Changing CD during game play under linux \ VOGONS

Changing CD during game play under linux

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First post, by fjp

Posted on 2007-08-03, 15:45

fjp Offline

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I' trying to play an old game (Dragon Lore from Mindscape) in dosbox 0.71 on Debian Linux. It's a 2 CD game. Playing the first CD goes fine, but I can't seem to get the change to the second CD working.

What I've done so far is:
- mount the first CD under linux (mount /dev/cdrom /cdrom)
- start dosbox
- mount CD in dosbox (mount d /cdrom/ -t cdrom)
- start game

At some point the game asks to insert the second CD. However, I cannot unmount or eject the first CD under Linux because for Linux the CD is still in use. And because the game is still running, I can also not unmount the CD in dosbox to free it.

Any solutions for this?

TIA

Reply 1 of 6, by Qbix

Posted on 2007-08-03, 15:47

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supermount or so.
Personally I use isos or cue/bin for most games. (imgmount supports multiple images)

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 2 of 6, by fjp

Posted on 2007-08-03, 16:13

fjp Offline

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Thanks! Using imgmount and swapping the images with ctrl-F4 worked.
I missed that feature when reading the README.

Reply 3 of 6, by wd

Posted on 2007-08-03, 16:15

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Hm any place where you'd expect it in the readme?
Maybe adding some cross-reference or so.

Reply 4 of 6, by fjp

Posted on 2007-08-03, 16:37

fjp Offline

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I think having it as a separate FAQ question immediately below "My CD-ROM doesn't work" would certainly have helped.

Maybe:
Q: How can I swap CDs while an application is running?
A: If you need to be able to switch CD during a game (or other application), you may not be able to do this using a physical CD-ROM in a CD drive, because the host operating system can lock the CD drive as long as it thinks the CD-ROM is in use.

The solution is to create images (either ISOs or CUE/BIN) of your CD-ROMs and to mount them using the imgmount command. This allows you to specify multiple images for a single virtual drive, for example:
- imgmount d /tmp/CD1.iso /tmp/CD2.iso -t iso

When the application asks you to insert the second CD, use CTRL-F4 to change from CD1 to CD2.

The same method can also be used for floppy images.

Reply 5 of 6, by wd

Posted on 2007-08-03, 16:44

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Yes, maybe merging something like that in, thanks!

Reply 6 of 6, by ADDiCT

Posted on 2007-08-03, 20:21

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If you really change the doc, it might be worth to also add some words on command line length. Can be a problem for games with more than two discs, or long paths to the images.

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