[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.