5.3. The configuration interface 'textconfig'

5.3.1. The start menu

If you start Bochs without the quickstart argument (-q), the Bochs configuration main menu appears:

------------------------------
Bochs Configuration: Main Menu
------------------------------

This is the Bochs Configuration Interface, where you can describe the
machine that you want to simulate.  Bochs has already searched for a
configuration file (typically called bochsrc.txt) and loaded it if it
could be found.  When you are satisfied with the configuration, go
ahead and start the simulation.

You can also start bochs with the -q option to skip these menus.

1. Restore factory default configuration
2. Read options from...
3. Edit options
4. Save options to...
5. Restore the Bochs state from...
6. Begin simulation
7. Quit now

Please choose one: [5]

Here you can load, edit and save the configuration and finally start the simulation. It is possible to start Bochs without a config file and to edit all the settings using the item "Edit options". Don't forget to save the configuration if you want to use this setup for another Bochs session.

5.3.2. The Bochs headerbar

The headerbar appears on top of the Bochs simulation window. Here you can control the behavoiur of Bochs at runtime if you click on one of these buttons:

• floppy buttons

  Here you can toggle the status of the floppy media (inserted/ejected). Bochs for win32 presents you a small dialog box for changing the floppy image. You can setup floppy drives using floppya/floppyb option.

• cdrom button

  Here you can toggle the media status of the first CD-ROM drive (inserted/ejected). CD-ROM drives can be set up using ata(0-3)-master/-slave option. On some platforms this button brings a up a small dialog box for changing the CD-ROM image.

• mouse button

  Here you can enable the creation of mouse events by the host. Once mouse events are captured, you cannot reach the button anymore, in order to disable capturing again. By default you can enable and disable the mouse capture pressing the CTRL key and the third (middle) mouse button. See the mouse option parameter 'toggle' for other methods to toggle the mouse capture.

  Note: Changing the mouse capture at runtime is not supported by all display libraries, but it is already present on RFB, SDL, SDL2, VNCSRV, Win32, wxWidgets and X11.

  Note: Support for 2 button mouse to toggle the capture mode not yet complete - using another toggle method is recommended in that case.

• user button

  Press this button if you want to send the keyboard shortcut defined with the user_shortcut parameter of the keyboard option to the guest. Depending on the used display_library option, it may even be possible to edit the shortcut before sending it.

• copy button

  The text mode screen text can be exported to the clipboard after pressing this button. The button has no effect in graphics mode.

• paste button

  Text in the clipboard can also be pasted, through Bochs, to the guest OS, as simulated keystrokes. Keyboard mapping must be enabled to make this feature work.

• snapshot button

  Press this button if you want to save a snapshot of the Bochs screen. All text and graphics modes are now supported. If gui dialogs are supported (e.g. on win32) Bochs presents you a "Save as..." dialog box to specify the filename. In text modes the formats BMP and TXT are supported depending on file extension. Platforms without gui dialogs are using the fixed filenames "snapshot.txt" or "snapshot.bmp".

• config button

  This button stops the Bochs simulation and starts the runtime configuration. (see below).

• reset button

  Press this button to trigger a hardware reset.

• suspend button

  Press this button to save current simulation state to a disk. The simulation could be restored back using bochs -r command. For more details read the Save and restore simulation section.

• power button

  This button stops the simulation and quits bochs.

Some of these features may not be implemented or work different on your host platform.

5.3.3. Command mode

When using 'sdl', 'sdl2', 'win32' or 'x' as the display_library, the option 'cmdmode' enables the "command mode" support. If enabled, pressing the F7 key will enter 'command mode' (shown in the info item of the statusbar); the next key that is pressed will exit command-mode. When in command-mode, if the pressed key is in the list below, the corresponding action will be performed. With the exception of F7, any key pressed while in command-mode will not be received by the OS running in Bochs.

In fullscreen mode (sdl, sdl2, win32) some handlers do not bring up a dialog box. The floppy buttons just toggle the status, the snapshot feature uses the hardcoded file name and the user button sends the configured shortcut.

5.3.4. The runtime configuration

If you want to change certain settings at runtime, you have to press the "config" button in the headerbar. The simulation stops and the runtime menu appears on the console window / xterm or the Bochs gui console (if available).

---------------------
Bochs Runtime Options
---------------------
1. Floppy disk 0: /dev/fd0, size=1.44M, inserted
2. Floppy disk 1: floppyb.img, size=1.44M, inserted
3. 1st CDROM: (master on ata1) /dev/cdrom, ejected
4. 2nd CDROM: (slave on ata1) /dev/cdrecorder, ejected
5. 3rd CDROM: (not present)
6. 4th CDROM: (not present)
7. (not implemented)
8. Log options for all devices
9. Log options for individual devices
10. Instruction tracing: off (doesn't exist yet)
11. USB runtime options
12. Misc runtime options
13. Continue simulation
14. Quit now

Please choose one:  [15]

In the runtime configuration you can change the floppy/cdrom image or device, change the log options or adjust some other settings. If you have trouble with a specific device, you can change the log options for this device only to get more information (e.g. report debug messages).