OMG, the "Clueless Newbie's Guide"... Well, it "should" still work. Your code looks fine (I would think that, of course
). One fairly common mistake is to write "int 21" instead of "int 21h" - you don't seem to have done that. Leaving out the "org 100h" will usually output "garbage" - you don't seem to have done that, either. I dunno.
I have no experience with "dosbox" - I've downloaded it, but can't get it to build. I may have another go at it "one of these days". Even if I had it, "dosbox" for Linux might not be the same as "dosbox" for 64-bit Windows, so it might not help diagnose what's going on. I assume "dosbox" is working normally for you, outside of this problem(?)...
It "shouldn't" matter which build of Nasm you're using - the command line determines the type of file you get. Probably more convenient to have Nasm that'll run within "dosbox", though...
I can't even think what to try... maybe BIOS output?
; nasm -f bin -o myfile.com myfile.asm
org 100h
mov bx, 7
mov ah, 0Eh
mov al, 'X'
int 10h
ret
I really don't know what it'll tell you if that works - or doesn't. Essentially, like our hypothetical "Clueless Newbie", I haven't got a clue!
Best,
Frank