Hello guest - I don't know much about that supermount'er, but assuming that it monitor access to /mnt/floppy, I don't see why it should not see DOSBox as just any other process that tries to access /mnt/floppy - and (super)mount it on the fly. There is a known problem in 0.62 with DIR not displaying files on the first go - should be fixed in 0.63. Perhaps that is what you see.

Oh - did you try the "intro cdrom" command?

The Z-drive is indeed very transient and virtual. If you want a more permanent solution, just create a directory somewhere, and mount that as C ("mount c /path/to/directory/somewhere"). You can automate the mounting by first issuing the "config -writeconf" command to create a configuration file, and the add the mount commands to the end of the config file.

d) yes

c)
dosbox is controlled by a configfile specified as startup parameter or present in pwd
there you can modify all parameter which results in modified z:\ files.

point c)

i) do you mean someything like :
dosbox -conf /etc/dosbox.conf
where in file dosbox.conf I could intall startup commands like :
mount c /home/.....
then how to install the mouse emulator in that file that I have located in freedos ?

ii) Somebody says also to create a configuration file by using command :
"config -writeconf ?" , and the add the mount commands to the end of the config file, so if I do so do :
config -writeconfig myconfigfile
where do I create "myconfigfile" and how do I edit it under DOS ?
Same question with :
config -writelang mylangfile

point d) : keyboard mapping
I said that my keyboard mapping is more or less behaving like an AZERTY keyboard when if I did Ctrl-F1 I saw a qwerty mapping ! ; now I can no more access to it by using Ctrl-F1 !

In DOSBox:

Z:> config -writeconf /where/ever/you/want/dosbox.conf

Then, outside DOSBox, in Linux:

$ "${EDITOR}" /where/ever/you/want/dosbox.conf
(goto to last line, add mount commands, run mouse prog, whatever)

And now,

$ dosbox -conf /where/ever/you/want/dosbox.conf

thanks, as a matter of fact when you do not provide a path with :
config -writeconf dosbox.conf
it does create "dosbox.conf" inside your $HOME ("/home/user_domain") from where you have executed DOSBox ; then executing :
doxbox
will run DOS with "dosbox.conf" file as contained in your "/home/user_domain" without providing a path but the file has to be called "dosbox.conf" for it to be found ; this is a default mode ; but I prefer your solution : like you can create a ".dosbox" directory on $HOME and dump inside "dosbox.conf" as built ; in this case of course you have to specify :
dosbox -conf $HOME/.dosbox/dosbox.conf
to run DOSBox
The location of the language file is specified inside "dosbox.conf" file :
lang=fr_dosbox.fonf
if you do not provide a path it will sought inside $HOME
you cannot write :
lang=$HOME/.dosbox/fr_dosbox.fonf
as $HOME has no meaning in this file (though it could should the parser analyse it !) ; you have to write :
lang=/home/user_domain/.dosbox/fr_dosbox.fonf

well ~/.dosboxrc
is used if dosbox.conf is not present

to use $HOME stuff and alike use your envirioment

DOSBOX_SECTION_OPTION=value.

so: DOSBOX_CPU_CPUCYCLES=6000 dosbox
would set the cpu cycles to 6000

a) Settings :

- "~/.dosboxrc is used if "dosbox.conf" is not present" : actually after dumping all info of my "dosbox.conf" file in ".dosboxrc" file I tried and it worked, but you still have to locate the language file somewhere and then again folder" .dosbox" is the best choice to install both files because then why one in and the other out !

- to use $HOME stuff and alike use your envirioment
DOSBOX_SECTION_OPTION=value.
you mean that I can set DOSBOX_SECTION_OPTION value in my user file "~\.bash_profile" but where do you get the list of those possible DOSBox usable variables with default values ?

b) Mouse :
I come now with the mouse driver used in the DOSBox window ; I have a problem with this driver in a DOS application that is using a mouse driver :
- after launching the application the first time the mouse is supposed to be usable if I click inside the window the mouse pointer desappear but becomes usable be mean of a small losange in each window ; it it not a graphical pointer anymore but a character pointer as it moves from one character to the next one in a field where the mouse can be used ; I ame afraid it is not a very good idea because people wil not associate this special character pointer to a mouse pointer where the mouse button facilities are there but is is not the worst the mose is not usable ouside the DOS window making the multitask environment unusable ; in my case the DOS application is a Genalogy application but in my work I need a Java application in parallel for date conversion that I can nomore use ! ; moreover when I quit the application to go back to a DOSBox window the mouse pointer is not restaured ! ; freeDOS is using "mouse.com" which does not create any rupture at all when the pointer goes in and out ouf the window (just a slight change in shape as developpers are perfectionnists !) ; can we use it instead ; if not I am afraid I will revert to freDOS to launch all my DOS applications.

c) Keyboard :
Compared to freeeDOS it is a nightmare :
- some keys are not usable though my keyboard is globally seen as an AZERTY keyboard,
- the numeric keypad behaves stangely : though the numlock is on at the beginning of my DOS session to use the numeric keys I have to switch down the numlock and then put it on again ! ; after it works.
- ctrl-F1 : it is not active at all when I get the prompt with "Z:\" though is says in the header that it shoud, but after launching my DOS application once my mouse pointer desappears after the magic first click in the window then ctrl-F1 becomes active and the the surprise is that it shows a QWERTY layout !
Can you propose a keyboard layout mapped in a way that I could use all my AZERTY keys the same way as being under DOS Windows with my keyboard because this is the ultimate goal is it not ?

c) Removable drives
I leave the removable drive remarks out for this session.
Regards.

you are missing the point.

We are emulating a dos machine platform independed as a dos machine is. not how you expierence it on other dos emulators.

therefore :

c) keyboard
dos always runs in the qwerty layout as does dosbox.
You have 2 options: Either you map the keyboard ((ctrlf-1) to a us layout)
or you run keyb.com from freedos to set it to azerty (as stated in the readme of dosbox)

a) settings
in you look in dosbox.conf you will see that some lines have [] around them these are sections and the other lines are options.
[sdl]
fullscreen=false

would translate to DOSBOX_SDL_FULLSCREEN=false

b)mouse.
The mouse is locked in the dosbox window for the simple reason that it makes better scrolling for games. you can unlock it by pressing ctrl-f10

Dosbox comes with it's own mouse emulation. The cursor is set to what the application tells dosbox to set it to. Nothing more. if it doesn't look like the mousecursor on real dos for your application then you found a specific bug.
We will not enhance the cursor by ourselves..

leds. We are limited by our cross-platform libary. The leds on the keyboard do on startup no reflect the real states of the keyboard as we can not ask our library what the state of numlock is. We can only get changes in the key and hence we respond to it only if you pressed on/off (as we then know the state). I might try to hackaround the limitation in the next version. though

But feel free to go back to freedos.. If that works okay i see no reason for you to switch.

c) keyboard

Very likely I may not fully apprehend the problems regarding keyboard but freedos does not have this problem ! ; why not in "dosbox.conf" set a variable : KEYBOARD_LAYOUT=qwerty by default but that a user could set to azerty ; this would run the proper "keyb.com" from freedos to simplify old user's life so taff nowadays !

Now to run "keyb.com" as we do not have access to "AUTOEXEC.BAT" as located in vitual volume "Z:\" (you did not really help here !) where to install it to run it ; in my Linux I would suggest "/usr/local/DOS_utils" and then add the following command lines in "dosbox.conf" at the end :
mount c /usr/local/DOS_utils
c:
keyb.com

Regarding leds again freedos assume state of keyboard when freedos is activated ; stange problems ; you cannot use a software command to simulate pressure on a key of the numeric keypad and decide what to do from the result obatined to set things properly !

you did not explain why ctrl-F1 is only active after strating a DOS application

b) mouse
gaming is something but you may have other DOS users that want to use DOS applications to coexist with any other applications in a multitask environment ; in my case the ctrl-F10 does not solve the problem ; therefore I would appreciate that a way around this would be proposed to use the mouse in the DOSBox like in any other application : is there a possibility to desactivate your mouse driver to run "mouse.com" at start instead.

Regards.

C) well you have acces to autoexec.bat
just take a look at your nice dosbox.conf especially at the bottom.

But the idea of the keyb.com in the configfile
like layout=fr
is something planned for version 0.65
We allready have a working design for that. We will release 0.63 shortly to fix some apparent bugs in 0.62. Then design will head to 0.65 which has that layout feature. Just recall that freedos is much older than we are.

Leds) We can not put stuff in the keyboard buffer of X simply because we do not have acces to it. We like to stay crossplatform. Hence we are limited.

mouse) Believe for game automatic locking is much better. being able to leave the screen is very very irritating for dosgames.

We will not disable our mouse driver as loading mouse.com is unnecissairy in dosbox. As you didn't indicate a bug with our mousedriver except for the locking feature(which another mousedriver will not fix as we get the mouse lock from our sdl)
there is no reason for it.

But the idea of the keyb.com in the configfile
like layout=fr
is something planned for version 0.65

I'm glad to hear that 😀

mouse :

I do not understand why my point regarding use of the mouse in a multitask environment when not gaming with DOSBox but using DOSBox with all other DOS applications that can make use of the mouse, is not of any interest to you ! ; I need the mouse in other applications when using my DOS application even if DOSBox dos not allow for it ; the main advantage of a DOS emulator in a multitask environment it to bring DOS facilities without removing any other advantages that you had before installing DOSBox otherwise a DOS bootable floppy will do but in a pure DOS environment !

keyboard :
I still have to install to run "keyb.com" as I have not located this module yet ; you have not answered my question regarding crtl-F1 not available when launching DOSBox !

mouse. I think you forget that dos is not multitasking.

If we put support for multitasking in it, we will run in the problems as with scrolling. If I recall correctly we used to have an option for that. But we removed it. I don't remember why. It might come back oneday. (probably it was removed as it was practical)

keyboard,
Why ctrlf1 doesn't work i do not know. That's a bug of which i have no idea.
Due to popular request I did code correct state setting of numlock/capslock on startup of dosbox.

xkeyb.com i think or keyb.com and it's created by freedos. the download location is in the readme file of dosbox.

it it not a graphical pointer anymore but a character pointer as it moves from one character to the next one in a field where the mouse can be used ; I ame afraid it is not a very good idea because people wil not associate this special character pointer to a mouse pointer (...)

Did you ever use MS-DOS? This is the way the mouse pointer looked like in textmode-applications.

c) Keyboard :
Compared to freeeDOS it is a nightmare :

It's not: in freedos' autoexec.bat:

1keyb.com fr

in dosbox' dosbox.conf in section [Autoexec]:

1keyb.com fr

Not much of a difference... - except keyb.com is not part of dosbox' distribution, but you can use the one, that you've got with freedos.

gaming is something but you may have other DOS users that want to use DOS applications to (...)
I do not understand why my point regarding use of the mouse in a multitask environment when not gaming with DOSBox but using DOSBox with all other DOS applications that can make use of the mouse, is not of any interest to you !

Dosbox has been developed for the sole purpose of playing games on modern systems, it was never meant to do anything else.

You seem to be a little bit confused about what you are running inside your linux box: freedos is an opensource dos-clone. It's an operating system, not an application, that one can launch in linux.
It can be installed standalone on a pc or it has to be run inside an emulator. I'm pretty sure, it's dosemu in your case, as dosemu is distributed together with freedos.

Both dosemu and dosbox have advantages and disadvantages.
Dosemu is limited to running on linux with X86, it's quite good for running textmode-apps with good speed, because the apps are run natively on your cpu, but it's sound- and video-emulation is rather poor.
Dosbox is slower, because it's emulating a whole pc including cpu, but it's sound- and video-emulation is superior.
Dosemu has been around quite a long time, it's included in every linux-distribution I've seen so far and the distributors do a good job preconfiguring it, in fact it's much more complicated to install from source than dosbox is.

So unless your genealogy app is using graphics and sounds you're probably better off with using dosemu.

> Dosemu is limited to running on linux with X86, it's quite good for running
> textmode-apps with good speed, because the apps are run natively on your
> cpu, but it's sound- and video-emulation is rather poor.
What's going on here on that forums? 😀
Someone, please tell me, what app should I run to see that the
video emulation is poor under dosemu?? All the games I have,
and there are probably hundreds of them. dosemu displays correctly,
while dosbox fails with few.
Sound is perfect either, except for the FM synths.