OESF Portables Forum

Model Specific Forums => Sharp Zaurus => Zaurus - pdaXrom => Topic started by: LordDavon on February 04, 2004, 10:21:31 am

Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: LordDavon on February 04, 2004, 10:21:31 am
Get them at http://zaurus.spy.org/feeds/davonz (http://zaurus.spy.org/feeds/davonz)

Again, these are untested so please comment in the feedback forum.


LD
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Anonymous on February 06, 2004, 08:21:36 am
Dosbox-0.61 works but the games (example: wingcommander 2) work slowly , it\'s not playable ?
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: LordDavon on February 06, 2004, 09:21:58 am
It is not going to be super fast, but did you adjust the configuration settings at all?  You can write out a configuration file (config -writeconf dosbox.conf [or something like that] from the dosbox command line) and adjust the settings.  I set mine to frameskip 3 and adjusted the cycles from 1800 to 1200.

Let me know what works best for you.

LD
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Anonymous on February 06, 2004, 10:15:10 am
Thank you for your work and your information.

I shall test Dgen and advmame this week end.

Thank you still.
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: ScottYelich on February 06, 2004, 02:25:41 pm
yes, thank you for the work.  

now I have a bunch of things to test over the weekend.

Scott
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on February 18, 2004, 04:51:45 am
Thanks a lot!

But, if you don\'t mind, I\'d like to report about some bugs found that far:

1) Mouse (stylus emulating mouse, actually) CERTAINLY needs calibrating.

2) If the application hangs, it\'s impossible to close the DOSbox window in a usual way (by clicking on X button of the window) and one has to perform a soft reset by removing the battery;

3) It\'s not clear how to press F-keys. Usual X11 solution (Cancel + number) doesn\'t seem to work. Ctrl+Fx or Alt+Fx - that\'s unknown at all...

4) When typing : (by Fn+H), it comes out a 1: instead; have to delete 1 manually; it isn\'t very convenient;

5) Not only all the programs, even XT-written (Cat, Paratrooper etc.) work very slow (now I\'ll try to find or write this config file), but XT programs and 386 protected mode programs work EQUALLY slowly. Moreover, it seems to be that V86 programs are even a bit FASTER (?). I suspect that if it ran in a full-screen VGA mode, performance would be acceptable.
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on February 18, 2004, 06:09:23 am
Tried finetunung via .conf file. First impressions:

1) No matter how I change sound emulation and bitrate (tried all disable but Adlib at 11025 Hz), music is REALLY slow & jerky anyway. I changed CPU to 1800, 1500, 1200 and 1000 without any obvious result;

2) Fullscreen VGA mode is just a bit faster, but is still doesn\'t redraw the screen as fast as at least 8-bit EGA or VGA adapter; I tried skipping 2, 3 or even 5 frames - it\'s still slow.

3) Screen ratio doesn\'t change very much (even in a fullscreen mode and without aspect ratio correction, I see 2 black stripes at the bottom and top of the screen which I don\'t see on my PC.

BTW, DOSbox types 1 not only before : , but also before all the keys typed with Fn or even Shift (I don\'t mean letters) Even holding down Shift and typing something after that causes a lot of 11111\'s. And I still haven\'t got a clue how to type functional keys
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: LordDavon on February 18, 2004, 08:54:44 am
Ok.  I am going to recompile without the FPU emulation which should help a little.  It should be picking up the function keys from the X system so after the new ROM is released, I will take another look at how they are defined.

Which applications/games are you testing so I can get those to test with also.

David
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Anonymous on February 18, 2004, 11:01:24 am
you should try to compile dosbox without protected mode support, protected mode is even much to slow on my pentium 800...
or better try to compile version 0.58 it should be smaller and faster and only supports real mode games :-)
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on February 18, 2004, 11:28:59 am
I use Norton Commander 5.0 in a graphic mode as a shell (it doesn\'t slow down the work very much) and some games:

CGA 320x200 games: Space Commander, Cat, Paratrooper, Arkanow (type of Arkanoid).

EGA 160x100x16 games: King\'s Quest II&III.

EGA 320x200x16 games: King\'s Quest I&IV, Hero\'s Quest I&II, Deathtrack, King Graham\'s Backgammon, Commander Keen 4-6, Keen Dreams.

EGA 640x200&640x350 games: Zeliard.

VGA 320x200 games: Magicland Dizzy, King\'s bounty, Blake Stone (I suspect it\'s a protected mode game), Wolfenstein 3D (ran on my PS/1 286 but also protected mode game if I\'m correct), Duke Nukem 2D, Raptor (protected mode game), Quest for Glory III&IV (protected mode games).

That\'s just to name a few.  If you have in mind certain game that you know how to run smoothly - please tell me and others, maybe we\'ll find out if this recipe works for other games.

BTW, please notice that even the most simple CGA games with PC Speaker sound run REALLY slowly. It seems to be the matter more of improper configuration/compilation, than of the real lack of MIPS on Z (mine is 760 one).
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: ScottYelich on February 18, 2004, 08:32:04 pm
hey, LZ, I\'ve been trying to reach you on irc...

could you compile an xadvmame with a hard code for turbo to be \"always on\"...
you\'ll have to modify the code for this.  Basically, speed-up doesn\'t work... but
turbo always does... but you have to hold a key.  

Could ya do that for me?  THANKS!

Scott
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on March 02, 2004, 02:25:08 pm
Have just tried new Dosbox (r2 one). It doesn\'t run and says it needs libstdc++.so.5 library. What should I install?
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on March 02, 2004, 02:40:44 pm
BTW, bochs requires ROM BIOS and VGA BIOS images, as well as boot disk images (as expected though). Could anyone upload them please?
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: LordDavon on March 02, 2004, 05:37:38 pm
Quote
Have just tried new Dosbox (r2 one). It doesn\'t run and says it needs libstdc++.so.5 library. What should I install?

They are most likely part of the glib ipk on the pdaxrom feed.

LD
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on March 03, 2004, 01:33:57 am
I have glib and glib-devel installed, but I haven\'t upgraded my X11 to pdaX yet. Will try and test Dosbox after that. Thanks for advice.
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: LordDavon on March 03, 2004, 08:57:20 am
The latest DOSBox was compiled eith the new SDK, so the latest ROM is most likely required.

LD
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: ScottYelich on March 03, 2004, 09:26:51 am
the dosbox site has those rom bios and vga bios....
I\'ll see what I can do to get my copies uploaded.

Scott
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on March 03, 2004, 01:44:44 pm
Tried new Dosbox...
In window mode, it is a bit faster than previous release, but still isn\'t fast enough to emulate even PC XT in CGA mode (again, keyboard and especially redrawing). Next day I\'ll try to configure Dosbox and give it a try in a fullscreen mode...
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: LordDavon on March 03, 2004, 02:46:16 pm
Quote
Tried new Dosbox...
In window mode, it is a bit faster than previous release, but still isn\'t fast enough to emulate even PC XT in CGA mode (again, keyboard and especially redrawing). Next day I\'ll try to configure Dosbox and give it a try in a fullscreen mode...

I tried some of the optimization techniques that were recommended.  Of coarse, try again with the framerate at 3 and let me know.  This will let me know what changes I need to make in the next version.

LD
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on March 05, 2004, 01:56:27 pm
Tried full-screen VGA mode with 1500 instructions (up to 2500) and 3 skipped frames. Finally, I\'ve been able to run old CGA \"Arcade valleyball\" game like real PC XT. Gee, thank you, LD!  

Keyboard response is, well, more than reasonable. At last, key pressed change the situation quickly enough. The main (but not the only) problem is screen redrawing, which is still very slow (tried turning on double buffering - it helped, but only a little). Besides, screen (especially cursor) now flickers a little, a problem that isn\'t serious, I report about it \"just in case\".  

Two other problems that are rather annoying are: 1) all the Fn+key symbols still appear only with 1 (like 1: instead of just : - check for yourself) and 2) when some application (like a game  ) processes functional keys as well as Esc key, I can\'t enter functional key as usual (Esc+number). I know it\'s more of ROM problem than of Dosbox\'s, but Linux programs like MC process functional keys normally and differ one Esc press (which may be followed by the number) from two Esc presses (which is definitely a Cancel). Please try to fix these two problems.
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: LordDavon on March 05, 2004, 02:13:16 pm
Quote
Tried full-screen VGA mode with 1500 instructions (up to 2500) and 3 skipped frames. Finally, I\'ve been able to run old CGA \"Arcade valleyball\" game like real PC XT. Gee, thank you, LD!  :D  

Keyboard response is, well, more than reasonable. At last, key pressed change the situation quickly enough. The main (but not the only) problem is screen redrawing, which is still very slow (tried turning on double buffering - it helped, but only a little). Besides, screen (especially cursor) now flickers a little, a problem that isn\'t serious, I report about it \"just in case\".  :)  

Two other problems that are rather annoying are: 1) all the Fn+key symbols still appear only with 1 (like 1: instead of just : - check for yourself) and 2) when some application (like a game  ) processes functional keys as well as Esc key, I can\'t enter functional key as usual (Esc+number). I know it\'s more of ROM problem than of Dosbox\'s, but Linux programs like MC process functional keys normally and differ one Esc press (which may be followed by the number) from two Esc presses (which is definitely a Cancel). Please try to fix these two problems.

Sounds like we are making progress.  

I am not sure how to handle the function key/ESC key situation.  Any suggestions are appreciated.  There are some speedups that I can try for the video.  The nice thing is that it is the speed is about the same in CGA as VGA.  Too bad we couldn\'t get X to run in 256 colors.  ;-)

LD
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on March 05, 2004, 02:39:32 pm
I just meant that old CGA games run in reasonable speed, but even EGA 320x200x16 games still redraw the screen VERY slowly (let alone 640x200x16 EGA or 256 color VGA games). Maybe it\'s a problem with overall performace of the game though (I\'ll try those games in monochrome CGA mode to say that for sure).

What \'bout the key presses... I\'m in no way a programmer, but I suspect that pdaX doesn\'t process one Cancel (Esc) key as a Cancel (if it processes it at all - I haven\'t found a program but MC which responds to Cancel key) - it processes only two sequential Cancel keys like that. Or, if pdaX doesn\'t process Cancel keys presses, try to tune Dosbox source to process as Cancel only two Cancel presses, not one.
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on March 06, 2004, 12:55:55 am
By the way, two more problems that are still to be solved: 1) Stylus isn\'t calibrated at all (Dosbox seems to be getting its coordinates from nowhere  ) and 2) Even in CGA games PC Speaker sound (let alone Soundblaster) is very jerky and interrupts approx. 2 times a second, no matter what I do to change the bitrate and so on...
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: LordDavon on March 11, 2004, 04:52:28 pm
Ok.  I am just trying to address speed issues at the moment, but try the latest version:

dosbox-6.1-r3.tar.gz

I tuned it for the xscale a little more as well as disabled a few features that may/may-not affect the speed.

LD
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on March 18, 2004, 06:25:14 am
Recently tried it. Just a bit faster, but the only game I\'m able to play is still CGA Arcade Valleyball and only because it doesn\'t offer much sound. In all the other games (even in CGA Cat) sound is still jerky (though a little less jerky than in previous version  ).

Mouse emulation is a bit improved, but many games (like King\'s Quest I EGA) still don\'t locate the stylus properly. Redrawing is still VERY slow (in KQ1 different parts of the Graham\'s body move at the different quarks of time; it would be even funny but I say about skipping 3 frames  )

I suspect that Dosbox would run significantly faster without running X, just from the command prompt. But it needs SDL libs and like so it can\'t start without X...
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: TonyOlsen on May 06, 2004, 05:04:10 pm
Ah... this is the Gem Forum I was looking for!

So... you\'ve all been able to get DosBox working on your Zaurus?  Any of you using QTopia?  Please give me the details.  I tried running it but it says that I\'m missing the libXft.so.2 library.  I was told that QTopia doesn\'t have all of the needed libraries.  Can anyone comment to that?  Can I download the missing libraries from somewhere?

Thanks in advance!
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: TonyOlsen on May 06, 2004, 05:04:31 pm
(Yes, I believe in recycling!     )
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Reaper on May 07, 2004, 10:11:38 am
Just install pdaX ROM. Dosbox compiled by Lord Davon won\'t run under Qtopia. Your quest is mine  , too, so please feel free to ask.
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: TonyOlsen on May 07, 2004, 11:50:46 am
Could we create a location where all of the missing libraries could be uploaded to?  Would DosBox theoretically work on QTopia if all of the missing Libraries are there?... or is there more to it than that?
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: jmbowman on May 07, 2004, 12:39:43 pm
The main dependency of Dosbox is SDL, which normally is compiled to use an X server for most of its graphics work.  However, SDL can also be compiled to use Qtopia for graphics instead (several games and emulators on the Zaurus use this), so in theory it should be possible to compile a version of Dosbox that links against that configuration and hence would run on Qtopia natively.

I briefly tried this last year (I think using Dosbox 0.58 and SDL 1.2.6); I got to the point where it compiled cleanly, but would immediately exit with no error message when I tried to run it.  Didn\'t have time to debug it, so I didn\'t get any further; there are new versions of both available now, so it\'s probably worth trying again (although looking at the Debian package for the latest Dosbox, it may have a few more dependencies now).  Basically, I suspect that it won\'t work \"out of the box\", but probably wouldn\'t take too much coding to work out the bugs; the trick is finding somebody with the skill and time to do it.
Title: BOCHS and DOSBOX-0.61 Uploaded
Post by: Mickeyl on May 07, 2004, 01:42:53 pm
SDL is already in OpenEmbedded as is DosBox. You may want to take a look into that.