dosbox flakey for regular user

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  • This topic has 6 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated Apr 9-10:00 pm by Anonymous.
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  • #20331
    Anonymous

      Antix 17.4.1 32-bit on a Lenovo Core2 with 3 gigabytes ram. No hits on Google with site:antixforum.com

      1) Except for item 2) below, dosbox seems very responsive when run as root. I haven’t tried any games yet. Regular (non-root) user is painfully slow responding. I type “exit”, and 10 or 20 seconds later it logs off. Is this a permission problem somewhere?

      2) I don’t have a separate midi card, so don’t know if this is expected. Is some sort of midi emulation supported? When dosbox starts up (as root; similar as regular user), I get…

      ~# dosbox
      DOSBox version 0.74
      Copyright 2002-2010 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.
      ---
      CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /root/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf
      MIXER:Got different values from SDL: freq 44100, blocksize 940
      ALSA:Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0) nor (17:0)
      MIDI:Opened device:none
      #20335
      christophe
      Moderator

        I run dosbox on my Dell Mini-9 & 10 (1 gb ram, 32-bit).
        I also get the midi errors, but I never noticed them till I ran from terminal investigating your problem, because I generally keep the system sound muted. But yes (when I turn up the volume), in Doom (for example), I have no midi music, but I do have the sound effects.
        Regarding the speed: Have you fiddled with the config file (~/home/.dosbox/dosbox-0.74.conf)? Perhaps it has something to do with the video system being used by dosbox. I found the best for my system is:
        output=overlay
        (Maybe a better computer would use something else? Possible values: surface, overlay, opengl, openglnb. Default is surface, which was slow on my system. Opengl* doesn’t work for me either, so test what’s best on yours.)
        Maybe also adjust the cycles setting?

        (You may know all this, so forgive me if I repeat what you know.)

        • This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by christophe.
        • This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by christophe.

        antiX on everything, since 2017

        #20338
        christophe
        Moderator

          I also notice much better performance with the 4.9 kernel over the 4.19.
          (I realize that’s not you perceived issue, but it may have an effect on performance in general.)

          antiX on everything, since 2017

          #20339
          Anonymous

            Thanks for the ideas. “output=overlay” solves the regular-user-responsiveness problem. While I was at, I changed to “fullresolution=1280×800”, which gives me full textmode screen. Next step is to copy over some 25-year old DOS games from my desktop machine.

            #20340
            christophe
            Moderator

              Good!
              Also: Using your monitor’s native resolution with aspect=true might give the best results.
              Have fun!!

              antiX on everything, since 2017

              #20341
              Anonymous

                dosbox froze while on the first level of Xargon http://www.bestoldgames.net/xargon It didn’t take down the laptop. I’ll try again. Maybe root won’t have this problem.

                #20345
                Anonymous

                  I got through the first level OK. I saved it, and I’ll get back to it later.

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