DOSbox in Windows XP

[wavetar]

I've been looking for something like this. Some RSS such as LCS & Spectra will not run in the regular 'command' window in Windows 2000/XP, they just hang with a black screen. I sometimes want to view/edit codeplugs while in 2000/XP, to save time rebooting into the DOS partition or transferring data to a seperate computer.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4381.html

I came across this little gem of a program which emulates DOS, not just in Win2k/XP, but Linux & MAC as well. Originally made for DOS gaming, it works wonderfully for running RSS in 2000/XP.

Please note I am NOT saying to use this program to actually read/write a radio! It provides hardware support, since it was designed for gaming, but I haven't tried any actual programming...maybe later. But, it certainly alows the RSS to run just fine. It even noticeably slows the RSS as compared to a regular command window, since it's using up processor power emulating the various DOS functions (including EMS/XMS support).

Just wanted to put it forward, in case anyone else was having the same problem.

Todd

[Nand]

Thanks Todd,

Just tried it and liked it, but it won’t look at serial ports as you likely guessed.

Nand.

[mr.syntrx]

The Spectra RSS runs on my machine under XP. It just starts with a black screen, looking like it's dead, but about 10 minutes later it wakes up and runs like normal.

[Lord Windeshmere]

edit

[wavetar]

You can right-click on the batch or executable file (such as Astrop.bat), then go to Properties, then Compatibility, then have Windows run it under Windows 98 emulation, then click all the other options (I chose not to Run in 256 colors). Then click Apply, then OK. You shouldn't have anymore problems then.
---
Tony

Yeah, tried that already, made no difference at all. I'm also not willing to wait 10 minutes as mr.syntrx does.

[Lord Windeshmere]

Then you've got other things going on. NFN, but on all my XP Pro or Home systems I can get any DOS program running in 1 second. You have any virus scanners, firewalls, etc., IOW any TSRs running?

[wavetar]

Then you've got other things going on. NFN, but on all my XP Pro or Home systems I can get any DOS program running in 1 second. You have any virus scanners, firewalls, etc., IOW any TSRs running?

Yes, I know all about the XP compatibility option, I can also get many older Win9x & DOS programs to work, but NOT LCS RSS. Have you tried it? If so, I would appreciate the exact settings.

Not to mention, I still need the DOSbox solution for my Win2k laptop at work.

Todd

[Lord Windeshmere]

edit

[wavetar]

I don't have LCS. One last thing to see is are you getting any Windows popups right after trying to run your program(s)? The popup may state Windows is having a problem opening the comport set in the RSS if it's taken by another program or device OR if it's been disabled in the BIOS. Other than that I think there were problems with the LCS rss in earlier versions. If not already done, search for LCS here and see what you get.

No pop-ups as it's not a Windows program, just a blank command window. It may very well run if I leave it alone for 10 minutes or something like mr.sytrx suggested, but I haven't tried it. It's the latest LCS version, and runs fine in DOS based systems, just not NT based.

[Lord Windeshmere]

edit

[wavetar]

I don't need luck, I've got the DOSbox program . I've seen the COM error you speak of, when running other RSS programs such as GTX in Win2k/XP. I do not get this error with LCS, as the LCS RSS doesn't even get to the point of starting. The compatibility mode for 95 or 98 makes no difference. I don't have a second Win XP Pro computer to try it on, I'm curious to see if it'll be any different on another. Anyone wanna try?

Todd

[Cowboy]

I hate to revive such an old topic, but I've been playing with the latest build of Dos Box...

I run in to errors when trying to read from the radio, appears to be data overruns in the DOSBOX diagnostic window.

Here is how my dosbox.conf file looks for the serial port:

serial1=directserial realport:COM1 rxdelay:0
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

Anyone else still trying to get this to function?

[phrawg]

YEP, IT WONT WORK ! Either the program needs to be writen
for windows or dos. No crossovers when it comes to /\/\ software.

[Cowboy]

I wasn't asking for a flat out denial that it won't work... I get that enough from people at the local MSS... I was curious as to if anyone else has been working with it or had any further insight. But thanks for your feedback anyways

[wavetar]

I've played around with the serial port configurations in DOSbox 0.65 fairly extensively, with no real progress. I can make a few different radio models beep when initiating a read, but that's about it. Another member here posted he was able to read/write Kenwoods using DOSbox, but that's not so surprising as they are much more Windows friendly when it comes to that...much like the Motorola pager softwares seem to be.

I am hopeful that someday they'll have a Motorola friendly version of DOSbox. Reading through the various forums for it, there are people who praise it as the second coming as it allows them to run tons of old DOS serial comms programs. Hell, I'd volunteer to send a RIB & several radios to a DOSbox developer to help it along.

As it is, it's a fantastic program for running RSS like LCS & Spectra that normally won't even open in a Win2k/XP command prompt...for editing codeplugs & such.

Todd

[Cowboy]

There appeared to be some progress if you search back in the history on the board but it seemed to have died off rather quickly... I'm curious as to at what point in the chain of things this program is losing control...

[dave.au]

Ok, here is a solution for you guys, ive tested it and it is working on the following -
windows XP pro, 3.2GHz AMD

you need to get the latest version of DosBox v0.65 at

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/download.php?main=1

install it and get

http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000/dosbox_ ... _ocbus.zip

this contains a modified dosbox.exe, so extract it to the installation directory of dosbox.

now the important part, open the DOSBox.conf file, and make the changed as follows: -

serial1=directserial realport:com1 ocbus
serial2=disabled
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

thats it, you might have to change your com1 to com2 or whatever.
I can read and write MT1000's, MTX810's MTX800's HT1000's etc under XP.

Dave.

[Andreas]

I tried it with the GM900 RSS and the RSS said checksum,the radio resets.

Andreas

[dave.au]

When does it show this error? ill presume while reading or writing to the radio.

You might like to try to slow down the cycles of your DOSBox

take a look at the .conf file again, check the line 10 under [CPU] reads core=normal and not core=auto see below
and maybe try a slower cycle rate

core=normal
cycles=
cycleup=500
cycledown=20

see how you go.
Dave.au

[Andreas]

I set the parameters and tried to slowdown/speedup with Strg F11/F12 but the same appears.
I can´t read the radio.

Andreas

[phrawg]

There is a package which might stand a chance of working.
It is called VMware (virtual machine ware) It truly allows you
to use a xp based computer in (as I have my laptop set up)
DOS, UNIX, and the root Windows XP. It actually shuts all other
operations down and goes and runs the system you want. In other words
there is no SIMULATED DOS. If you dont have a copy of DOS 6.22 in a
directory then VMware will not run DOS. It also releases all port calls to
whatever system is active and allows you to configure how much memory
you have for dos to use and how you want caching and ems to set up.
In other words it sets resources and then boots DOS, autoexec, config,
and all. I am experementing as I get radios that I can afford to "brick"
and eventually will try all critical RSS's. So far so good though.
It was obtained for me through my agency so I am not really super
familiar with sources for it but I know it is not a low cost or gimme package.
Maybe this mighty be of some use to some of our people here. Phrawg

[ve3nsv]

I have tried your solution but keep getting a zlib1.dll error after extracting the modified dosbox utility to the dosbox directory. Was there any other tricks to getting this to work?

I read your thread over on Vogons but have still had no success.

Ok, here is a solution for you guys, ive tested it and it is working on the following -
windows XP pro, 3.2GHz AMD

you need to get the latest version of DosBox v0.65 at

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/download.php?main=1

install it and get

http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000/dosbox_ ... _ocbus.zip

this contains a modified dosbox.exe, so extract it to the installation directory of dosbox.

now the important part, open the DOSBox.conf file, and make the changed as follows: -

serial1=directserial realport:com1 ocbus
serial2=disabled
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

thats it, you might have to change your com1 to com2 or whatever.
I can read and write MT1000's, MTX810's MTX800's HT1000's etc under XP.

Dave.

[wavetar]

DOSbox v0.70 has been released, which contains the ocbus modifications built-in. I downloaded it & will try it asap to see if I can finally get read/write happening in XP! Might be a day or two...

Todd

[dave.au]

Yes I did forget to mention you have to download two .dll files, ill give the new v0.70 a try and report on how I go

Dave.

[ve3nsv]

Andreas sent me the .dll's needed to run the modified 6.5 DOSBOX with OCBUS and it works great, have read / written to GM300, Radius and Maxtrac with no issues.

[ve3nsv]

Two out of three ain't bad.

Tried on a P4 3Ghz Desktop and a P4 1.7Ghz Laptop running XP with great success.

Tried on a PIII 550Mhz running Win98 with no luck, runs the program ok but won't read a radio.

Also noticed that the modified 6.5 DOSBOX will not read a Kenwood radio, will have to have the two different versions of DOSBOX installed.

[codyshell]

Anyone having luck with version .70? I'm not. It won't read or write.

[wavetar]

Anyone having luck with version .70? I'm not. It won't read or write.

I've had almost zero time to mess with it, but it didn't work for me in the 10 minutes I played with it either. I think I'll try the modified version after all...when I can.

Todd

[kh6jjn]

DosBox .7 serial I/O subsystem is *broken* as far as most of the RSS pacakges go. Somehow, during the move from .65 to .7, it got broken, and I have no idea where or how this happened.

The version I use (It's a special build of .65) works well for MAXTRAC, MAXTRACS, MTSX, GTX, RADMBL, SP50, and some others. The only glaring exception is SPECTRA, which does not work at all (well, it kinda-sorta wil read certain radios if you carefully finagle the simulated clock speed). Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it will also run 1225, under windows 3.10, so you don't have to pay all of that money to Mot for the win98 compatible version.

RADMBL works, but you will have to lower the simulated mips to less than 300 or so, so the program won't throw a fit (it was probably written with *LOTS* of timing loops).

If you can't find a version that works, drop me a message, and I can either mail it to you, or drop it off at a public place of your choice. . . . .

[cab]

dosbox .71 released... tested gp300 piii 1ghz

[kh6jjn]

I noticed that they rev'd it; so I'm going to test this build to see if that fixes it. The last time they rev'd it, it broke a bunch of stuff.

[wavetar]

After having no success at all with versions 0.70 to 0.72, I finally had a chance to try the modified 0.65 version (thank you Terry for the dll files) today on several computers. It has no trouble at all with radios such as Maxtrac/GM300/GTX/LCS/P110/GP300...basically anything which uses the simple two wire "bus+/ground" programming interface. I cannot get it to work with any radios which make use of the "busy" line, such as MTSX or HT1000. If any of the posters above had to do anything special with the settings to make it work with these radios, I'd appreciate it if you could chime in.

As it is, it's fantastic since it really cuts down on the amount of rebooting into DOS mode we sometimes have to do in the run of a day to program radios.

There was another unexpected benefit to this program as well. One of our laptops had no serial ports, so our I.T. department had installed a PCMCIA card into it which works great in Windows, but wouldn't work in DOS at all since there were no drivers for it. Well, using DOSbox allows the above RSS programs to access the PCMCIA serial port! It read/wrote radios through it with no problem at all! I suppose in theory it would work with a USB-to-serial converter as well.

Todd

[kh6jjn]

I run MTSX under emulation, but it can be skittish sometimes. It definitely favors running under faster machines: I use it on a 2GHz AMD under XP almost every day, and it's pretty reliable. Running it on my 1.5GHz Dell laptop is not as good, we run into some read/write issues. Also, there are some individual radios that will not read/program properly under emulation at less than 2GHz.

The problem is that the I/O emulation is not interrupt or event-driven. The I/O are polled, so it's possible to miss events (like transitions of the BUSY line, for example). The faster you go, the more frequent the polling, and the more likely you will catch a transition in a timely manner. The Spectra program is especially bad with this . . . .

It's not surprising to me that PCMCIA operation works; these cards almost always have an actual UART in them, and behave accordingly. USB interfaces, in general, do not, so their behavior is less reliable. Under emulation, I use the USB RS-232 port for Kenwood, and the real UART port for Mot. This is not to say that a USB port will not work; it depends on the quality of the driver software, and how accurately that driver emulates an actual UART.

[sfdlg]

Could someone point me in the the direction of the .dll files needed for the modified version of .65?
it would be appreciated

[wavetar]

Could someone point me in the the direction of the .dll files needed for the modified version of .65?
it would be appreciated

PM me your email address & I'll send you the files.

Todd

[kh6jjn]

I'm a little mystified by all of these requests for DLL's. The ZIP file I uploaded to the Yahoo Maxtrac forum should have had them included. Where'd you all get your copies of DOSBox?

[Andreas]

You can find all here:http://builds.tharos-online.de

Andreas

[wavetar]

I'm a little mystified by all of these requests for DLL's. The ZIP file I uploaded to the Yahoo Maxtrac forum should have had them included. Where'd you all get your copies of DOSBox?

And where exactly in this thread did you tell us where to get your files?? Without you posting a link, I would imagine people get DOSbox at sourceforge, where it originates.

[Woody_99]

WAAAAAKE UUUUPP OLD THREAD!

Hey, I just stumbled upon this cool DOSBOX business whilst seeing how to brick a radio for fun.

I can only speak for KENWOOD as of now, sorry... but it was really cool to actually see it read/write.

Radio is Kenwood TK760H, the old 32channel version.

My setup, (which frankly boggles my brain) is as follows:

HP Pavilion a1013w with 32bit Windows XP
DosBOX PORTABLE on a 2gb Flashdrive in front remote bay USB port, as com8
USB programming cable into rear USB port, using PROLIFIC USB-SERIAL Bridge driver (came with cheapo usb program cable direct from China)
Kenwood radio, and KPG29d RSS on C: drive of HP, set to com port 1 (dosbox cfg set to serial1=directserial realport:com1)

Dang thing read, programmed and wrote back first, and every other try.

NOW, I gotta find a maxtrac program USB cable and see if I can brick that lowbander I got lying on the shelf.... or maybe try a usb to serial with the rib and all... !?!?



Just thought it funny to see it actually work and wanted to share... LOL.

[wavetar]

Yep, DOSbox is a real god-send for some of us. We still use the 0.65 modified version, as it works great for much of the RSS we need it for. The last 'regular' version I tried was 0.74, which I still couldn't get to read/write Motorola radios at all. I don't even know what the latest version might be now. Has anyone here tried a more recent version & had any Motorola success with it?

[tvsjr]

I've always used the modified version discussed above. It's always worked - I've programmed a Maxtrac from a quad-core 64-bit machine running Windows 7! Win 7, Win XP Mode VM, Dosbox, USB-serial adapter.

The modified Dosbox also works with Laplink 5 - great for backing up and restoring that old 386/486 clunker for X9000s, HT600s, etc.

[wavetar]

Win 7, Win XP Mode VM, Dosbox, USB-serial adapter.

Lol, sweet!

The modified Dosbox also works with Laplink 5 - great for backing up and restoring that old 386/486 clunker for X9000s, HT600s, etc.

Nice! Good to know.

[Woody_99]

I've always used the modified version discussed above. It's always worked - I've programmed a Maxtrac from a quad-core 64-bit machine running Windows 7! Win 7, Win XP Mode VM, Dosbox, USB-serial adapter.

The modified Dosbox also works with Laplink 5 - great for backing up and restoring that old 386/486 clunker for X9000s, HT600s, etc.

Cool, but how high up that ladder can we climb? Think it would kill an MT1000 or HT600?? I know I had to revive a few of them after forgetting to turn off buffers or something equally silly.

[wavetar]

I've always used the modified version discussed above. It's always worked - I've programmed a Maxtrac from a quad-core 64-bit machine running Windows 7! Win 7, Win XP Mode VM, Dosbox, USB-serial adapter.

The modified Dosbox also works with Laplink 5 - great for backing up and restoring that old 386/486 clunker for X9000s, HT600s, etc.

Cool, but how high up that ladder can we climb? Think it would kill an MT1000 or HT600?? I know I had to revive a few of them after forgetting to turn off buffers or something equally silly.

I've been able to program almost anything which uses the latest RSS version which the Motorola Pentium Compatibility Matrix says shouldn't be processor speed dependent. Not sure if DOSbox will even work with the HT600 or MT1000, but in real DOS I've been able to read/write them with a 1.7GHz Centrino Duo using the latest RSS, although the HT600 in particular seems to be ok on some machines, and not others that may even be slower. So as always, your mileage will vary.

[Woody_99]

Yeah, truth is that's why I keep my handy-dandy DOS lap-crusher from the '90's. Got a USB 3.5" floppy for moving files, and that pretty much covers the quick/easly method without really needing DOSbox, but I was having fun with the spaghetti mess programming success! lol