The real answer to that is both of those options are deprecated, because the way cartridges are handled has changed to be about more than just DOS - but I try to keep old options working "as expected" as much as possible.pser1 wrote: Maybe Ciaran could tell us what is the difference between these two parameters (-dos versus -dostype) keeping into account that adding a file like DDOS40.rom or DDOS11C.rom, at this moment, gives the same result with any of them.
pere
Machines are configured by name with "-machine" and various other options configure aspects of that named machine config. Carts are the same, you select one to configure with "-cart" and then further options affect that named config.
A machine has a default cart ("-machine-cart"), which is used unless XRoar reckoned something on the command line should inhibit it (e.g., running a tape file). If that's not defined, XRoar tries to be clever and pick a DOS cart based on available ROMs; "-nodos" inhibits that behaviour for a machine (e.g., if you configured a 4K CoCo, it wouldn't make sense to automatically attach RSDOS).
You select a default machine to run with "-default-machine". But to add confusion (in the name of user friendliness and backwards compatibility), if you select a machine on the command line (as opposed to in the config file), that's assumed to be the one you want to run. Similarly, if you specifiy a cart to configure on the command line, it's assumed you want it connected.
The output of "--help" and "-config-print" should be informative - both should provide clues about what options are related to what through indent level (in recent releases!).
Thinking it through to write this out, it does occur to me that the cart selection shouldn't really be a part of the machine configuration - there should perhaps be some higher level way of grouping a machine choice with a cartridge choice (and other things, like which joysticks are used for what) and giving that grouping a name. What to call such a group? A "setup"? An "installation"? Any ideas?
BTW, if you always prefer that DragonDOS carts use "DDOS11C", you might try adding this option (maybe in xroar.conf): "-romlist dragondos=DDOS11C,@dragondos"