AppleWin/linux.md

Linux

• Structure
• What works
• Executables
  • applen
  • qapple
  • sa2
  • libretro
• Build
  • Checkout
  • Fedora
  • Raspberry Pi OS and Ubuntu
• Speed
  • Fedora
  • Raspbian

Structure

There are 4 projects

• libapple: the core emulator files
• applen: a frontend based on ncurses
• qapple: Qt frontend
• sa2: SDL2 frontend
• libra2: a libretro core

The main goal is to reuse the AppleWin source files without changes: only where really necessary the AppleWin source files have been modified.

What works

Almost everything works, except:

• serial port
• debugger (work started to port it)

The UI has been rewritten in Qt or ImGui.

The rest works very well. Uthernet is supported, but it requires elevated capabilities:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw=ep ./sa2

Unfortunately, this must be reapplied after every build.

Executables

sa2

This is your best choice, in particular the ImGui version.

TL;DR: sa2 --imgui

See sa2 for more details.

applen

Frontend based on ncurses, with a ASCII art graphic mode.

Keyboard shortcuts

• F2: reset the machine
• F3: terminate the emulator
• F11, F12: Save, Load Snapshot
• ALT-RIGHT: wider hi res graphis
• ALT-LEFT: narrower hi res graphics
• ALT-UP: vertical hi res (smaller)
• ALT-DOWN: vertical hi res (bigger)

In order to properly appreciate the wider hi res graphics, open a big terminal window and choose a small font size. Try CTRL- as well if ALT- does not work: terminals do not report a consistent keycode for these combinations.

The joystick uses evdev (--device-name /dev/input/by-id/id_of_device).

qapple

This is based on Qt.

• keyboard shortcuts are listed in the menu entries
• graphics: runs the native NTSC code
• joystick: it uses QtGamepad
• emulator runs in the main UI thread
• Qt timers are very coarse: the emulator needs to dynamically adapt the cycles to execute
• the app runs at 60FPS with correction for uneven timer deltas.
• full speed when disk spins execute up to 5 ms real wall clock of emulator code (then returns to Qt)
• (standard) audio is supported and there are a few configuration options to tune the latency (default very conservative 200ms)
• Open Apple and Solid Apple can be emulated using AltGr and Menu (unfortunately, Alt does not work well)

ra2

There is an initial libretro core.

A retropad can be plugged in port 1 (with or without analog stick).

Keyboard emulation

• JOYPAD_R: equivalent to F9 to cycle video types
• JOYPAD_L: equivalent to CTRL-SHIFT-F6 to cycle 50% scan lines
• START: equivalent to F2 to reset the machine

In order to have a better experience with the keyboard, one should probably enable Game Focus Mode (normally Scroll-Lock) to disable hotkeys.

Video works, but the vertical flip is done in software.

Audio (speaker) works.

Must be manually configured: cmake -DLIBRETRO_PATH=/path/to/libretro-common

Easiest way to run from the build folder: retroarch -L source/frontends/libretro/libra2.so ../Disks/NoSlotClockTest.dsk

Build

The project can be built using cmake from the top level directory.

qapple can be managed from Qt Creator as well and the 2 have coexisted so far, but YMMV.

Checkout

git clone https://github.com/audetto/AppleWin.git --recursive
cd AppleWin
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE ..
make

Fedora

On Fedora 31, from a fresh installation, install all packages from fedora.list.txt.

Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu and other Debian distributions

Install all packages from raspbian.list.txt.

You can use sudo apt-get -y install $(cat raspbian.list.txt) for an automated installation.

See Travis CI too.

Speed

Fedora

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz

Full update = 582 MHz

Video Stype	Video update
RGB Monitor	39
NTSC Monitor	27
Color TV	25
B&W TV	27
Amber Monitor	31

Raspbian

Pi 3B+

Full update = 54 MHz

Video Stype	Video update
RGB Monitor	5.3
NTSC Monitor	3.6
Color TV	2.6
B&W TV	2.9
Amber Monitor	4.5