DOSBox Game Launcher (DOSBox Frontend)

[mgtroyas]

eXoDOS and Win3xO are essentially abandonware, which is discouraged here.

Oh, sorry. You can delete my comments if needed.

[rcblanke]

Hi all,

Got test build 0.81b ready with:
* Added option in AddGameWizard to also create a unique mapper file for the new game (jjh76);
* Pressing the [*] button next to the mapperfile field in the profile editing dialog will also use a unique mapperfile for the profile. It is even possible to use this feature in a template, so that when the template is used for a profile, a unique mapperfile is used in the profile;
* Fixed serious regression in Mac build (since 0.80d) related to line breaks (caused when switching from SVN to Git) causing the dbgl startup shell script to malfunction (victoria).

All the latest files
To upgrade, grab the dbgl.jar as usual.

regards,
Ronald

[Giorgos]

Hi!

I have v.0.81 on Debian Jessie x64 KDE. Java v.1.7.131 (Open JDK).
I downloaded and imported (Profiles -> Import) the "Apogee Freeware Collection" GamePackArchive.
After a while everything shown up, with descriptions and cover art and everything!
The problem was, that running a profile returned in a flashing DOSBox window and then nothing.
I inspected the dosroot directory and it's empty (as the profiles one).


Then I extracted manually the directories from the ZIP file (apogee_freeware_collection.dbgl.zip) and I copied them, where the rest of my DOS games are (eg. the PTOMB directory at C:\).
Now everything seems to be OK.
I'm just reporting it.
G.

[rcblanke]

Thanks for the report Giorgos. I'm unable to reproduce the issue on my Debian installation, are you maybe using some kind of non-standard DBGL setup? Maybe you can try installing another gamepackachive and closely monitor the log output, it might provide some clues about what's going wrong.

[Giorgos]

Indeed I like playing around the settings and customizing and such!
This is one of the reasons, I like Linux.

I retry with a fresh copy of DBGL and another game pack.

Meanwhile, in the same gamepack, I had another issue:
All the interface links (Mobygames, Freeware releas notes etc.) are OK , but when clicking at "Manual", DBGL is crashing with the following or similar message:

Code: Select all

giorgos-Σαβ 10/06/2017 03:25 πμ~/dbgl>./dbgl
Launching DBGL using 64-Bit VM 1.7.0_131 on Linux v3.16.0-4-amd64amd64, HSQL Database Engine 1.8.1.3, SWT v4628gtk
Startup
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Could not load SWT library. Reasons:
        no swt-gnome-gtk-4628 in java.library.path
        no swt-gnome-gtk in java.library.path
        /home/giorgos/.swt/lib/linux/x86_64/libswt-gnome-gtk-4628.so: libgnomeui-2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: no such file or directory
        Can't load library: /home/giorgos/.swt/lib/linux/x86_64/libswt-gnome-gtk.so

        at org.eclipse.swt.internal.Library.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.internal.Library.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.internal.gnome.GNOME.<clinit>(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.program.Program.gnome_launch(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.program.Program.launch(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.program.Program.launch(Unknown Source)
        at org.dbgl.util.PlatformUtils.openForBrowsing(Unknown Source)
        at org.dbgl.gui.MainWindow$17.widgetSelected(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.TypedListener.handleEvent(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.sendEvent(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendSelectionEvent(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Link.gtk_button_release_event(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.windowProc(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Control.windowProc(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.windowProc(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.OS._gtk_main_do_event(Native Method)
        at org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.OS.gtk_main_do_event(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.eventProc(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.OS._g_main_context_iteration(Native Method)
        at org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.OS.g_main_context_iteration(Unknown Source)
        at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Unknown Source)
        at org.dbgl.gui.MainWindow.open(Unknown Source)
        at org.dbgl.gui.Launcher.main(Unknown Source)
giorgos-Σαβ 10/06/2017 03:25 πμ~/dbgl>

I think, it needs libgnomeui-0.
I'll look at it again and I'll be back.

EDIT:
Indeed, installing libgnomeui-0 solves this problem.

EDIT2:

1) I retried with a fresh copy of DBGL and indeed there's no problem at all, running the games.
Something went wrong, with my configuration.

2) I also run DBGL at Windows and the "Manual" links working flawlessly.
Maybe libgnomeui-0, should be added as an optional requirement for Linux.
(I don't know though, what's happening at non-Debian based systems).

[Neville]

I have a question... when DBGL exports games, by defect it exports the folder where the main program is located. This works fine 90% of the time. However, there's the issue of the games which need to be run from a specific folder, such as C:\NASCAR2. In these cases sometimes exporting the game can leave out essential files. Let's say the folder structure is the following:

Parent folder: DOSROOT\NASCAR Racing 2 (Mounted as C:\), with the following subfolders:

NASCAR2 (folder from which the game is run)

CD-ROM (Folder mounted as CD-ROM)

DOCS (Manuals and such)

Could DBGL export the folder mounted as C:\ and ALL subfolders by defect? Would changing this behaviour cause trouble for other users / games?

EDIT: OK, I see an important flaw with my idea... users who mount DOSROOT as C:\ would see its entire contents backed up whenver they exported a single game. Nevermind.

EDIT 2: OK, this is a problem only if 1) one has a huge collection and 2) chooses to mount every game folder as C:\, nobody else needs to suffer for this. Thing is, every year or so I backup my entire collection and it becomes a pain in the ass to manually revise every folder.



So I have a suggestion that would help me and shouldn't bother anyone else: Could DBGL highlight the folders (in the above screen) wherever a "\" is detected in the path?

[rcblanke]

Hi Neville,

I'll see what I can do. Unfortunately, at the moment I'm in the middle of some major code refactoring task, which might still take a while. When I'm finished, I'll have a look at your suggestion for improving the exporter.

[Neville]

Sure, take your time. Real life always comes first, and it's not like it's an essential feature. I was more worried that I was coming across as rude or pushy, because I posted right after going through a lot of games to backup and I was a bit frustrated. If anything, I should be mad at myself for not following DBGL's instructions and used 8 character folders. It's something I should have anticipated when I started building my collection.

[Giorgos]

Hi!
Is there any log available?

A game that I've installed, just stopped working.
I'm getting a flashing dosbox window and that's all.
I don't remember to change something and this game still works when launching it inside dosbox.
Also works properly at my Windows DBGL installation (with identical settings).

Going File -> Log I can see the timestamp with the entry "Run" in column Event, but this isn't actually very helpful.
Is there any logfile available, so I can see what went bad?
G.

[Neville]

From my experience, either you changed the game path and now the files aren't available or the game files are corrupt. This last could happen if you left the game using CTRL+F9 instead of the game options.

The first thing you should do is uncheck the "close when exit" or similar option in the "General" section of the profile. This way you'll be able to read the error messages.

[Giorgos]

THANKS Neville!!!

Indeed this way, it brings me the message "Illegal command: mount.".
No hint though, why this happening.
Seems like something broke.

[rcblanke]

"Illegal command: mount."

Can you please post a screenshot?

[Giorgos]

Yes of course!

[lightmaster]

Post your autoexec pls..

[Giorgos]

I think I found the source of problems.
I have 2 directories at my home dir.
One named dbgl and the other .dbgl (hidden) (with exactly the same hierarchy, but not the same files).
Somehow files are scattered between the 2 of them.

[red_avatar]

Hi Neville,

I'll see what I can do. Unfortunately, at the moment I'm in the middle of some major code refactoring task, which might still take a while. When I'm finished, I'll have a look at your suggestion for improving the exporter.

Wow good to see that after all this time, you're still working diligently on DBGL I haven't updated mine in a while but it is still, by a large margin, my favorite front end - great job!

[rotaxt]

hi!

i have a short question: i use dosbox daum together with dbgl. my favourite combo is scaler=hqx2 together with shader crt.d3d.br.fx! now i read in another forum that another fantastic looking combo is scaler=xbr together with geom-shader.

but if i edit the display settings of any game in dbgl i can choose between many scalers, but xbr is not offered. how do i add this xbr-scaler and where to get?

best regards

[rcblanke]

@rotaxt: You can easily add scalers to the list by going to File->Preferences->Dynamic Options->Scaler. But I do not know what specific DOSBox build you're talking about, so I cannot check myself if that is enough to get it to work properly.

@red: Thanks, and good to see you 'round!

[Neville]

rcblanke, I'm in trouble... while creating a new game profile, I got an error message saying DBGL couldn't retrieve a pic from MobyGames and DBGL froze. I exited the program forcibly and now I'm stuck with a game profile that freezes DBGL every single time I select it with either mouse or keyboard. I tried cleaning the database and deleting the CONF file, but the profile won't go away. Any ideas?

EDIT: Solved with rcblanke's assistance. Turns out one of the pics in the captures folder was corrupt, and that prevented the profile to work properly under DBGL. If you run into the same issue, try deleting the offending folder in "Captures". That should take care of it.

[rcblanke]

Hi there,

Just a quick message to say that I got test build 0.81c ready for you with the fix mentioned by Neville. This will be the final build before releasing a new stable DBGL version (probably next week).

All the latest files
To upgrade, grab the dbgl.jar as usual.


Multiple people have informed me that DBGL does not run (properly) on Java 9. I'm well aware of this, but unfortunately if is not something that can easily be fixed. Just stick with Java 7 or 8 for the moment; As soon as full support for Java 9 is available I'll let you know.

On a side note -- I'm still working on the refactoring job I deemed necessary for most of DBGL's core code (basically everything 'under-the-hood'). While it is going well and I'm making steady progress, cleaning up code as I go, it is still quite an undertaking and will take some more time. I hope to have the first test builds ready in a few weeks. Please realize that these changes will not bring any new features, speed improvements or UI design improvements; The main idea is just to make the application easier to maintain and improve its extendability. Also, other Java programmers might find DBGL's source code easier to understand and more intuitive.

regards,
Ronald