1DOSBOX(1) General Commands Manual DOSBOX(1)
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6 dosbox - an x86/DOS emulator with sound/graphics
7
9 dosbox [-fullscreen] [-startmapper] [-noautoexec] [-securemode] [-user‐
10 conf] [-scaler scaler|-forcescaler scaler] [-conf configfile] [-lang
11 langfile] [-machine machinetype] [-socket socketnumber] [-c command]
12 [-exit] [NAME]
13 dosbox --version
15 dosbox --printconf
17 dosbox --editconf [editor]
19 dosbox -eraseconf
21 dosbox -resetconf
23 dosbox -erasemapper
25 dosbox -resetmapper
27 dosbox -opencaptures program
29
31 This manual page briefly documents dosbox-staging, an x86/DOS emulator.
32 The optional NAME argument should be a DOS executable or a directory.
34 If it is a dos executable (.com .exe .bat) the program will run auto‐
35 matically. If it is a directory, a DOS session will run with the direc‐
36 tory mounted as C:\.
37 For an introduction type INTRO inside dosbox.
39
41 A summary of options is included below.
42 -fullscreen
44 Start dosbox in fullscreen mode.
45 -startmapper
47 Start the internal keymapper on startup of dosbox. You can use
48 it to change the keys dosbox uses.
49 -noautoexec
51 Skips the [autoexec] section of the loaded configuration file.
52 -securemode
54 Same as -noautoexec, but adds config.com -securemode at the end
55 of AUTOEXEC.BAT (which in turn disables any changes to how the
56 drives are mounted inside dosbox)
57 -userconf
59 Load the configuration file located in ~/.config/dosbox. Can be
60 combined with the -conf option.
61 -scaler scaler
63 Uses the graphical scaler specified by scaler. See the configu‐
64 ration file for the available scalers
65 -forcescaler scaler
67 Similar to the -scaler parameter, but tries to force usage of
68 the specified scaler even if it might not fit.
69 -conf configfile
71 Start dosbox with the options specified in configfile. This file
72 has a section in which you can put commands you wish to execute
73 on startup. Multiple configfiles can be present at the command‐
74 line.
75 -lang langfile
77 Start dosbox with the language specified in langfile.
78 -machine machinetype
80 Setup dosbox to emulate a specific type of machine. Valid
81 choices are: hercules, cga, tandy, pcjr, ega, vgaonly,
82 svga_s3(default), svga_et3000, svga_et4000, svga_paradise,
83 vesa_nolfb, vesa_oldvbe. The machinetype has influence on both
84 the videocard and the available soundcards.
85 -socket socketnumber
87 Passes the socket number socketnumber to the nullmodem emula‐
88 tion. See README for details.
89 -c command
91 Runs the specified command before running file. Multiple com‐
92 mands can be specified. Each command should start with -c
93 though. A command can be: an Internal Program, a DOS command or
94 an executable on a mounted drive.
95 -exit dosbox will close itself when the DOS program specified by file
97 ends.
98 --version
100 Output version information and exit. Useful for frontends.
101 --editconf [editor]
103 Open the default configuration file in a text editor. If no edi‐
104 tor name is given, then use the program from EDITOR environment
105 variable, otherwise DOSBox will try to guess the name.
106 -opencaptures program
108 calls program with as first parameter the location of the cap‐
109 tures folder.
110 --printconf
112 Prints the location of the default configuration file.
113 -eraseconf, -resetconf
115 removes the default configuration file.
116 -erasemapper, -resetmapper
118 removes the mapperfile configured in the clean default configu‐
119 ration file.
120
122 dosbox supports most of the DOS commands found in command.com. In addi‐
123 tion, the following extra commands are available:
124 MOUNT [-t type] [-size size] driveletter sourcedirectory [-label drive‐
126 label] [-freesize freesize]
127 MOUNT -u driveletter
129 Program to mount local directories as drives inside dosbox.
131 driveletter
133 The driveletter inside dosbox (eg. C).
134 sourcedirectory
136 The local directory you want to have inside dosbox.
137 -t type
139 Type of the mounted directory. Supported are: dir (stan‐
140 dard), floppy, cdrom.
141 -size drivesize
143 Sets the size of the drive. See the examples in the
144 README for details.
145 -freesize size_in_mb
147 Sets the amount of free space available on a drive in
148 MB's. This is a more simple version of -size.
149 -label drivelabel
151 Sets the name of the drive to drivelabel. Needed on some
152 systems if the cd label isn't read correctly. Useful when
153 a program can't find its cdrom. If you don't specify a
154 label:
155 For win32: label is extracted from "Real Drive".
157 For Linux: label is set to NO_LABEL.
159 If you do specify a label this label will be kept as long
161 as the drive
162 is mounted. It will not be updated !!
163 -u Unmounts a mounted drive. Doesn't work on virtual Drives
165 (like Z:\)
166 Example:
168 To mount your /home/dos/dosgames directory as C drive in dosbox:
170 mount c /home/dos/dosgames
171 MEM
173 Display the amount of free memory
175 CONFIG [-writeconf] [-writelang] file
177 CONFIG -securemode
179 Write the current configuration or language settings to file, which is
181 located on the local filesystem. Not a mounted drive in dosbox.
182 -securemode
184 Switches dosbox to a more secure mode. In this mode the
185 internal commands MOUNT, IMGMOUNT and BOOT won't work.
186 It's not possible either to create a new configfile or
187 languagefile in this mode. (Warning you can only undo
188 this mode by restarting dosbox.)
189 The configuration file controls various settings of dosbox: The amount
191 of emulated memory, the emulated soundcards and many more things. It
192 further allows access to AUTOEXEC.BAT.
193 The language file controls all visible output of the internal commands
195 and the internal dos. See the section FILES for more information.
196 LOADFIX [-size] [programname] [parameters]
198 LOADFIX -f
200 Program to reduce the amount of memory available. Useful for old pro‐
202 grams which don't expect much memory to be free.
203 [programname]
205 The name of the program which is executed after loadfix
206 eats up its memory.
207 [parameters]
209 Parameters given to the programname executable.
210 -size The amount of memory to eat up (in kb). Example -32, -64
212 or -128
213 -f Frees all memory eaten up by loadfix.
215 RESCAN [-All] [Drive:]
217 Make dosbox reread the directory structure. Useful if you changed some‐
219 thing on a mounted drive outside dosbox.(CTRL-F4 does this as well!)
220 -All Reread directory structure for all drives.
222 Drive: Reread directory structure for drive Drive:
224 If both -All and Drive: are missing, then the current drive is used.
226 IMGMOUNT
228 A utility to mount disk images and CD‐ROM images in dosbox.
230 Read the README of dosbox for the full and correct syntax.
232 BOOT
234 Boot will start floppy images or hard disk images independent of the
236 operating system emulation offered by dosbox. This will allow you to
237 play booter floppies or boot to other operating systems inside dosbox.
238 Read the README of dosbox for the full and correct syntax.
240 IPX
242 You need to enable IPX networking in the configuration file of dosbox.
244 All of the IPX networking is managed through the internal dosbox pro‐
245 gram IPXNET. For help on the IPX networking from inside dosbox, type
246 IPXNET HELP and the program will list out the commands and relevant
247 documentation.
248 Read the README of dosbox for the full and correct syntax.
250 KEYB
252 Keyb can change the keyboardlayout and the codepage used inside dosbox.
254 Read the README of dosbox for the full and correct syntax.
256
258 Configuration and language files use a format similar to Windows .ini
259 files. If no configfile is specified at the commandline, a file named
260 dosbox.conf (if present in the current directory) will be loaded auto‐
261 matically. If a configfile is specified at the commandline that one
262 will be used instead. If no configfile is specified or found in the
263 current directory then dosbox will load one from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dos‐
264 box/ (which defaults to ~/.config/dosbox/). It will try to create a
265 new default config file if it does not exist yet.
266
268 ALT-ENTER Switch between fullscreen and window mode.
269 ALT-PAUSE Pause/Unpause emulator.
271 CTRL-F1 Start the keymapper.
273 CTRL-F4 Swap mounted disk‐image (Only used with imgmount). Update
275 directory cache for all drives!
276 CTRL-F5 Save a screenshot.(png)
278 CTRL-F6 Start/Stop recording sound output to a wave file.
280 CTRL-F7 Start/Stop recording video output to a zmbv file.
282 CTRL-F9 Kill dosbox.
284 CTRL-F10 Capture/Release the mouse.
286 CTRL-F11 Slow down emulation (Increase dosbox Cycles).
288 CTRL-F12 Speed up emulation (Decrease dosbox Cycles).
290 ALT-F12 Unlock speed (turbo button).
292 These are the default keybindings. They can be changed in the keymap‐
294 per.
295 Saved/recorded files can be found in current_directory/capture (can be
297 changed in the configfile). The directory has to exist prior to start‐
298 ing dosbox else nothing gets saved/recorded !
299 Note: Once you increase your dosbox cycles beyond your computer's maxi‐
301 mum capacity, it will produce the same effect as slowing down the emu‐
302 lation. This maximum will vary from computer to computer, there is no
303 standard.
304
306 Fast machine. My guess would be Pentium-2 400+ to get decent emulation
307 of games written for an 286 machine. For protected mode games a 1 Ghz
308 machine is recommended and don't expect them to run fast though!! Be
309 sure to read the next section on how to speed it up somewhat.
310 To run resource-demanding games
312 dosbox emulates the CPU, the sound and graphic cards, and some other
313 stuff, all at the same time. You can overclock dosbox by using
314 CTRL-F12, but you'll be limited by the power of your actual CPU. You
315 can see how much free time your true CPU has by various utils (top).
316 Once 100% of your real CPU time is used there is no further way to
317 speed up dosbox unless you reduce the load generated by the non-CPU
318 parts of dosbox.
319 So:
321 Close every program but dosbox.
323 Overclock dosbox until 100% of your CPU is used.(CTRL-F12)
325 Since VGA emulation is the most demanding part of dosbox in terms of
327 actual CPU usage, we'll start here. Increase the number of frames
328 skipped (in increments of one) by pressing CTRL-F8. Your CPU usage
329 should decrease. Go back one step and repeat this until the game runs
330 fast enough for you. Please note that this is a trade off: you lose in
331 fluidity of video what you gain in speed.
332
334 While we hope that, one day, dosbox will run virtually all programs
335 ever made for the PC... we are not there yet. At present, dosbox run
336 on a 1.7 Gigahertz PC is roughly the equivalent of a 25MHz 386 PC.
337 While the 0.60 release has added support for "protected mode" allowing
338 for more complex and recent programs, but note that this support is
339 early in development and nowhere near as complete as the support for
340 386 real-mode games (or earlier). Also note that "protected mode" games
341 need substantially more resources and may require a much faster proces‐
342 sor for you to run it properly in dosbox.
343
345 To report a bug, please visit https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-
346 staging/issues
347
350 You'll find long and detailed manual in README file in
351 /usr/share/doc/dosbox-staging
352
355 dosbox-staging project is maintained by the dosbox-staging team
356 (https://dosbox-staging.github.io/)
357 This manual page was written by Peter Veenstra <H.P.Veenstra@stu‐
359 dent.rug.nl> and James Oakley <jfunk@funktronics.ca>, for the Debian
360 system (but may be used by others), updated by Patryk Obara
361 <dreamer.tan@gmail.com> for dosbox-staging project.
362 Apr 21, 2020 DOSBOX(1)