"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

First, the necessary version info:

• Linux kernel 2.0.29
• dosemu 0.66.1
• Sound Driver 3.5.4

• AMD 486/120
• MediaVision Pro Audio Spectrum 16 (PAS16) soundcard w. MIDI interface adapter
• Music Quest MQX32M MIDI interface
• two Yamaha TX802 synthesizers

dosemu is an MS-DOS emulator for Linux. The on-line manual describes it as

"...a user-level program which uses certain special features of the Linux kernel and the 80386 processor to run MS-DOS in what we in the biz call a DOS box. The DOS box, a combination of hardware and software trickery, has these capabilities:

• the ability to virtualize all input/output and processor control instructions
• the ability to support the word size and addressing modes of the iAPX86 processor family's real mode, while still running within the full protected mode environment
• the ability to trap all DOS and BIOS system calls and emulate such calls as are necessary for proper operation and good performance
• the ability to simulate a hardware environment over which DOS programs are accustomed to having control.
• the ability to provide MS-DOS services through native Linux services; for example, dosemu can provide a virtual hard disk drive which is actually a Linux directory hierarchy.

The hardware component of the DOS box is the 80386's virtual-8086 mode, the real mode capability described above. The software component is dosemu."

I installed version 0.66.1 because I read that it supported MIDI, and I was curious to find whether I would be able to run my favorite DOS MIDI sequencer, Sequencer Plus Gold from Voyetra. Installation proceeded successfully, and after some initial fumbling (and a lot of help from the Linux newsgroups), I was running some DOS programs under Linux.

However, the MIDI implementation eluded me. I followed the directions given in the dosemu package: they are simple enough, basically setting up a link to /dev/sequencer. But since Sequencer Plus requires a Voyetra API driver, I ran into trouble: the VAPI drivers wouldn't load.

I tried to use the VAPIMV (Voyetra API for Media Vision) drivers, but they complained that MVSOUND.SYS wasn't loaded. These drivers are specific to the PAS16 soundcard, so I was puzzled that they couldn't detect MVSOUND.SYS (which was indeed successfully loaded by config.sys). I also tried using the SAPI drivers, Voyetra's API for the SoundBlaster: the PAS16 has a SB emulation mode which I had enabled in MVSOUND.SYS, but those drivers wouldn't load, again complaining that MVSOUND.SYS wasn't installed. VAPIMQX, the driver for the MQX32M, refused to recognize any hardware but a true MQX. Checking the Linux sound driver status with 'cat/dev/sndstat' reported my MQX as installed, but complete support for the sound driver (OSS/Free) has yet to be added to dosemu.

Since MVSOUND.SYS was indeed installed (I checked it in dosemu using MSD, the Microsoft Diagnostics program), and since the MIDI interface on the soundcard was activated, I began to wonder whether that interface could be used. I tested the DOS MIDI programming environment RAVEL, which is "hardwired" internally to only an MPU-401 MIDI interface: to my surprise and satisfaction, the soundcard's MIDI interface worked, and I now had a DOS MIDI program working under Linux.

Following that line of action, I figured that the Voyetra native MPU driver just might load. I tried VAPIMPU: it failed, saying it couldn't find the interrupt. I added the command-line flag /IRQ:7 and the driver loaded. I now had a Voyetra MIDI interface device driver loaded, but would Sequencer Plus Gold run ?

Not only does Sequencer Plus run, I am also able to use Voyetra's Sideman D/TX patch editor/librarian for my TX802s. And I can run RAVEL, adding a wonderful MIDI programming language to my Linux music & sound arsenal.

All is not perfect: RAVEL suffers the occasional stuck note, and the timing will burp while running Seq+ in xdos, particularly when the mouse is moved. The mouse is problematic with Seq+ in xdos anyway, sometimes locking cursor movement. Since my configuration for the dosemu console mode doesn't support the mouse, that problem doesn't arise there. Switching to another console is possible; this is especially useful if and when dosemu crashes. Also, programs using VGA "high" graphics will crash, but I must admit that I have barely begun to tweak the video subsystem for dosemu. It may eventually be possible to run Sound Globs, Drummer, and perhaps even M/pc, but for now it seems that only the most straightforward DOS MIDI programs will load and run without major problems.

And there is a much greater problem: only version 1.26 of the VAPIMPU driver appears to work properly. A more recent version (1.51) will not load, even with the address and interrupt specified at the command-line. However, Rutger Nijlunsing has mentioned that he is working on an OSS/Free driver for dosemu which would likely permit full use of my MQX interface card. When that arrives I may be able to utilize advanced features of Seq+ such as multiport MIDI (for 32 MIDI channels) and SMPTE time-code.

[Since writing the above text, I have tweaked /etc/dosemu.conf for better performance in both X and console modes. Setting hogthreshold 0seems to improve playback stability. I have yet to fix the problem with the mouse in xdos, but it isn't much of a real problem.

Linux is free, dosemu is free, RAVEL is free. My DOS MIDI software can't be run in a DOS box under Win95 with my hardware: it canbe done, but I'd have to buy another soundcard. Linux will run its DOS emulator, with MIDI and sound support, from an X window or from a virtual console (I have six to choose from). If I want to run Sequencer Plus in DOS itself, I have to either drop out of Win95 altogether (DOS mode) or not boot into Win95 at all. With Win95 I get one or the other; with Linux, I get the best of all possible worlds.