How to Install DBGL DOSBox Game Launcher in Ubuntu 18.04

This quick tutorial shows how to easily install DBGL, graphical user interface to DOSBox (configuration), in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, and their derivatives.

DBGL is a free, open-source, multi-platform Java frontend for DOSBox. It features:

  • Multiple DOSBox versions support.
  • Templates support.
  • Basic support for ‘Windows system integration’
  • Import / Export Game.
  • Support for so-called Booter games.
  • Export game-list to a file
  • Automated build system, and more.

How to Install DBGL in Ubuntu:

Thanks to Rob Savoury who maintains a PPA repository that contains DBGL as well as DOSBox packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and Ubuntu 19.10.

1. Open terminal either from application menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/dbgl

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

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2. Then refresh system package cache (for Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, it’s done automatically after adding PPA.), and install the game launcher:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install dbgl dosbox

3. (Optional) DBGL requires Java. If you don’t have Java runtime in your system, either install Oracle Java or run command to install OpenJDK:

sudo apt install openjdk-8-jre

For Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, you may replce openjdk-8-jre with openjdk-11-jre.

Once installed, open DOSBox game launcher from system application launcher and enjoy.

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA repository, run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:savoury1/dbgl

To remove DBGL as well as DOSBox, run command:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove dbgl dosbox