Has anyone tried getting dosbox on a Pi working properly with bbs software
such as Mystic or Synchronet?

I know that dosemu is a no go, but maybe dosbox or qemu would work.

I'm being a bit lazy and don't want to reinvent the wheel if others have already been down this path.

|15frank |08// |15netsurge
|07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness |11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://diskshop.ca/scinet

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
* Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (77:1/100)

Has anyone tried getting dosbox on a Pi working properly with bbs
software such as Mystic or Synchronet?

I haven't even had much luck using dosbox for BBS related stuff on an x86
box. It just...isn't performant. And the way it thinks about networking
sucks. I tried hosting a majorbbs gaming board through a telnet gateway from
my main BBS. Dosbox just kept crashing.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (77:1/128)

I haven't even had much luck using dosbox for BBS related stuff on an x86 box. It just...isn't performant. And the way it thinks about networking sucks. I tried hosting a majorbbs gaming board through a telnet gateway from my main BBS. Dosbox just kept crashing.

Good to know.

I am intrigued by qemu and the RPi. I'm going to install synchronet on a
spare Pi I have here and will try to get qemu and dos doors working. Who
knows. I've been able to muddle through getting dosemu humming along, just maybe I can get qemu and synchronet on a Pi humming too.

|15frank |08// |15netsurge
|07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness |11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://diskshop.ca/scinet

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
* Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (77:1/100)

Has anyone tried getting dosbox on a Pi working properly with bbs
software such as Mystic or Synchronet?

I know that dosemu is a no go, but maybe dosbox or qemu would work.

I'm being a bit lazy and don't want to reinvent the wheel if others
have already been down this path.

I've not had any luck with mystic (due to that bug with door32.sys I
think - ie socket inheritence on linux is bugged in mystic), but dosbox
works fine with magicka and synchronet. The trick is you need a specific revision from their svn server, later revisions they seem to have borked something and performance goes right down. The only downside to using
dosbox for doors is you can't play the same door on different nodes at
the same time, due to file locking issues. This never bothered me as I
hardly ever have more than one node in use at a time, and it's easy
enough to say sorry this door is busy right now try again later if
someone else is playing.

The revision is 3933

Also make sure you set SDL_VIDEODRIVER="dummy" in your scripts else it
will try and open a dosbox window when a player plays. (You will need X
windows to configure your games though)

Andrew

--- MagickaBBS v0.12alpha (Linux/x86_64)
* Origin: HappyLand - happyland.magickabbs.com:2023 (77:3/100)

I've not had any luck with mystic (due to that bug with door32.sys I
think - ie socket inheritence on linux is bugged in mystic), but dosbox works fine with magicka and synchronet. The trick is you need a specific revision from their svn server, later revisions they seem to have borked something and performance goes right down. The only downside to using dosbox for doors is you can't play the same door on different nodes at
the same time, due to file locking issues. This never bothered me as I hardly ever have more than one node in use at a time, and it's easy
enough to say sorry this door is busy right now try again later if
someone else is playing.

The revision is 3933

See, I knew it was worth asking before wading into the muddy waters.

This is awesome to know. I would like to push my new Pi 4 to it's limits and see if I can make is cry for mercy.

I already have an Amiga games machine running on a Pi along with a bunch of other single use projects like Homebridge running.

I would really like to build a cluster of Pi's and see if I can get a BBS and dosbox to go. Although I still want to see if I can get qemu running as well
as it seems to get a bit of a performance boost over dosbox.

|15frank |08// |15netsurge
|07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness |11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://diskshop.ca/scinet

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
* Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (77:1/100)

On 12 Jul 2019, Netsurge said the following...

This is awesome to know. I would like to push my new Pi 4 to it's limits and see if I can make is cry for mercy.

So this may not even be useful but I came across this Reddit post on the top from 3 years ago and it mentioned something called 8086tiny and an rpix86.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bbs/comments/3rcjo9/possible_dos_door_solution_for_rpi

Figured I would pass it along just in case there was something useful there.

---
|15LockeDown |08(Mickey Frklic) |08[|10mystic|09island|08.|07strangled|08.|07net|08]

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Mystic Island BBS [mysticisland.strangled.net] (77:1/105)

So this may not even be useful but I came across this Reddit post on the top from 3 years ago and it mentioned something called 8086tiny and an rpix86.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bbs/comments/3rcjo9/possible_dos_door_solution_fo

Figured I would pass it along just in case there was something useful there.

Thanks. I'm going to add it to my list.

|15frank |08// |15netsurge
|07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness |11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://diskshop.ca/scinet

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
* Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (77:1/100)

On 12 Jul 2019, Netsurge said the following...

BBS and dosbox to go. Although I still want to see if I can get qemu running as well as it seems to get a bit of a performance boost over dosbox.

So I ran qemu on the pi for a while. I used it to get my 1995 BBS up and running "as-is" (Ezycom 1.10) and the BBS worked well (main plus was no
RTE200 errors).

(What didnt work was ZModem - because the network was way faster than the emulated serial port and it would time out.)

...deon

_--_|\ | Deon George
/ \ | Chinwag BBS - A BBS on a PI in Docker!
\_.__.*/ |
V | Coming from the 'burbs of Melbourne, Australia

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/02/23 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Chinwag | MysticBBS in Docker! (77:3/101.1)

So I ran qemu on the pi for a while. I used it to get my 1995 BBS up and running "as-is" (Ezycom 1.10) and the BBS worked well (main plus was no RTE200 errors).

I'm looking to use qemu solely to drive dos doors with multi node support.
It's next on my list once I get this stupid Mega Slots issue sorted.

|15frank |08// |15netsurge
|07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness |11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://diskshop.ca/scinet

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
* Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (77:1/100)

I'm looking to use qemu solely to drive dos doors with multi node
support. It's next on my list once I get this stupid Mega Slots issue sorted.

I'm using it with serial port as interface and image mount to extract files.

If you want my launch scripts let me know xD

[+] NetMail DevNull @ [2:341/203] [46:2/103] [57:245/13] [9:92/8] [21:4/118] [+] PGP KeyID 0x1352338D

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Bit's Lair BBS (77:2/100)

On Thursday August 08, 2019, Devnull said to Netsurge...

I'm using it with serial port as interface and image mount to extract files.

If you want my launch scripts let me know xD

That would be awesome. Thanks.

[%] frank!netsurge // hysteriabbs.com // zeus 1.7 // amiga 4ooo [%]
. SciNet! . the ftn of the bbs scene . https://diskshop.ca/scinet .

--- Zeus BBS 1.5
* Origin: hysteria - amiga 4ooo - hysteriabbs.com (77:1/111.0)

Hi !

That would be awesome. Thanks.

Sent by mail !

[+] NetMail DevNull @ [2:341/203] [46:2/103] [57:245/13] [9:92/8] [21:4/118] [+] PGP KeyID 0x1352338D

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Bit's Lair BBS (77:2/100)

From: Netsurge <netsurge@scinet-ftn.org>

On 2019-08-18 20:40:01 +0000, DevNull said:

Hi !

That would be awesome. Thanks.

Sent by mail !

Got it. Thanks a lot.

--
frank // netsurge
disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % mystic goodness
SciNet ftn hq % https://diskshop.ca/scinet

.
--- Unison/2.2
* Origin: % SciNet ftn/nntp/email gateway % scinet-ftn.org % (77:77/5)

Hi!

Got it. Thanks a lot.

You are welcome. I hope they are useful xD

[+] NetMail DevNull @ [2:341/203] [46:2/103] [57:245/13] [9:92/8] [21:4/118] [+] PGP KeyID 0x1352338D

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Bit's Lair BBS (77:2/100)