1DOSBOX(1) General Commands Manual DOSBOX(1)
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6 dosbox - an x86/DOS emulator with sound/graphics
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9 dosbox [-fullscreen] [-startmapper] [-noautoexec] [-securemode] [-user‐
10 conf] [-scaler scaler] [-forcescaler scaler] [-conf configfile] [-lang
11 langfile] [file] [-c command] [-exit] [-machine machinetype]
12 dosbox -version
14 dosbox -editconf program
16 dosbox -opencaptures program
18 dosbox -printconf
20 dosbox -eraseconf
22 dosbox -resetconf
24 dosbox -erasemapper
26 dosbox -resetmapper
28
30 This manual page briefly documents dosbox, an x86/DOS emulator.
31 The optional file argument should be a DOS executable or a directory.
33 If it is a dos executable (.com .exe .bat) the program will run auto‐
34 matically. If it is a directory, a DOS session will run with the direc‐
35 tory mounted as C:\.
36 For an introduction type INTRO inside dosbox.
38
40 A summary of options is included below.
41 -fullscreen
43 Start dosbox in fullscreen mode.
44 -startmapper
46 Start the internal keymapper on startup of dosbox. You can use
47 it to change the keys dosbox uses.
48 -noautoexec
50 Skips the [autoexec] section of the loaded configuration file.
51 -securemode
53 Same as -noautoexec, but adds config.com -securemode at the end
54 of AUTOEXEC.BAT (which in turn disables any changes to how the
55 drives are mounted inside dosbox)
56 -userconf
58 Load the configuration file located in ~/.dosbox. Can be com‐
59 bined with the -conf option.
60 -scaler scaler
62 Uses the graphical scaler specified by scaler. See the configu‐
63 ration file for the available scalers
64 -forcescaler scaler
66 Similar to the -scaler parameter, but tries to force usage of
67 the specified scaler even if it might not fit.
68 -c command
70 Runs the specified command before running file. Multiple com‐
71 mands can be specified. Each command should start with -c
72 though. A command can be: an Internal Program, a DOS command or
73 an executable on a mounted drive.
74 -conf configfile
76 Start dosbox with the options specified in configfile. This file
77 has a section in which you can put commands you wish to execute
78 on startup. Multiple configfiles can be present at the command‐
79 line.
80 -lang langfile
82 Start dosbox with the language specified in langfile.
83 -exit dosbox will close itself when the DOS program specified by file
85 ends.
86 -machine machinetype
88 Setup dosbox to emulate a specific type of machine. Valid
89 choices are: hercules, cga, tandy, pcjr, ega, vgaonly,
90 svga_s3(default), svga_et3000, svga_et4000, svga_paradise,
91 vesa_nolfb, vesa_oldvbe. The machinetype has influence on both
92 the videocard and the available soundcards.
93 -version
95 Output version information and exit. Useful for frontends.
96 -editconf program
98 calls program with as first parameter the configuration file.
99 You can specify this command more than once. In this case it
100 will move to second program if the first one fails to start.
101 -opencaptures program
103 calls program with as first paramater the location of the cap‐
104 tures folder.
105 -printconf
107 prints the location of the default configuration file.
108 -eraseconf, -resetconf
110 removes the default configuration file.
111 -erasemapper, -resetmapper
113 removes the mapperfile configured in the clean default configu‐
114 ration file.
115
117 dosbox supports most of the DOS commands found in command.com. In addi‐
118 tion, the following extra commands are available:
119 MOUNT [-t type] [-size size] driveletter sourcedirectory [-ioctl]
121 [-usecd number] [-label drivelabel] [-freesize freesize]
122 MOUNT -cd
124 MOUNT -u driveletter
126 Program to mount local directories as drives inside dosbox.
128 driveletter
130 The driveletter inside dosbox (eg. C).
131 sourcedirectory
133 The local directory you want to have inside dosbox.
134 -t type
136 Type of the mounted directory. Supported are: dir (stan‐
137 dard), floppy, cdrom.
138 -size drivesize
140 Sets the size of the drive. See the examples in the
141 README for details.
142 -freesize size_in_mb
144 Sets the amount of free space available on a drive in
145 MB's. This is a more simple version of -size.
146 -label drivelabel
148 Sets the name of the drive to drivelabel. Needed on some
149 systems if the cd label isn't read correctly. Useful when
150 a program can't find its cdrom. If you don't specify a
151 label and no lowlevel support is selected (-usecd #
152 and/or -ioctl/aspi):
153 For win32: label is extracted from "Real Drive".
155 For Linux: label is set to NO_LABEL.
157 If you do specify a label this label will be kept as long
159 as the drive
160 is mounted. It will not be updated !!
161 -ioctl Forces to use ioctl commands.
163 -usecd number
165 Forces to use SDL cdrom support for drive number. Number
166 can be found by -cd.
167 -cd Displays all detected cdrom drives and their numbers. Use
169 with -usecd.
170 -u Unmounts a mounted drive. Doesn't work on virtual Drives
172 (like Z:\)
173 Example:
175 To mount your /home/dos/dosgames directory as C drive in dosbox:
177 mount c /home/dos/dosgames
178 MEM
180 Display the amount of free memory
182 CONFIG [-writeconf] [-writelang] file
184 CONFIG -securemode
186 Write the current configuration or language settings to file, which is
188 located on the local filesystem. Not a mounted drive in dosbox.
189 -securemode
191 Switchesdosbox to a more secure mode. In this mode the
192 internal commands MOUNT, IMGMOUNT and BOOT won´t work.
193 It´s not possible either to create a new configfile or
194 languagefile in this mode. (Warning you can only undo
195 this mode by restarting dosbox.)
196 The configuration file controls various settings of dosbox: The amount
198 of emulated memory, the emulated soundcards and many more things. It
199 futher allows acces to AUTOEXEC.BAT.
200 The language file controls all visible ouput of the internal commands
202 and the internal dos. See the section FILES for more information.
203 LOADFIX [-size] [programname] [parameters]
205 LOADFIX -f
207 Program to reduce the amount of memory available. Useful for old pro‐
209 grams which don't expect much memory to be free.
210 [programname]
212 The name of the program which is executed after loadfix
213 eats up its memory.
214 [parameters]
216 Parameters given to the programname executable.
217 -size The amount of memory to eat up (in kb). Example -32, -64
219 or -128
220 -f Frees all memory eaten up by loadfix.
222 RESCAN
224 Make dosbox reread the directory structure. Useful if you changed some‐
226 thing on a mounted drive outside dosbox.(CTRL-F4 does this as well!)
227 IMGMOUNT
229 A utility to mount disk images and CD‐ROM images in dosbox.
231 Read the README of dosbox for the full and correct syntax.
233 BOOT
235 Boot will start floppy images or hard disk images independent of the
237 operating system emulation offered by dosbox. This will allow you to
238 play booter floppies or boot to other operating systems inside dosbox.
239 Read the README of dosbox for the full and correct syntax.
241 IPX
243 You need to enable IPX networking in the configuration file of dosbox.
245 All of the IPX networking is managed through the internal dosbox pro‐
246 gram IPXNET. For help on the IPX networking from inside dosbox, type
247 IPXNET HELP and the program will list out the commands and relevant
248 documentation.
249 Read the README of dosbox for the full and correct syntax.
251 KEYB
253 Keyb can change the keyboardlayout and the codepage used inside dosbox.
255 Read the README of dosbox for the full and correct syntax.
257
259 Configuration and language files use a format similar to Windows .ini
260 files. If no configfile is specified at the commandline, a file named
261 dosbox.conf (if present in the current directory) will be loaded auto‐
262 matically. If a configfile is specified at the commandline that one
263 will be used instead. If no configfile is specified or found in the
264 current directory then dosbox will load one from ~/.dosbox/. It will
265 try to create one if there is none.
266
268 ALT-ENTER Go full screen and back.
269 ALT-PAUSE Pause emulation.
271 CTRL-F1 Start the keymapper.
273 CTRL-ALT-F5 Start/Stop creating a movie of the screen.
275 CTRL-F4 Swap mounted disk‐image (Only used with imgmount).
277 Update directory cache for all drives!
278 CTRL-F5 Save a screenshot.(png)
280 CTRL-F6 Start/Stop recording sound output to a wave file.
282 CTRL-ALT-F7 Start/Stop recording of OPL commands.
284 CTRL-ALT-F8 Start/Stop the recording of raw MIDI commands.
286 CTRL-F7 Decrease frameskip.
288 CTRL-F8 Increase frameskip.
290 CTRL-F9 Kill dosbox.
292 CTRL-F10 Capture/Release the mouse.
294 CTRL-F11 Slow down emulation (Increase dosbox Cycles).
296 CTRL-F12 Speed up emulation (Decrease dosbox Cycles).
298 ALT-F12 Unlock speed (turbo button).
300 These are the default keybindings. They can be changed in the
302 keymapper.
303 Saved/recorded files can be found in current_directory/capture
305 (can be changed in the configfile). The directory has to exist
306 prior to starting dosbox else nothing gets saved/recorded !
307 Note: Once you increase your dosbox cycles beyond your com‐
309 puter's maximum capacity, it will produce the same effect as
310 slowing down the emulation. This maximum will vary from com‐
311 puter to computer, there is no standard.
312
314 Fast machine. My guess would be pentium-2 400+ to get decent
315 emulation of games written for an 286 machine. For protected
316 mode games a 1 Ghz machine is recommended and don't expect them
317 to run fast though!! Be sure to read the next section on how to
318 speed it up somewhat.
319 To run resource-demanding games
321 dosbox emulates the CPU, the sound and graphic cards, and some
322 other stuff, all at the same time. You can overclock dosbox by
323 using CTRL-F12, but you'll be limited by the power of your
324 actual CPU. You can see how much free time your true CPU has by
325 various utils (top). Once 100% of your real CPU time is used
326 there is no further way to speed up dosbox unless you reduce the
327 load generated by the non-CPU parts of dosbox.
328 So:
330 Close every program but dosbox.
332 Overclock dosbox until 100% of your CPU is used.(CTRL-F12)
334 Since VGA emulation is the most demanding part of dosbox in
336 terms of actual CPU usage, we'll start here. Increase the number
337 of frames skipped (in increments of one) by pressing CTRL-F8.
338 Your CPU usage should decrease. Go back one step and repeat
339 this until the game runs fast enough for you. Please note that
340 this is a trade off: you lose in fluidity of video what you gain
341 in speed.
342
344 While we hope that, one day, dosbox will run virtually all pro‐
345 grams ever made for the PC... we are not there yet. At present,
346 dosbox run on a 1.7 Gigahertz PC is roughly the equivalent of a
347 25MHz 386 PC. While the 0.60 release has added support for
348 "protected mode" allowing for more complex and recent programs,
349 but note that this support is early in development and nowhere
350 near as complete as the support for 386 real-mode games (or ear‐
351 lier). Also note that "protected mode" games need substantially
352 more resources and may require a much faster processor for you
353 to run it properly in dosbox.
354
356 Not all DOS programs work properly. dosbox will exit without
357 warning if an error occurred.
358
360 The README in /usr/share/doc/dosbox
361
363 This manual page was written by Peter Veenstra <H.P.Veen‐
364 stra@student.rug.nl> and James Oakley <jfunk@funktronics.ca>,
365 for the Debian system (but may be used by others).
366 Feb 26, 2010 DOSBOX(1)