high intensity blinking set to false is being ignored and defaults to true on start

[scot-x]

Code of Conduct & Contributing Guidelines

• [X] I agree to follow the code of conduct and the contributing guidelines.

Have you checked that no other similar bug report(s) already exists?

• [X] I have searched and didn't find any similar issues.

What operating system(s) this bug have occurred on?

windows server 2022 21H2

What version(s) of DOSBox-X have this bug?

0.83.24 SDL1 64-Bit

Describe the bug

DOSBox-X is being used to run a dbase IV Application in a multi-user environment The color schemes in the application are set to use intensive colors but these are all blinking now.

Even though the DOSbox-X is being started with the setting high intensity blinking = false the menu video->text-mode shows that high intensity blinking is ticked and the colors are blinking in the application.

Using the menu to switch the state causes dbase to crash with a dbase error or DOSBox-X brings the following error window:

An attempt with starting dosBox-X in DOS, ensuring via the menu that the high intensity: background color is active and then starting dbase app has the effect that the DOSbox-x setting switches back to intensive blinking !?!. Is DBASE have an effect on DOSbox-X settings? Even the 43x80 lin/col setting is being forgotten and the window ratio does not fit.

Expected behavior

The config setting should have an effect as described and should not change when dosbox-x is started.

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

1. Take that attached config file and start DOSbox-X
2. Check in the menu if the Menu video->Text-Mode->High Intensity: Background color is activated.

Used configuration

No response

Emulator log

No response

Additional context

No response

[scot-x]

This is the conf file dosbox-x-mukl-D.conf.txt

[Wengier]

The high intensity blinking is a bit that can be set or changed by any DOS programs, including dBase that you use. The said config option in your config file is intended to set the initial state when you run DOSBox-X, but this state can be changed later by applications that are programmed to reset them (video mode or high intensity bit). For example, if you start DOSBox-X with the config file and without launching dBase, then the high intensity blinking bit is indeed set, as can be seen from the menu. But when dBase runs it may change the video mode and the high intensity bit to what is intended by that program. I do not have the muklapp included in the config file, but if I just run dBase without it, then I am still able to toggle the high intensity bit from the menu even if dBase is running, without any error windows. Also, dBase itself may provide options for video modes, so that you can set it to match the video mode as specified in the config file. Hope this helps.

[scot-x]

Thanks Wengier, since posting the issue I've done some more research and found a workaround. But I still believe there is an issue somewhere. The workaround is that I switch to 4DOS.COM as the shell and set "BrightBG = Yes" in the [4DOS] section of DOSBox-X.config file. Then blinking text is gone and I get the bright background colours needed. I had the same issue when running the same application under dbDOSv1 but didn't have the problem under the current vDOS (but had other serious database record pointer problems so that vDOS is not an option anymore).

I'll create a mini dbase application that demonstrates the colour problem because I can't give you the MUKLApp.

[Wengier]

Please let me know when the test application is ready. Thanks for your support.