won't build from source

[doctordruidphd]

Raspberry Pi 4b 8gb ram
Ubuntu 20.04
Retropie 4.8.1 built from source 0n 7 June.

I cannot get dosbox to build using the retropie setup menu, optional packages. The option for msdos/pc games shows up in the menu, but all I get is a black screen when I try to use them. The errors seem to be that it cannot find the source code for the sdl component:

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Installing dependencies for 'dosbox' : DOS emulator
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Did not find needed dependencies: libsdl1.2-dev(custom). Trying to install them now.
Update is available - updating ...

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Installing dependencies for 'sdl1' : SDL 1.2.15 with rpi fixes and dispmanx
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/media/userdata/retropie/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/sdl1 /media/userdata/retropie/RetroPie-Setup

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Getting sources for 'sdl1' : SDL 1.2.15 with rpi fixes and dispmanx
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Downloading http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/libs/libsdl1.2/libsdl1.2_1.2.15.orig.tar.gz to libsdl1.2_1.2.15.orig.tar.gz ...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found
Downloading http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/libs/libsdl1.2/libsdl1.2_1.2.15-10.dsc to libsdl1.2_1.2.15-10.dsc ...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found
Downloading http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/libs/libsdl1.2/libsdl1.2_1.2.15-10.debian.tar.xz to libsdl1.2_1.2.15-10.debian.tar.xz ...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found
dpkg-source: error: cannot read libsdl1.2_1.2.15-10.dsc: No such file or directory
/media/userdata/retropie/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/sdl1.sh: line 68: cd: libsdl1.2-1.2.15: No such file or directory
Downloading https://github.com/RetroPie/sdl1/compare/master...rpi.diff to debian/patches/rpi.diff ...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0Warning: Failed to create the file debian/patches/rpi.diff: No such file or 
Warning: directory
  3 33182    3  1292    0     0   2871      0  0:00:11 --:--:--  0:00:11  2864
curl: (23) Failed writing body (0 != 1292)
/media/userdata/retropie/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/sdl1.sh: line 71: debian/patches/series: No such file or directory
sed: can't read debian/rules: No such file or directory
dch: fatal error at line 621:
Cannot find debian/changelog anywhere!
Are you in the source code tree?
(You could use --create if you wish to create this file.)
URL http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/libs/libsdl1.2/libsdl1.2_1.2.15.orig.tar.gz failed to download.

curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found
URL http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/libs/libsdl1.2/libsdl1.2_1.2.15-10.dsc failed to download.

curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found
URL http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/libs/libsdl1.2/libsdl1.2_1.2.15-10.debian.tar.xz failed to download.

curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found
URL https://github.com/RetroPie/sdl1/compare/master...rpi.diff failed to download.

curl: (23) Failed writing body (0 != 1292)
/media/userdata/retropie/RetroPie-Setup

dosbox from the ubuntu repositories works. Is there a way I can get retropie to use the dosbox already installed on the system, or some other way to get it working?

[mitu]

Your OS is not supported by RetroPie and the wrong SDL1 package URL is generated by the install script (which may have a problem on RasPiOS also, but that's another issue).

You should try installing dosbox-staging, it's a more featured fork of the Dosbox upstream project. If you still want to use the installed dosbox, then modify /opt/retropie/configs/pc/emulators.cfg and add an entry for it, similar to the one present for dosbox-staging, but with a different name and path to the executable.

[doctordruidphd]

Thanks. I modified pc/emulators.cfg to point to the installed dosbox, and it works. I am still working on setting up dosbox-staging, but it looks like that is going to work also.