DOSbox Siliness

[Atruepatriot]

Mounting Dives in DOSBox One of the most common problems that people have with using DOSBox is with mounting drives for DOSBox to use. Real drives, folders and disk images can all be used to mount drives for DOSBox. Drives can be mounted from the command line in DOSBox, from batch files or shortcuts used to launch games in DOSBox or from the [autoexec] section of the dosbox.conf file (the DOSBox configuration file).

A couple of cautions about mounting drives in DOSBox:

DON'T mount your actual c:\ drive. This places your real system drive and OS at risk.
DOSBox will see paths starting form the mounted "C:" drive. If you mount "C:\GAMES" as DOSBox's "C:" drive, Windows will see any subfolders, say SEIRRA, as "C:\GAMES\SIERRA" and DOSBox will see it as "C:\SIERRA". If you install a game from Windows, any paths in configuration files will not be the same as what DOSBox will see. Install your games from within DOSBox to avoid this.

When you start DOSBox you will see a "Z:\>" prompt. This drive letter is reserved for DOSBox's internal use. You will need to mount "drives" to give DOSBox access to your game's files, using the mount command. The mount command tells DOSBox to mount a folder, drive or disk image as a drive in DOSBox. The -t parameter tells DOSBox what kind of drive to mount it as (dir, floppy or cdrom.)
Make a folder on your hard drive for DOSBox's "C:\" drive.. If this folder is on your C: drive and named GAMES, it will be C:\GAMES. To give DOSBox access to this folder as DOSBox's C:\ drive, mount it by typing "mount c c:\hero" and Enter.
Where:
mount - Tells the program to mount a folder or drive as a drive in DOSBox

c - Tells DOSBox the folder will be mounted as drive "C:"

c:\hero - Tells DOSBox the path and folder to mount as a drive (where "hero" is the folder of the game you want to run -- change this to your game's real folder name)


IMPORTANT: If your game's folder's name has any spaces in it, you must enclose the path and folder name in quotation marks, i.e. "C:\My Game")

Some like to put all of their DOS games' folders in a "GAMES" folder and mount that as their "C:" drive. Any of the games in this folder can then be accessed by that DOSBox session by that single mount command (i.e. mount c c:\games.) This can set to automatically be mounted every time DOSBox is started by the [autoexec] section of the dosbox.conf file.

http://www.sierrahelp.com/Utilities/Emu ... Mount.html

[Atruepatriot]

OK, here is where the silliness comes in. It is me... I have not worked with DOS in so long I am having to pull memories out of the hat to make sure my paths are correct. But I am having a hell of a time mounting a subfolder in my home directory. First DOS uses a backslash instead of a forward slash right? I named the subfolder in my home folder to put all my DOS stuff the same as what they have to avoid my own confusion "dosprogs".

But here are the instructions in my install of DOSbox showing a forward slash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 09-06-53.png

But in their sample instructions they are using a backslash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 10-12-57.png

OK so which is it??? lol

And am I supposed to use my pet "name" of my home folder, "home", or will it see my home folder when C: is used? And how do I make it forward to the subfolder in home named "dosprogs"?

I am having a hell of a time getting a mounted confirmation. Once I get a working path I will set config to autoexe to that folder at start up. But I have to make a path work first... Any help in making a path that works would be greatly appreciated.

My Linux path is nonono=(home)/dosprogs/DOS program folders/start.exe for each program.

[Clayton]

OK, here is where the silliness comes in. It is me... I have not worked with DOS in so long I am having to pull memories out of the hat to make sure my paths are correct. But I am having a hell of a time mounting a subfolder in my home directory. First DOS uses a backslash instead of a forward slash right? I named the subfolder in my home folder to put all my DOS stuff the same as what they have to avoid my own confusion "dosprogs".

But here are the instructions in my install of DOSbox showing a forward slash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 09-06-53.png

But in their sample instructions they are using a backslash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 10-12-57.png

That screenshot must have been from a Windows build of DOSBox.

OK so which is it??? lol

If this is a Linux build of DOSBox, the virtual machine will understand the Linux paths and will know how to locate the directory you specify. You may try fully expanding the path from root to be sure.. /home/<user>/dosprograms . Note that tilde `~` is just a shorthand for /home/<user>.

And am I supposed to use my pet "name" of my home folder, "home", or will it see my home folder when C: is used? And how do I make it forward to the subfolder in home named "dosprogs"?

You can think of it like DOS is "trapped" inside the directory you specify using the DOSBox mount command and has no other knowledge than the contents of that directory.

[Atruepatriot]

OK, here is where the silliness comes in. It is me... I have not worked with DOS in so long I am having to pull memories out of the hat to make sure my paths are correct. But I am having a hell of a time mounting a subfolder in my home directory. First DOS uses a backslash instead of a forward slash right? I named the subfolder in my home folder to put all my DOS stuff the same as what they have to avoid my own confusion "dosprogs".

But here are the instructions in my install of DOSbox showing a forward slash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 09-06-53.png

But in their sample instructions they are using a backslash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 10-12-57.png

That screenshot must have been from a Windows build of DOSBox.

OK so which is it??? lol

If this is a Linux build of DOSBox, the virtual machine will understand the Linux paths and will know how to locate the directory you specify. You may try fully expanding the path from root to be sure.. /home/<user>/dosprograms . Note that tilde `~` is just a shorthand for /home/<user>.

And am I supposed to use my pet "name" of my home folder, "home", or will it see my home folder when C: is used? And how do I make it forward to the subfolder in home named "dosprogs"?

You can think of it like DOS is "trapped" inside the directory you specify using the DOSBox mount command and has no other knowledge than the contents of that directory.

THANK YOU!

home/nonono/dosprogs

Duh, Ok, let me try that in a bit.

[Clayton]

OK, here is where the silliness comes in. It is me... I have not worked with DOS in so long I am having to pull memories out of the hat to make sure my paths are correct. But I am having a hell of a time mounting a subfolder in my home directory. First DOS uses a backslash instead of a forward slash right? I named the subfolder in my home folder to put all my DOS stuff the same as what they have to avoid my own confusion "dosprogs".

But here are the instructions in my install of DOSbox showing a forward slash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 09-06-53.png

But in their sample instructions they are using a backslash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 10-12-57.png

That screenshot must have been from a Windows build of DOSBox.

OK so which is it??? lol

If this is a Linux build of DOSBox, the virtual machine will understand the Linux paths and will know how to locate the directory you specify. You may try fully expanding the path from root to be sure.. /home/<user>/dosprograms . Note that tilde `~` is just a shorthand for /home/<user>.

And am I supposed to use my pet "name" of my home folder, "home", or will it see my home folder when C: is used? And how do I make it forward to the subfolder in home named "dosprogs"?

You can think of it like DOS is "trapped" inside the directory you specify using the DOSBox mount command and has no other knowledge than the contents of that directory.

THANK YOU!

home/nonono/dosprogs

Duh, Ok, let me try that in a bit.

/home/<user>/dosprogs <--- Don't forget the initial slash

[merkelspam]

i invoke dosbox with
"dosbox ." when i am in the directory i want to play
that gives me the current working directory as drive c
You might also want to try 'dosbox staging' if you want to play with shaders, for old-tyme CRT effect.

[Atruepatriot]

OK, here is where the silliness comes in. It is me... I have not worked with DOS in so long I am having to pull memories out of the hat to make sure my paths are correct. But I am having a hell of a time mounting a subfolder in my home directory. First DOS uses a backslash instead of a forward slash right? I named the subfolder in my home folder to put all my DOS stuff the same as what they have to avoid my own confusion "dosprogs".

But here are the instructions in my install of DOSbox showing a forward slash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 09-06-53.png

But in their sample instructions they are using a backslash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 10-12-57.png

That screenshot must have been from a Windows build of DOSBox.

OK so which is it??? lol

If this is a Linux build of DOSBox, the virtual machine will understand the Linux paths and will know how to locate the directory you specify. You may try fully expanding the path from root to be sure.. /home/<user>/dosprograms . Note that tilde `~` is just a shorthand for /home/<user>.

And am I supposed to use my pet "name" of my home folder, "home", or will it see my home folder when C: is used? And how do I make it forward to the subfolder in home named "dosprogs"?

You can think of it like DOS is "trapped" inside the directory you specify using the DOSBox mount command and has no other knowledge than the contents of that directory.

Ok, so I got it to mount through to the dosprog subfolder, but it doesn't want to see the game folder in dosprogs. So I added the game folder to the path and it mounted it, but doesn't like the .exe to run it, says it doesn't exist. could be a bad .exe file in the game. I will go grab a couple more games and try those.

Thank you!

[Atruepatriot]

i invoke dosbox with
"dosbox ." when i am in the directory i want to play
that gives me the current working directory as drive c
You might also want to try 'dosbox staging' if you want to play with shaders, for old-tyme CRT effect.

Cool! thank you!

[Atruepatriot]

OK, here is where the silliness comes in. It is me... I have not worked with DOS in so long I am having to pull memories out of the hat to make sure my paths are correct. But I am having a hell of a time mounting a subfolder in my home directory. First DOS uses a backslash instead of a forward slash right? I named the subfolder in my home folder to put all my DOS stuff the same as what they have to avoid my own confusion "dosprogs".

But here are the instructions in my install of DOSbox showing a forward slash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 09-06-53.png

But in their sample instructions they are using a backslash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 10-12-57.png

That screenshot must have been from a Windows build of DOSBox.

OK so which is it??? lol

If this is a Linux build of DOSBox, the virtual machine will understand the Linux paths and will know how to locate the directory you specify. You may try fully expanding the path from root to be sure.. /home/<user>/dosprograms . Note that tilde `~` is just a shorthand for /home/<user>.

And am I supposed to use my pet "name" of my home folder, "home", or will it see my home folder when C: is used? And how do I make it forward to the subfolder in home named "dosprogs"?

You can think of it like DOS is "trapped" inside the directory you specify using the DOSBox mount command and has no other knowledge than the contents of that directory.

THANK YOU!

home/nonono/dosprogs

Duh, Ok, let me try that in a bit.

/home/<user>/dosprogs <--- Don't forget the initial slash

"Don't forget the initial slash"

Yep got it!

<mount c "/home/nonono/dosprogs/bman10>

It mounted the bman10 folder... But doesn't see the files or .exe file to start it.

[Atruepatriot]

OK, here is where the silliness comes in. It is me... I have not worked with DOS in so long I am having to pull memories out of the hat to make sure my paths are correct. But I am having a hell of a time mounting a subfolder in my home directory. First DOS uses a backslash instead of a forward slash right? I named the subfolder in my home folder to put all my DOS stuff the same as what they have to avoid my own confusion "dosprogs".

But here are the instructions in my install of DOSbox showing a forward slash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 09-06-53.png

But in their sample instructions they are using a backslash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 10-12-57.png

That screenshot must have been from a Windows build of DOSBox.

OK so which is it??? lol

If this is a Linux build of DOSBox, the virtual machine will understand the Linux paths and will know how to locate the directory you specify. You may try fully expanding the path from root to be sure.. /home/<user>/dosprograms . Note that tilde `~` is just a shorthand for /home/<user>.

And am I supposed to use my pet "name" of my home folder, "home", or will it see my home folder when C: is used? And how do I make it forward to the subfolder in home named "dosprogs"?

You can think of it like DOS is "trapped" inside the directory you specify using the DOSBox mount command and has no other knowledge than the contents of that directory.

@merkelspam making sure you see this too, Thank you guys I got it. The .exe had to be caps .EXE. in the start file... lol

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 13-10-56.png

[Clayton]

@merkelspam making sure you see this too, Thank you guys I got it. The .exe had to be caps .EXE. in the start file... lol

In general, the best way to be sure that DOS can see a file is to name it in 8.3 format, all-caps. 8.3 means 8 character file-name '.' 3 characters (extension).

[Atruepatriot]

@merkelspam making sure you see this too, Thank you guys I got it. The .exe had to be caps .EXE. in the start file... lol

In general, the best way to be sure that DOS can see a file is to name it in 8.3 format, all-caps. 8.3 means 8 character file-name '.' 3 characters (extension).

Makes sense. In digging through these games I see them in both Caps and small case. So I have to open the folders and look to see what it wants for a file name to run it. for some reason the directory command is not working on the DOSBox.

Thank you again!

[Prince Valiant]

OK, here is where the silliness comes in. It is me... I have not worked with DOS in so long I am having to pull memories out of the hat to make sure my paths are correct. But I am having a hell of a time mounting a subfolder in my home directory. First DOS uses a backslash instead of a forward slash right? I named the subfolder in my home folder to put all my DOS stuff the same as what they have to avoid my own confusion "dosprogs".

But here are the instructions in my install of DOSbox showing a forward slash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 09-06-53.png

But in their sample instructions they are using a backslash in the path.

Screenshot from 2023-02-03 10-12-57.png

That screenshot must have been from a Windows build of DOSBox.

OK so which is it??? lol

If this is a Linux build of DOSBox, the virtual machine will understand the Linux paths and will know how to locate the directory you specify. You may try fully expanding the path from root to be sure.. /home/<user>/dosprograms . Note that tilde `~` is just a shorthand for /home/<user>.

And am I supposed to use my pet "name" of my home folder, "home", or will it see my home folder when C: is used? And how do I make it forward to the subfolder in home named "dosprogs"?

You can think of it like DOS is "trapped" inside the directory you specify using the DOSBox mount command and has no other knowledge than the contents of that directory.

THANK YOU!

home/nonono/dosprogs

Duh, Ok, let me try that in a bit.

/home/<user>/dosprogs <--- Don't forget the initial slash

"Don't forget the initial slash"

Yep got it!

<mount c "/home/nonono/dosprogs/bman10>

It mounted the bman10 folder... But doesn't see the files or .exe file to start it.

Hey JR. I'm having the same trouble. I tell it Z:\>mount c /home owner1/DOS Games/ but it keeps saying that directory doesn't exist. Ive done this many times in windows, telling it to mount the C drive as C, but I'm not sure I'm giving it a good path here in Linux. Any Ideas?

[Prince Valiant]

I can have it mount "home" as c, but it won't do home/owner1/DOSGAMES.
If I mount "home" as c, I can change directory to owner1 (cd\owner1), but I can't cd\ further into DOSGAMES.

[Prince Valiant]

Never Mind....
I got it all figured out.
Thanks guys!

[merkelspam]

Hey JR. I'm having the same trouble. I tell it Z:\>mount c /home owner1/DOS Games/ Any Ideas?

A space counts as a seperator for *nix commands.

Spaces in directories or filenames makes problems. Life is better if you never put spaces in filenames or directories, ever. No special characters. Just letters, numerals and underscores.

Windows 'innovated' allowing spaces in directory- and filenames and the world has been fucked ever since.

If you want to issue a command and send it some name with spaces in it, you need to put it in quotes. Oh yeah and there's a slash between home and username.

mount c "/home/owner1/DOS Games/"

[Atruepatriot]

Never Mind....
I got it all figured out.
Thanks guys!

Mine is still not working right and I know I am doing it right. Think I got a bad install.

[Swordsmyth]

Never Mind....
I got it all figured out.
Thanks guys!

Mine is still not working right and I know I am doing it right. Think I got a bad install.

If you made any changes to folder/file names it might not recognize them until you shut down DBox and start it again.
So maybe just trying again will get it to work.
You can also try setting Home as the C: and then getting out and setting the subfolder as C: etc. until you get it to take the correct subfolder, it might need that step by step treatment for some strange reason.

[Atruepatriot]

Never Mind....
I got it all figured out.
Thanks guys!

Mine is still not working right and I know I am doing it right. Think I got a bad install.

If you made any changes to folder/file names it might not recognize them until you shut down DBox and start it again.
So maybe just trying again will get it to work.
You can also try setting Home as the C: and then getting out and setting the subfolder as C: etc. until you get it to take the correct subfolder, it might need that step by step treatment for some strange reason.

It goofed in stages, first it will mount no problem, then it stopped recognizing the .exe/start files on all of them. Now it is locked up on and I can't close it without powering down. I think I have a bad install. I will just purge it and reinstall. Now that is one thing that is common in Linux for some reason. sometimes you have to uninstall and then reinstall stuff.

[Prince Valiant]

It goofed in stages, first it will mount no problem, then it stopped recognizing the .exe/start files on all of them. Now it is locked up on and I can't close it without powering down. I think I have a bad install. I will just purge it and reinstall. Now that is one thing that is common in Linux for some reason. sometimes you have to uninstall and then reinstall stuff.

Did you install it from the repositories? Or from somewhere else? I did it from the repositories. Through the software manager.