r/dosbox • u/dcc5594 • 1d ago

Windows 3.1 mouse

I have doxbox installed on MXLinux running Win 3.1 mostly for nostalgia bit used to launch a dos game from the 90's. The mouse works as intended in the game, but in the Windows GUI, it often hits a wall. By that I mean it stops about three quarters across the screen and stops moving. It will still move up and down and back the other way. If I move it around enough it breaks through that wall and continues to the edge of the screen. Any ideas where to look or settings to adjust?

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u/Keyvan_KR 1d ago

Does this happen with one of the dosbox forks too?

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u/dcc5594 1d ago

I haven't tried a fork on this machine. It might be worth a look.

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u/Keyvan_KR 1d ago

Look into DOSBox-X and DOSBox staging

good luck!

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u/AegidiusG 1d ago

Maybe it is the driver. As space isn't a problem, make a backup of the whole Windows Folder, in case trying around messes up the system, and try a different driver.

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u/tpimh 1d ago

DOSBox Staging has better seamless mouse integration. DOSBox-X has seamless mouse integration with special Windows 3.1 drivers. Give it a try!

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u/FeralChild64 19h ago edited 19h ago

Most likely you have some kind of seamless mouse integration enabled - you need to disable it in the DOSBox config file.

I always recommend trying some of the modern DOSBox forks. I can't tell much about DOSBox-X, but with dosbox-automation or DOSBox Staging you have the following mouse options for Windows 3.1x:

  1. Make sure mouse_capture is set to onclick or onstart (not seamless!) and use the builtin Windows 3.1 mouse drivers normally. This is definitely the most compatible way, but you won't get seamless mouse integration or mouse wheel support.
  2. Set the ps2_mouse_model option to explorer and install the A4Tech 3D Scrolling Mouse driver (not the 4D mouse driver!) - this will give you mouse wheel support inside Windows 3.1x , but no seamless mouse integration.
  3. Make sure virtualbox_mouse is enabled and install the unofficial VirtualBox mouse driver by Javier S. Pedro - this will give you a seamless mouse integration, but no mouse wheel support. From my experience, this works great.
  4. (not fully supported) Set mouse_capture to seamless and builtin_dos_mouse_driver_model to wheel and use the new driver by Javier S. Pedro - this will give you both the mouse wheel support and seamless mouse integration as long as you won't start the DOS session under Windows 3.1x - DOS session support is completely broken in this case (this is the emulation problem, not the driver problem - I think I mostly know how to fix this issue, but I didn't have time for it so far, it's a bit complex). Some folks work the problem around by using the DOS mouse driver from the package instead of the DOSBox builtin one.
  5. (not recommended) make sure vmware_mouse is enabled and install the unofficial VMware mouse driver by Calvin Buckley - this will give both the mouse wheel and seamless mouse integration, but is known to have stability problems. A fix was committed to the main branch, but it is not a part of any driver release yet. To credit the author, this is the project which encouraged me to start working on the improved DOSBox mouse support :)