DOSBox System or DOSBox Lutris?

Support
1

Hello,

Have been using Lutris for a short while now, and so far everything seems to go well, however I notice that DOSBox can be installed from the Lutris runners list (I suppose other runners too, but that is the one I have had immediate experience with), but then it is not detected by the system and apparently Lutris handles it “on its own”.

So, I would like to ask if there are any specific reasons for this, and any considerable advantages/disadvantages as compared to a “standard” system install, and why?

Thanks.

2

As far as I’m aware that option is only there for people who for whatever reason struggle to or don’t want to install a system-wide dosbox. I have never noticed a difference.

Maybe there’s some fancy edge case that I’m missing though, like wanting to have a different config for different dosboxes?

3

I don’t know… apart from things being all in “Lutris Runners” (i. e., a bit more tidy?), what would be the benefits of a non-system DOSBox?

4

The newest version of DOSBox is 0.74-3 which was relesed in 2019, so regardless of whether you choose a system install or a Lutris install, you will get the same version. Since Lutris will detect and use system installs of Wine, I would assume that Lutris would also be able to use a system install of DOSBox, but I may be wrong on that assumption.

I think the convenience of having everything available through one launcher would opt for a Lutris install.

5

If you do a system install of DOSBox, you can open Lutris and then Preferences, click runners and locate DOXBox, click the settings for DOSBox to the right. Under “Runner options”, you can specify a custom executable and here you enter the output of the command “which dosbox”, which is /usr/bin/dosbox on my system, and save the settings and now the system install of DOSBox is available in Lutris.

6

I see, and thanks for replying, but I was wondering if there were any special considerations/reasons to do it one way or the other.

7

I would consider the installation through the system package manager as a “safer” option since it is installed into root space and not into user space and thus it should be safe(r) from tampering. If Lutris is run without possibility to escalate to root access, DOSBox as a system install is as tamperproof as it gets.

If you have 100% faith in both Lutris being safe from supplychain attacks and you are 100% sure that you only run safe software in DOSBox, it does not matter wheter it is installed through package manager or Lutris.

8

I understand; thanks for the info. :slight_smile: