Text 1145, 181 rader
Skriven 2007-10-21 17:16:00 av Robert LaPrise (866.dove-nix)
   Kommentar till text 1144 av StoneC0ld (865.dove-nix)
Ärende: Dosemu stability problems
=================================
    
 > I've got Lord (4.06) and BRE setup on my linux-based Synchronet (currently n
 > public), but both games randomly freeze--usually when the game is sending
 > text, haven't noticed it freeze while waiting for input...  There's no
 > apparent pattern, just random.

Earlier testing I did makes me suspect the configuration in scfg has 
Intercept Standard I/O set to Yes.  That would be the first thing to check if 
it is set to No, then check the door setup programs and verify they are set 
to use a fossil and not their internal com routines.  This is my LORD II node 
setup.  It's not optimized but it works fine, I setup the board mainly to log 
in from work and play games while I wait on backtraces to complete when 
debugging product crashes, so far I've had no issues with any of my DOS 
games:


  (1) Node Number      : 1
  (2) BBS Name         :
  (3) BBS Software     : DOORSYS
  (4) Path To Drop File: D:
  (5) Fossil/Internal  : Using Regular Fossil Driver
  (6) Locked Port Speed: Port Not Locked
  (7) Comport          : Read From Drop File
  (8) Send Open Comports Command?  : No!
  (9) Send Reset Comports Command? : No!
  (A) Use Special ANSI Settings?   : No!
  (B) Use direct screen writes?    : No!
  (C) Copy setup from another RT game.  (LORD & RTREADER)
  (D) Use secondary ASYNC commands?: No!


 > I'm using Dosemu 1.3.3.0, using the default emusetup.bat (with only a
 > change in the PATH variable, and which fossil driver..)

DOSEMU 1.4.0 is out now and I believe the version of FreeDOS that comes with 
it is 1.0 where the version with some of the earlier DOSEMU releases was 
slightly older.  If you are getting the games to run at all I would suspect 
it's more of a configuration issue but updgrading to the latest release would 
not be a bad idea.  Contrary to the misleading name you are not emulating 
DOS, you are booting a DOS OS with hardware virtualization so the bios 
calls can route through Linux.

I've been using Ray Gwinn's X00.EXE for a fossil driver since the old days 
when I ran an RA board.  When I moved the system to OS/2 Ray had the best 
comm driver out there so I stayed with his stuff.  Some people prefer BNU and 
I never had any issues with it either.

What I have done is created a subdirectory under sbbs/exec/ called dosutils 
and I put nnansi.com and x00.exe in it.  nnansi.com you only need for local 
DOS work so YOU have the ansi handling in place.  x00.exe (or BNU) you only 
need for accessing the game from the board.

Assuming you have an sbbs user and the bbs is installed in that users home 
directory you can su to the sbbs user, change to their home directory, then 
type dosemu (assuming you know this but covering it to be thorough).  Under 
the sbbs directory there should then be a .dosemu subdirectory which has a 
drive_c subdirectory.  this is where your autoexec.bat file goes for local 
DOS work.  This is the one I use:



echo off
path c:\bin;c:\gnu;c:\dosemu
set HELPPATH=c:\help
set TEMP=c:\tmp
rem ----------------------------------

prompt $P$G

CHOICE /C:12 /N /T:1,20 E: 1 - \home\sbbs 2 - \home\sbbs\xtrn:

IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO XTRN
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ROOT

:ROOT
lredir E: linux\fs\home\sbbs
GOTO NEXT

:XTRN
lredir E: linux\fs\home\sbbs\xtrn


:NEXT
lredir H: linux\fs\home\sbbs\exec
set PATH=%PATH%;h:\dosutils

rem uncomment to load another bitmap font
loadhi display con=(vga,437,2)

share.exe
nnansi.com


E:



The choice selection is due to running IceEdit as my editor and the way 
DOSEMU works under synchronet E: gets mapped to /home/sbbs/ where all the 
doors have E: mapped as /home/sbbs/xtrn/  The choice option lets me map the 
E: appropriately for local DOS work so the program I need to adjust settings 
on can find all of its files.

share.exe is part of FreeDOS and needed for doors that can have multiple 
users.  It's not really needed for the local DOS work if all you'll be doing 
is maintenance/configurtion work, but it doesn't hurt aything either.


As for actually running the door, when the DOSEMU mod is enabled and you run 
a DOS program Synchronet will write an external.bat file in the node directory 
the door is being called from.  This file will stay around after you exit the 
door so you can look at it and see what is happening.  The last line of the 
file (the REM'ed out line) contains the actual Linux commands that are 
executed when the door is called.  In effect this is the "autoexec.bat" file 
being used by DOS when it boots up and calls the door.

In sbbs/ctrl/ (or in the individual doors directory) you need the 
emusetup.bat file.  If Synchronet detects one in the doors startup directory 
it will write out a call to that file in the external.bat otherwise it will 
look in sbbs/ctrl/ and write a call to that file, if neither exists it won't 
write a call to emusetup.bat into the external.bat file.

This is the global (in sbbs/ctrl/) emusetup.bat file I use with all the DOS 
programs that run from Synchronet:


@echo off
path c:\bin;c:\gnu;c:\dosemu;h:\dosutils
x00.exe E
share.exe


Since H: is always mapped by Synchronet with the DOSEMU mod to sbbs/exec/ the 
sbbs/exec/dosutils/ directory I have needs to be included in the path so 
emusetup.bat can load the fossil before the door is called.

 > Any ideas?  Any more information required?


Go through the above, if you're still having trouble you can check out a 
document I'm putting together to cover this here:

www.testing-solutions.org/Synchronet/DOSEMU-HandBook.html

If you still can't get it go to the main page on my site and email me with 
the Email Admin link and we'll get you sorted.  DOS doors are text mode 
console programs, there's nothing complicated going on where FreeDOS under 
the DOSEMU virtualization should have problems.  If you were having issues 
getting Wolfenstein to run under it that I could see, but for doors, if 
they're acting flakey it's either the configuration or the door itself.  If 
you can load a local DOS session and run the door in a local mode then you 
should have no problems running it from the bbs, just need to tweak your 
config at that point.

So far I have:

Arrowbridge I
Arrowbridge II
Baron Realms Elite
Falcon's Eye
LORD II
Planets: TEOS
Usurper

all running fine.

Finally for your users, PuTTY sucks, it doesn't handle the ANSI very well at 
all.  Windows Telnet is limited but the games display correctly, SyncTerm 
also displays the games correctly, I use CygWin and the default BASH shell 
with an alias in the .bashrc to let me type "bbs" from the command prompt and 
have it load the telnet client with the bbs address and whatnot supplied. 
The key mapping (when I shell out from the board) needs some work but the 
games play perfectly and the screens don't get all mucked up.


Regards,
       Rob

... "The answer to the Great Question is 42."
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