Possible "Cheat" To Run MSDOS Software Just By Double Clicking It's .Exe

korban · 1867

korban

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As far as I know the only proviso is you need to be using Dopus Mag.
Beyond that, it's as simple as:

1). Download AROS version of "RunInDOSBOX".
2). Install it to Sys:C
3). Create a root folder for your ms-dos software (Doesn't matter where, and folder structure from within that doesn't matter from then-on-end).
4). Create an assign for the folder you've just created in sys:s/user-startup. Doesn't matter what. For me it will be "assign ms-dos: emulation:computers/pc/ms-dos/software" (without quotes) for example.

And this is where it's a little vague when going off the top of my head. Im not in front of my AROS box. Im on my laptop on a train, had the idea, and dint want to forget before I got home, so thought Id share the idea.
I'll update this for clarity (ie. exact syntax) when I get a chance. The more experienced will probably be able to work it out for now though still.

5).  Set up Dopus Mag to use "RunInDOSBOX" every time "ms-dos: ?#.exe" (and ?#.bat (ie. 2 separate entries)) are double clicked.

And that should be it.

Untested in this form, but I do use it for a few specific msdos games/apps. The theory is the same, the method in this post should hopefully just be less work, for all games/apps rather than specific ones.


n.b. please excuse any mistakes in the instructions. As mentioned Im going by memory. Couldn't remember if wildcard is #? or ?# for eg. Same with an assign. Drawing a blank if you  put a ":" at the end of the path being assigned to. Pretty sure not, but cant test.

I'll test when I get home, but wont be for a few days, so if anyone wants to give it a try in the meantime, feel free   :)



AMIGASYSTEM

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I didn't quite understand what you mean by Dopus Mag, anyway on AROS One v1.6 with RunInDOSBOX you can run an MS-DOS executable from Wanderer as well, see my attached video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkfTMLwchrQ
« Last Edit: February 09, 2022, 01:13:25 AM by AMIGASYSTEM »



korban

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Using a dedicated scripts though?
With my idea you uncompress any dos software archive and its ready to run. No further preparation needed.



AMIGASYSTEM

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No no script created, I just assigned the DosBOX path, created a "Datatypes" Descriptor and all the executables through the def_MSD.info are associated to C:RunInDOSBOX

In this way any executable will have its icon preconfigured with RunInDOSBOX and the MS-DOS executable will be started automatically with a simple click, if I want I can also create a second Descriptor to start all .bat files as well


korban

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Ah, ok, great.
This didnt work last I was using a AROS a few years ago, which is why I was using Dopus Mag.
It's how RunInDosBOS was originally untended to be used,  so nice to hear it can be used without workarounds in AROS these days.



magorium

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@korban:
for AROS i wrote a utility named wbxcli (it is located at the AROS archives) that offer support for each individual file to have its own project icon and pass a cli commandline to AROS, including customised parameters. That way you can configure things the way you wish them to be. I did not bother to compile it for 68k as there are plenty such tools available on aminet for 68k.


wbxcli works in a similar fashion as iconx but without the requirement of a script. The file type recognition as mentioned in the thread is a nice bonus, but in case you do not wish all .exe's to start up a single designated program then wbxcli can be helpful. You can even use wbxcli for a default icon if you wish to do so.


AMIGASYSTEM

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for AROS i wrote a utility named wbxcli (it is located at the AROS archives) that offer support for each individual file to have its own project icon and pass a cli commandline to AROS, including customised parameters.

I have successfully used "wbXcli" to be able to associate MIDI files and CDXL Files from Wanderer, I discussed it HERE.

However, I can't get "wbXcli" to work with the Player SID "Tinysid" either the Standard or SDL version. the problem is that "Tinysid" requires a high Stack and if placed in the Icon it doesn't work, you have to somehow get the Stack given before running "Tinysid".

From the Shell "Tinysid" works fine with a Stack 70000 or higher.


magorium

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I have successfully used "wbXcli" to be able to associate MIDI files and CDXL Files from Wanderer, I discussed it HERE.
I'm glad to hear wbXcli is useful for/to you.

Quote
However, I can't get "wbXcli" to work with the Player SID "Tinysid" either the Standard or SDL version. the problem is that "Tinysid" requires a high Stack and if placed in the Icon it doesn't work, you have to somehow get the Stack given before running "Tinysid".


From the wbxcli readme:
Code: [Select]

- STACK


  The STACK Tool Type defines the number of bytes (size) that is used for
  the stack that the executed program or script will use.


  The default stacksize is:


  STACK=40960


  (Please note that the stacksize given in the project-icon, is the stack-
  size that is used for the wbXcli utility itself, and not for the program/
  script that is going to be executed. You need to define the above
  described STACK Tool Type for that).

That should solve your issue  ;)

Quote
From the Shell "Tinysid" works fine with a Stack 70000 or higher.


E.g. add STACK=70000 (or higher number) to the list of tooltypes of the icon.


Try to keep the project icon stacksize field (that you can set in wanderer/Magellan/workbook GUI) as low as possible because it is only used for Wbxli itself (that is OS default behaviour that can not be changed)


Please let me know if that solved your issue or not.


Have fun !


AMIGASYSTEM

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E.g. add STACK=70000 (or higher number) to the list of tooltypes of the icon.


This is the first thing I tried, but it doesn't work :(

I made a small video showing the test on CLI (with Stack and without Stack), and a Test on Wanderer, in the video you can see the settings I used, here is link to download the 5MB video !

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1izYxHKeZ_cG6qdOq6Crn0StSpCHEdOug/view?usp=sharing


I also tried recompiling "Tinysid" on AROS One with the new GCC 6.3.0. but nothing changed !
« Last Edit: May 23, 2022, 04:34:52 PM by AMIGASYSTEM »



magorium

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This is the first thing I tried, but it doesn't work :(
Have you tried with using a higher number ? You can go crazy there, e.g. set the stack tooltype to 700000 for example.

Quote
I made a small video showing the test on CLI (with Stack and without Stack), and a Test on Wanderer, in the video you can see the settings I used, here is link to download the 5MB video !
I have seen the video (thank you for that).

To be honest I have no idea what could be wrong there atm. Perhaps it is the interactive nature of tinisyd (accepting keys, interacting with the user).

Could you add a file literally named "wbXcli.debug" (no quotes) next to the wbXcli executable (the file can be completely empty, it just have to exist), then try the tinysid example again and paste the output from wbXcli here ?

Quote
I also tried recompiling "Tinysid" on AROS One with the new GCC 6.3.0. but nothing changed !
If you know something about the technical aspect of AROS: wbXcli is just a systemtag slave so that means that whatever commands you can give on the shell should also be possible to do with wbXcli. If a program does not work (correctly) on the shell then wbXcli will not solve the problem(s) and will also fail to run the program.

Your video shows that it is possible to run tinysid using a shell command, so in theory wbXcli should also be able to run it. This is the first time I have heard of a program that does not seem to work nice with wbXcli.

Thus afaik there is no need for recompilation of tinysid but thank you for trying.


AMIGASYSTEM

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Could you add a file literally named "wbXcli.debug" (no quotes) next to the wbXcli executable (the file can be completely empty, it just have to exist), then try the tinysid example again and paste the output from wbXcli here ?


From the translation I could not understand, should I create an empty text file named wbXcli.debug and copy it to the path where wbXcli resides ?

Yes I also tried much higher Stacks but nothing changes !
« Last Edit: May 23, 2022, 05:42:47 PM by AMIGASYSTEM »



magorium

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From the translation I could not understand, should I create an empty text file named wbXcli.debug and copy it to the path where wbXcli resides ?
Yes, exactly like that  :)

Quote
Yes I also tried much higher Stacks but nothing changes !
Ok, so that is not the culprit.


Let's see what the debug output will show us. I am expecting that it will show that things work as intended but you never know if I made a mistake somewhere in my code.


AMIGASYSTEM

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After starting it, the wbXcli.debug file remains empty, nothing is written, maybe I need to add something in the Tooltype?

If you want to do some tests too ile two versions of TinySID you can find them on Aros Archive:


http://archives.aros-exec.org/share/audio/play/tinysid.i386-aros.rar

http://archives.aros-exec.org/share/audio/play/tinysid_sdl.i386.zip

« Last Edit: May 23, 2022, 06:09:17 PM by AMIGASYSTEM »



magorium

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After starting it, the wbXcli.debug file remains empty, nothing is written, maybe I need to add something in the Tooltype?
The .debug file is suppose to stay empty.

That file being present is only used to indicate to wbXcli that wbXcli needs to output some debug information.

if wbXcli detects that the .debug file is present then it will automatically open a con window and print the output to that con window.

If you do not see a window being opened and text being printed then something is amiss.

On which version of AROS are you testing this ? Is it perhaps the new version that deadwood published a few days ago (version D3 ?).

Because if that is the case then there is something wrong with deadwood's D3 release (or perhaps wrong for an even earlier release of deadwoods alt-ABIv0). And with wrong I mean that something is not working the same way as it was working before on ABiv0. (Thus a possible regression bug)

Quote
If you want to do some tests too ile two versions of TinySID you can find them on Aros Archive:
I am a bit busy atm but will check tinysid started by wbXcli myself when I am able to.
« Last Edit: May 23, 2022, 07:32:42 PM by magorium »



AMIGASYSTEM

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Ok thank you, I tested with the latest deadwood D3, i will test with my previous versions of AROS One.

EDIT:

The problem is also present on my old AROS One that included the old Nightly Builds.


I should add that with deadwood's D3, TinySID with Dopus4 and Stack 70000 works fine, see screenshot



The Problem may be due to Wanderer, I reported this anomaly some time ago:

https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?topic=798.msg10150#msg10150
« Last Edit: May 24, 2022, 03:08:33 AM by AMIGASYSTEM »