DrFred wrote:

CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /Users/newuser/Library/Preferences/DOSBox Preferences

It seems the existing OSX frontends are not updated for years now, some of them comes with DOSBOX 0.61 (like Radnor), some of them with 0.63, but no one with the most recent version 0.65...

The first times while creating my new DOSBOX frontend for OSX The Terminal replies also the msg "CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /Users/newuser/Library/Preferences/DOSBox Preferences "
but it seems it does not. May readed, but not not seemed to excute it.

Now, which many programming experience inside REALbasic, it works. I did'nt know before that I've to add a chr(10) sign at the and of each config.conf line while creating this file by a REALbasic application.

Officially you can use TextEdit to edit the file, but I'm not really sure about that.

Just a note from another Mac DOSbox user (me):

I had DOSbox 0.65 on PowerPC OS X 10.4 for quite a while, which I used with a "dosbox.conf" file just stuck in the same directory as the DOSbox app. Now that I've switched to DOSbox 0.70, I still use a dosbox.conf file in the DOSbox directory in the same way, which works with no problems. I don't have or need a "DOSbox preferences" file in either the system-wide or user-specific Library/Preferences folder. This appears to be contrary to the way DOSbox 0.70 is supposed to be used on the Mac, but it works for me.

Yes, thank you, tried your good suggestion with no result, other than the same one: DOSBox does not find a configuration file, whether named Dosbox Preferences, kept in /library/preferences or dosbox.conf kept in the dosbox executable's directory. Appreciate your post.

but no one with the most recent version 0.65...

Most recent!=0.65 (should be rather obvious from the topic title anyways).

DrFred wrote:

DOSBox does not find a configuration file, whether named Dosbox Preferences, kept in /library/preferences or dosbox.conf kept in the dosbox executable's directory.

Sorry for nitpicking here, but what do you mean by "does not find" ??

Could it be that it do indeed find it, opens it, but can't understand the content because it is not a plain text file?

So when you say "does not find" - do you mean that it does not obey the settings in the file?

Edit: From your last post, with DOSBox emiting the "CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /Users/newuser/Library/Preferences/DOSBox Preferences" line, it seems like it do find the file.

What if you make a really simply preferences-file with just 2 lines:

1[cpu]
2cycles=12345

Then check the contents using od from a terminal window:

1$ od -bc x.conf
20000000 133 143 160 165 135 015 012 143 171 143 154 145 163 075 061 062
3          [   c   p   u   ]  \r  \n   c   y   c   l   e   s   =   1   2
40000020 063 064 065 015 012
5          3   4   5  \r  \n
60000025

To clarify: my DOSBox Preferences is the one bundled with the download, modified only in the [autoexec] section, for my own purposes. By "does not find" I mean that, apparently, the preferences file is not accessed as the .app file loads. I'm sure that the preferences file is pure text . . .

Pardon me for ignoring the italics in your post, which contained valuable information, i.e., the app does find the preferences file, if I understand this correctly . . . still left with the problem . . .

I should have posted this months ago, but lost track: the 'problem' I was having with DOSBox not loading its configuration file (./Library/DOSbox\ Preferences) disappeared once I found that the editor I had used to create it (actually modify the one sent with the download package) dumped a few non-text characters, invisibly, into the file, making it unusable. Sorry to leave this hanging . . . DrFred

Thanks for the update DrFred. 2 comments:

1) The 'od' program will display those non-text characters for you.
2) DOSBox really should complain when it encounters garbage in the config file.

3) Text editors shouldn't put any garbage into text files

Thanks for the od program (for which there are no man pages in my intel Mac's Darwin terminal). Very handy.

I had used an old DOS word processor, and it did, and you're right.

do you still have the file ?
I don't mind seeing what we chocked on.

no, I fixed it (took out a junk character at the beginning of the file). the preferences file itself was not causing a choke; only my editing it for my own system introduced a flaw . . . that is, if I understand what you're asking me for . . .

The editor I used to modify the preferences file (XyWrite, a 1980s word processor) places an EOF (ASCII 26) at the end of text files, which made it unusable, apparently, DOSBox.

DrFred wrote:

The editor I used to modify the preferences file (XyWrite, a 1980s word processor)

How do you run it? Basilisk, SheepShaver, vMac? 😉

I run it via a line in the autoexec section of my DOSBox Preferences file that calls its executable (editor.exe), if that's what you're asking . . .

Yeah, nevermind that you edit it with a DOS app inside DOSBox. 😅 😉

The problem is that you're mixing incompatible text file types. The dosbox
configuration is expected to be in the format of the host OS. Dunno if
Qbix wants to change something for that.

No need to change anything as far as I'm concerned; I made the "problem" go away by removing an ascii 26 that had found its way into the Pref file . . .