This document will explain you all ARAnyM features and configuration procedures as well as important principles of functionality.
Note: This text was written for the main Linux version of ARAnyM. Some features described here may not be available in other ARAnyM ports. If you use other than Linux version of ARAnyM, please read also additional documentation for your version.
Note: "HOST" means the machine that `hosts' the ARAnyM virtual machine. For most users it's simply their PC or laptop that runs the ARAnyM.
You need to have SDL library installed (http://www.libsdl.org) and configured. Required is version 1.2.x or later.
ARAnyM keeps all its configuration files in one folder. Under linux and most other operating systems this is ".aranym" in your HOME directory. For MacOS X it is Library/Preferences in your HOME directory. The NVRAM setting and the keymap file are stored in that directory as well. These files are normally named config, nvram and keymap or org.atari.aranym.config, org.atari.aranym.nvram and org.atari.aranym.keymap in case of MacOS X. The configuration file is in plain text so you can edit it with a plain text editor. If the file is not found upon ARAnyM startup then it is generated automatically and the options contain default values. Have a look at the aranym/doc/config file for inspiration.
A hint to path descriptions inside the config file. Generally four types of paths are supported, an absolute path description (starting with / or a drive letter for Windows), a relative path description to the current folder ARAnyM was started in, a HOME relative path starting with ~/, and a data folder relative path starting with */, which means $PREFIX/share/aranym/ for linux and most other operating systems and Library/Application Support/ARAnyM in case of MacOS X (recommended).
ARAnyM also recognises several command line options - try starting ARAnyM with the option "--help" to find out more. The command line options have a higher priority over the config file. You can use it for temporary change of ARAnyM parameters or you can even store the command line options setting to the config file using "aranym --save".
You also need an operating system:
ARAnyM expects to find the TOS 4.04 ROM image in $PREFIX/share/aranym/ROM (if not specified otherwise in the ./configure phase). If you want to keep the TOS ROM elsewhere then don't forget to update your ARAnyM config file: edit the "TOS" line and set the right path to the file ("TOS=/path/to/TOS").
ARAnyM also runs with latest EmuTOS. Simply set the "EmuTOS=" config option to point to your EmuTOS ROM image file.
ARAnyM can directly load and a boot a Linux kernel from your host drive. You just need to fill the [LILO] sections with the correct parameters, and then to run aranym with '-l' or '--lilo' to use it instead of TOS/EmuTOS.
ARAnyM CPU is fully compatible with 68040 and 68882 instruction set. Since the address and data caches of original MC68040 are not emulated there are no compatibility issues with 68000-only dirty written programs. So forget all TOS patches, cache switchers and FPU drivers, these are NOT needed in ARAnyM.
For the maximum power (with low price) you can use JIT compiler from m68k code for x86 code. It is supported only on GNU/Linux now. You must enable it before compilation:
$ ./configure --enable-jit-compiler
And also in your ARAnyM config file, section [JIT]:
JIT = Yes
Other interesting lines in the ARAnyM config file are:
JITFPU = Yes
Set to No when you have problems with FPU. We have reported some problems with one library (lame.slb)
JITCacheSize = 8192
Cache size for translated code in kB. Don't forget - bigger cache is good only if you have enough memory.
JITLazyFlush = 1
I think that the best description has Gwenole Beauchesne:
The solution I came up with is what I called "lazy cache flushing" (oops, well s/flushing/invalidation/ ;-). In that case, the whole cache is kept but the entry points are mapped to a special prologue code that will perform a checksum on the basic block, the next time it is called. If checksum matches, the code is kept and revived, otherwise it needs to be retranslated.
For everybody - only in some very abnormal situation could be a problem with "lazy cache flushing".
ARAnyM provides both ST-RAM and FastRAM (sometimes also called TT-RAM). ST-RAM size is always 14MB. FastRAM size is adjustable from 0 up to 4GB. However, in the default addressing mode (called "real") only maximum of 128MB addressable space is possible (i.e. only 112MB for FastRAM). If you want more RAM then you need to reconfigure and recompile your ARAnyM binary:
$ ./configure --enable-addressing=direct $ make clean $ make
In "direct" addressing mode up to 4GB of RAM is possible but this mode is a bit slower (that's why it is not the default mode).
ARAnyM accesses host graphics output via the SDL library. This library is able to use X Windows as well as the framebuffer device. It also uses HOST hardware acceleration when available. For standard "ARAnyM only" use the framebuffer is the best and fastest solution. You may use also X11 if you want to run ARAnyM in a window (usable for debugging, etc.) or if your graphics card is not supported by framebuffer drivers. All resolution changes are managed within the ARAnyM like on real TOS machine.
Framebuffer device is a part of the HOST Linux kernel but unfortunately kernels in most Linux distributions do not have this feature compiled in by default. There are also many graphics cards which do not have framebuffer driver yet. The generic VESA mode framebuffer driver is not very suitable for ARAnyM. In case you are lucky owner of any graphics card supported by framebuffer (probably all Matrox cards, nearly all cards from nVidia, some from ATI and several others) then you should recompile your kernel with framebuffer support for your card enabled.
Framebuffer support in kernel is detected automatically by ARAnyM. Simply start ARAnyM from Linux virtual console. No X Windows is required for running ARAnyM on framebuffer.
Under X Window system just type "aranym" (aranym will run in window) or "aranym -f" for fullscreen mode.
In fullscreen mode under X Windows ARAnyM uses resolutions defined in the X Windows config file. I.e. if you have defined following modes: 1024x768, 800x600 and 640x480 then you shouldn't switch into higher resolution under ARAnyM. Lower resolutions are possible but they will be displayed with a black border in near-higher resolution.
It is now possible to render the Atari screen using OpenGL. In the [OPENGL] section of the config file, you can choose width, height and bpp of the OpenGL screen. The Atari screen will be zoomed/stretched accordingly. You can also disable/enable linear filtering for the atari screen.
There are several ways how ARAnyM generates graphics output.
In this mode, Falcon video subsystem is emulated. All modes known from Falcon030 are available, including the extended modes. You can use your favourite screen enhancer (Videlity, BlowUP030, Videl Inside) to define your own graphics modes. In this case only vertical and horizontal resolutions and color depth are important, other parameters are ignored.
This ARAnyM screen output is very slow though, especially in higher resolutions because ARAnyM must convert whole screen data many times per second (adjustable - see below) into HOST native format. So it's usable mainly for booting and/or installation purposes. This mode also allows you to run some not cleanly written (nonGEM) software thanks to 99,9% lowlevel compatibility with Falcon030 graphics system.
Switches:
Monitor type (-m) informs TOS in real F030 which monitor type is connected. From ARAnyM point of view it causes only that TOS uses different vertical resolutions (200/400 lines for RGB/TV instead for 240/480 lines for VGA, plus 640x400xTC for RGB/TV). In fact it is usable only for experiments with some unclean Falcon software (a few programs work only on RGB/TV).
-m1 ...RGB/TV is connected -m0 ...VGA is connected (default)
Refresh rate (-v <number>) sets how often will ARAnyM convert atari graphics into HOST native format. Default value is 2, which means refresh rate 50/2 = 25Hz (fps). Higher refresh rate causes smoother graphics but slows down whole emulation.
Boot color depth (-r <number of bytes per pixel>) forces color depth during boot process. Valid values are:
1...monochrome 2...4colors 4...16 colors 8...256 colors 16...Falcon TC (16bit)
If not selected then TOS uses the NVRAM setting.
Note: Remember that VIDEL emulation is not usable for serious work in GEM and you can never reach full ARAnyM power when using it!
In the aranym config file, you can also choose to enable the 'autozoom' feature. It allows ARAnyM to zoom/strech the atari screen to fit the size of the host screen. This is specially useful on Linux with vesafb, which is not resizable.
Examples for a 320x200 atari screen on a 1024x768 host screen:
The atari screen is centered on the host screen. (zoomcoefx=320/320=1, zoomcoefy=200/200=1)
The atari screen is zoomed to 1024x768. Not all atari pixels look the same, due to the non-integer zooming coefficients. (Some are 3 pixels wide, others are 4 pixels wide). (zoomcoefx=1024/320=3.2, zoomcoefy=768/200=3.84)
The atari screen is zoomed to 960x600, centered on the host screen. All atari pixels look the same, due to integer zooming coefficients. (zoomcoefx=int(1024/320)=3, zoomcoefy=int(768/200)=3) Note: autozoominteger is automatically disabled if the atari screen is bigger than the host screen.
This mode is newest, fastest and the only hardware accelerated. This is the only right mode suitable for real work in GEM. All you need is to install fVDI with special driver developed for ARAnyM. Following files are needed:
main fVDI engine created by Johan Klockars
configuration file
fVDI screen driver (the m68k part of it - the HOST native part is in the ARAnyM core)
You can run fVDI from AUTO folder (recommended) or from the desktop. For starting from AUTO folder you need to place the FVDI.PRG into \AUTO, CONFIG.SYS in the root of the boot drive and ARANYM.SYS into \GEMSYS folder (or specify the path in the FVDI.SYS file).
The simplest FVDI.SYS that sets graphics mode into resolution 1024x768x16bit should look like this:
PATH = C:/GEMSYS booted 01r aranym.sys mode 1024x768x16@75
Number after "@" is the refresh rate (in Hz) and is accepted only on framebuffer devices in fullscreen.
Look into general fVDI documentation and example FVDI.SYS file for more informations.
[to be written]
You have several choices to have audio output from Atari applications to the host audio device:
Put the atari/sound/zmagxsnd.prg to your AUTO folder and Aniplayer (after switching to XBIOS in its Sound Config dialog) should play all sounds nicely!
ARAnyM now emulates Falcon audio DMA emulation. Beware that it is not accurate so the emulation could crash an application using audio DMA to replay samples.
You can use floppy image or real floppy drive of your computer. In both cases reading, writing and formatting is possible.
ARAnyM also tries to boots from the floppy (like on original Atari). Both DD (720KB) and HD (1.44MB) are supported. Larger floppy images known from STonX are supported, too.
In order to get it working you need only to specify path to your floppy device or floppy image file in the commandline:
-a /dev/fd0 ... for real floppy device -a /path/disk.img ... for floppy image
or rather in the ARAnyM config file, in [GLOBAL] section:
Floppy = /dev/fd0 (or /path/floppy.img)
There are several ways how to manage harddrives. You can connect harddisk from real Atari or clone computer directly into your HOST machine and ARAnyM will be able to use it and even boot from it!
Another way is to use harddisk or single partition images and finally there is also the possibility of mapping HOST fs directories as a logical disk. Also note that we prepared several disk images for you - visit our download area at http://aranym.atari.org/
Harddisk images are large files that contain all sectors of an atari harddisk. They work much the same way as a floppy image. You can simply create a large file and tell ARAnyM to use it as a harddisk, but you will need to format it just like a real harddisk before you can actually use it.
Look into FAQ for more details.
ARAnyM can emulate both channels of Falcon IDE interface thus it's able to use any disk device (or file) as a harddisk. It uses direct access to devices so you don't need to have the disk mounted under the HOST OS; paths to devices are enough.
Take a harddisk (from you real TOS machine or any other) and connect it into your HOST machine - say as master on the second IDE channel (which means that path under Linux will be /dev/hdc).
Then you need to specify geometry of such drive and path in the ARAnyM config file. Important parameters are number of cylinders, tracks and sectors per track (usually named C/H/S). There are several ways to obtain it. Easiest is to look onto harddrive label where C/H/S parameters are usually printed. On the PC you can look into the BIOS SETUP. Or under Linux you can use utility called hdparm.
$ cat /proc/ide/hdc/geometry physical 62016/15/63 logical 3876/240/63
The line with "physical" is what you need, 62016/15/63 are C/H/S geometry parameters. Beware of the hdparm utility which gives you only the "logical" C/H/S which is not really what you need.
Now open ARAnyM config file and write here those parameters and the path:
[IDE0] Present = Yes Path = /dev/hdc Cylinders = 62016 Heads = 15 SectorsPerTrack = 63 ByteSwap = No
Since there are two IDE channels emulated, you can attach two harddisks. If you use only one then disable the second with:
[IDE1] Present = No
Harddisk images are large files which are used by ARAnyM as a real harddisk. There are two ways how to make such image. If you want to make a copy of your real atari harddisk, then type:
$ dd if=/dev/hdb of=/path/to/my/AtariDrive
That will create an image file of the whole disk connected as /dev/hdb.
CAUTION: Be _very_ careful when using the dd command when you are root as you can destroy your system by a simple typo mistake !
You can also create a empty disk image file in the SETUP GUI. Press Pause (or run "aranym --gui"), specify the disk image size and click on the Generate button. The current fileselector is unable to specify an unexisting filename unfortunately (this must be fixed), so for the time being please point it to an existing file that you don't mind get destroyed.
Then the disk image must by partitioned and the partitions must be formatted. Plain old AHDI could do that, I hope. I myself use HDDRIVER as I bought it.
Also please note that EmuTOS doesn't handle partitions larger than 255 MB.
Then it is same as in previous section. Only in Path will be a file instead of a device:
[IDE0] Present = Yes Path = /path/filename Cylinders = 940 Heads = 16 SectorsPerTrack = 63 ByteSwap = No
Note: C/H/S parameters must be correct even for image files!
Since TOS itself cannot manage harddisks you have to install a harddisk driver. In case you use and empty harddisk or image, you have to run driver from floppy and partition it first like on real TOS machine.
If you have connected a real harddisk from any TOS machine and this drive is bootable (driver is already installed) then ARAnyM should boot from it like usually. However, if you were using some special HW drivers, like e.g. Afterburner, Centurbo or NOVA/Rage gfx card drivers, you want to disable them. So try the first boot with Ctrl held down (AUTO folder programs are not executed then).
There is also a possibility of attaching real CD-ROM on emulated IDE channel:
[IDE1] Present = Yes IsCDROM = Yes Path = /dev/hdb
Then you need to install drivers (like SPIN) for the IDE CD-ROM on the ARAnyM side.
Single partitions are better in several aspects over Atari harddrives:
There is only one drawback - single partitions are supported in EmuTOS only (and FreeMiNT if booted from EmuTOS), so if you still prefer TOS 4.04 this is not for you (yet, as I am working on NF-XHDI driver for TOS).
Example of creating a single partition image in Linux Host OS and working with it:
# create 16 MB disk $ dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/mydisk.img bs=1M count=16 # format it $ /sbin/mkdosfs /tmp/mydisk.img # mount it $ sudo mount -t msdos /tmp/mydisk.img /mnt -o loop=/dev/loop1 # copy files there $ sudo cp files* /mnt # unmount it $ sudo umount /mnt # add to ARAnyM in the config file [PARTITION0] Path = /tmp/mydisk.img Present = Yes PartID = $6 ByteSwap = Yes ReadOnly = No
and now you can start ARAnyM with EmuTOS (and FreeMiNT) and access this new drive. Plain TOS doesn't support it (yet), unfortunately.
You could of course format the mydisk.img with a different filesystem, use "mke2fs" for ext2 (and change the PartID to $83). Or, you could even format it with Atari GEMDOS filesystem using "mkdosfs -A" (changing the PartID to "BGM").
And last but not least - you could access selected partitions on your real harddrive this way. Just set the Path to /dev/hda2, for example (and set correct PartID) and ARAnyM will access second partition on your real harddrive directly.
List of most useful partition IDs follows:
| Value/ASCII character string | Type |
| GEM | Atari FAT16 (up to 31 MB) |
| BGM | Atari FAT16 (BigGeM = more than 32 MB) |
| LNX | Atari Linux (also "MIX" as Minix or "RAW" are supported) |
| $6 | DOS FAT16 in IBM PC format |
| $83 | Linux in IBM PC format |
For this new feature you need ARAnyM 0.9.0+ and up-to-date EmuTOS.
For accessing data on a host filesystem you can map the host fs to a logical drive in TOS or MiNT. We have created HostFS BetaDOS driver for use in TOS and also native MiNT HostFS.XFS driver. BetaDOS is a free and improved replacement of MetaDOS which in turn was Atari designed AUTO folder patch that extended the TOS ROM GEMDOS with support for loadable drivers.
ARAnyM driver for BetaDOS is available in atari/hostfs/hostfs.dos.bz2. You can unpack it and add to the BetaDOS configuration file (bdconfig.sys). The example of config.sys you will find in the same directory as the driver.
The problem is how to put it on a new harddisk. One way is to use floppy. Another possibility is to boot the AFROS (ARAnyM FRee OS) and attach your disk drive as Slave ([IDE1]).
As you setup the bdconfig.sys (e.g.):
*DOS, c:\auto\hostfs.dos, M:M
The M:1 means you want to have the TOS M: drive mapped to some HOST OS directory. The directory must be put to aranym by the command line argument -d like:
$ aranym -dm:/opt/home/atari/
This would map the /opt/home/atari/ to the TOS drive M:\.
There can be up to 26 mapped drives.
Note: These drives aren't bootable. They are also not designed as alternative to the harddisk images but rather as a way to transfer files between HOST fs and ARAnyM.
For permanent mapping edit the aranym config file, the [ARANYMFS] block and add the desired path, as follows:
M=/opt/home/atari
More info you'll find in atari/hostfs/README file.
Note: We are planning on writing a tool for BDCONFIG.SYS auto-configuration.
This is Mint version of ARAnyM HostFS driver. Place it into your MINT directory; it will map the host fs to logical disks automatically.
The networking in ARAnyM is not an easy topic because there are several different ways you can hook up your virtual machine to the network and you need to choose the right one for your environment.
I would say that the first question is whether you're on a LAN with spare IP addresses or if your host computer has a single public IP and is hooked up to internet directly.
For LAN setup, you probably want your ARAnyM to appear on the LAN just like any other machine so others can ssh, ftp or telnet into it. There are two possible ways: either you can use bridging or proxy-arp (see below).
For single host computer with public IP the problem is that you usually cannot afford assigning another public IP to ARAnyM so you'll want the host computer to hide ARAnyM and to route traffic to it. For this you'll probably use masquerading.
Setting up the proxy-arp is very easy. My host computer at office has IP address 192.168.0.5 and the netmask is 255.255.255.0. As I know IP addresses in the range 192.168.0.100+ are unused in our office I have chosen 192.168.0.113/114 as the IP addresses of the tap0 tunnel:
[ETH0] Type = ptp HostIP = 192.168.0.113 AtariIP = 192.168.0.114 Netmask = 255.255.255.252
Then the 'aratapif' is to be setuid root and located in $PATH and the tun/tap modules must be loaded (see the documentation.txt and the README in the ethernet folder). Then you can enable the proxy-arp with the following commands (as root):
$ echo 1 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/eth0/proxy_arp $ echo 1 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/tap0/proxy_arp
[this is what I've googled up. One of these commands might be unnecessary or it can be accomplished with the 'arp' command more elegantly - please correct me].
After launching ARAnyM and loading FreeMiNT (with the aranym.xif driver) you just start my nfeth-config.sh script and it will run the following two commands in FreeMiNT:
$ ifconfig eth0 addr 192.168.0.114 netmask 255.255.255.252 $ route add default eth0 gw 192.168.0.113
And that's it. Now ARAnyM is connected to your LAN with IP 192.168.0.114 and it's fully accessible. It can of course connect to any other machine and also access the internet via our company gateway.
Bjoern Spruck has contributed a piece of shell script that should set up the Linux Host OS' networking for ARAnyM in the masquerading mode:
#/bin/bash # # All this should be done as root # # Load tun/tap module modprobe tun # # change rights to suid for cause aranym is calling it chmod +s /usr/local/bin/aratapif # # init ip-masquerating # /usr/sbin/iptables -D POSTROUTING -t nat -s 192.168.0.0/24 -d ! 192.168.0.0/24 -j MASQUERADE >& /dev/null /usr/sbin/iptables -t nat -s 192.168.0.0/24 -d ! 192.168.0.0/24 -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE # # enable ip-masq # echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
This script needs to be started as one of the last things in your Host OS boot. Obviously the chmod is not necessary to call each time, it's there just as a reminder I guess. And the last "echo 1 >" is superseded in modern Linux distributions by other methods. But using it doesn't hurt.
Recently Standa developed a new method called Bridging that allows ARAnyM to get its own IP address and to act like a regular machine on your LAN. For Bridging setup enter this in the ARAnyM config file:
[ETH0] type = bridge tunnel = tap0 HostIP = 192.168.1.3 AtariIP = 192.168.1.2 Netmask = 255.255.255.0
At last you need to configure the IP address, route and netmask on the FreeMiNT side. For that I developed the 'nfeth-config' tool that can read the ethernet setting from the ARAnyM config file. As of ARAnyM 0.8.11 this requires FreeMiNT 1.16.0+ with NatFeat support. You can simply run the 'eth0-config.sh' shell script during FreeMiNT boot up and it will set up the eth0 interface properly.
My experience shows that the bridging is real easy to get working using the 'arabridge' script. Or even easier, follow (as root) this step by step HOWTO.
Let's say we want to hook the ARAnyM to the 'eth0' interface:
1. note ip, netmask and route of eth0
$ /sbin/ifconfig eth0 $ /sbin/routeSay eth0 had IP address 192.168.0.42 and default route was to 192.168.0.1
2. shut down eth0
$ ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0
3. create tap0
$ modprobe tun $ tunctl -t tap0 -u <your_username>
4. create bridge
$ brctl addbr br0
5. add eth0+tap0 to the bridge
$ brctl addif br0 eth0 $ brctl addif br0 tap0
6. set ip and netmask of br0 to be same as was the eth0
$ ifconfig br0 192.168.0.42 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
7. restore default route
$ route add default gw 192.168.0.1 br0
and that's it. Problems could arise if firewall is running on the same host because the eth0 basically disappears (is replaced with the br0) though it's still possible to fix the firewall setup afterwards.
I have updated the arabridge script, it now works well in Debian. Make sure you edit the USER, NIF and maybe also the TAPS and BRIDGE variables.
In MS Windows ARAnyM provides TAP-Win32 based networking. It can provide the point-to-point or bridged networking just like Linux's one. I didn't hear about ARP-Proxy for Windows so far though.
It is required to install the Win32-TAP network driver. You can download the coLinux installer from colinux download page and install just the TAP driver using custom setup.
Configure the IP address and netmask of the TAP Connection in the connection properties dialog. We will take the 192.168.5.1 with netmask 255.255.255.0 for example.
Then in the ARANYM config file put an entry like this:
[ETH0] Type = ptp Tunnel = ARAnyM TAP HostIP = 192.168.5.1 AtariIP = 192.168.5.2 Netmask = 255.255.255.0
Tunnel is the name of the TAP device as shown in the control panel / network connections.
Configure the active internet connection 'Internet Connection Sharing' to be shared with the ARAnyM TAP Connection. One note here is that the LAN address range cannot be a private address to begin with 192.168.0.xxx. Windows will complain that there is a network already configured for an Internet connection. So if you are behind your own router, make sure the local addresses are something like 192.168.1.x. This way Windows will allow you share the internet connection.
Then in the ARANYM config file put an entry like this:
[ETH0] Type = ptp Tunnel = ARAnyM TAP HostIP = 192.168.0.1 AtariIP = 192.168.0.2 Netmask = 255.255.255.0
Windows XP provide built-in bridge functionality. So you can create a bridged connection over your active internet connection and the ARAnyM TAP one. A very nice HowTo has been done for OpenVPN and is located at OpenVPN web site.
Your ARANYM configuration file needs to reflect the LAN settings, of course.
This way the running ARAnyM behaves like another machine connected to your LAN. You can use e.g. the SpareMiNT's dhcpclient package to lease the IP address from your DHCP server just as your host OS does. Or you can set the static IP address. All just like if you have another box sitting beside your host machine.
You can use IDE emulation (see section 8.1.4), but you can have only 2 IDE devices. So a better way is to use Natfeat CD-ROM driver, where you can have up to 26 CD-ROM drives (physical devices A to Z for BetaDOS). The SDL driver allows only audio CD playing, whereas the Linux driver allows you also data CD-ROM access.
First, See section [CDROMS] in your config file. Each drive letter is a physical device for BetaDOS, and you can give it any host CD-ROM drive number (if you have multiple CD-ROM drives on your host machine).
Example:
[CDROMS] A = 0 .. W = 1 .. Z = 2
Then, on the Atari side, copy the file nfcdrom.bos to your auto folder, and edit your config.sys file, and add a line like this:
*BOS, \auto\nfcdrom.bos, A, W, Z
You can now use audio CDs with your favorite CD player. If you also want access to data CD-ROMs, you need an iso9660 filesystem driver. You can find some with BetaDOS, and add the lines:
*DOS, \auto\iso9660.dos, G:A, H:W, I:Z
To have gemdos drives G, H, I (on your desktop) use the respective A, W, Z BetaDOS devices.
You can use the power of the host CPU to render OpenGL scenes, instead of using an emulated m68k and its fpu. This is not hardware accelerated!
First, you need to install Mesa and its offscreen rendering part (OSMesa). Compile Mesa using 'make linux' or 'make linux-x86' on Linux, or make 'darwin' on MacOSX.
Then you can configure ARAnyM to use OSMesa, with --enable-nfosmesa --disable-opengl, then make should do its work. ARAnyM should not be linked with your system OpenGL library, otherwise it won't work.
Finally, fill the [NFOSMESA] section in the config file as needed, you can give the complete path to your Mesa libGL and libOSMesa files.
Atari side: just use osmesa.ldg provided in ARAnyM archive, instead of the original one. You can even use it instead of previous mesa_gl.ldg an tiny_gl.ldg. If you are using MiNT, don't forget the nfosmesa.xdd device driver.
There are different libOSMesa libraries for the host: libOSMesa (8 bits per channel, with separated libGL), libOSMesa16 (16 bits integer value per channel, with included libGL) and libOSMesa32 (32 bits float value per channel, with included libGL). You need to adjust the config file this way:
- libOSMesa: ChannelSize = 0 /* mandatory */ libGL = /path/to/mesa/libGL.so /* mandatory */ libOSMesa = /path/to/mesa/libOSMesa.so /* mandatory */ - libOSMesa16: ChannelSize = 16 /* mandatory */ libGL = /path/to/mesa/libGL.so /* unused */ libOSMesa = /path/to/mesa/libOSMesa16.so /* mandatory */ - libOSMesa32: ChannelSize = 32 /* mandatory */ libGL = /path/to/mesa/libGL.so /* unused */ libOSMesa = /path/to/mesa/libOSMesa32.so /* mandatory */
Since ARAnyM version 0.9.0 Linux/m68k kernel should boot up normally, like on a Falcon030 with MC68040. You can use normal Atari bootstrap for booting Linux/m68k from TOS or you can boot the linux kernel directly thanks to ARAnyM integrated LILO (Linux Loader). Of course you need the MMU enabled version of ARAnyM (binary should be named "aranym-mmu").
modify your config file:
[LILO] Kernel = /path/to/linux.bin Ramdisk = /path/to/root.bin Args = root=/dev/ram load_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=13000 stram_swap=0 debug debug=par console=tty0 video=atafb:vga2 nolangchooser
Visit this site for linux.bin (kernel image) and root.bin (ramdisk image).
modify your config file:
[LILO] Kernel = /path/to/vmlinuz-2.4.27-atari Ramdisk = /path/to/initrd.gz Args = root=/dev/ram load_ramdisk=1 ramdisk_size=13000 stram_swap=0 debug debug=par console=tty0 video=atafb:vga2 debian-installer/framebuffer=false
Visit
this site for linux kernel images (vmlinuz-2.2.25-atari or vmlinuz-2.4.27-atari).
Visit
this site for ramdisk images (initrd22.gz or initrd.gz).
With correct config file you simply start "aranym-mmu -l -N" and that's it.
ARAnyM contains an unified interface for accessing emulator specific features in a "standard" way that is called Native Features. This new standard has been developed in a close cooperation with ARAnyM, STonC, hatari and EmuTOS developers and its main goal was to allow developing universal drivers shareable across all Atari emulators. This NatFeat interface is to be used by operating system drivers only - it is not intended for direct use by regular applications!
Please note that there are some bits of NatFeats documentation available in the ARAnyM archive but it's mostly obsolete and worst of all it's incorrect in the promotion of NatFeat usage via the cookie by regular apps. This will be fixed eventually when time permits.]
If you need to detect that your TOS/GEM software is running on ARAnyM then please check the standard Atari cookie _MCH. While stock Falcon's _MCH cookie value is $30000 and Milan's (as the latest TOS compatible real hardware) _MCH cookie value is $40000, on the ARAnyM this cookie value should be set to $50000 (unless changed in the ARAnyM's config file, but that applies to TOS only, anyway. EmuTOS hardwires $50000).
FreeMiNT 1.16+ contains direct support for NatFeat drivers and is able to use NatFeat debug output for FreeMiNT debug messages. Also EmuTOS naturally supports basic NatFeats.