DOSBox debugger

[Qbix]

if you have experience with debugging you can try the DOSBox debugger
It can be downloaded from:
DOSBox debugger EXE 0.74
DOSBox debugger installer 0.72
Dosbox debugger installer 0.63
DOSBox debugger installer 0.65
For information on how to use it:
Guide to debugger

[starik]

am i blind, or is there no way in the debugger to search mem for a string or sequence of bytes?

[dvwjr]

am i blind, or is there no way in the debugger to search mem for a string or sequence of bytes?

You have to think outside the 'BOX...

Use the Dosbox Debug command: MEMDUMPBIN to dump a range of memory to a file named MEMDUMP.BIN Then use your favorite Hex editor to do all the string or byte searches to your heart's content on that file. Presto - you have your in-memory search capability.

Best of luck,

dvwjr

[starik]

inded i thought of that and how much pain its going to be.

i ended up loading 16-bit debugger in dosbox and then loaded the program into that, and then i had my search function.

too bad the almighty softice doesnt work in dosbox. does it work in boschs?

[wd]

Why not? Just spell it correctly.

[manku]

Would be really nice if debugger has ability to set breakpoint on *read* access on some memory fragment. Something like

BPMR [segment]:[offset] [length]

E.g. BMPR 0010:0100 0A -> break program execution if reading from 0010:0100-0010:01009 occured.

[mefistotelis]

It is great, I just miss so s-ice commands...

for example enabling/disabling breakpoints without deleting them (BE/BD)

[wd]

I'm missing the whole softice logic, expression evaluation etc.
But nobody yet volunteered to add it...

[szevvy]

Is there any chance you could put the 0.70 binary up? It'd make me very happy

Thanks!

[Qbix]

for the time being try this exe
http://pcnwstage.phys.rug.nl/dosbox-debug/dosboxnt.exe
Should be a few weeks after 0.70.

[szevvy]

Perfect! Thank you muchly!

[angrylion]

I would be grateful if someone posted here 0.71 Heavy debug Windows binary.
The reason is that I'm trying to find out why CodeView 3.11/3.14 crashes in DosBox. I debug programs written in Microsoft C 6.0 and they have symbolic information incorporated in them. This symbolic information is in NB02 format which only early versions of CodeView 3.x understand well. That's why I'm stick to these old debuggers.
CodeView 3.x didn't show anything in DosBox 0.70 (immediate crash) but in 0.71 it crashes in process of working having shown a lot of stuff. So 0.71 debug version would be helpful.

[Qbix]

Added 0.72
DOSBox 0.72 heavy debug version

[angrylion]

Thanks a lot!
In 0.65 there was a useful feature that I used quite often: "1, 2, 4, 5 perform 100, 500, 1000, 5000 or 10000 CPU cycles then return to debugger mode".
This is still reflected in the guide to the debugger but it seems that it disappeared in 0.70/0.72 heavy debug.
Are these debugger keys completely gone or is it only my mistake?

[wd]

Use the LOGS (or LOGL) for that, gives additionally nice output files.

[Qbix]

they are gone as the command mode and regular mode were merged
you can get comparable behaviour (although it is more typing)
by entering logs 100

[jefferl]

The code are change from currently 2008/4/30 SVN source code.

I have do some modify on dosdebugger.

Change note:
[bugfix] "LV" command
stand alone commandline from codeView sub-window
[New add] data dump method as byte/word/dword (db/dw/dd)
[New add] windows adjust command (wr/wd/wc/wv [winsize])

If someone interesting the soft-ice like command , It's the attach source file.

[ih8registrations]

I've never managed to get dosbox to compile with debugger successfully under mingw. Anyone done so? I run into an issue with pdcurses. From compiling it to installing precompiled pdcurses. Either I run into an error message "<fill in when I recall it>", or dosbox compiles and starts but quickly shutsdown without saying anything.

[jefferl]

My compiling environment

Mingw
pdcurses-2.6.0-2003.07.21-1.exe
./configure --enable-debug=heavy
make
Nothing special.

What's your environment ?

[ih8registrations]

Default mingw running on xp. I also do --enable-core-inline

Installed pdcurses-2.6.0-2003.07.21-1.exe, and recompiled; it does the startup immediately shutdown with no error messages routine. I guess I'll try without inline core.

Nope, still no joy.