On 11 Feb 26 22:26:46, Maskreet said the following to Exodus:

If it is your own, on the BBS machine, sure no issues. That is still you doing it. But I find it nutty to connect to someone for a door game that may or may not be there tomorrow.

Then why bother connecting to echonets? It's the same principle.

Ohhh this hilarious nonsense again. Why bother with Linux, it can't run doors?

At least once or twice a year I can count on reading a Linux Sysop appearing
to trip over himself to get doors to run. He'll screw around with Dosbox, Dosemu, can't pass a handle, can't pass a socket... can't pass gas.

The effort I see that person screwing around with Linux that clearly was never designed to run MS-DOS could be spent refurbing a cheap PC with an OS that IS designed to run DOS, thus able to run ANY board with ANY door.... XP and 7.

Atreyu

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (21:1/176)

On 11 Feb 2026, Exodus said the following...

If it is your own, on the BBS machine, sure no issues. That is still
you doing it. But I find it nutty to connect to someone for a door
game that may or may not be there tomorrow.

I understand.. :)


|11 Bucko |14- |06Wrong Number Family Of BBS' |07- |03www.wrgnbr.com

... Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (21:4/131)

Re: Re: Door Games
By: Atreyu to Maskreet on Thu Feb 12 2026 07:01 am

The effort I see that person screwing around with Linux that clearly was never designed to run MS-DOS could be spent refurbing a cheap PC with an OS that IS designed to run DOS, thus able to run ANY board with ANY door.... XP and 7.

I was running my BBS in a 32-bit edition of Windows for that reason for a long time. I have a dedicated PC for my BBS, but I also use that PC for other things as well (namely, a media server for my movies, TV shows, & such). Because I'm using that PC for more than one thing, I wanted it to have more than 4GB of RAM, and for that, I wanted a 64-bit OS on it. So I installed a 64-bit Linux on it years ago, and I continued to run my BBS in a 32-bit Windows VM on it for quite a while.

Eventually (and I'm not sure why, exactly), I started to tire of running a VM on it all the time, and I also thought it would be a cleaner setup if my BBS was running in the Linux host OS so that I wouldn't have to run the VM anymore. I moved my BBS to Linux, and I also got DOS doors working with dosbox (and I'm now using dosbox2). IMO I don't think it was exceedingly difficult (it was actually fairly simple to do, at least with Synchronet). As a bonus, my BBS runs faster too now that it's not running in a VM. I'm happy with the setup. I'd rather not buy yet another dedicated PC to run my BBS with a 32-bit Windows.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

On 12 Feb 2026, Atreyu said the following...

Then why bother connecting to echonets? It's the same principle.

Ohhh this hilarious nonsense again. Why bother with Linux, it can't run doors?

At least once or twice a year I can count on reading a Linux Sysop appearing to trip over himself to get doors to run. He'll screw around with Dosbox, Dosemu, can't pass a handle, can't pass a socket... can't pass gas.

The effort I see that person screwing around with Linux that clearly was never designed to run MS-DOS could be spent refurbing a cheap PC with an OS that IS designed to run DOS, thus able to run ANY board with ANY door.... XP and 7.

I'm not sure if this is for or against my reply. I was just saying that his argument as to why connecting to door servers as ephemeral didn't make any sense since echonets were in the same vein, so why bother with anything remote for content.

As an aside, I ran DoorParty under Linux with dosemu easily for years before switching to a different BBS software and OS/VM. It wasn't difficult. At least for me, getting it to run in an OS that wasn't designed originally for doors was part of the fun!

It's why I also setup how-tos on running old DOS text adventure games under a BBS and running Mystic BBS on a jailbroken Android phone, it was fun just seeing if I could.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/12 (Linux/64)
* Origin: throwbackbbs.com -\- meriden, ct -\- (21:1/114)

Re: Re: Door Games
By: Nightfox to Atreyu on Thu Feb 12 2026 09:55 am

Eventually (and I'm not sure why, exactly), I started to tire of running a VM on it all the time, and I also thought it would be a cleaner setup if my BBS was running in the Linux host OS so that I wouldn't have to run the VM anymore. I moved my BBS to Linux, and I also got DOS doors working with dosbox (and I'm now using dosbox2). IMO I don't think it was exceedingly difficult (it was actually fairly simple to do, at least with Synchronet). As a bonus, my BBS runs faster too now that it's not running in a VM. I'm happy with the setup. I'd rather not buy yet another dedicated PC to run my BBS with a 32-bit Windows.

While I won't be migrating off Windows any time soon, I do expect I'll be heading to Linux eventually. Also running Synchronet here and ideally also would prefer to do it without VMs or extra PCs, so it's good to know at least one other sysop is having success with such a setup.

|08�����������������������������Ŀ
|15 �|07 � |08� |11codefenix |08�
|15 �|07���|08� |09ConstructiveChaos BBS |08�
|15 �|07���|08� |01conchaos.synchro.net |08� |08�������������������������������
|07
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Win32
* Origin: -=[conchaos.synchro.net | ConstructiveChaos BBS]=- (21:4/141)

Re: Re: Door Games
By: Codefenix to Nightfox on Thu Feb 12 2026 03:14 pm

While I won't be migrating off Windows any time soon, I do expect I'll be heading to Linux eventually. Also running Synchronet here and ideally also would prefer to do it without VMs or extra PCs, so it's good to know at least one other sysop is having success with such a setup.

I think the migration from Windows to Linux went fairly smoothly. Some time before I moved it to Linux though, I was using Radius as my FTN mailer and decided to switch to Synchronet's BinkIt. BinkIt is written in Synchronet's JavaScript and would thus run anywhere Synchronet runs (whereas Radius is a Windows application). So for me, switching to BinkIt helped. Also, after moving my BBS to Linux, I had to go through and make sure the paths for all my doors was correct (Synchronet doesn't seem to care about slashes, but it was now using Linux paths rather than Windows paths with drive letters). Many of my paths configured in Synchronet were already relative paths, which was a plus. Then there was setting up dosemu for DOS doors. That was pretty much it. I also made a service configuration for Synchronet so that I could run Synchronet in the background with the service mechanism, which is nice.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

Dosemu, can't pass a handle, can't pass a socket... can't pass gas.

ahhahahaahha ^^^^^^^^^^^^

The effort I see that person screwing around with Linux that clearly was ne designed to run MS-DOS could be spent refurbing a cheap PC with an OS that designed to run DOS, thus able to run ANY board with ANY door.... XP and 7.

Yup. My BBS machine was $40.00, I remote pc into it and thus don't need another monitor. Sits quietly in the corner and just "runs".

... I saw Elvis. He sat between me and Bigfoot on the UFO.

--- Renegade v1.40/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (21:1/144)

On 12 Feb 26 10:16:59, Maskreet said the following to Atreyu:

I'm not sure if this is for or against my reply. I was just saying that his argument as to why connecting to door servers as ephemeral didn't make any sense since echonets were in the same vein, so why bother with anything remo

Its only my observation. Sometimes callers like to play a door that can only
be set up for turns in a way only possible when ran by the Sysop. Getting that door running is part of the fun of tinkering you mention.

You might not like what Exodus wrote but he does run arguably "the" largest setup of doors I've ever seen anyone crazy enough to run. He can be considered a subject matter expert on doorgames. He knows what doors have the most
quirks, all the fun ones, the ones users love seeing different instances of, etc... maybe subjective but really can't get that type of fun elsewhere.

I'm not sure I understand the Echonet comparison since its possible to peer to avoid catastrophes with a Hub who vanishes from planet Earth.

Atreyu

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (21:1/176)

At least once or twice a year I can count on reading a Linux Sysop appearing to trip over himself to get doors to run. He'll screw around with Dosbox, Dosemu, can't pass a handle, can't pass a socket... can't pass gas.

I could just as easily substitute Win 64 for linux here.

In both cases, I suspect they either use the computer for other things
that need a modern os, or they want to run the latest version of (insert
BBS software still in development here). They don't want to be stuck with Renegade or (in my case) GT Power which, yeah, run DOS doors great but are
a lot harder to get connected to the internet than, say, a BBS that runs
under linux or win 10+.
Mike
---
� BgNet 1.0�12 � RAW: Port 27 / Telnet:26 / ftelnet:80
* Origin: moe's tavern * 1-5028758938 * moetiki.ddns.net:27 (21:4/134)

Hey,

Ohhh this hilarious nonsense again. Why bother with Linux, it can't run doors?

At least once or twice a year I can count on reading a Linux Sysop appearing to trip over himself to get doors to run. He'll screw around with Dosbox, Dosemu, can't pass a handle, can't pass a socket... can't pass gas.

I have a write-up coming on how to do this. I have Mystic on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and am running DOS doors no problem. Yes it took 6 hours to figure out, but I did it ;)

|15C|13l|05oud|15D|13a|05ncer
|08 @ 911:1614/0 .. 21:3/226 .. 1:226/20 .. 46:1/117 .. 1337:3/224

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: -= bbs.silfenpath.com | Columbus, Ohio (USA) =- (21:3/226)

Re: Re: Door Games
By: Nightfox to Atreyu on Thu Feb 12 2026 09:55 am

Eventually (and I'm not sure why, exactly), I started to tire of

running a

VM on it all the time, and I also thought it would be a cleaner setup

if

my BBS was running in the Linux host OS so that I wouldn't have to

run the

VM anymore. I moved my BBS to Linux, and I also got DOS doors working

with

dosbox (and I'm now using dosbox2). IMO I don't think it was

exceedingly

difficult (it was actually fairly simple to do, at least with

Synchronet).

As a bonus, my BBS runs faster too now that it's not running in a VM.

I'm

happy with the setup. I'd rather not buy yet another dedicated PC to

run

my BBS with a 32-bit Windows.

While I won't be migrating off Windows any time soon, I do expect I'll be heading to Linux eventually. Also running Synchronet here and ideally also would prefer to do it without VMs or extra PCs, so it's good to know at least one other sysop is having success with such a setup.

I would love to switch to Linux, but the EleBBS binaries won't run external programs and I haven't been able to figure out how to compile the source...

--
Shurato, Sysop Shurato's Heavenly Sphere (ssh, telnet, pop3, ftp,nntp,
,wss) (Ports 22,23,110,21,119,999)


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
---
* Origin: Shurato's Heavenly Sphere telnet://shsbbs.net (21:2/148)

Re: Re: Door Games
By: Shurato to Codefenix on Fri Feb 13 2026 06:17 pm

I would love to switch to Linux, but the EleBBS binaries won't run external programs and I haven't been able to figure out how to compile the source...

I started using EleBBS in 2007 (since it's like RemoteAccess, which I used in the 90s), but didn't stick with it.. I just loaded the EleBBS web site, and it's displaying the EleBBS.com header but nothing else. I was curious to see what language it's written in. If it's written in C or C++, you should be able to compile it with gcc or g++. I don't know if it comes with a makefile or anything to make the build process easier. And curious that it won't run external programs..

The reason I didn't stick with it (on Windows at the time) was that it wasn't exiting with the defined errorlevels to run events (such as my nightly maintenance event). I thought that was a bug, but I don't know if there was a way around that.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

* In a message originally to Shurato, Nightfox said:

Re: Re: Door Games By: Shurato to Codefenix on Fri Feb 13 2026 06:17
pm

I would love to switch to Linux, but the EleBBS binaries won't run external programs and I haven't been able to figure out how to

compile the

source...

I started using EleBBS in 2007 (since it's like RemoteAccess, which I used in the 90s), but didn't stick with it.. I just loaded the EleBBS web
site, and it's displaying the EleBBS.com header but nothing else. I was curious to see what language it's written in. If it's written in C or
C++, you should be able to compile it with gcc or g++. I don't know if it comes with a makefile or anything to make the build process easier. And curious that it won't run external programs..

It's Pascal.

--
Shurato, Sysop Shurato's Heavenly Sphere (ssh, telnet, pop3, ftp,nntp,
,wss) (Ports 22,23,110,21,119,999)


---
* Origin: Shurato's Heavenly Sphere telnet://shsbbs.net (21:2/148)

Re: Re: Door Games
By: Shurato to Nightfox on Sat Feb 14 2026 03:16 pm

It's Pascal.

I did a search online, and Free Pascal Compiler & Lazarus (IDE) come up for Pascal compilers. Maybe that's worth trying out, to build EleBBS on Linux.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

Re: Re: Door Games
By: Shurato to Nightfox on Sat Feb 14 2026 03:16 pm

It's Pascal.

I did a search online, and Free Pascal Compiler & Lazarus (IDE) come up for Pascal compilers. Maybe that's worth trying out, to build EleBBS on Linux.

The current binaries were compiled with free pascal. I honestly have no idea where to start. The source is on github. I can't find any instructions.

--
Shurato, Sysop Shurato's Heavenly Sphere (ssh, telnet, pop3, ftp,nntp,
,wss) (Ports 22,23,110,21,119,999)


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
---
* Origin: Shurato's Heavenly Sphere telnet://shsbbs.net (21:2/148)

Hiya,

I have been playing with the sources a long time ago, to change a bit of the look and feel (prompt and filelisting). I found elebbs very stable for up/download at that time.

But concerning compiling, look in the baseinc directory. There are some config files for compiler options, including some instructions. I am not a programmer at all and I was able to compile the sources ... :)

Good luck.

Re: Re: Door Games
By: Shurato to Nightfox on Sat Feb 14 2026 03:16 pm

It's Pascal.

I did a search online, and Free Pascal Compiler & Lazarus (IDE) come for Pascal compilers. Maybe that's worth trying out, to build EleBBS Linux.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
* Origin: -.sOUNDGARDEn.- a green disk full of sound & demos (21:1/116)

Hey Shurato!

On Mon, Feb 16 2026 12:34:00 -0600, you wrote:

The current binaries were compiled with free pascal. I honestly
have no idea where to start. The source is on github. I can't find
any instructions.

How about here, which was the first place that stuck out to me (basically anything with "build" in it) when loading the github page:

https://github.com/mbek/elebbs/tree/master/elebbs/builddoc

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (21:1/700)

* In a message originally to Shurato, Accession said:

Gecko/20100101Thunderbird/140.7.2 Hey Shurato!

On Mon, Feb 16 2026 12:34:00 -0600, you wrote:

The current binaries were compiled with free pascal. I honestly have
no idea where to start. The source is on github. I can't find any instructions.

How about here, which was the first place that stuck out to me (basically anything with "build" in it) when loading the github page:

https://github.com/mbek/elebbs/tree/master/elebbs/builddoc

I'll try again. The last time I tried that, the directory structures didn't match the instructions.

--
Shurato, Sysop Shurato's Heavenly Sphere (ssh, telnet, pop3, ftp,nntp,
,wss) (Ports 22,23,110,21,119,999)


---
* Origin: Shurato's Heavenly Sphere telnet://shsbbs.net (21:2/148)

Re: EleBBS
By: Shurato to Nightfox on Mon Feb 16 2026 06:34 pm

I did a search online, and Free Pascal Compiler & Lazarus (IDE) come up
for Pascal compilers. Maybe that's worth trying out, to build EleBBS on
Linux.

The current binaries were compiled with free pascal. I honestly have no idea where to start. The source is on github. I can't find any instructions.

I haven't used Pascal before, but would a different Pascal compiler not work?

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

I haven't used Pascal before, but would a different Pascal compiler not wor

If you use something else you would need to convert it. Not all pascal code is the same.

... Insects really bug me.

--- Renegade v1.40/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (21:1/144)

I haven't used Pascal before, but would a different Pascal compiler not

wor

If you use something else you would need to convert it. Not all pascal code is the same.

I'm willing to do this... What Linux Pascal compiler should I use? Virtual Pascal is supposed to be more compatible with this than Free Pascal.

--
Shurato, Sysop Shurato's Heavenly Sphere (ssh, telnet, pop3, ftp,nntp,
,wss) (Ports 22,23,110,21,119,999)


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
---
* Origin: Shurato's Heavenly Sphere telnet://shsbbs.net (21:2/148)

On 22 Feb 2026, Shurato said the following...

If you use something else you would need to convert it. Not all pasc code is the same.

I'm willing to do this... What Linux Pascal compiler should I use? Virtual Pascal is supposed to be more compatible with this than Free Pascal.

VP can't be used to build a Linux version of EleBBS. Not without considerable (wasted imo) effort. The Linux version always used FreePascal.

You would have to write a socket library (partially in assembler) yourself and port all sorts of stuff over. And depending on your luck (or the weather) you might not even get a binary that works out the other side. (You might get one
using the linker from OpenWatcom tho? Hooray for complications)
You can certainly go down this rabbit hole, but it's going to be 1000x harder than learning to build it with FreePascal.

Do you get any sort of error output from the copy you have?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)

I'm willing to do this... What Linux Pascal compiler should I use? Virtua Pascal is supposed to be more compatible with this than Free Pascal.

You only have 2 options that I know of for Linux crap. Free Pascal and Virtual Pascal.

... Before you see the light, you must die.

--- Renegade v1.40/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (21:1/144)

I'm willing to do this... What Linux Pascal compiler should I use?

Virtua

Pascal is supposed to be more compatible with this than Free Pascal.

You only have 2 options that I know of for Linux crap. Free Pascal and Virtual Pascal.

Ok, I'll look into this further with free pascal, since that seems to be
what's used. When the source compiled under that wouldn't run external programs of any kind without major errors (I posted them to Micronet a while back, or FU-Net) I thought it would need to be compiled under VP. I'll test that eventually. I had major problems compiling though, the directory
stucture in the instructions didn't match that of the source.

--
Shurato, Sysop Shurato's Heavenly Sphere (ssh, telnet, pop3, ftp,nntp,
,wss) (Ports 22,23,110,21,119,999)


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
---
* Origin: Shurato's Heavenly Sphere telnet://shsbbs.net (21:2/148)