Official Flatpak support is available for DOSBox-X, a cross-platform x86/DOS emulation package.
This Flatpak is available on Flathub. After following the Flatpak setup guide, you can install it by entering the following command in a terminal:
flatpak install flathub com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X -yOnce the Flatpak is installed, you can run DOSBox-X using your desktop environment's
application launcher or by running flatpak run com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X in a terminal.
This Flatpak follows the latest stable DOSBox-X version. To update it, run the following command in a terminal:
flatpak update- For security reasons, this Flatpak is sandboxed and only has access to the
user's Home folder. You should place any files you need within DOSBox-X in
that folder (or in a subfolder). Alternatively you can allow additional access
with the override command. But note that this does not work for all directories
as some (like
/usr) have special restrictions. For instance, to allow access to/run/mediawhere USB devices are typically mounted, run the following command:flatpak override --filesystem=/run/media com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X
- Likewise, there is no way to access system installed MIDI soundfonts under
/usr. If you want to use such soundfonts, copy them into your home directory and specify the location in your DOSBox-X config file. - There is support for NE2000 network adapter emulation using the libslirp backend. The libpcap backend is not supported due to Flatpak sandbox security restrictions, as it requires low-level device access.
- On Wayland, DOSBox-X will by default run via XWayland. This is because there are some issues with running in fullscreen mode which should be fixed in a future SDL2 or DOSBox-X release.
- There is no support for 3dfx Glide pass-through (Hardware 3dfx Voodoo emulation does work, but is very slow). This is being blocked by issue: Glide SDL2 segfault.
- The SDL2 libraries against which DOSBox-X is built are provided by flatpak. This build only supports PulseAudio and dummy sound options, and likewise only supports X11, Wayland and dummy video options.
- You will need a working PulseAudio (or PipeWire) setup on the host, or DOSBox-X will not start. If you don't care for audio, you can use the dummy SDL audio driver once you installed the flatpak by running:
flatpak override --env=SDL_AUDIODRIVER=dummy com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X
- You will need a working X or XWayland setup on the host. Running from a console will not work, as the SDL2 build does not have kms or directfb output enabled.
- You will need a working PulseAudio (or PipeWire) setup on the host, or DOSBox-X will not start. If you don't care for audio, you can use the dummy SDL audio driver once you installed the flatpak by running:
- Due to overzealous flatpak linter rules, the DOS debugger option had to be disabled.
Please create an issue if you find any other limitations specific to flatpak that should be documented here.
Under the default Flatpak configuration, the DOSBox-X configuration files are
located in ~/.var/app/com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X/config/dosbox-x/. To access it with a
graphical file manager, you'll have to make hidden folders visible.
The config file will not initially exist after installing DOSBox-X, or upgrading to
a new version. You can create one from the DOSBox-X command line by running config -wcd.
To write all config options, type config -wcd -all.
Install Git, follow the flatpak-builder setup guide then enter the following commands in a terminal:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/flathub/com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X.git
cd com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X
flatpak install flathub org.freedesktop.Sdk//24.08 -y
flatpak-builder --force-clean --install --user -y build-dir com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X.yamlIf all goes well, the Flatpak will be installed after building. You can then run it using your desktop environment's application launcher.
You can speed up incremental builds by installing ccache
and specifying --ccache in the flatpak-builder command line (before build-dir).