tried
scaler=xxx forced 😕

The scaler settings can't be changed by commands in [autoexec].

on my imac 24" this works fine to make the resolution get bigger:

[sdl]
fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=1024x768

[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=normal2x

Just remember to edit ~/Library/Preferences/DOSBox 0.73 Preferences

Thanks all,

Still no go. I'll try it on my old dual G5 and see if I have any problems. Then I'll try a previous version on this machine. It's just too odd, it really ought to be working fine (by the way, it does work fine on my XP machine).

FYI, the only config file which seems to work is the "dosbox.conf" which I have in the same sub-directory (pardon me, the same folder) as the executable. When I alter the ~/Library/Preferences/etc. file no changes at all occur, including in the "autoexec" section.

s_m

the Preferences file does not work because you got the dosbox.conf file in the same sub-directory. Doesn't matter much, anyway (just that you always need to edit the dosbox.conf file, not the preferences file).
Copy the dosbox.conf file to another directory and instead of this, copy a new text file there with only these contents:

1[sdl]
2fullscreen=false
3fulldouble=false
4fullresolution=original
5windowresolution=1024x768
6
7[render]
8frameskip=0
9aspect=false
10scaler=normal2x

and then test again...

thanks again, I'll give this a try when I get a moment -- probably tomorrow

I tried the scaler=normal2x forced line again and it worked this time. I must have made a typo last time I tried that.

Thanks, now it's working just fine.

s_m