How-to: DOSBOX with Roland MT32 sound emulation

**mia1dolfan** · March 19th, 2008

This installs a virtual alsa sequencer device which will emulate Roland MT-32. This is required to obtain proper sound in legacy DOS applications.

1. Download and install the attached Debian package below, compiled with Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbson.

Code:

dpkg -i mt32emu-0.1.3.20070304_i386.deb

I am assuming you already have dosbox installed and don't need to 'apt-get install dosbox'

2. Configure DOSBOX to use the Alsa midi MT-32 sequencer

2a: Find out what the client # the alsa midi sequencer registered as, probably 128, unless you some other software MIDI sequencers (like timidity)

Code:

cat /proc/asound/seq/clients | grep MT-32

2b: Copy the sample dosbox.conf.example.gz to your home directory

Code:

gunzip --stdout /usr/share/doc/dosbox/dosbox.conf.example.gz >~/dosbox.conf

2c: Modify ~/dosbox.conf with your favorite editor

Ubuntu:

Code:

gedit ~/dosbox.conf

Kubuntu:

Code:

kate ~/dosbox.conf

Console:

Code:

editor ~/dosbox.conf

Modify the line close to line #88 from

Code:

config=

to... (replace 128 with the client # obtained from step 2a)

Code:

config=128:0

Save the changes...

3. Launch dosbox. If you launch dosbox from a console, you should see messages similar to...

CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file dosbox.conf
ALSA:Client initialized [128:0]
MIDI:Opened device:alsa

4. Configure your DOS application to use Roland MT-32

You can also use this with other MIDI applications, like kmid - using "GM Emulation" MIDI device

That's all folks!

**Riothamus** · September 20th, 2011

Is there another version of this available? I got an error

Code:

dpkg: error processing mt32emu-0.1.3.20070304_i386.deb (--install):
 package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)

When i tried it with the --force-architecture option, it gave me dependency errors with alsa-base:

Code:

dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)
Selecting previously deselected package mt32emu:i386.
(Reading database ... 160873 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking mt32emu:i386 (from mt32emu-0.1.3.20070304_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mt32emu:i386:
 mt32emu:i386 depends on alsa-base.
dpkg: error processing mt32emu:i386 (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mt32emu:i386

But I verified that alsa-base is installed and is the most recent version.