What's the DOS program you're attempting to print from?

Does 'echo asdfgh > lpt1' (inside DOSBox) work?

hi donpoon

Did you manage to print ?

I'm desperately trying without success, if you can provide me some tips I'd be happy 😀

Sorry for the late reply.

Thanks for your helps. I managed to get it working but I have forgotten to come back to reply.

It happens to be the "Print to Text" setting. Once I set this option for the printer, the DOS program prints fine. BTW, the DOS program I am using is a HVAC engineering program that was in the DOS date.

I am having a new problem though. I just set up a new printer for the client. This time I only connect the printer through the LAN. (Instead of connecting to USB and share it through the network) I still haven't getting it to work. DOSBox keeps sending the print job to the old USB printer even if I put the new network printer path in the net use of DOSBox configuration. I am still trouble shooting and I am going to remove the old printer and connect the new printer through USB just like before and see what happen...

I don't think Dosbox can print over LAN

That explain why. I connected the printer directly through USB and now it works. Thanks for the clarification.

I still have some issues unsolved.

I was using LPT1 for the old printer. I tried to set the new printer to LPT1 under the dosbox config file. The autoexec doesn't work. It was working with the old printer. When I try to run "net use LPT2..." under the dosbox console, it complains net is not defined. When I run "net use LPT1..." under XP CMD console, it said LPT1 is occupied. I set it to LPT2 and all is fine. I then set "net use LPT2..." under dosbox config and hope it will mount the printer automatically next time I start dosbox but it fail.

Current situation: I can only manually "net use LPT2..." under XP CMD console then print.

I wonder what is holding LPT1. I have removed the old printer from the Printer setup utility. Do I need to uninstall the old printer driver as well?

How come setting LPT2 inside dosbox config doesn't work as before?

I even try putting the "net use LPT2..." command under c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt but it still doesn't set the printer after reboot...

For now, I will just do things manually every time after I reboot. Just hope that I can make it mount the printer automatically.

"net use" is an XP command and will not work in DOSBox, period.

Autoexec.nt also has absolutely nothing to do with what you're trying to do. If you want to run that command at startup, you should probably put a batch file in the Startup folder in your Start menu.

Thanks Jorpho!
I will try using the approach of putting a batch file under the startup folder instead of using autoexec.nt. That should do it.

One thing I still don't understand: "net use LPT1..." used to be working under the [autoexec] section of dosbox.conf. But it doesn't work any more after I installed the new printer.

donpoon wrote:

One thing I still don't understand: "net use LPT1..." used to be working under the [autoexec] section of dosbox.conf.

You are mistaken. That command would never work in DOSBox, or at least not like it would at the XP command prompt.

Wouldn't printing fall under application use and not gaming? Why would anyone expect DOSBox to be able to print at all since it is supposed to be a gaming emulator and not for application use, as has been pointed out many times before.

That is why printing is only available in the Megabuild and not the official DOSBox, as suggested by the OP.

Besides, there are a couple of games that do indeed make use of the printer, such as the first Sherlock Holmes adventure from Electronic Arts and The Fool's Errand.

None of which should be discussed on these forums, developer builds are unsupported.