Can we expect an lr-package for dosbox some day?

Brigane

Has anybody been trying the new lr-dosbox found in the experimental section yet?

hooperre

@brigane I attempted to use it, but it doesn't handle .sh files >> .conf files from what I've seen.

It'll just try to run the .sh file in Dosbox, not run the config file and run the [autoexec] section.

dudleydes

@hooperre is correct in saying lr-dosbox will not launch games from .sh files but it will launch from .conf files. For example, to get Albion running in the lr-dosbox, I created a text file, Albion.conf, in the PC roms folder with the following contents:

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.

MOUNT c /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc
C:
cd ALBION
LAUNCH.EXE
EXIT

On the plus side, lr-dosbox , by default, maps the mouse to my PS3 controller. Mouse movement is mapped to the right analog stick. The left mouse button is mapped to the right trigger (R2) and the right button to the left trigger (L2).

On the down side, the key mapper doesn't work so games such as Abuse require a keyboard.

hooperre

@dudleydes Is there any way to work around this issue with a .sh? It would be great if I didn't need multiple entries for each game. I would love to use lr-dosbox for my Windows 3.1x based games as the mouse mapping would be immense!

edmaul69

@dudleydes does a real mouse work too? I am interested in this if it can. But i dont want to change 200 .sh files if i cant mount an actual cd drive or use a mouse.

edmaul69

Deleted. I figured it out

edmaul69

@dudleydes how do you get it to recognize a controller? Retroarch recognizes it but the games dont? The joysticks mouse works.

edmaul69

@psyke83 how do you get it joysticks to work in lr-dosbox?

dudleydes

@edmaul69 My PS3 controller worked by default, I didn't have to make any changes to the default configuration. Have you checked in the RGUI? In the Controls option in the Quick Menu, you will see the mappings for User 1 emulated mouse. This is how I found that mouse movement is mapped to the right analog stick and not the left stick I would've expected.

I f you wish to use an actual mouse, then I would stick to the standalone version unless there are features in RetroArch you're interested in. I haven't tested lr-dosbox with a USB mouse but I had no issues with the touchpad of Rii mini keyboard.

(PS I live in the UK and have just woken in the last 30 minutes so the time difference of our locations will cause delays in our responses)

@hooperre I wouldn't worry about using .sh files to launch games in lr-dosbox. What I have done is made sure that the .conf and .CONF are in the list of permitted extensions in my custom es_systems.cfg. This way I use .conf files to launch games in lr-dosbox and .sh files in the standalone version.

psyke83

Do the .conf files also work in standalone dosbox? If so, I will send a PR to add it to the extensions list for both.

edmaul69

@psyke83 with standalone dosbox boots then crashes. Which means it possibly could. There is something that crashes it. The exit command is probably causing the crash. So i will remove it and see what is causing the crash and making it exit. I will play with it and see if i can find what is

edmaul69

Deleted. Hold on. Testing

edmaul69

@psyke83 nope. It does not read .conf files. My previous statement was wrong.

edmaul69

@psyke83 ok so the problem is how the +Start DOSBox.sh is setup. I will test to see if i can figure out the issue.

dudleydes

@psyke83 .conf is already included in the list of permitted extensions for DOSBox.

.conf files will work with standalone DOSBox but requires a -confflag for it to launch.

dudleydes

I have found a way of launching games in standalone DOSBox straight from ES using .conf files.

First I added lines to the +Start DOSBox.sh script that will allow launching of conf files so that my script now reads:

#!/bin/bash
params=("$@")
if [[ -z "${params[0]}" ]]; then
    params=(-c "@MOUNT C /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc" -c "@C:")
elif [[ "${params[0]}" == *.sh ]]; then
    bash "${params[@]}"
    exit
elif [[ "${params[0]}" == *.conf ]]; then
	params=(-conf "${params[@]}")
else
    params+=(-exit)
fi
"/opt/retropie/emulators/dosbox/bin/dosbox" "${params[@]}"

Now if I use the .conf for Albion as posted earlier, then if I press ESC on a keyboard anytime once the game has loaded, then DOSBox exits unexpectedly. Checking the runcommand log, there is Segmentation fault error. If I relaunch Albion, then, instead of seeing the runcommand launch menu, I see a still of the moment when DOSBox had previously exited.

This is not ideal so the solution is to copy the default DOSBox conf, dosbox-SVN.conf file found in /opt/retropie/configs/pc/ into the PC roms folder and rename it Albion.conf. In the [Autoexec] section, I added the commands to launch Albion as in my previous post.

This fixes the above issue but when testing Jazz Jackrabbit, my PS3 controller did not work and the runcommand log notes that the mapper file was not being loaded. To overcome this, it is necessary to include the full path to the mapper file in the sdl section of the conf file as below:

mapperfile=/opt/retropie/configs/pc/mapper-SVN.map

These .conf files can also be used to launch games in lr-dosbox.

I hope users can test this to make sure I haven't overlooked anything as I have tested this on the two games mentioned. Then, maybe, we can look to add support to launch games from ES using .conf files as they can be used with lr-dosbox and standalone DOSBox.

psyke83

Instead of making a full copy of your dosbox-SVN.conf, try adding the -userconf argument, like so:

elif [[ "${params[0]}" == *.conf ]]; then
	params=(-userconf -conf "${params[@]}")
else

EctoOne

@dudleydes does the mapper file even work? last thing i've seen was that they are bugged. If they do now that would be great, because it would allow differebt mappings for each game plus having mouse support on the stick.
SInce i messed up my latest installation anyways, it's time to figure out if i could put two versions of RetroPie on one card, one just for testing.

psyke83

Update: -userconfsolves the problem. You were seeing a segmentation fault and broken mapper due to the default behaviour of -confcausing dosbox to ignore the default user configuration.

When invoked with -userconf, it appends/overrides the user configuration correctly:

CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /home/pi/.dosbox/dosbox-SVN.conf
CONFIG:Loading additional settings from config file /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/DOOM.conf

I've confirmed that launching via .conf files now work correctly both on dosbox and lr-dosbox, so I've gone ahead and merged the necessary change. You should be able to override any other necessary setting changes in this file (such as custom mappers) too. Thanks.

edmaul69

Thank goodness for bulk rename and notepad++. Saved me a lot of time changing 195 .sh files to working .conf files.