vpa on linux for dummies

[Ant]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

I've installed linux for the first time 2 days ago...
How should I set the dosemu (1.0.2.0) in order to run vpa?
(vpa starts only in xdosemu but crashes when the mouse cursor goes out
of its window!)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

Op 2004-04-30, AnT schreef <yamb2@hotpop.com>:
> I've installed linux for the first time 2 days ago...

Welcome to the club!

> How should I set the dosemu (1.0.2.0) in order to run vpa?
> (vpa starts only in xdosemu but crashes when the mouse cursor goes out
> of its window!)

Reading the documentation is always a good start. ;-) And you can try
searching the newsgroup for posts about it. I don't think this is the
first time dosemu has come up

I use dosemu 1.1.4. So you might want to upgrade and see if that
helps. I only start dosemu in textmode, not in X-Windows. But last
time I checked, xdosemu worked, though vpa acted slow in it.

I don't know if my setup is standard, but I have:
/usr/lib/dosemu/drives/freedos
which is a link to
/usr/lib/freedos

Freedos is the DOS variant I use. In that freedos directory I have
made a link to my planets directory:

ln -s /usr/local/games/planets planets

Your planets directory is probably somewhere else. I used to have it
on a DOS drive, but now it's just another regular directory on one of
my linux partitions. The link is not really necessary, you could just
put all your planets files in a normal directory under freedos.

You probably have to tweak your dosemu config file. In my system it is
at /etc/dosemu/dosemu.conf

The most important changes I made to the default config are:
$_hdimage = "freedos"
$_graphics = (1)

Other changes that may not be needed:
$_xms = (16384)
$_ems = (4096)
$_dpmi = (16384) # The previous three don't seem to make a difference
$_rawkeyboard = (1) # Maybe dangerous, so try it without this first)
$_mouse = "ps2"
$_mouse_dev = "/dev/mouse"
$_sound = (off)
$_console = (1)

On my system, normal users can run dosemu. But running a graphic
program like vpa in it doesn't work. So I have to run it as root. :-(
Running it as a normal user would be better. Tweaking the dosemu.users
file should help here, but it doesn't.

Also you may want to experiment with vpa.ini. I have had problems with
my mouse, so I set:
BadVideoOrMouse = Yes
which seems to help.

Well, I hope this gives you some pointers in the right direction.

Have fun!

--
Maurits van Rees | planets.maurits@xs4all.nl
http://maurits.vanrees.org/ [Dutch/Nederlands]
"Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that
you can be fierce and original in your work." - Gustave Flaubert

 

[Ant]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

Thank you very much.
I've installed dosemu 1.2.0.1 and I've followed your suggestions.
Now vpa works with no big troubles (it runs a little bit slow and with
a really big mouse pointer!) under xdosemu.
Unfortunately the old problem still exists with textmode/dosemu: vpa
"freezes" before entering in graphic mode...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

AnT <yamb2@hotpop.com> wrote:
> I've installed linux for the first time 2 days ago...
> How should I set the dosemu (1.0.2.0) in order to run vpa?
> (vpa starts only in xdosemu but crashes when the mouse cursor goes out
> of its window!)

I've just played around with it a bit. I use Debian 3.0r1
(woody), with the standard FreeDOS.

Normal VPA inside xdosemu goes into an endless loop somehow; I'm
not entirely sure why.

VPAMM works inside xdosemu. Sort-of. If you click a mouse
button, the mouse cursor moves to the upper-left corner. I don't
know what is causing this, but I can tell you that PCC has the
same symptoms (which is not exactly surprising because VPAMM
uses the same runtime library as PCC).

Otherwise I'd try to get dosemu on the console running. I did
that on my oldish SuSE, and it worked like a charm - like in
native DOS.

Another way would be to confine the mouse pointer to the DOS
window. If you hit Ctrl-Alt-Home [1], dosemu will prevent the
mouse pointer from leaving the window, so it works quite well,
too. If you want to switch windows, open a VPA help screen
(which does not use the mouse), unlock the mouse, switch
windows. After coming back, lock the mouse again before leaving
the help window.

I have the vague feeling that PCC works better in xdosemu,
though. I have not been able to run any of the VPA versions
twice in the same xdosemu session. This might be due to VPA's
"interesting" mouse handling, which goes in the category "I
wonder why it works at all".


Stefan


[1] If your window manager intercepts that keystroke, you can
reconfigure it in /etc/dosemu/dosemu.conf. I use Enlightenment[2]
which already has some interesting function on that keystroke, so
I changed this to Ctrl-Alt-PgUp:
$_X_mgrab_key = "Prior"
('Prior' is the X11 name for the PgUp key).

[2] ...schön bunt...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

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In alt.games.vga-planets, AnT (yamb2@hotpop.com) wrote:
> How should I set the dosemu (1.0.2.0) in order to run vpa?

You have two options:

a) Upgrade dosemu (I see you've done that and it works).
b) Use vpamm (mixed mode, works fine with old dosemu versions)

Best regards,

Chema.

- --
My real e-mail address: chema (AT) chema.homelinux.org
http://EuropeSwPatentFree.hispalinux.es - EuropeSwPatentFree
I don't read HTML posts / No leo mensajes en HTML
Blog Overflow: http://chema.homelinux.org
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[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

Op 2004-04-30, AnT schreef <yamb2@hotpop.com>:
> Unfortunately the old problem still exists with textmode/dosemu: vpa
> "freezes" before entering in graphic mode...

I have the same problem. You should still be able to exit it normally
by pressing ALT-X though. So vpa starts up and can handle commands,
but nothing is visible on the screen.

Starting dosemu as root instead of a normal user should fix that.

Has anyone managed to get it better than this?

--
Maurits van Rees | planets.maurits@xs4all.nl
http://maurits.vanrees.org/ [Dutch/Nederlands]
"Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that
you can be fierce and original in your work." - Gustave Flaubert

 

[Ant]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

I use SuSE 9.0 and dosemu 1.2.1.0.
Both vpa and vpamm now works ok in xdosemu (with $_X_fullscreen = (on)
I have no mouse problem!!!).
Starting dosemu as a root I could run them also from the
textmode/console (thanks Maurits!) but the mouse is flicker around
without control.
I think that it's only a dosemu mouse settings problem (I set
$_mouse_dev = "/dev/mouse" but /dev/mouse not exists...).
PCC works fine under both xdosemu and dosemu (exept for my personal
mouse problem) but I'm waiting for PCC2... ;-)
Thanks to all for your help!

Antonio

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

Op 2004-05-01, AnT schreef <yamb2@hotpop.com>:
> Starting dosemu as a root I could run them also from the
> textmode/console (thanks Maurits!) but the mouse is flicker around
> without control.
> I think that it's only a dosemu mouse settings problem (I set
> $_mouse_dev = "/dev/mouse" but /dev/mouse not exists...).

On my system /dev/mouse is a symbolic link to the real device file
/dev/psaux. You may need a different value like /dev/ttyS0 or
/dev/ttyS1. I think most programs that want a mouse look to /dev/mouse
by default.

To set it to this value:
ln -s /dev/psaux /dev/mouse

In my dosemu.conf I see:
----------
## Mouse settings (console only, ignored for remote/xterm/xdosemu!)

# type: one of microsoft, mousesystems, logitech, mmseries, mouseman, hitachi,
# busmouse, ps2, imps2. Default: "" (no mouse or serial mouse via DOS driver)

$_mouse = "ps2"

# Mouse device: one of: com1, com2, com3, com4 (for DOS serial mouse driver)
# or /dev/mouse (for the DOSEMU internal mouse driver). Default: ""

$_mouse_dev = "/dev/mouse"
----------

When I understand this correctly you may want to try the following:

$_mouse = ""
$_mouse_dev = ""

And, like I said, you may want to change a value in vpa.ini:
BadVideoOrMouse = Yes/No
Try them both and see which one gives the best result.

Good luck!

--
Maurits van Rees | planets.maurits@xs4all.nl
http://maurits.vanrees.org/ [Dutch/Nederlands]
"Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that
you can be fierce and original in your work." - Gustave Flaubert

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 20:19:55 -0000, José María Mateos
<chema-news@chema.homelinux.org> wrote:

>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>Hash: SHA1
>
>In alt.games.vga-planets, AnT (yamb2@hotpop.com) wrote:
>> How should I set the dosemu (1.0.2.0) in order to run vpa?
>
> You have two options:
>
> a) Upgrade dosemu (I see you've done that and it works).
> b) Use vpamm (mixed mode, works fine with old dosemu versions)
>
> Best regards,
>
> Chema.
or you could use JVC which works on most OSs with Java (though I am
unable to run it under OSX 10.2.8)

 

[Ant]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vga-planets (More info?)

It's not a dosemu settings problem:
I've changed the hardware settings (in YAST) to a normal ps2 mouse
(without the whell) and now vpa works!!!
Thanks.