<p>This is useful because you might want to customize the configuration in order to get
a particular balky door working. You might want a custom dosemu binary, emusetup.bat,
and/or dosemu config for that particular door, while maintaining a different set of configurations
that works for mostly everything else.
<p>make sure you are using a dosemu.conf from the DOSEMU distribution of the
particular version you are using. (e.g. if using 1.1.4 release, don't use a dosemu.conf from
1.0.2)
<p>The most up-to-date freedos distribution can be found <Ahref="http://www.fdos.org/ripcord/dosemu/">here</a> -- this is known to fix problems with Tradewars 2002. You might consider trying DR-DOS if you have problems with FreeDOS. However, be certain that you use the autoexec.bat from the FreeDOS distribution, as the Synchronet integration depends on it. Also remember to copy the DOSEMU support files into
c:\dosemu in the DR-DOS hdimage.
<hr>
<p>emusetup.bat customization: This section is mostly TODO so ignore it for now
<p>emusetup.bat -- changing drive letter mappings, and using variables that
are passed into it
<p>The default drive letters are:
<ul>
<li>D: - The node directory, where the dropfile should probably be put. In door configurations,
specify this drive (D:\) as the path to the dropfile.
<li>E: - Under this drive, the door's directory will be mounted. Example: E:\LORD
<li>F: - The Synchronet control directory
<li>G: - The Synchronet data directory
<li>H: - The Synchronet exec directory
</ul>
<p>Any necessary utils that should be loaded before the door starts (like fossil driver, ansi
driver, etc) should be placed in the emusetup.bat with a PATH that points to them. The default
location is in a \dosutils directory immediately preceding the door's directory.
(For example, if your door is in
/home/bbs/doors/lord, put the dosutils directory as /home/bbs/doors/dosutils.)
<hr>
<h2>Known Problems</h2>
<p>File locking is dysfunctional with the DOSEMU 1.0.2.x stable releases. File locking
problems will manifest themselves as strange error messages related to file opens, long
pauses and/or hangs, game data corruption, and other fun stuff. Note that you do not have
to be running a multinode BBS to be prone to these issues; most programs detect DOSEMU as
a multitasker and thus initiate their lock management regardless of whether or not
multiple sessions of the game will be in use. DOSEMU development releases do not
have this issue, so you might be better off just to compile and use that.
<p>There is a fix from Bob Newell which is detailed in <ahref="faqlinux.htm">this document</a>.
Included is a kludge for slow screen draws due to incorrect idling that will occur in some games
such as Planets TEOS.
<p>There is a precompiled version <ahref="#files">here</a> that may or may not work on your
machine. (It was compiled from the Debian sources.) I also maintain builds of development
versions that you can install that are likely to have fixed many more bugs.
<h3>If you are having other problems:</h3>
<ul>
<li>check the dosemu.log and dosemu_boot.log that will be created in the node directory. They
should give you clues to track down a configuration problem. If those files do not exist, then
the dosemu.bin is not getting executed properly, so check your sbbs.ini, make sure you have
dosemu installed, and check for a stale dosemu.bin symlink in the door's directory.
<li>double-check your door's configuration, specifically the paths in scfg and the batch file
(if any) that starts it.
<li>Also verify that the paths in the door's configuration problem are correct
<li>Verify that you have set up enough nodes in the door's configuration to handle all the nodes on your BBS.
