[LappyGB]

Hi there,

Only recently encountered this error after seeing it in Space Crusade, but then realised it happens on all games.

When a game’s files are on my SD card, if I minimise Magic DosBox (hit the home button etc on this Samsung Tab), after reopening it no longer lets me save the game and will throw up an error message. I can still load games no problem but need to fully restart the game again to save. I don’t get the error when the files are in internal storage though and everything works as normal after minimising.

I guess there’s some issue with DosBox accessing the SD card if you minimise mid-game, like Android freezes DosBox in the background and loses its write permissions or something? I don’t suppose anyone knows about this and whether there’s something I can do to fix it, or whether it’s just a problem with using a memory card?

Cheers

[Al ex]

That does indeed sound like an sdcard permission issue. Strange bug, though. I’ve tested on S7 edge (stock Oreo), and S9+ (stock Q), and it’s working fine. This issue also has never been reported do far, and I believe that’s something people would’ve come across.

So it looks like an issue related to your device, or maybe to your particular chipset or OS version.
Can you tell us the specs of your tablet please? Maybe we can narrow it down somehow then. ?

[LappyGB]

Hey Alex,

I have a Samsung Tab A 10.1 (T510) with the latest Android 10 and OneUI 2.0. I’ve been using Magic Dosbox on this tablet for quite a while now and never encountered this problem until about a week ago. The Android 10 update could be to be to blame, it was released a few weeks ago and I’m sure I never encountered this issue on Android 9. I’ve only come across this error by accident after hitting the home screen button by mistake.

If I move the files to internal storage I don’t have any issues so it has to be to do with the SD card. The other workaround is to enable SVN core and save the state when the error occurs, if I then reboot the game and load the state I have SD card access like normal. It seems purely to do with minimising DosBox while mid-game.

Let me install DosBox on my Android 10 Samsung A40 and see if it throws up the same problem!

Thanks

[LappyGB]

Moved my SD card to the Samsung A40 (Android 10) and have the exact same issue, saves to SD card fine unless you minimise mid-game.

[Al ex]

Working fine, tested with Doom and Ultima VI, both on an external sd card. ?‍♂️

I run the game, load a savegame. Save, load without issues. Go to phone desktop (via home button), launch web browser and Gmail client, then go back to Magic Dosbox. I can still save and load just like before.

This is really puzzling, especially because it’s happening on two devices. Do you perhaps have another sd card to test with?

[LappyGB]

I don’t at the moment but it is a Samsung MicroSD, never had any other issues with it. Will try get hold of one to try.

Hopefully someone else with Android 10 on a Samsung device can try it out.

[Al ex]

Update: I was able to reproduce the issue. In my case, I also need to turn off the screen (i.e. put the phone into sleep mode). When I unlock it again, and hop back into the game, I can’t save anymore. My findings so far:

1. sd card access breaks when I go to phone desktop AND put my phone into sleep mode.
2. one of these two actions alternativey does NOT break sd card access. So if I put my phone to sleep while running MagicDosbox as foreground app does not affect sd card write access
3. this is a temporary issue, restricted to the currently running game. So when this happens, and I exit the game back to the Magic Dosbox app folder, then start the game again immediately, sd card access is fine again.

[LappyGB]

Good to see it’s not just me, I only need to minimise though, maybe due to some change in Android 10?

[Al ex]

I am on Android 10, One UI 2.1. Don’t have my Oreo S7 with me right now for testing, would be interesting to see if this also happens in older OS versions.

[admin]

Hm is mdosbox restarted if you return back? Or is progress untouched? Bad is, all these permissions are managed by os, just now have no idea how to fix it. I have samsung with Q and sdcard, I can check it.

[Al ex]

No, it’s still running. I can directly go back into my game to where I left, only sd card access is broken.

I already figured it may be an Android related issue. If only Google stopped breaking their own OS. ?

[LappyGB]

It’s not the end of the world, when I encounter the issue I just save state and reload.

Is there any downside to having SVN core enabled?

[Al ex]

No, except for some compatibility issues. In some rare cases, games might not launch/work properly (Win95 won’t, either). But if your game is running fine (as should be the case 99%), you’re good.

[LappyGB]

I booted up my Win95 install with SVN enabled and it seems to be okay, I didn’t try run any games yet though (non installed on it at the moment).

Where is it that SVN will cause issues? Seems real handy to have the save/load state available on everything.

[Al ex]

If it’s working, use it. I’m running SVN core whenever possible, with almost zero issues.
It’s just that it’s kind of a beta, so if there are issues with a particular game, it’s a good idea to disable SVN, and try again.

[Author]

Posts