Hi,
I'm trying to get dbgl running (again) on a "portable" installation I have on my NAS which so far I successfully shared between Windows and OSX by mounting it.

I'm facing a problem on OSX Sonoma 14 (Intel) using dbgl 0.97, in that on startup it seems it wants to copy all files to ~/Library/dbgl (which at first I didn't realize because my dosroot is quite big and it wrote "Startup" on the terminal and nothing happened for a looong time).

But I mount the files from the NAS into /Volumes/Data/dbgl and start it from there and want to keep it there, to have my portable installation.

I almost forgot how did I get there, because had to manually copy out the dbgl.jar and libs/ and dosbox binary from the `Dbgl.app/` directory to my mounted installation, so I guess I'm not really dong it the way it's supposed to be.

I tried to find it on https://dbgl.org/ but couldn't, what is the proper procedure to have a portable version of dbgl running on OSX?

Thank you

Hi rfc,

Thanks for the question. This comes up every once in a while, I'll update the documentation on the website.

By default, DBGL will use ~/Library/dbgl to save its data on a Mac. On Linux it is ~/.local/share/dbgl (as defined in the XDG specification). For Windows machines, on the other hand, all data is stored in the DBGL folder itself (unless it is read-only, then %localappdata%/dbgl is used). Let's call this location the 'DBGL data location'.

Linux and OSX can also use the DBGL folder. On Mac, open DBGL.app/Contents/MacOS/dbgl with a text editor and change -Ddbgl.data.userhome=true to -Ddbgl.data.userhome=false. A similar change is required for Linux in the dbgl startup script. In your case, changing this setting will prevent your DBGL dosroot from being copied from the NAS to your local machine.

So, if you just want to have all DBGL content in a single directory structure, use dbgl.data.userhome=false . This should also work fine if you running it from off the NAS share.

But what if you want to use DBGL with different Operating Systems? This question has come up quite a while ago. Most of the information in that thread is still correct, but to summarize:

1. Create a directory on your NAS (or USB stick) for DBGL and mount it (with RW permissions); let's say /Volumes/dbgl for Mac, \\mynas\dbgl for Windows or /Media/USBSTICK/dbgl for Linux. Let's call this the 'shared content location'.
2. Install DBGL on your different OS' and start it once. Please note that for Mac and Linux, you should use dbgl.data.userhome=false !!
3. After closing DBGL, there will be a settings.conf file in your DBGL folder. Open that file with your favorite text editor and change the 'data' setting. By default, it's set to '.', which means DBGL expects all user-generated content to be in the 'DBGL data location'. Change the value to your 'shared content location', for example data=/Volumes/dbgl
4. Move the folders captures, db, dosroot, export, profiles, templates and xsl to the 'shared content location'

If you use this solution, you have all your DBGL user-generated content in one place, while maintaining the flexibility to customize your DBGL installation on the various OS systems. For example, you can still use different system environment options (inside DBGL) on each OS. This allows you to set a specific SDL output renderer for each Operation System, for instance.

Please note that this technique has its limitations, especially with regards to DOSBox versions. Because of the fact that you're sharing DOSBox Version settings with multiple operating systems, it is required that you'll have the various DOSBox versions in the correct subdirectories on the local machines. For example, by default a 'DOSBox-0.74-3' folder is expected to exist (on your local machine, inside the DBGL folder) and have (at least) the dosbox executable and dosbox.conf files. When using Windows, DBGL will look for 'DOSBox.exe'. On Mac, 'DOSBox' is expected, and on Linux, 'dosbox'.

Also note that you can start only one instance of DBGL at the same time.

In the end, you can configure and play your DOS games on all systems using one familiar interface, without the need to export and/or import anything.

Please let me know if anything's unclear, or requires a better explanation.

Regards,
Ronald

I'm a noob, just started with DOS games and downloaded DBGL because it seemed user friendly. Though I'm facing a problem regarding shaders.

Aside from those displayed in the "Scaler" dropdown menu in "Official options", where can I find more shaders like CRT etc. and how do I use them? I can't seem to find any info about this either.

I found some shaders here: https://github.com/tyrells/dosbox-svn-shaders

I have downloaded them but unable to use them. I see an "Experimental options" tab in the Display options but everything is greyed out. Another thing is that I'm facing screen tearing in some games. I see "Vsync" in "Experimental options", but again, it's greyed out.

Any help will be really appreciated. Thanks.

Hi, firstly the DOS box build you use must support shaders. Vanilla version does not, but for instance Staging does. In fact on last version they're removing it again because they'll start using some advanced auto-confugured internal shader...

Ok I downloaded Dosbox-r4483 and it seems to allow using the shaders I mentioned above.

Now how do I enable Vsync?

I'm using DBGL on Debian Bullseye. I've updated to .97.

I'm experiencing a strange issue: my screenshots are displayed cut in half with only the bottom half showing. (See first attached screenshot)

Also, when I click on a screenshot, it is displayed in the upper left corner on a huge black field. (See second attached screenshot)

I'm also attaching my settings file.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Lewis

rex0 wrote on 2023-11-28, 17:21:

Now how do I enable Vsync?

If it it not automatically enabled when you associate the profile with the custom DOSBox version, it is probably a newly introduced dosbox.conf setting, not yet supported by DBGL. I'll focus on improving support for custom DOSBox versions, for the next DBGL release.

LewisWoolridge wrote on 2023-12-04, 03:04:

... my screenshots are displayed cut in half with only the bottom half showing. Also, when I click on a screenshot, it is displayed in the upper left corner on a huge black field.

Odd thing, never seen this before. Can you tell me what window manager you're using so I can take a look myself?!

DBGL 0.98 beta7 is now available:
* adding support for importing and converting eXoDOS V6 games. If you have any questions or remarks regarding DBGL eXo support, please e-mail or DM me directly.
* fixed launch.exe to check for Java version 17 and up.
* also fixed a possible crash when editing imgmounts with fstype=none.

Regards,
Ronald

Thanks, trying to prevent the so called "abandonware" BS posts here.... https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search … ext&hl=en&gl=us
Not here Google!

Thinking about how threads like these should be handled when people using such packages post here, mabye some verbage in the first post stating so called "abandonware" is not supported here and such posts will be censored or deleted and repeat offenders banned.

Thanks for looking into it Ronald!

I think I am using "GNOME Shell" for my windows manager, though I'm not sure that's what you're looking for...

Hi Lewis, while I have been using DoxBox for more than 15 years to run a GW-Basic program seems that's all behind me now that i've moved on to Windows 10. Having reappeared - I'm sure in my earlier life I sought help here - find that I'm prevented from asking questions because I haven't posted in years. Piggy backing off your message am hopeful that a sympathetic moderator will read this and spare a few moments to contact me, an 85 year old who is now somewhat forgetful and who made the mistake of deleting the DosBox set up details from long ago.

My basic programs and their run time outputs are all to be found in my D:\Gwbasic folder. I have no difficulty in mounting this folder "C D:\gwbasic" and when Z:\ changes to C:\ running DIR/p which correctly displays the folder contents. The difficulty I now struggle with is having the single application "abcdef.bas" or "abcdef.txt" execute automaticly.

I'm so close, just need a little help.

Regards,
Ian Campbell aka Murf Oscar

Maybe if you put "abcdef.bas" in the "parameters" section of the mounting tab...

rcblanke wrote on 2023-12-04, 18:26:

rex0 wrote on 2023-11-28, 17:21:

Now how do I enable Vsync?

If it it not automatically enabled when you associate the profile with the custom DOSBox version, it is probably a newly introduced dosbox.conf setting, not yet supported by DBGL. I'll focus on improving support for custom DOSBox versions, for the next DBGL release.

I'm not sure if it's enabled or not. Is there a way to check? It's just that I'm experiencing screen tearing in Batman Forever (the side-scroller game). It's the same case even with regular dosbox included with dbgl.

Hi all, here's yet another beta build, containing:

* a minor fix for exodos conversion and importing, certain pdfs were left out
* the v6 media add on pack can now be imported
* playlists are now imported as profile filters
* very long filter queries could crash DBGL, also fixed

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to fix the thumbnail issue mentioned by LewisWoolridge, yet. I *think* this has to do with HiDPI displays using (fractional) scaling, which seems to trigger this bug. If I find a fix or workaround, I'll certainly let you know.

Regards,
Ronald

LewisWoolridge wrote on 2023-12-04, 03:04:

... my screenshots are displayed cut in half with only the bottom half showing. Also, when I click on a screenshot, it is displayed in the upper left corner on a huge black field.

This appears to be quite an exotic SWT bug when using display scaling with Linux, see https://github.com/eclipse-platform/eclipse.p … .swt/issues/528. Not much I can do at this moment, unfortunately.

LewisWoolridge wrote on 2023-12-04, 03:04:

... my screenshots are displayed cut in half with only the bottom half showing. Also, when I click on a screenshot, it is displayed in the upper left corner on a huge black field.

Actually, I found a workaround for this weird SWT bug. Screenshots should not be broken any more in this new beta build when using display scaling on Linux. But please let me know if you still have issues.
Unless any new issues pop up, this might be the final beta build.

Regards,
Ronald

Hi, sorry for asking but I'm anxious, when do you estimate approximately that you will add support for DOSBox Staging? (I'm talking about its special options like shaders or Mt-32 and stuff like that)
TY very much

MT-32 is already supported. But you need to go to File--> Optiona --> Dynamic options and add "mt32" to the "device" section. After doing this you can now choose "mt32" as your MIDI device in any game profile that uses DOSBox Staging, DOSBox ECE and DOSBox-X.

Note that you'll also need to place the MT-32 BIOSes in DOSROOT and choose Roland in any game configuration utility (if any) in order to listen to MT-32 sounds.

Neville wrote on 2024-02-01, 11:42:

MT-32 is already supported. But you need to go to File--> Optiona --> Dynamic options and add "mt32" to the "device" section. After doing this you can now choose "mt32" as your MIDI device in any game profile that uses DOSBox Staging, DOSBox ECE and DOSBox-X.

Note that you'll also need to place the MT-32 BIOSes in DOSROOT and choose Roland in any game configuration utility (if any) in order to listen to MT-32 sounds.

TY for the tip mate!

Hi all, yet another beta build, with:

* several fixes for exodos conversion and importing for Mac and Linux environments (roy)
* added support for exodos V6r2 (roy)

Regards,
Ronald

DBGL 0.98 was just released on the website, no changes since the last beta build. Please keep in mind that it now requires Java 17 or newer!

For the upcoming release I'll try to focus on supporting more options from the various DOSBox forks that are floating 'round.

Regards,
Ronald