cannot follow windows 98 installation guide from wiki: "cannot create drive from file"

[dpermar]

Describe the bug

Trying to install Windows98 following the wiki guide.

My system:

Following the wiki guide to install windows 98:

IMGMAKE hdd.img -t hd_8gig ... IMGMOUNT C hdd.img IMage geometry auto detection: -size 512,63,255,1023 Cannot create drive from file

IMGMOUNT 2 hdd.img Unable to open hdd.img

IMGMOUNT c hdd.img -t hdd -fs none Must specify drive number (0 to 5) to mount image at (0,1=fda,fdb;2,3=hda,hdb).

ver DOSBox-X version 2022.12.26 (SDL2). Reported DOS version 7.10.

I have already checked:

• file permissions (even with permissions for all users the problem persists)
• The wiki guide on using image (all sort of combinations of explicitly writing the type/size/...). Not working
• Creating and/or mounting the image with the GUI: gui window with "Drive C: failed to mount" error.
• Other issues. Mainly searching the literal error in github page
• Googled everything I supposed could help. No clues yet.

Is there a way to downgrade to a working flatpak?

This is (read it in the issues) supposedly repaired, but it is not as far as I know.

Greetings, D.

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

1. Create an Image file from DOSBox-X (apparently it does not matter if it is done from command line or GUI menu)
2. Try to mount as C:

Expected behavior

Image file recently created should mount without any problem

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

Linux myhostname 5.10.0-21-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.162-1 (2023-01-21) x86_64 GNU/Linux

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

DOSBox-X 2022.12.26 (installed via flatpak)

Used configuration

# Copied configuration from the Windows 98 installation guide from the Wiki (with modified memsize):

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
title=Windows 98
memsize=512

[video]
vmemsize=8
vesa modelist width limit=0
vesa modelist height limit=0

[dos]
ver=7.1
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0

[cpu]
cputype=pentium_mmx
core=normal

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra

[fdc, primary]
int13fakev86io=true

[ide, primary]
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=true

[ide, secondary]
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=true
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

[render]
scaler=none

[autoexec]

Output log

Cannot create drive from file

Additional information

No response

Have you checked that no similar bug report(s) exist?

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

Code of Conduct & Contributing Guidelines

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

[rderooy]

Are you sure the version was set? If version 7.1 is not set, you will not be able to mount a 8GB image, as it will be FAT32.

[rderooy]

can you try to folder mount the current directory and check if you can see the hdd.img file? e.g.,

mount c .
dir c:

Also, since you are using the flatpak version, where in the host filesystem are you when you do the imgmake/imgmount operations? By default the flatpak can only access your home folder.

[dpermar]

Are you sure the version was set? If version 7.1 is not set, you will not be able to mount a 8GB image, as it will be FAT32.

Yes. Already copied above the output of command ver:

ver
DOSBox-X version 2022.12.26 (SDL2). Reported DOS version 7.10.

mount c .

Drive C is mounted as local directory ./

dir c:

Volume in drive C has no label
Volume Serial Number is 0000-1234
Directory of C:\

 .                          <DIR>                        03/20/2023 11:06a
 ..                         <DIR>                        03/20/2023   1:00a
 250MB        IMG                 252,370,944 03/202023 11:06a
 8GB          IMG               8,414,461,440 03/202023 10:55a
 HDD          IMG               8,414,461,440 03/202023   9:47a
       3 File(s)               17,081,293,824 Bytes
       2 Dir(s)                      255,96 G Bytes free

So apparently the files are there and everything AFAIK fine. Willing to do more testing if it helps :-) D.

[dpermar]

Sorry for closing the issue for a while. It was an accident. :-(

[rderooy]

I don't know what is going on on your side, but this is what I get with the current flatpak:

Can you try to run the flatpak from the CLI and post the log output that will be printed on the console?

e.g.:

flatpak run com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X

[rderooy]

Also take into account that paths supplied to MOUNT/IMGMOUNT are case sensitive on a case sensitive filesystem (default on Linux). In your original example you use lower case, but the directory listing shows upper case.

[rderooy]

There seems to be something weird with your DIR output. If you are running with DOS version set to 7.1, you should see both the 8.3 filename at the beginning (which will be upper-case), and at the end of the line there should be the long-filename in actual case. But from your output, it seems that you are not set to 7.1 or that LFN is specifically disabled.

[rderooy]

Here you can see the DIR output of ver set to the default 5.0 and then again with ver set to 7.1:

[dpermar]

Hello,

Seems to be a flatpak permissions issue. Shoud have used a path inside my home I guess. However I had little space left on device so I used another path. I solved it overriding flatpak filesystem (as stated here):

sudo flatpak override "com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X" --filesystem=<path of your choice>

So it works now. BTW, could DOSBox-X check permissions so if there is an issue of this type explicitly show it?

Thanks for helping, D.

[rderooy]

@BridgeHeadland please don't hijack other peoples threads. In any case, as stated on the wiki, if you encounter issues, make sure you are running the installer with core=normal.

[BridgeHeadland]

@rderooy Sorry. I didn't know it wasn't right.