Confirming that I was able to run Brix without sound support. I guess I didn't read further into the Helpme.doc file, under "Troubleshooting" where it says:
>> If Brix still refuses to load properly, the problem is most likely due to >> Brix scanning your system for a Sound Blaster card. To solve this, type: >> >> BRIX1 /nosb (This turns off the Sound Blaster card) So I guess this problem was known to the developers at the time, that Brix would fail to run on certain systems and sound cards. Interesting, because my QEMU config emulates a SoundBlaster16, which I thought this game is supposed to support. But maybe it's looking for a specific address, and doesn't use the environment for that. More likely, the game probably tries to probe for the sound card (the Helpme.doc says "Brix scanning your system for a Sound Blaster card" which suggests it probes the system) and it's coming up with a wrong value. In any case, running with the "/nosb" option works fine for me. I even get PC speaker support on QEMU. I played through several levels and it seemed to work fine. Jim On Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 2:59 PM E. Auer <e.a...@jpberlin.de> wrote: > > > Iyi günler Hitsumo, Jim and others, > > note that I write "hardware" and not hardware: Virtualbox > simulates a NEW computer, but dosemu2 and dosbox simulates > an old computer. So I mean simulated, not real, hardware. > This is availble more easily :-) > > I BELIEVE that Brix worked for me on FreeDOS long ago when > my hardware really included an ISA SoundBlaster: But it is > too long ago to remember which tricks I needed to use Brix. > I do remember that I have played Brix, it is a nice game. > > In general, most of my DOS activities in the early 2000s > used FreeDOS, because I prefer open source, but I can not > exclude the possibility that I have used some MS DOS parts > in that time, in case FreeDOS did not have own versions. > > Today, I would normally use dosemu2, but for a change, here > is a log of how Brix crashes dosemu 1.4.0.8 -C -Dawe -O ... > > "Using CPU emulation because vm.mmap_min_addr > 0." > > Indeed: > > cat /proc/sys/vm/mmap_min_addr > 65536 > > Near the end of the dosemu log, before it crashes, I get: > > Page fault: Page fault: writewrite instruction to linear address: > 0x0001c9a1 > instruction to linear address: 0x0001c9a1 > CPU was in CPU was in user mode > user mode > Exception was caused by Exception was caused by non-available page > non-available page > VFLAGS(b): 010000001000000010 > EAX: 3a3a3a3a EBX: b7d67405 ECX: 00000001 EDX: 0001c9a2 VFLAGS(h): > 00010202 > ESI: 00000001 EDI: 00a35d60 EBP: 00a35cc0 > CS: 0073 DS: 007b ES: 007b FS: 0000 GS: 0033 > FLAGS: IF RF IOPL: 0 > OOPS : ef 89 42 f3 89 42 f7 89 42 fb -> 88 42 ff 8b 44 24 08 5b c3 66 > Program=sigsegv.c, Line=375 > EIP: 1c91:00000123 ESP: 2cfc:00000fb6 VFLAGS(b): 00000 00000010 > 00000110 > EAX: 01040606 EBX: 00000000 ECX: 00000001 EDX: 0000022c VFLAGS(h): > 00000206 > ESI: 00000000 EDI: 00000012 EBP: 00000fbc DS: 1c91 ES: 1c91 FS: 0298 GS: > c453 > FLAGS: PF IF RF VM VIF IOPL: 0 > STACK: 91 1c 2c 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 -> c7 01 06 08 80 07 de 0f 00 00 > OPS : b0 f0 ec 0a c0 78 fb 8a c4 ee -> c3 52 8b 16 30 00 80 c2 0e 2a > c3 1c91:0123 ret > > Which is odd, because neither the ret nor the address seem to be > too complicated for the classic DOSEMU 1.4 CPU emulation? > > When taking the risk to use the real CPU: > > echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/mmap_min_addr > > ... then Brix does work in dosemu 1.4 :-) > > However, when I enable PC speaker sound in the game, things get stuck > in the sound blaster access (which is enabled by default). You can > see the details in the logs, but they end with: > > 22c < 14 > SB: DSP command 0x14 accepted > SB: Read 0x80 from DSP Write Buffer Status Register > 22c > 80 > SB: Read 0x7a from DSP Write Buffer Status Register > 22c > 7a > 22c < 93 > SB: DSP parameter 0x93 accepted for command 0x14 > SB: Read 0x79 from DSP Write Buffer Status Register > 22c > 79 > 22c < 3 > SB: DSP parameter 0x3 accepted for command 0x14 > SB: 8-bit DMA output starting > DMA: processing controller 1, channel 1 > SB: Starting to open DMA access to DSP (Single-Cycle mode) > SB: Sampling rate is 11111 Hz > SB:[Linux] DMA blocksize set to 2048 (8,8) > SB:[Linux] Get Free Fragments (32, 32) > > I think dosemu tries to write to a socket with no receiving process. > > You can disable soundblaster output by starting the game as: > > BRIX1 /nosb > > Interestingly, the PC speaker sound does not work then, but that > might be a side-effect of the stuck other dosemu instance while > testing :-p When playing as BRIX1 /nosb in DOSEMU 1.4 the game > works completely, but without sound. > > It even works with /nosb in the dosemu CPU emulation, also with > no audible sound, not even from the emulated PC speaker. > > So what do we learn from this? DOSEMU 1.4 has problems with how > BRIX uses the Sound Blaster! It even crashes in CPU emulation > mode and "only" hangs when using your real CPU - which you can > only do on 32-bit operating systems. > > If you want to play the game, use BRIX1 /nosb > > If you want to help finding out more about the problem, try to > use BRIX1 with soundblaster sound in DOSEMU 2.x and enable full > logging or even dosdebug. Looking forward to read about it :-) > > I do NOT think that Brix itself has a problem with FreeDOS. > > Regards, Eric > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
