[ajs]

Hi,

Just a quick howto for those of you wishing to run MZX under Linux. This solution will work on any Linux distribution, but it relies on your video card BIOS supporting VGA, which will not include laptops lacking a legacy VGA BIOS.

First, get dosemu from here:

http://prdownloads.s....0.tgz?download

Grab a few critical files:
wget http://bitpack.net/f...0-compile.patch
wget http://bitpack.net/f...uft/dosemu.conf
wget http://bitpack.net/f...c_drive.tar.bz2

Then;

tar zxvf dosemu-1.2.0.tgz
cd dosemu-1.2.0
patch -Np1 -i ~/dosemu-1.2.0-compile.patch
./default-configure
make
make install (as root)

Now, as root do the following:
cp ~/dosemu.conf /etc/dosemu
(overwrite any existing file)

cd /usr/share/dosemu
tar jxvf ~/c_drive.tar.bz2
rm -rf c_drive/dosemu
mv freedos/dosemu c_drive
rm -rf freedos
ln -sf c_drive/dosemu commands

This replaces the default "freedos" with a new directory called "c_drive" with your host dosemu executables as of this version.

You're now ready to go! Switch to a regular console (do NOT run dosemu from within X, it's pointless and MZX will barely function!) with ctrl-alt-F2. Login as root, and execute:

dosemu

The first time it starts up it will ask for a bootable dos image. Enter:

/usr/share/dosemu/c_drive

And hit return to the information. From now on, dosemu will boot straight up into this disc image as specified in the config file in /etc. Your video should initialise and the emulator should come up. I've simplified things for those of you that haven't used dos in a while, just read the menu and type "megazeux" to start 2.69c.

TROUBLESHOOTING

If you can't compile or install dosemu, it's out of my hands. You need to fix your distribution. It worked on a custom distribution as of 02/02/04, so as far as I'm concerned any compilation breakage is your fault.

However, if dosemu fails to start up, initialise video, or locks up your computer, please do let me know here. If you want to get sound and video working and they don't work with the default config I've supplied, the file to modify (as root) is /etc/dosemu/dosemu.conf. This file contains a lot of useful variables which I've tried my best to helpfully comment.

A common fix for those of you running Redhat 9 or Fedora will be to change /dev/sound/dsp and /dev/sound/mixer to simply /dev/dsp and /dev/mixer, respectively. This will give you sound in MZX.

MegaZeux 2.69c ships configured in the c_drive tarball. It does *not* need reconfiguring, and if you do so you could very well break stuff. If you can't get charedits, SMZX mode or sound, it's a problem with the dosemu.conf, not MZX. Okay?

I think that just about covers it. BTW, for those of you who can't use MZX on XP, this will work a treat on the same computer running Linux. Not that I'm trying to convert you, but it's a useful piece of trivia ;p

Cheers,
ajs.

[Kuddy]

pinned~

[GetDizzy]

Lovely. Didn't work on my laptop, but works like a charm on my 486 with Linux on it. Yay.