[Pantalaimon]

In DosBox for Windows (ykhwong), you can mount images or directories relative to the working directory from which DOSBox was started, like mount d: "..\cd_image\game.iso". I use this feature for all launcher batch files inside DosBox.

Is there a feature in Magic DosBox that lets me pick a ‘working directory’ from which I can mount images and directories relatively? Or will there be? 🙂

I don’t like the idea to have to edit all launchers for the games that I want to use with Magic DosBox

[admin]

Hi,

I understand you issue. Probably it is not working, else you will not ask here:) I can look at this in one of next updated. I understand that you have already created configs, but maybe will be faster use Magic Dosbox gui for mounting images. Then you can scroll to “Software section” and export autoexec to clipboard (if you really want use expert settings). Paste then clipboard in expert settings and modify.

Best regards,
Tony

[Pantalaimon]

Thanks for your help

I might have been unclear when I tried to explain my problem.
Let me show you my use case:

A typical DOS game in my library has the following folder structure, which contains the specific configurations, images, drives, scripts, launchers etc. needed for the game.

This is what I am doing now on Windows (ykhwong):
– I go to “\DOS\Games\Command & Conquer\Game – CD\System” and start DosBox from there.
– “\DOS\Games\Command & Conquer\Game – CD\System” is now my current working directory
– This allows me to use a generic [autoexec] section for all my games to automatically mount the drives by using relative paths:

MOUNT C: "..\GameRoot"
MOUNT D: "..\GameExtra"
MOUNT X: "..\..\..\..\_common"
MOUNT Y: ".\Require"

– With these drives automatically mounted inside DosBox, I can now run the game specific launcher in “Y:\MENU\LAUNCHER.BAT” from within DosBox
– This launcher then mounts (if necessary) additional drives in the same manner, based on choices made in the launcher, like this:

MOUNT E: "..\DiskImages\NOD.ISO" "..\DiskImages\GDI.ISO" -cdrom

This makes DosBox very smooth to use; I can use one global [autoexec] to mount the correct drives for each game, because I mount them relative to my current working directory (and its folder structure is always the same)
It also means I don’t have to worry about the full mounting paths inside the LAUNCHER.BAT, or when I want to mount something on the fly. Thirdly, I know it will still work if I move around my games on disk.

I really want to maintain this structure of my library to use with Magic DosBox.
But for Magic DosBox, as far as I know (and correct me if i’m wrong), I’m not able to use it like the way described above.

– I have to change the [autoexec] mounts for each game to full absolute paths, like

MOUNT C: "/mnt/sdcard/external_sd/long/path/to/find/my/DOS/Games/Command & Conquer/Game - CD/GameRoot"
MOUNT D: "/mnt/sdcard/external_sd/long/path/to/find/my/DOS/Games/Command & Conquer/Game - CD/GameExtra"
MOUNT X: "/mnt/sdcard/external_sd/long/path/to/find/my/DOS/_common"
MOUNT Y: "/mnt/sdcard/external_sd/long/path/to/find/my/DOS/Games/Command & Conquer/Game - CD/System/Require"

– And, for each game I have to modify my LAUNCHER.BAT for each mount as well;

MOUNT E: "/mnt/sdcard/external_sd/long/path/to/find/my/DOS/Games/Command & Conquer/Game - CD/DiskImages/NOD.ISO" "/mnt/sdcard/external_sd/long/path/to/find/my/DOS/Games/Command & Conquer/Game - CD/DiskImages/GDI.ISO" -cdrom

What I would like to see in Magic DosBox is, either in the ‘Game configuration’, or in the ‘Expert commands’ section, an option or property to select a directory as the current working directory, which will be used as base for relative mounting paths.

Is this something worth considering adding?

[admin]

..No, I am sorry, I exactly understand your request. And what you need makes perfect sense. I know you put a lot of work into making these batch files. And I spent a lot of time for making confortable gui in hope that nobody will never need something like this, and you are first who sent me this request after three years:) First I wanted refuse it, but after all…well, I can look at this. Version 49 is almost finished, but I can work on this feature and v50 could have it. The reason why I am not so happy is because in gui I can control input values very well and I can immediatelly warn user in possible problems. Loading images in gui prevents a lot of issues what people face when they type it manually. And not experienced people like to blame or spam with stupid questions – mostly because they did misspelling. …but I face it already, so why not to add it:)

[Pantalaimon]

Thanks, I’d be very grateful indeed 🙂

I understand your concerns though, it’s probably not something you want to ‘bother’ the average user with. I’ll be perfectly happy with the option hidden away somewhere in the Expert commands configuration.

I’m still surprised I’m in fact the first to ask 🙂 I would think there must be more ‘power users’ out there with custom launchers… Ah well 🙂

[Pantalaimon]

Still hoping this feature will make it to a release someday 🙂
Or is it completely off the table?

[admin]

I am sorry for so long delay, of course it is not off the table. I am fixing bugs and long claimed tasks. But I am coming slowly to relative paths…:)

[admin]

Hi,

I sent you several emails, but you didn’t answer…

How do you want perform on Android ? :
” I go to “\DOS\Games\Command & Conquer\Game – CD\System” and start DosBox from there.”

[Pantalaimon]

Hey,

So sorry I’ve missed your emails, they were caught in the spam filter..
It looks like you’ve made some progress, many thanks for that!

I understand there’s no such thing as ‘running a programm from path X’. Therefore, what I’d like to see in MagicBox is that, inside the game configuration, I can choose an absolute base path (like “/storage/emulated/0/Games/Dos/Dune2/System”) path. With this base path, it would allow me to mount drives inside dosbox by relative paths only, relative of course to this base path.

Note that this base path is *not* my C: drive in dosbox. I will manage the mounts of drive C (and others) myself inside dosbox in an autoexec.bat file, and the idea is to be able to mount them all in this relative path fashion, like
MOUNT C "../GameRoot"
MOUNT D "../GameExtra"
MOUNT X "../../Common/Tools"
instead of
MOUNT C "/storage/emulated/0/Games/Dos/Dune2/GameRoot"
MOUNT D "/storage/emulated/0/Games/Dos/Dune2/GameExtra"
MOUNT X "/storage/emulated/0/Games/Dos/Common/Tools"

[mojoswagger1980]

If you are rooted go to your root directory and look. The path has to exist (you have to be able to navigate via the path your trying to load android changed these recently) for example I can mount my internal simply by c: /sdcard/my game.img , but my external shortest path is c:/storage/1234-5678/mygame.img . use to be c:/extsdcard/mygame.img . secure storage came into play and it made the original path inaccessible.

[mojoswagger1980]

Ummm not saying yours is wrong we might have different directory structure but my path is not /mnt/sdcard/extsdcard/ its /mnt/media_rw/1234-5678/mygame.img if navigating from the mnt folder in the root directory. Double check if you can and see if yours is . My internals is /mnt/sdcard/ so there may be some confusion because logically id assume your path or somthing similar if i didnt look through the mnt folder first.

[Pantalaimon]

Not sure how any of this is relevant. My request was just to have support for relative mounting paths for more flexible configurations; the full paths I used were just a mere example to illustrate my issue.

[Al ex]

Never mind, just ignore it. That user has been banned for various reasons.?

[Author]

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