DosBox for Linux. Does it work?

DosMan007 · Post by **DosMan007** » Sat Jun 22, 2024 9:56 pm

So long story short, I can't upgrade to win11, and I can't get a new PC that would conform to Mr. Sadya Nutella's vision (microsoft CEO) in order to run the new OS. I've previously used Linux Mint 19 a few years ago, and actually had it installed for all of two whole days before reverting back to Windows.

My question is about DoxBox. Has anyone here used Linux and gotten DosBox to work on Linux? I imagine with DosBox running, the games should run fine. I had a very hard time running modern Windows games on Linux, because as everyone knows, the people over at Linux are more worried about millions of flavors over software compatibility. I have heard things such as using "proton" and "proton tricks" to get games to work. I know when I had Linux installed, I was using Wine and even then, just about every Steam game I own was greyed out from even being allowed to be installed or ran on the system.

So just looking for some advice. I was utilizing a Linux Forum for a bit, but the help over there was, difficult. It's like these people using Linux want YOU to switch over, and the moment you switch and start asking questions, all you get is crickets. It's very odd.

Thanks.

butterburp1 · Post by **butterburp1** » Sat Jun 22, 2024 11:50 pm

Yes I have had success, also on Mint (Cinnamon). Make sure to install the...flatpak? flathub? Basically the version that installs another GB or so of files to ensure maximum compatibility. I The smaller version worked ok until an update around 19.3 or 20.x seemed to break it.

The main issues I have had are...
1) Scaling. You may end up with the aspect ratio not working even if you set it to true in the config. Or if you also install Windows 3.1, the screen may be smaller than you'd like. I don't know what causes this but it seems to have to do something with video drivers - usually I have these problems on laptops or integrated graphics. I have had more success on desktop with Nvidia cards.

2) Where to copy your games. I haven't tried in a while, but I seem to remember finding the proper location in the flatpak/hub version was like finding a needle in a haystack. Hopefully it's documented somewhere. You'll also need to know a bit of Linux syntax to change the autoexec part in the config file.

I'm surprised you are having issues with Windows games. I thought Wine might actually be better than modern Windows for older W95/98 games, with compatibility stuff being dropped over time. There's also Lutris, which has tons of scripts to run many of today's games in Linux.

DosMan007 · Post by **DosMan007** » Sun Jun 23, 2024 5:52 am

butterburp1 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 22, 2024 11:50 pm Yes I have had success, also on Mint (Cinnamon). Make sure to install the...flatpak? flathub? Basically the version that installs another GB or so of files to ensure maximum compatibility. I The smaller version worked ok until an update around 19.3 or 20.x seemed to break it.

The main issues I have had are...
1) Scaling. You may end up with the aspect ratio not working even if you set it to true in the config. Or if you also install Windows 3.1, the screen may be smaller than you'd like. I don't know what causes this but it seems to have to do something with video drivers - usually I have these problems on laptops or integrated graphics. I have had more success on desktop with Nvidia cards.

2) Where to copy your games. I haven't tried in a while, but I seem to remember finding the proper location in the flatpak/hub version was like finding a needle in a haystack. Hopefully it's documented somewhere. You'll also need to know a bit of Linux syntax to change the autoexec part in the config file.

I'm surprised you are having issues with Windows games. I thought Wine might actually be better than modern Windows for older W95/98 games, with compatibility stuff being dropped over time. There's also Lutris, which has tons of scripts to run many of today's games in Linux.

Oh cool. I'll keep this information on hand. But yeah my first immediate problem was after installing Linux and then a reboot, white blinking cursor. I forget what I had to do, might have been something with a key press and some sort of getting into a boot mode? Well anyway from there I was able to get to the command line and download my video drivers. Since I have Nvidia, I just went to get Nvidia drivers, but then when I shared some complications with games on the Linux forum, one guy told me that I got the wrong video drivers. He said something like, Nvidia's drivers are &%@# and you should have gotten free drivers, or something like that. I was confused because I'm sitting here thinking to myself, Nvidia graphics card, Nvidia drivers.... am I not supposed to use Nvidia drivers in Linux? They installed fine, and everything seemed to run fine, so wasn't sure what he was talking about.

Really what made me switch, I was reading up on Linux for a bit and made a bootable CD with Linux Mint 19. So I got to play around with it and see how everything was. If I'd known I wouldn't have a screen on reboot, I would have gathered that information, you know? I found out that I wasn't even touching the surface with Linux for as long as I used it for. And I did get the fact it wasn't a Windows OS, not every game was going to work, but it seemed like a real pain to get games working. And when I brought up a few things, one guy replied saying about how it's not a Windows OS, and I just remember thinking like, okay yeah I know that, but you guys are supposed to be Linux users and guide new users not, oh here's a bit of help and good luck. So i just started writing stuff down because I figured, if I have to go back to using Linux, at least I'll have some beginner information on hand, like commands and stuff I can go to, because I'm getting older and it's hard remembering some things.

Thanks for the information, I'll probably at some point end up looking more into Linux and such.

butterburp1 · Post by **butterburp1** » Sun Jun 23, 2024 8:25 pm

Weird. Was that the Linux Mint forum? Yeah I'd probably ignore that advice. The whole point of Mint is to be as gentle an introduction to the world of Linux as possible, not to overcomplicate things and require obscure solutions to problems. You might have encountered a more hardcore crowd that has been using Linux since the DOS days. Maybe they still think in terms of Unix commands and "hacking" and the like.

Soapbox: There are exceptions but as a rule I've found, the smarter they are (or think they are), the less helpful they will be to others. Don't even get me started on Reddit, or heaven forbid, Stack Exchange. I've known smart people who felt like idiots after posting sincere, well-meaning questions there.

DosMan007 · Post by **DosMan007** » Sun Jun 23, 2024 9:37 pm

butterburp1 wrote: ↑ Weird. Was that the Linux Mint forum? Yeah I'd probably ignore that advice. The whole point of Mint is to be as gentle an introduction to the world of Linux as possible, not to overcomplicate things and require obscure solutions to problems. You might have encountered a more hardcore crowd that has been using Linux since the DOS days. Maybe they still think in terms of Unix commands and "hacking" and the like.

Soapbox: There are exceptions but as a rule I've found, the smarter they are (or think they are), the less helpful they will be to others. Don't even get me started on Reddit, or heaven forbid, Stack Exchange. I've known smart people who felt like idiots after posting sincere, well-meaning questions there.

Yeah, that was the Linux Mint Forums. Some of the people seemed nice, but it was like, help was sporadic. Or you'd get a person who'd help you out for maybe one or two posts and then it became, "look dude, you gotta figure this stuff out on your own" and I'm like, well geez, that really wants to make me keep using the OS now

Funny that you mention Reddit, I was just looking at a "what version of Linux is best for gaming" and it's all over the place. One guy said, it's all about what version you like, and another person said, okay so why do games work well on this Linux OS, but not well on this other Linux OS? It's just this unnecessary back and forth.

I liked Mint, but there's a guy I used to work with who said he likes running PopOS for games. Over on that Reddit thread someone said Debian runs games better. Is there a version you prefer for gaming? Or at least Linux Mint vs. PopOS or Debian, about the same for game compatibility? And at some point I'll have to make another bootable CD, as I only have Linux Mint 19.

butterburp1 · Post by **butterburp1** » Mon Jun 24, 2024 5:33 pm

Sheesh. Kind of pointless to have a forum at all in that case... Well hopefully you're getting some good tips here. I've personally only used Mint. I think that's because I do associate Linux with "hacky-ness" well beyond DOS, and I wanted to get as far away from that as possible. Have not tried Pop OS, Ubuntu Gamepack or the like.

DosMan007 · Post by **DosMan007** » Mon Jun 24, 2024 5:40 pm

butterburp1 wrote: ↑ Sheesh. Kind of pointless to have a forum at all in that case... Well hopefully you're getting some good tips here. I've personally only used Mint. I think that's because I do associate Linux with "hacky-ness" well beyond DOS, and I wanted to get as far away from that as possible. Have not tried Pop OS, Ubuntu Gamepack or the like.

Yeah, those forums, it's like it feels like there are people genuinely trying to help, then you get these people who are like half help/half troll or something. But yeah I feel like I'm getting good tips from this thread. Well, if you've only used Mint then we're both in that same boat. As for that whole boot to a white blinking cursor thing, I was told when you boot the PC on the bootable CD, it has drivers it can install automatically so that you get a picture, whereas a full install you have to install GPU drivers.

So my question is, if I get back to Linux Mint and I get that blinking cursor at boot, what's the method for fixing that? Is it just a key press to get to a boot menu or something? I never wrote down the information when I initially got the help, and don't know any of my Linux Mint forum stuff as usual lol.

butterburp1 · Post by **butterburp1** » Tue Jun 25, 2024 8:55 am

For whatever reason I've been lucky - I've installed Mint on several machines and never had that issue. I do see if you go to the Mint forums and search for blinking cursor, a ton of results pop up (including what you posted, I'm sure) so you're not alone, but I'm guessing there's a bunch of possible reasons. Otherwise they'd probably just cover it in the installation instructions. Good luck.

DosMan007 · Post by **DosMan007** » Tue Jun 25, 2024 6:57 pm

butterburp1 wrote: ↑ For whatever reason I've been lucky - I've installed Mint on several machines and never had that issue. I do see if you go to the Mint forums and search for blinking cursor, a ton of results pop up (including what you posted, I'm sure) so you're not alone, but I'm guessing there's a bunch of possible reasons. Otherwise they'd probably just cover it in the installation instructions. Good luck.

Yeah thanks. I feel like anything Linux you need lots of luck. Thankfully with my DOS knowledge, using commandline on Linux was a complete breeze, just need to know the commands and from there it gets super simple.