All,

I'm running the latest version of 2.0 pre9 for dosemu2. I followed the wiki, and things didn't go too well. Here's what I had to ensure if it helps anyone else. I also wanted to know if anyone experienced this.
I had to make sure that the cmd keys were all on one line. If that's not done, then it won't run the command
With the dosemu.ini changes that are quoted in the wiki, when I ran a door, I got all of the boot trash you get when you run dosemu by itself. This is great for debug, and for seeing versions and such, but isn't great when you just want the user to see the game start.
The command key conatains a "QUIET=1" value. Whether or not it is 0 or 1, output remains the same. However, after checking the /usr/bin/dosemu wrapper script, I fonud that the -quiet switch (-q in dosemu) runs the following command and must be added to both keys
-tde -ks -exec 2>/dev/null
Nasty but true, and it's how the script runs it.
Running this way sets terminal to dumb and then pipes some content to /dev/null. Also note, it takes about 1.5 to two seconds to run a door this way.
Is there an easier way to get quiet output, or am I doing the right thing? I can say that this setup is working for the games I'm using--I'm slowly adding more, and if I find some that don't work, I'll let you know. I do believe I've decrypted the new command line options (undocumented I might add for some of them.

Thanks all.

NER
NER BBS

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Re: dosemu2 configuration instructions
By: ner to all on Thu Oct 19 2023 09:45 pm

Is there an easier way to get quiet output, or am I doing the right thing? I can say that this setup is working for the games I'm using--I'm slowly adding more, and if I find some that don't work, I'll let you know. I do believe I've decrypted the new command line options (undocumented I might add for some of them.

There might be, though I haven't looked into it yet. I noticed dosemu2 started adding a lot of that startup output quite a while ago.. There used to be a lot less of that.

Nightfox

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Can someone remind me why it's good/beneficial to run dosemu2, other
than (possibly) allowing the TW2002 door to run? What actual advantage(s) does it offer over the original dosemu?

I think TW2002 and Darkland were the two doors I couldn't run in dosemu and could in dosemu2, and also pkunzip had a problem in dosemu without DPMI (which has a decent workaround if I remember correctly).

In an ideal world, dosemu and dosemu2 could be installed alongside one another. I'm just not sure if that's feasible.

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Re: Re: dosemu2 configuration instructions
By: Gamgee to Nightfox on Sat Oct 21 2023 12:53 am

Can someone remind me why it's good/beneficial to run dosemu2, other than (possibly) allowing the TW2002 door to run? What actual advantage(s) does it offer over the original dosemu?

TW2002 is really the only reason I wanted to update to dosemu2. I haven't really looked into the new features it adds over the original dosemu. I don't think the original dosemu is maintained anymore though, so it wouldn't receive any bug fixes etc..

Nightfox

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Re: Re: dosemu2 configuration instructions
By: Ryan Fantus to Gamgee on Sat Oct 21 2023 10:01 am

I think TW2002 and Darkland were the two doors I couldn't run in dosemu and could in dosemu2, and also pkunzip had a problem in dosemu without DPMI (which has a decent workaround if I remember correctly).

I'd think there are probably some rare cases where you'd need to run the DOS pkunzip these days. There are modern programs for zipping & unzipping that run natively on modern operating systems.

Nightfox

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I'd think there are probably some rare cases where you'd need to run the DOS pkunzip these days. There are modern programs for zipping &
unzipping that run natively on modern operating systems.

I believe it's still necessary for DOS based interbbs games in most cases.

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Re: Re: dosemu2 configuration instructions
By: Ryan Fantus to Nightfox on Sun Oct 22 2023 12:02 pm

I'd think there are probably some rare cases where you'd need to run the
DOS pkunzip these days. There are modern programs for zipping &
unzipping that run natively on modern operating systems.

I believe it's still necessary for DOS based interbbs games in most cases.

Yes, though you can use a modern native program to zip and unzip the archives. Only the actual game and its maintenance software would need to be run in a DOS emulator. Why would you need to use the DOS pkunzip?

Nightfox

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Yes, though you can use a modern native program to zip and unzip the archives. Only the actual game and its maintenance software would need
to be run in a DOS emulator. Why would you need to use the DOS pkunzip?

I'm pretty sure some of the interbbs games rely on using pkzip/pkunzip so it's not really an option.

In any case, the DPMI issue has a workaround so it is possible to use either in original dosemu if needed. :)

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Re: Re: dosemu2 configuration instructions
By: Nightfox to Gamgee on Sat Oct 21 2023 10:04:33

TW2002 is really the only reason I wanted to update to dosemu2. I haven't really looked into the new features it adds over the original dosemu. I don't think the original dosemu is maintained anymore though, so it wouldn't receive any bug fixes etc..

There are other games like Yankee Trader that wont run under dosemu and, as you say, dosemu is not maintained whereas dosemu2 is actively maintained and the author has his good days. :) I have put together a package that contains pretty much everything you need to get dosemu2 working, including a bunch of dos tools, exe fixers and the like.

https://www.endofthelinebbs.com/dosemu2.tar.gz
There'a a https://www.endofthelinebbs.com/dosemu2.txt that has some more detail.

And Nightfox gets credit for putting most of this together. I tweaked things a bit and added some more stuff. All the files you're going to need to get dosemu2 running are there.

That said, I've reported issues where DOS programs work in a virtual environment that don't support /dev/kvm but not in those that do support /dev/kvm due to timing issues. The dosemu2 author will often help with patching such games.
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Re: Re: dosemu2 configuration instructions
By: nelgin to Nightfox on Mon Oct 23 2023 01:51 am

so it wouldn't receive any bug fixes etc..

There are other games like Yankee Trader that wont run under dosemu and, as you say, dosemu is not maintained whereas dosemu2 is actively maintained and the author has his good days. :) I have put together a package that contains pretty much everything you need to get dosemu2 working, including a bunch of

there are always going to be doorgames that will run or won't run with this or that. the important thing is to cull the ones that arent worth it.

yankee trader isn't a popular doorgame with users and probably would only be on display for historical purposes where said users would pop in and exit quickly.
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