Building RPCEmu for Linux

Hi there, according to the RISC OS USB that l just ordered, l need to do the following step, which l’m stumbling on:

(2) Unpack the RPCEmu sources somewhere
-——————————————————

To explain: l copied the tar.gz file onto my desktop.
What do l literally type next and literally where do l type it?
I have tried opening terminal in the rpcemu-0.9.3 folder that l unzipped on my desktop.
It doesn’t work.

What exactly did you type? Can you cut and paste the input and output from the terminal window, please?

Start the first line of text with bc. to make it appear as code in the forum.

I got the file:
Emulate/Sources/src-original.tar.gz

and transferred it to a folder i named RISC OS on my desktop.
I then unpacked it. I then entered the unpacked folder.

I did everything in the part before Step 1.
I did everything in Step 1

Within the unpacked folder, l then commenced Step 2.
So, l opened a Linux terminal within the unpacked folder.
I typed cd
l then typed: tar -zxf src-original.tar.gz
This seems a little odd as this is the unpacked folder l’m in.

The result is this:
tar (child): src-original.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

the RISC OS USB that l just ordered

What is the “RISC OS USB”, and who did you order it from? Many of us are only likely to be familiar with the official RPCEmu distro from https://www.marutan.net/rpcemu/index.php and the sources in .tar.gz files in the downloads section there – if you’re using something else, then there could be differences. The references to patching things makes me wonder if you’re using the Cloverleaf distro – if so, telling us that upfront would help a lot, as there could be differences in the process.

I got the file:
Emulate/Sources/src-original.tar.gz

and transferred it to a folder i named RISC OS on my desktop.

OK.

I then unpacked it. I then entered the unpacked folder.

Woah. Hang on. What do you mean “I then unpacked it”?

I did everything in the part before Step 1.
I did everything in Step 1

Within the unpacked folder, l then commenced Step 2.
So, l opened a Linux terminal within the unpacked folder.
I typed cd
l then typed: tar -zxf src-original.tar.gz

There’s something amiss here. You said that you “then unpacked it” earlier, but here you’re describing an attempt to unpack the files using

tar -zxf src-original.tar.gz

If you’ve already unpacked the files from the TAR, that’s not going to work, and the “No such file or directory” for src-original.tar.gz isn’t surprising.

Also, what do you mean by “Step 1”, “Step 2”…? Are they the steps from https://www.marutan.net/rpcemu/linuxcompile.html

err … think local:
https://riscosopen.org/content/sales/risc-os-emulate

Reluctant to just paste the entire Linux info sheet as that could make it unreasonable to some to purchase the USB, if they could D.i.y.

By unpacked it, i mean, unzipped it / extracted it.

Yes it does seem strange to try to extract the already extracted, but l’m just following the instructions in the Linux folder of the USB

err … think local

Another one I’m not familiar with, unfortunately.

I’ve already got the pre-requisite packages installed on this Ubuntu 20.04 system here (step 1 from here). I’ve downloaded a copy of the latest .tar.gz of the sources from here, and placed it in a new folder in the root of my disc: ~/demo. This means that I’m working from a clean start (aside from the pre-requisites, which don’t look to be your problem).

Opening a new terminal window, which defaults to ~/, compilation is then just a case of dropping into the demo folder, then following the instructions for extracting and compiling:

steve@ullscarf:~$ cd demo/
steve@ullscarf:~/demo$ ls
rpcemu-0.9.4.tar.gz
steve@ullscarf:~/demo$ tar xfp rpcemu-0.9.4.tar.gz
steve@ullscarf:~/demo$ ls
rpcemu-0.9.4  rpcemu-0.9.4.tar.gz
steve@ullscarf:~/demo$ cd rpcemu-0.9.4/src/qt5/
steve@ullscarf:~/demo/rpcemu-0.9.4/src/qt5$ ./buildit.sh 
Info: creating stash file /home/steve/demo/rpcemu-0.9.4/src/qt5/.qmake.stash
steve@ullscarf:~/demo/rpcemu-0.9.4/src/qt5$ make
make -f Makefile.Release
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/steve/demo/rpcemu-0.9.4/src/qt5'

-- time passes --

make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/steve/demo/rpcemu-0.9.4/src/qt5'
steve@ullscarf:~/demo/rpcemu-0.9.4/src/qt5$ 
steve@ullscarf:~/demo/rpcemu-0.9.4/src/qt5$ cd ../../
steve@ullscarf:~/demo/rpcemu-0.9.4$ ls -lh
total 588K
-rw-rw-r-- 1 steve steve  256 Oct 28  2021 cmos.ram
-rw-rw-r-- 1 steve steve  18K Oct 28  2021 COPYING
drwxrwxr-x 3 steve steve 4.0K Oct 28  2021 hostfs
drwxrwxr-x 2 steve steve 4.0K Oct 28  2021 netroms
drwxrwxr-x 2 steve steve 4.0K Oct 28  2021 poduleroms
-rw-rw-r-- 1 steve steve  581 Oct 28  2021 readme.txt
drwxrwxr-x 5 steve steve 4.0K Oct 28  2021 riscos-progs
drwxrwxr-x 2 steve steve 4.0K Oct 28  2021 roms
-rw-rw-r-- 1 steve steve  285 Oct 28  2021 rpc.cfg
-rwxrwxr-x 1 steve steve 529K Jun 25 16:45 rpcemu-interpreter
drwxrwxr-x 5 steve steve 4.0K Oct 28  2021 src
steve@ullscarf:~/demo/rpcemu-0.9.4$ 

At the end, there’s the new rpcemu-interpreter executable ready to run – once you’ve copied ROMs into the correct places and so on, of course.

If you wanted the dynarec option, you could furtle with rpcemu-0.9.4/src/qt5/rpcemu.pro as described in the instructions, before running the buildit.sh script.

Whilst the above is clearly not what you’re doing, the instructions should be the same if you start from the same relative position to the rpcemu-0.9.4.tar.gz file.

That said, I’m unsure what you’re patching in the original instructions with the

for p in *.patch;do patch -p0 < $p;done

line? Presumably this is yet another modified version of RPCEmu (which is why I thought “Cloverleaf” earlier)?

I haven’t a clue, honestly. I just have these insructions.
They are nowhere near as verbose as what you’ve pasted.
I’ve no idea what to do next but i’ll try to copy what you’ve done. No idea why the instructions given for Linux were some random lines of implicitly unworkable code. This is every layperson’s fear materialised.

I think your best course of action would be to do as Steve suggested: go to the RPCEmu home website here.

From there you can download the latest version of RPCEmu which is 0.9.4 and it has some much improved networking functionality compared with version 0.9.3.

I haven’t a clue, honestly. I just have these insructions.
They are nowhere near as verbose as what you’ve pasted.
I’ve no idea what to do next but i’ll try to copy what you’ve done. No idea why the instructions given for Linux were some random lines of implicitly unworkable code. This is every layperson’s fear materialised.

It looks like the instructions supplied don’t quite work. It would be a good idea to mail ROOL about this. The Contact us page advises using notify@riscosopen.org for issues with purchases.

Apologies for the delay, l got massively sidetracked.

@James Byrne
OK l’ve just notified the eMail address you gave.

Just to be clear, l’m trying to make the RISC OS emulator work based on the instructions on the pen drive purchased from RISC OS Open. In that pen drive there’s a folder called “RPCEmu Linux” and in that folder there’s a file called “Readme-Linux.txt”, and it is these instructions which are baffling.

They simply do not work, and l’m not really looking at alternative setups, l wanted the one l purchased, to work or l wanted to know how to make that work.

I am running Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon, Linux kernel 5.15.0-67-generic

Here are the instructions given in “Readme-Linux.txt”:

B E G I N P A S T E #######################

Building RPCEmu for Linux
=====

RPCEmu is a fairly self-contained piece of software with one major
dependency – the Qt5 UI framework. You will need to ensure that your system
has the necessary build tools and Qt development libraries installed, but
this is usually just a case of installing the appropriate packages.

Source code and patches for RPCEmu are in the “Sources/src-original.tar.gz”
file and “Sources/src-patches” folders. Copy the “src-original.tar.gz” file to
your hard disc / SSD and decompress it. Copy into the resulting “src” folder
the following patches in “Sources”:

• robert-sprowson/filer-ellipsis.patch
• robert-sprowson/hostfs-4gig.patch
• robert-sprowson/no-tlb-flush-mmuoff.patch
• andrew-hodgkinson/fullscreen-mouse.patch

For building, work with those copies of the files. Don’t try to build things
on the USB stick directly – that’ll be very slow!

(1) Install pre-requisites
-———————————-

Using your distribution Package Manager or command-line tools, install the
packages for Qt5 development.

The following package names are used on Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint:

- build-essential
- qtbase5-dev
- qtmultimedia5-dev
- libqt5multimedia5-plugins

You should install these using the Synaptic package manager, or at the
command line type:

Similar package names will be used on other Linux distributions.

(2) Unpack the RPCEmu sources somewhere
-——————————————————

(3) Configure and build RPCEmu
-—————————————-

It certainly looks like there is an inconsistency between steps 1 and 2. In step 1 it says:

Copy the “src-original.tar.gz” file to your hard disc / SSD and decompress it. Copy into the resulting “src” folder the following patches in “Sources”:

Perhaps you could first try not decompressing the src-original.tar.gz file, and just copying the patches to the same folder so that they sit alongside the tar.gz file. Then try step 2 as written. That will decompress the tar.gz file, and with a bit of luck the patches will be written in such a way that they apply from the directory you have changed to beforehand.

If that does not work, try following step 1 exactly as written, and amend step 2 to:

cd <place where you copied src-original.tar.gz & the *.patch files>
cd src
for p in *.patch;do patch -p0 < $p;done

I think the first option involves the fewest corrections to the instructions.

Hi there, I have read all the above comments, I wonder if anyone on here has an Archlinux based distro. The AUR has rpcemu v0.9.4 which is compiled and all one has to do is download and install same. One then has to run Thunar as Root to populate the HostFS and Rom directories, add in a suitable RISC OS rom file obtainable from ROOL and fill the HostFS directory with the ROOL Harddisc4 Folder from the RiscPC section on ROOL, and then run the rpcemulator-recompiler as an executable file. Bobs your uncle RISC OS 5 in all its glory. Job done.
To make thinks easier from a day to day user point of view, Again using Thunar as Root copy all the directories from /usr/share/rpcemu to a working folder on your Home directory, I used RISC OS 5, for obvious reasons. You have to again make rpcemulator-recompiler executable. So when you click on it a window appears on your desktop. Initially it loads to the * prompt and you have to convince the window to run hostfs as your filessystem and the next time you run the rpc-recompiler the window loads as a RISC OS desktop. I tend to run as StrongARM processor and 128Mb RAM and use the full screen mode. There you have it a full screen fully functioning Risc PC on your desktop. Sorry edited this a few times my last post is the one to read.

Hi there, I have read all the above comments, I wonder if anyone on here has an Archlinux based distro. The AUR has rpcemu v0.9.4 which is compiled and all one has to do is download and install same. One then has to run Thunar as Root to populate the HostFS and Rom directories, add in a suitable RISC OS rom file obtainable from ROOL and fill the HostFS directory with the ROOL Harddisc4 Folder from the RiscPC section on ROOL, and then run the rpcemulator-recompiler as an executable file. Bobs your uncle RISC OS 5 in all its glory. Job done.
To make thinks easier from a day to day user point of view. Again using Thunar as Root copy all the directories from /usr/share/rpcemu to a working folder on your Home directory, I used RISC OS 5, for obvious reasons. You have to again make rpcemulator-recompiler executable. So when you click on it a window appears on your desktop. Initially it loads to the * prompt and you have to convince the window to run hostfs as your filessystem and the next time you run the rpc-recompiler the window loads as a RISC OS desktop. I tend to run as StrongARM processor and 128Mb RAM and use the full screen mode. There you have it a full screen fully functioning Risc PC on your desktop. Sorry ignore this one too, the next version is better

Hi there, I have read all the above comments, I wonder if anyone on here has an Archlinux based distro. The AUR has rpcemu v0.9.4 which is compiled and all one has to do is download and install same. One then has to run Thunar as Root to populate the HostFS and Rom directories, add in a suitable RISC OS rom file obtainable from ROOL and fill the HostFS directory with the ROOL Harddisc4 Folder from the RiscPC section on ROOL, and then run the rpcemulator-recompiler as an executable file. Bobs your uncle RISC OS 5 in all its glory. Job done.
To make thinks easier from a day to day user point of view. Again using Thunar as Root copy all the directories from /usr/share/rpcemu to a working folder on your Home directory, I used a folder named RISC OS 5, for obvious reasons. You have to again make rpcemulator-recompiler executable. So when you click on it a window appears on your desktop. Initially it loads to the * prompt and you have to convince the window to run hostfs as your filessystem and the next time you run the rpc-recompiler the window loads as a RISC OS desktop. I tend to run as StrongARM processor and 128Mb RAM and use the full screen mode. There you have it a full screen fully functioning Risc PC on your desktop.

@John C McCulloch l don’t think your post directly relates to the issue at hand, which is the RISC OS USB stick purchased via the online shop.

Just so you know, l’ve solved the matter. Here are my edited instructions:

Building RPCEmu for Linux
=====

RPCEmu is a fairly self-contained piece of software with one major
dependency – the Qt5 UI framework. You will need to ensure that your system
has the necessary build tools and Qt development libraries installed, but
this is usually just a case of installing the appropriate packages.

Source code and patches for RPCEmu are in the “Sources/src-original.tar.gz”
file and “Sources/src-patches” folders. Copy the “src-original.tar.gz” file to
a folder on your hard disc / SSD. Copy the following patches from
“Sources/src-patches” to the same folder:

• robert-sprowson/filer-ellipsis.patch
• robert-sprowson/hostfs-4gig.patch
• robert-sprowson/no-tlb-flush-mmuoff.patch
• andrew-hodgkinson/fullscreen-mouse.patch

Your folder should now contain the tar.gz file and the four patch files.

For building, work with those copies of the files. Don’t try to build things
on the USB stick directly – that’ll be very slow!

(1) Install pre-requisites
-———————————-

Using your distribution Package Manager or command-line tools, install the
packages for Qt5 development.

The following package names are used on Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint:

- build-essential
- qtbase5-dev
- qtmultimedia5-dev
- libqt5multimedia5-plugins

You should install these using the Synaptic package manager, or at the
command line type:

Similar package names will be used on other Linux distributions.

(2) Unpack the RPCEmu sources somewhere
-——————————————————

[[[[ #### MY EDIT: FOR THIS LAST LINE TO WORK, FETCH THE FOLLOWING PATCH FILES FROM src-patches AND PLACE THEM IN Sources FOLDER. You should end up with 5 files in total side by side on the first level of the folder:

You must run the command from the Sources folder i.e. cd ~/Desktop/RISC OS/My Edit/RISC OS USB Stick/Sources

1. ]]]]

(3) Configure and build RPCEmu
-—————————————-

Thanks to Andrew Hodgkinson for helping me get through this.

I was able to connect to the internet and browse Wikipedia. I could not use eBay nor YouTube out of the box but l gather there are plugins for RISC OS that can be purchased for this?