dosbox question

[Tony Baechler]

On 4/21/2016 2:07 PM, Tom Masterson wrote:
> I have an old dos thing I was trying too look at to find out something.  I
> tried running dosbox but found it unreadable with my braille display.  Is
> dosbox usable or is there a better way to look at dos programs?


I agree with Larry that dosemu is a better option. It works fine with 
Speakup, so presumably should work with Braille from the Linux console. Yes, 
DOSBox is useful, but you'll need a DOS screen reader. Since everything is 
virtual, you'll have to find a way to redirect the virtual serial port, etc 
to the Braille device. I doubt very much that it supports USB for Braille, 
but you might be able to redirect the virtual COM1 to it. If you need a 
fully functioning DOS environment, dosemu is definitely the better option, 
but to use all features, you'll need a DOS screen reader for it also with 
the same limitations. Another option is a virtual machine running FreeDOS. 
You could use Qemu or KVM to route the virtual serial port. It largely 
depends on what DOS thing you're referring to and how much complexity you 
want. I should warn you that DOSemu in Debian does something weird with X11 
fonts and doesn't work for me with Vocal-Eyes anymore. I tried making sure 
it wasn't using X but with no luck.