Saving conf files to Steam Deck

[baqlias]

I have installed DosBox-X on my Steam Deck. The Steam Deck has a Linux-based OS. I have set up one DOS game to run on it - Star Trek the Next Generation: A Final Unity. The game is installed on my microSD card. I made changes to the auto exec.bat file and saved the configuration. The game starts up and runs every time I start up DosBox-X.

I have been trying to find where the conf files are saved and if I can then save varied conf files for different games. I looked where Linux saves conf files according to your Wiki. Nothing there including any DosBox-X folder. I tried creating a folder and then saving a conf file to it. No conf file appears in the folder. I made sure that I gave DosBox-X permissions in Flatseal. I don't know if there's anything else I need to do on my end. I've come up empty here.

Am I missing something - as I am getting back into DosBox and DosBox-X after years of not using either - or is there a bug?

Thanks so much for your help!!

[rderooy]

I'm not familair with the steam deck, so let me give you the generic answer.

You will either have to:

• create seperate launchers for each game on the desktop, using a single dosbox-x binary. Each launcher would point to a different .conf file for each game.
• have a single launcher and then select the game from within DOSBox-X using CLI, batch scripts or some kind of DOS game launcher. This has limitations as you may not be able to change all the config settings that you may need to change. It can also be clunky if you don't have a real keyboard to type commands.
• Have multiple copies of DOSBox-X, one for each game. Copy the dosbox-x binary and a customized config file named dosbox.conf in the directory of the game. Now run dosbox-x from that directory and it will automatically use that config file.

[rderooy]

Forgot to mention, I assume you are using the dosbox-x flatpak. In that case, have a look here for where the default config file is saved. https://github.com/flathub/com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X

[baqlias]

Thanks for your reply! I had heard about people who had multiple DIS games on their laptops or other devices and wondered how they did it! You've given me a few possibilities to try out. I have a few old DOS games that I want to install on my Steam Deck.

My problem could also have something to do with the possibility that the Dolphin file manager which is already installed when you get a Steam Deck may be sandboxed to prevent people from making some bad decisions with the Linux system files.

Thanks again!

[Jookia]

I wonder if it's worth creating some kind of file association for dosbox-x configuration files and the launcher? I'm not sure how hard that would be since we don't have a mime type or unique extension name.

In general you'd want to create a dosbox-x configuration then run it using 'dosbox-x -conf myconfig.conf'. If you're using Flatpak then using 'com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X -conf myconfig.conf' might work, or 'flatpak run com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X -conf myconfig.conf'. Putting this in a shell script that's executable like this might let you run it from a file manager:

#!/bin/sh
exec com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X -conf myconfig.conf

[baqlias]

Thank you! This, too, will be helpful. I should be able to insert that code into a launcher that works in the Steam Deck library. One odd thing is that, no matter what file manager I use, I cannot view the contents of ~/.var/app even though the "view hidden files" option is activated. However, I discovered when I ran one of my game emulator apps and used its command to search for a game file, I could see all the contents of ~/.var/app.

[Jookia]

Try install Flatseal and giving your file manager host filesystem permissions.

[baqlias]

Thanks once again for your suggestion! I had already installed Flatseal and used it to give Dolphin permissions for user files. I went back and gave Dolphin all file permissions that Flatseal had listed. No change.

Earlier today, I sent an email to Steam Support to see if they can help me with this.

[Jookia]

I don't have a Steam deck but I might try installing SteamOS or similiar in a VM to debug this sometime.

[baqlias]

Steam Support sent me a generic reply, saying that they can't offer help with third party software and directing me to the support that the software in question offers. I replied that I have had this issue with every file manager I have installed on the Steam Deck, which leads me to conclude that the issue is not due to the file manager as such but to how SteamOS interacts with file managers in general. I'll see how they respond to that.

[Jookia]

I tried to install HoloOS in a VM but it just gave a black screen so I'm afraid I can't help very much. You should ask around SteamOS users to find out what's up then report back.

[baqlias]

Thank you once again for your efforts! I have posted on the Steam Deck forum and will see what response(s) I get, and then report back. One response so far, which was along the lines of "I think I may have done something to open up Dolphin but I don't remember what".

No responses at all from the Dolphin forum as of now.

[baqlias]

I have not found any help anywhere else yet, but I have found a workaround. I start with Citra, which is a game emulator for Linux. (This workaround could work with another app, but I haven't tested this yet.) Anyways, here goes!

1) Put the Steam deck in Desktop mode. 2) Go to Applications and start Citra. 3) Using the top menu, select File, then Open File 4) In the window that has just opened, make sure that Filter at the bottom is set to All Files. 5) Navigate to the desired file/folder (in my case. a .conf file in the DosBox-X folder). 6) Right-click the desired file/folder. 7) In the popup window, select Open Containing Folder 8) The default file manager (Dolphin in my case) opens, displaying the file/folder and all other folders/files that Dolphin didn't display before under /home/.var/app.

As long as this Dolphin window is open, I can see all the files and folders and navigate here and there. If I should close Dolphin and then reopen it, I'm back to seeing almost nothing under /home/.var/app.

This workaround gives me access to folder and files that I cannot usually see with Dolphin, for whatever reason.