STICKY: rpix86 (Raspberry Pi x86 emulator) ver 0.19 released!

[Museste]

And it worked a charm cheers mate.

[joacliba]

Hi! First of all thank you for the x86 emu, well done!

I have a problem with gapper game (log: http://pastebin.com/Tg6hk7kx). The game starts correctly, ask for player initials and then crashes.

Thanks!

[forenbenutzer]

Hi there, I have a really old application which makes use of two USB serial ports. The problem is that the GUI is really scrambled. It runs on the pi in dos box, but really slow. The menu for the application runs ok on the pi with rpix86 but after selecting a program in the menu, the GUI consists of weird pixel salad.
Are you interested in getting a zip file including the application?

[Pate]

@joacliba: Thanks for the log! Looks like the game tries to use the old (DOS 1.0) FCB file commands to create a file (http://www.ctyme.com/intr/rb-2581.htm). I haven't supported that command in rpix86 yet, I'll see how much work adding that would be.

@forenbenutzer: I will probably need to test that application myself to see what causes the graphics problems, so feel free to send a zip file. I can not be certain I am able to fix that, but it should be possible when I can debug the behaviour myself.

Pate

[forenbenutzer]

Thank you, I sent you an email.

[dperry324]

Are there any plans to make rpix86 run in a ssh or telnet window? I'm wanting to run some older DOS doorgames for my BBS, and I have no option at this time for running such programs, and I was wondering if that might change in the future.

[Pate]

There have been no plans to have rpix86 run in terminal window as of yet, but the idea itself does sound interesting. Your usage scenario would probably also need an option to launch a given DOS executable directly as a command line parameter for rpix86. This is something that I am currently working on for zerox86, and I will likely add that option to rpix86 as well in the near future.

I think my stdin/stdout handling in rpix86 is not quite up to the task of running it in terminal window, so that too would need some enhancements. But I'll keep this in mind, it might be a useful addition, and I don't think this is even the first time it has been requested.

Pate

[forenbenutzer]

Autostarting any programs already is possible with the 4DOS CLI.
Simply create a file "AUTOEXEC.BAT" in the root directory of your DOS "installation".
Inside this batch you could run anything.
Remark that "AUTOEXEC.BAT" is written in capital letters.
I don't know why, but it does not work otherwise.

[dperry324]

There have been no plans to have rpix86 run in terminal window as of yet, but the idea itself does sound interesting. Your usage scenario would probably also need an option to launch a given DOS executable directly as a command line parameter for rpix86. This is something that I am currently working on for zerox86, and I will likely add that option to rpix86 as well in the near future.

I think my stdin/stdout handling in rpix86 is not quite up to the task of running it in terminal window, so that too would need some enhancements. But I'll keep this in mind, it might be a useful addition, and I don't think this is even the first time it has been requested.

Pate

In the linux world, I'm able to use dosemu with freedos to run my doorgames. But dosemu is not an option. I've looked at DosBos, and running a mini telnet server in that box to accept incoming telnet calls and run doorgames as a TRUE door server. But I would much prefer a dosemu/freedos scenario if I could. So I was very much hoping that your app would do this job.

[gyeben]

I have tried to run Bombs and Bugs (demo version: http://www.awkward.de/bugssw30.zip) in rpix86, but I get the following error message:

Code: Select all

Undefined error "C:\BUGS.EXE"

[Pate]

@gyeben: That "Undefined error" can sometimes happen if the executable file is using mixed case. The case is not relevant on FAT file system, but the EXT filesystem that Linux uses is case-sensitive, and I think rpix86 does not always handle this quite correctly.

I took a look at that bugssw30 game, and unfortunately it also needs Virtual Memory support, which rpix86 does not yet have. So it is not possible to run that game in rpix86 at the moment, sorry.

Pate

[Pate]

rpix86 version 0.11 released!

This version contains the following fixes and improvements:
- Fixed a small bug in SB ADPCM audio playing.
- Fixed NSW CNC milling program graphics problems.
- Mirrored 4DOS.COM on my web pages for the automatic download.

You can download the latest version from the Raspberry Pi store or directly from http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rdown.html (be sure to read my blog post about the changes in this version at http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rblog.html).

As you can see nothing much has changed in this version. I have been focusing on the zerox86 version of my emulator, and in addition to that, I just got a new project I need to spend my free time on. So it looks like you will need to wait a few more weeks before I can get around to fix the games you have reported. Sorry about that...

Thank you for your interest in rpix86, let me know of any bugs you encounter!

Pate

[Vanfanel]

Hi Pate, thanks for this new version!

After some testing, I found SB audio playack problems (Dungeon Master, Ishar, BC Racers...) are still the same I reported in previous versions.

[forenbenutzer]

Good evening,

just a small hint: NSW is for grinding, not milling.

This weekend, I had the possibility to test with one machine. Sadly, the communication on the COM ports does not work. The machine gets some data, but it seems that there is no answer back to the raspi.
I have no idea, how to debug this (myself) or give you the needed information.

Anyways, thank you very much for the efforts.

[Pate]

@Vanfanel: Yeah, I didn't have time to look into the audio issues for this version sorry. I haven't forgotten.

@forenbenutzer: Sorry about mixing milling with grinding. Also sorry to hear you have problems making the COM ports work. I don't have any good ideas at the moment either, perhaps someone here who has been using the COM ports in rpix86 has some ideas?

Pate

[Shiro16]

I'm having some difficulty getting rpix86 working correctly on my pi; could anyone give me some advice? When I do ./rpix86, initially everything appears to work correctly (no display problems, keyboard has wrong layout but is otherwise ok) but whenever I attempt to access any files in that directory, I receive an unidentified error. I can use the dir command and see the files and directories, and I can change to another directory, but I seem unable to access any subdirectories beyond that. It just says I have entered an invalid directory.

I'm almost completely new to DOS, so I might just be doing something really stupid. I haven't heard of anyone with similar problems, though, so it's hard for me to diagnose. My best guess is that for some reason rpix86 does not have some permissions needed to access the files, but chmod u+x ./rpix86 and chmod 750 ./rpix86 make no difference. Running things as root seems to make no difference either.

[Pate]

@Shiro16: Just some confirmations, since you say that you are new to DOS:
1) Make sure all directory names (that you use for DOS) are 8 characters or less in length.
2) Make sure the directory names do not contain blanks.
3) If possible, use only UPPERCASE letters in the directory names.

It sounds like one of more of the above may be the problem you are having.

Hope this helps, and thanks for trying out rpix86!

Pate

[Shiro16]

Thank you! I shortened the directory name to 8 characters and removed a space, and everything worked fine (I read somewhere they could be up to 12 characters, but I guess that's only the case with an extension?) I still can't seem to use the files in the same directory as rpix86, but this doesn't bother me (yet!).

Getting DOS on the pi is great! The first experiences of 3d graphics I can recall were in DOS games, so I'm going to have some fun and learn a bit about the history of computing by trying to get them to run on the pi. Thanks again, and I hope you keep up the good work!

[Pate]

rpix86 version 0.12 released!

This version contains the following fixes and improvements:
- Implemented an option to run a DOS executable directly without 4DOS.COM.
- Implemented FPU support in protected mode.
- Implemented experimental support for running rpix86 in a terminal window.
- Implemented various game-specific opcode fixes.

You can download the latest version directly from http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rdown.html (be sure to read my blog post about the changes in this version at http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rblog.html).

Thank you for your interest in rpix86, let me know of any bugs you encounter!

@Vanfanel: I debugged the audio problems in Ishar, but did not yet manage to fix the problem. I had hoped the problem would be something simple like my code playing the buffer at the wrong address, but that was not it. I'll continue debugging this problem.

Pate

[Vanfanel]

Hi Pate!

I just tried the latest version, but I saw no differences in the failing games, sorry.
-Another World is still unplayable slow
-Dungeon Master has audio broken
-Lost Vikings scroll is broken
-The Viking Child is too fast (unplayable)
-Keen 1 scroll is broken
-Prince of Persia tittle screen music and intro is slow due to some timing problem, but game plays well.
-BC RACERS is silent, it seems to fail to change resolution and the DOS console is in the background, while the game slowly plays in a small screen area.
-Prehistorik Man 2 still claims that the VGA adapter is not compatible.

Not much more to report. As for broken games, 0.12 seem to be the same as 0.11
But I really appreciate your continued work on this! Thanks!

[Pate]

Thanks for your continued interest and testing, Vanfanel!

Sorry I have not been able to fix those games you have reported. Hopefully I can focus on them better for the next version. That depends a bit on the amount of work I need to do for my other projects, but any time I will have to work exclusively on rpix86, I will try to use to improve the behaviour of those games you mentioned.

Pate

[Lexusjjss]

Been playing a ton of Frontier on rpix lately, it's smooth as butter on Low and very playable on medium/high. No new bug reports from me so far.

[Pate]

rpix86 version 0.13 released!

This version contains the following fixes and improvements:
- Fixed arrow (cursor) key handling that got broken in v0.12.
- Changed the IRQ handling to use Linux async signals instead of threads.
- Improved SB Direct DAC handling (Ishar: Legend of the Fortress).
- Fixed the screen resolution problems in the BC Racers game.
- Implemented more special keys in the experimental terminal window mode.

You can download the latest version directly from http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rdown.html (be sure to read my blog post about the changes in this version at http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rblog.html).

Thank you for your interest in rpix86, let me know of any bugs you encounter!

@Vanfanel: I have started debugging the problem games you have reported, and will continue working on these. This version has a couple of minor fixes already.

[Vanfanel]

Thanks for this version, Pate! I see you had to investigate hard the Ishar problems.
Bc Racers is now fullscreen! Great!
And you incidentially fixed Dungeon Master's tittle song, too.
Well, those don't sound that well, but at least they are "audible" now. No way to fix them for good audio, I guess.

In the other way, these are the games I still find problematic (among others):
-Lemmings doesn't detect Sound Blaster (Adlib really, since Lemmings doesn't support Sound Blaster audio).
-Prince of Persia intro sequence is still VERY slow. The same happens with Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame.
-Commander Keen scroll is still broken. PC-speaker audio isn't very good.
-Flashback has video mode problems, just like BC Racers had: text console and off-screen glitched graphics are visible behind play area. It doesn't seem to detect Sound Blaster, either.
-Another World is still VERY slow and seems to have memory management problems.

I seem to recall Prince of Persia and Lemmings had audio problems with high CPU speeds: maybe (just an idea) an option to control how many CPU cycles per second are being emulated would be helpfull for these.

[Pate]

Thanks for your continued testing, Vanfanel!

I have already managed to fix the screen issue in Flashback (same issue as in BC Racers, but this time the game used Mode-X graphics mode instead of the MCGA mode, so I had to change a different blitting routine), and also the SB detection problem in Flashback will be fixed in the next version.

I'll continue working on the other games.

The CPU cycles adjustment does not suit my emulation architecture, so I will probably not have such an option, sorry.

Pate