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Author Topic: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial  (Read 50151 times)

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Mister Hat

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Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« on: September 29, 2011, 03:36:18 am »
Looking around the Internet, I didn't really find any tutorials for running mame software with a front-end. After making my own cabinet, I'd thought I'd write up a noob-friendly tutorial using Lubuntu.

In this tutorial, we'll be:
  • Installing Lubuntu
  • Adding mame software with a popular front-end
  • Removing boot screens and branding

What is Lubuntu?
Quote from: Wikipedia
Lubuntu (pronounced /luːˈbuːntuː/ "loo-BOON-too") is a lightweight Linux operating system based on Ubuntu but using the LXDE desktop environment in place of Ubuntu's Unity shell and GNOME desktop. LXDE is touted as being "lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient"

Download Legend

Installing Lubuntu to your PC
Once you burn the ISO (Lubuntu download) to a CD or flash drive, you will be able to install Lubuntu. You'll first have to change your boot order to boot from CD/USB first or just select it from your boot menu whilst your installation device is inserted. After about 30 seconds of loading, you'll arrive at a "splash" screen. Then, select "Install Lubuntu" and press enter. In about 30 seconds you'll arrive at the GUI installation.



Screen 1: Select "English" and then click forward.
Screen 2: Make sure you meet the basic criteria and click forward.
Screen 3: Select the "Erase disk and install Lubuntu" option and click forward.
Screen 4: Select the largest HDD from the drop-down list and then finally click "Install Now".



The next few screens during the installation are pretty self-explanatory and are more personal (time zones, username etc). Although please remember to select "Log in automatically" on the "Who are you?" portion.

Installing Mame & Wah!Cade
Once you've installed Lubuntu on your PC and restarted, you'll be greeted with a wallpaper and taskbar. You will need internet access (through ethernet most likely) to continue with the tutorial. Click the logo in the bottom-left, select "Accesories" then find "LXTerminal" and open it. We will be using this more throughout the tutorial. Type in:
Code: [Select]
sudo apt-get install mameIt will ask you for your password, enter it and press enter again. This is going to install mame, the emulator needed to play all of your roms. When it's finished installing, in the terminal box type:



To install Wah!Cade, your emulator front-end, use Chromium (located on the taskbar) to access the Wah!Cade website in order to download it. Once downloaded, you can close chromium and open the LXTerminal back up. Once LXTerminal is open, type in:
Code: [Select]
sudo gdebi-gtk ~/Downloads/wahcade_0.99re8_all.debOnce the window pops up, click "Install Package" and enter your password when prompted. When it's complete, you can close the package installer and return to LXTerminal.



Next is an important bug fix. In LXTerminal type:
Code: [Select]
sudo leafpad /usr/local/share/games/wahcade/filters.pyWhen the window comes up, search for:
Code: [Select]
    'pedal': u'Pedal',And under it add:
Code: [Select]
    'keyboard': u'keyboard',Then save (File > Save) and close it.



Next open up the setup for Wah!Cade in LXTerminal with:
Code: [Select]
wahcade-setupOnce it's open, go to the "Emulators" tab and in the "Application" box, replace whatever is in there with "/usr/games/mame". Then save it (File > Save).



Now go to the "Mame Only" tab and click the refresh icon next to the XML / Data File box. After it's complete, save the program once more and then close it.



Next you need to download catver.ini and place it in the correct folder. Click the file manager icon (on the taskbar) and create a new folder called "emulators". Next, create a folder named "mame". Enter that folder and copy your catver.ini inside of it.



Finally, we will change the path where mame reads the roms from. In LXTerminal type:
Code: [Select]
sudo leafpad /etc/mame/mame.iniOn about the 11th line, where it says "rompath", change the "$HOME/.mame/roms" to "$HOME/emulators/mame/roms"

Adding Roms
Create a folder in the "mame" folder that you created earlier named "roms". You can copy your roms from a flash drive or download them off of chromium.

Edit Power Settings
To make it so when the power button is pressed, the computer turns off without a dialog, open LXTerminal and type:
Code: [Select]
sudo apt-get install gnome-power-managerOnce it's done installing type:
Code: [Select]
gnome-power-preferencesWhen the window opens, select the "General" tab and look for the "When the power button is pressed" drop-down. Select "Shutdown" as the option. The click "Make Default" and close it.

Remove branding
To remove the splash screen (the "Lubuntu" logo that appears when you start the computer) open up your terminal (as you did previously) and type in:
Code: [Select]
sudo apt-get purge plymouth-theme-*And enter your password as prompted. Once this is complete, you will no longer see a splash screen.

Next we'll remove the background. We can do this by right clicking the desktop and selecting "Desktop Preferences" from the drop-down menu. Then on the window that appears, look for the "Wallpaper mode:" drop down and select "Fille with background color only". We will only be seeing the background breifly upon startup.

And finally, we can make Wah!Cade launch on startup and remove all the other startup items. Open up your LXTerminal and type in:
Code: [Select]
sudo leafpad /etc/xdg/lxsession/Lubuntu/autostartWhen the text editor opens, remove all of them items besides "gnome-power-manager". Then add "wahcade" to the very bottom. Your list should look like this:
Code: [Select]
@gnome-power-manager
wahcade

FAQ
Q: I've completed all of the steps. What if I want to configure or go back to my normal desktop?
A: Easy! Just press escape when Wah!Cade starts and then right click the desktop. Then on the dropdown menu, select Applications > LXTerminal. When the terminal opens, type in:
Code: [Select]
lxpanelAnd your taskbar will be back for you to configure!

Q: I want to add <insert emulator here>. Is this possible?
A: Most likely. If you would like an emulator to be ran on your install, post a request and I'll write up instructions

Please note that this tutorial isn't perfect. I made it so people can get a good, solid start. Once you're started though you'll be able to configure it much more to your liking :).

If you have any questions, problems or requests, please post a comment and I'll try my best to accommodate everyone. Enjoy your mame cabinets :D
« Last Edit: September 29, 2011, 09:23:21 am by Mister Hat »

Sjaak

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2011, 03:40:19 am »
Very nice! I'm going to try this tonight on a spare pc.

Mister Hat

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2011, 03:42:03 am »
Very nice! I'm going to try this tonight on a spare pc.
Great! Thanks for the comment. If you have any issues, please post them here and I'll help you out for sure :)

General_Faliure

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2011, 06:43:36 am »
Nice, i will use your tips to speed up my boot time.
For now, it is better to use the launchpad version of Wahcade.
To be found here: https://code.launchpad.net/~waynemou/wahcade/devel
It has some extra features and bug fixes.

Greetz, Ger.
My Arcade cab: https://goo.gl/photos/yE1KACHryQjCaaCj7
Core2 duo8400 @3.6 Ghz, 4Gb of mem, Geforce 9500.
Linux Mint 17.3 XFCE, Mame, Mess, Daphne FS-Uae, Mednafen and some more.
Mah!cade

Mister Hat

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2011, 09:13:35 am »
Nice, i will use your tips to speed up my boot time.
For now, it is better to use the launchpad version of Wahcade.
To be found here: https://code.launchpad.net/~waynemou/wahcade/devel
It has some extra features and bug fixes.

Greetz, Ger.
Will do. I will probably be adding something to really speed up boot time, however, it's something that's a bit more complicated.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2011, 04:47:41 pm by Mister Hat »

ds015882

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2011, 03:48:52 pm »
Going to try tonight...

So any real differences running this on lubuntu compared to ubuntu?

Mister Hat

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2011, 04:43:31 pm »
Going to try tonight...

So any real differences running this on lubuntu compared to ubuntu?
Lubuntu runs a lot faster using a lot less resources and just comes with less things to begin with. It uses more lightweight session management and, as you have probably seen, a more lightweight desktop.

But Wah!Cade runs exactly the same.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2011, 04:45:36 pm by Mister Hat »

ds015882

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2011, 11:45:48 pm »
Having problem getting any rooms to load. It's a problem with Mame and not wahcade because when I try to just run Mame mspacman it will act look it will load but either it just hangs or just goes back to the normal screen...I've tried several roms. It's like I need to config an ini file. Any ideas? No errors to share

David

Mister Hat

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #8 on: October 01, 2011, 12:21:44 pm »
Having problem getting any rooms to load. It's a problem with Mame and not wahcade because when I try to just run Mame mspacman it will act look it will load but either it just hangs or just goes back to the normal screen...I've tried several roms. It's like I need to config an ini file. Any ideas? No errors to share

David
Make sure you followed the instructions to relocate the rompath in mame.ini and that "mspacman.zip" is actually in the correct path to begin with. Also, some roms need other roms to run. Like for example, Pacman also needs Puckman to run.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2011, 04:09:51 pm by Mister Hat »

General_Faliure

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2011, 03:02:13 am »
Here are some ppa's you can add to install the newest versions of Mame and Mess;
http://sdlmame.wallyweek.org/ for Mame
https://launchpad.net/~darkmoon/+archive/ppa for the Mess emulator.
Some more emulator ppa's are to be found here;
http://ubuntu-tweak.com/source/hunter-kaller-ppa/ The "Hunterk PPA" provided the following applications:
PCSX-Reloaded
Dolphin
VBA-M
BSnes (performance)
BSnes (SSE2)
http://ubuntu-tweak.com/source/sven-eckelmann-ppa-mupen64plus/ Mupen64plus (nintendo64)
http://ubuntu-tweak.com/source/gregory-hainaut-pcsx2officialppa/ Pcsx2 (playstation 2)

Have a lot of fun, and have a look at the Wahcade forum: http://www.anti-particle.com/wahcade.shtml

Greetz, Ger
My Arcade cab: https://goo.gl/photos/yE1KACHryQjCaaCj7
Core2 duo8400 @3.6 Ghz, 4Gb of mem, Geforce 9500.
Linux Mint 17.3 XFCE, Mame, Mess, Daphne FS-Uae, Mednafen and some more.
Mah!cade

ds015882

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2011, 11:01:13 am »
Having problem getting any rooms to load. It's a problem with Mame and not wahcade because when I try to just run Mame mspacman it will act look it will load but either it just hangs or just goes back to the normal screen...I've tried several roms. It's like I need to config an ini file. Any ideas? No errors to share

David
Make sure you followed the instructions to relocate the rompath in mame.ini and that "mspacman.zip" is actually in the correct path to begin with. Also, some roms need other roms to run. Like for example, Pacman also needs Puckman to run.

So I went through and reinstalled lubuntu and followed the instructions. Still having problems loading roms. I was able to get to get a few roms to load but run very sluggish almost like its set at 50% speed. Not sure what to do I tried out GMAMEUI and roms run perfect so I think it must be something with wahcade. I'm thinking I need to find a better package to fix this problem..any suggestions? I've installed the recommend packages from the wahcade site.

Mister Hat

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2011, 04:29:59 pm »
@General_Faliure
Thanks for the info. If you're planing on using an N64 emulator, mupen64plus is where it's at. The one in the current Ubuntu repos is like 4 versions behind...
But the MAME in the Ubuntu repos isn't that old:
Code: [Select]
$ mame -h
M.A.M.E. v0.143 (Aug  4 2011) - Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
« Last Edit: October 10, 2011, 04:35:01 pm by Mister Hat »

roflcopterofl

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2011, 07:28:17 pm »
Will this work with jewbuntu?

General_Faliure

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2012, 11:00:07 am »
I googled for jewbuntu, and to my surprise it realy exists, but it looks like it's rather old.
Lubuntu is the best way to go.
My Arcade cab: https://goo.gl/photos/yE1KACHryQjCaaCj7
Core2 duo8400 @3.6 Ghz, 4Gb of mem, Geforce 9500.
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Mah!cade

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #14 on: January 18, 2012, 04:40:47 am »
After googling, testing and trying (failing) I've come to this conclusion as well. Lubuntu (easy to use, but still faster and lighter), and Wah!Cade, which looks awesome, is easy to install and manage.

Meaning that this is the best setup if you have a Linux box. And it is great to have a thread here where we can gather experiences, guides and tips for this setup.

Ok, someone has to do it;

:applaud: STICKY, STICKY, STICKY, STICKY, STICKY, STICKY, STICKY, STICKY! :applaud:

General_Faliure

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #15 on: January 19, 2012, 09:54:50 am »
You can also post questions about Wah!cade in the Wah!cade forum: http://www.anti-particle.com/forum_phpbb3/viewforum.php?f=2
My Arcade cab: https://goo.gl/photos/yE1KACHryQjCaaCj7
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Linux Mint 17.3 XFCE, Mame, Mess, Daphne FS-Uae, Mednafen and some more.
Mah!cade

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #16 on: March 29, 2012, 09:13:18 am »
Hi Everyone,

Thanks to Mister Hat for this tutorial.
It's my first time on linux and Lubuntu but I followed each step and everything was ok, until...the catver.ini incident !

Mister Hat wrote :
Next you need to download catver.ini and place it in the correct folder. Click the file manager icon (on the taskbar) and create a new folder called "emulators". Next, create a folder named "mame". Enter that folder and copy your catver.ini inside of it.

But he didn't explain where or how to find this file. I tried to find it without success...
Does anybody could help ?

Thanks a lot

Mister Hat

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #17 on: April 06, 2012, 12:09:54 am »
Hi Everyone,

Thanks to Mister Hat for this tutorial.
It's my first time on linux and Lubuntu but I followed each step and everything was ok, until...the catver.ini incident !

Mister Hat wrote :
Next you need to download catver.ini and place it in the correct folder. Click the file manager icon (on the taskbar) and create a new folder called "emulators". Next, create a folder named "mame". Enter that folder and copy your catver.ini inside of it.

But he didn't explain where or how to find this file. I tried to find it without success...
Does anybody could help ?

Thanks a lot

Here are two locations I found which seem to be what you're looking for:
http://www.progettoemma.net/?catlist
http://catlist.mameworld.info/

neogeo123

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #18 on: April 09, 2012, 06:58:30 pm »
Tried the guide however when I try to launch wahcade i get the following error:


Quote
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "wahcade.py", line 81, in <module>
    app = WinMain(options)
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/win_main.py", line 300, in __init__
    self.load_emulator()
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/win_main.py", line 1078, in load_emulator
    self.load_list()
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/win_main.py", line 1121, in load_list
    self.pop_games_list()
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/win_main.py", line 1384, in pop_games_list
    self.emu_ini)
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/filters.py", line 370, in create_initial_filter
    gd = mi.next()
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/filters.py", line 272, in get_xml_game_item
    d['controller_type'] = _controllers[ctrl.attrib['type']]
KeyError: 'keypad'

any ideas?

Thanks

sairuk

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #19 on: April 17, 2012, 05:50:45 pm »
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/filters.py", line 272, in get_xml_game_item
    d['controller_type'] = _controllers[ctrl.attrib['type']]
KeyError: 'keypad'

any ideas?

Thanks

The version of Wah!Cade and the version of mame are not compatible. To run a more current version of mame you will need to use the experimental build from launchpad (called Mah!Cade when reporting errors)
mameau - My random bits | Wah!Ki - A Wah!Cade wiki | Mah!Cade - Experimental Wah!cade Branch | ListGen | Lazarus

neogeo123

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #20 on: April 18, 2012, 02:05:27 pm »
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/filters.py", line 272, in get_xml_game_item
    d['controller_type'] = _controllers[ctrl.attrib['type']]
KeyError: 'keypad'

any ideas?

Thanks

The version of Wah!Cade and the version of mame are not compatible. To run a more current version of mame you will need to use the experimental build from launchpad (called Mah!Cade when reporting errors)

Thanks.. Any simple guides to installing mahcade?

sairuk

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #21 on: May 09, 2012, 10:30:15 pm »
Thanks.. Any simple guides to installing mahcade?

Check the installation procedures on http://wahki.mameau.com/ let me know if they are unclear.
mameau - My random bits | Wah!Ki - A Wah!Cade wiki | Mah!Cade - Experimental Wah!cade Branch | ListGen | Lazarus

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #22 on: May 10, 2012, 10:27:46 pm »
Tried the guide however when I try to launch wahcade i get the following error:


Quote
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "wahcade.py", line 81, in <module>
    app = WinMain(options)
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/win_main.py", line 300, in __init__
    self.load_emulator()
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/win_main.py", line 1078, in load_emulator
    self.load_list()
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/win_main.py", line 1121, in load_list
    self.pop_games_list()
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/win_main.py", line 1384, in pop_games_list
    self.emu_ini)
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/filters.py", line 370, in create_initial_filter
    gd = mi.next()
  File "/usr/local/share/games/wahcade/filters.py", line 272, in get_xml_game_item
    d['controller_type'] = _controllers[ctrl.attrib['type']]
KeyError: 'keypad'

any ideas?

Thanks I get the same error while setting up filters and loading up Wahcade. I installed the latest version (not from the site) and still same error. Did you get it fixed?

Hunk_4TH

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #23 on: May 11, 2012, 02:01:48 pm »
I think I figured it out. I had a empty filters in the files folder I deleted those and it seems to work now. Though it doesn't any history/info on the game just the rom names in the games list.

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #24 on: May 20, 2012, 06:44:23 pm »
MahCade is pretty easy to install even if Wah!Cade's already installed, thankfully.

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #25 on: May 28, 2012, 02:41:38 pm »
Great tutorial! thanks. One thing I'd add is that at least on Lubuntu 12.04 you have to add the repositories from the sdlmame home page in order to use apt-get to install mame.

So this process has been a bit of a nightmare for me, it being my first time really dealing with Linux. So after literally days of failure, I finally got wahcade working with mame. Well, almost. It is excruciatingly slow. And not just video, keystrokes have a multi-second delay. It's awful.

Is this fixable? Common?

It may be an issue that I'm running Lubuntu on a PPC Powebook G4. Any ideas? Thanks!

ark_ader

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #26 on: June 04, 2012, 05:43:09 pm »
What is wrong with Puppy Arcade 10?
If I had only one wish, it would be for three more wishes.

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #27 on: October 31, 2012, 08:32:58 am »
Thanks for this, going to give it a go tonight :)

Has much changed since this was written?

[edit] Wow, didnt realise how much of an EPIC NECRO POST this was, please feel free to taunt me in replies... [/edit]
« Last Edit: October 31, 2012, 11:33:59 am by Arturius »
Getting there, just rather slowly...

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #28 on: December 05, 2012, 05:47:25 pm »
I realize I'm necrobumping a topic, but this seems to be the appropriate place to ask since this is the first comprehensible guide on installing an emulator on a Linux distro. I hope anyone with a Linux inclination can provide some insight (topic poster maybe  ;D).

This tutorial focuses on one particular Linux distribution that comes with a desktop, being Lubuntu. It's probably easier to do a MAME setup using an IDE, but I'm actually interested in the possibilities of using Linux as an embedded system.

There are two problems with using a distro with an IDE on an embedded system: it adds unnecessary weight to the distribution (don't need the desktop, don't need all the applications) AND it potentially lengthens startup time. The kind of embedded system I'm interested in should get close to having a kind of console device, which boots up the OS in well under 10 seconds after power-on. As far as I've looked around this doesn't seem feasible with desktop editions.

I'll admit here that I'm a total newbie when it comes to the Linux platform, but it is a very interesting platform for embedded systems. I am in the understanding that you'd need to start out with a bare-bones Linux kernel and add required modules (drivers) to get the hardware supported, not to mention custom-compile your emulator for the processor in the device (this is a drag for spoiled Windows users like me), so I'm looking at quite a few hurdles before I can even start realizing a particular idea I have - I'm very interested in any pointers anyone might give.

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #29 on: December 27, 2012, 04:38:11 pm »
SDL (the graphics/sound/... library used by mame) does have the ability to work with a framebuffer device, so assuming your embedded system has framebuffer support in the kernel, you can run mame without X on linux (I think that is what you meant).  As an experiment on my Ubuntu laptop, I went to one of the virtual terminals (ctrl-alt-f2) and ran mame, and after a few issues was able to get it running. 

The issues have to do with openGL support and permissions of some of the devices.  I just copied the dkong.zip file to the laptop and was able to run mame on the console using the following command line:

sudo /usr/games/mame -video soft  -rp . dkong

the "-rp ." was to tell it that the rom was in the current directory.  the "-video soft" told it not to use openGL.  the sudo command tells it to run with root privileges, this overcomes some permission issues with various devices (the framebuffer, the mouse, and probably some others).  In an embedded environment, you could set up permissions appropriately.

I didn't try wahcade, but I believe it also uses SDL, so it might work as well.

My cabinet used to run advancemame and advancemenu running SVGAlib, which is a similar concept, and it worked pretty well.  I'm getting the cabinet running again, and I plan to use wahcade and mame under X, just because it is easier to get going and maintain.

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #30 on: December 30, 2012, 02:33:02 pm »
Thanks for the detailed reply, much appreciated. I think I'll have to explain a bit on what it is I'd like to do.

I'm very interested in building a small arcade system out of a Raspberry Pi. It has decent performance for emulation of most of the games that I'd like it to do, and it is open enough to hook up to a control set, a screen and some audio output and still keep the whole thing small in terms of dimensions. I'm much more at ease with Windows / MS DOS configurations, but to the best of my knowledge only Linux works well  on Raspberry Pi mostly because it can be (and indeed already is) compiled to support the ARM processor architecture.

The cool thing about that Raspberry Pi is that it can boot from an SD card. So I figured this: if I could put a really small, fast-booting Linux distro on an SD card, and then make it start an emulator with a desired game, an SD card can essentially be used like a console cartridge. I'm not interested in using a front-end because I'm not interested in supporting as many games as I can - I'd just like to create a set of cartridges using small SD cards and put the bare minimum OS, the required emulator, the game and the configuration for the hardware on it. This allows for easy game swaps and a small collection of favorites. In one cartridge it could be a MAME game, in another it can be a WinUAE game.

Obviously, to get that console feel I need it to be able to do no more than boot (preferably displaying nothing but a splash screen), get a minimum OS running to get hardware, sound, a file system and some controls devices in place, and then silently boot the emulator and the game. That's all, and obviously in a minimum amount of time required. Ideally the SD-card device drivers are changed in such a way that removing a 'cartridge' would switch off the Pi, but this is long-run vision.

My problem with the Linux platform is my ignorance on the subject, of course. I can't see myself compile an OS from scratch, so unless I can get away with just combining packages and doing some careful scripting, this plan is a no-go for me. The virtual terminal you speak of sounds like a good start for experiments. I understand that such a terminal represents the bare minimum (just the kernel) so if I can make it work from there, all I need to do is find a way to run the required applications in some kind of start-up script and create a bootable SD out of it. I think you're referring to X-Linux? This may be of help too.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2012, 02:47:29 pm by Pixel Fun »

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #31 on: January 14, 2013, 06:59:20 pm »
Well I tried to do this on my own with 12.10 desktop and it is so slugish.....

Will try this way.

@pixel what did you start working on that Raspberry Pi MAME yet? Will be interesting to see.

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #32 on: January 15, 2013, 04:44:07 am »
Quote
@pixel what did you start working on that Raspberry Pi MAME yet? Will be interesting to see.
I'd like to, but I'm just too unfamiliar with Linux distros to proceed. I hope that at some point a minimal Windows XP distribution is released for the Pi (although I consider it unlikely given that libraries would have to be recompiled for ARM processors) because that's a platform I'm much more familiar with tweaking to perfection.

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #33 on: January 16, 2013, 12:31:34 am »
Many thanks for this tutorial. I followed it yesterday.

Just got a problem when starting Wah!cade, I do not get listed any games at added to the machine. And if I quit, I get an error message.

I installed the 64bit version of Lubuntu. Could this be an issue or is anyone using that successfully?

Appreciated,
Joe

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Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #34 on: January 16, 2013, 02:54:30 am »
Good Job!


Enviado desde mi iPad con Tapatalk HD

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #35 on: January 18, 2013, 09:21:25 am »
Many thanks for this tutorial. I followed it yesterday.

Just got a problem when starting Wah!cade, I do not get listed any games at added to the machine. And if I quit, I get an error message.

I installed the 64bit version of Lubuntu. Could this be an issue or is anyone using that successfully?

Appreciated,
Joe

I had the same problem on Lubuntu 12.10, 64 bit.
The original Wahcade is getting a bit old, and buggy.
I installed the branched version: Mahcade from launchpad, to be found here: https://code.launchpad.net/~waynemou/wahcade/devel
You have to install "bazaar" (bzr) to pull it from launchpad, but this version works fine for me.
I am currently setting up a new mainboard for my cab.

success
My Arcade cab: https://goo.gl/photos/yE1KACHryQjCaaCj7
Core2 duo8400 @3.6 Ghz, 4Gb of mem, Geforce 9500.
Linux Mint 17.3 XFCE, Mame, Mess, Daphne FS-Uae, Mednafen and some more.
Mah!cade

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #36 on: January 19, 2013, 12:15:39 am »
I think I got regular wahcade to work with recent versions of mame by not only adding

    'keyboard': u'keyboard',

To the /usr/local/share/games/wahcade/filters.py file as stated in the tutorial above, but also a keypad entry:

    'keypad': u'keypad',

I think I was using my own build of 0.147, but it might have been 0.146

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #37 on: February 01, 2013, 12:02:06 pm »
I had the same problem on Lubuntu 12.10, 64 bit.
The original Wahcade is getting a bit old, and buggy.
I installed the branched version: Mahcade from launchpad, to be found here: https://code.launchpad.net/~waynemou/wahcade/devel
You have to install "bazaar" (bzr) to pull it from launchpad, but this version works fine for me.
I am currently setting up a new mainboard for my cab.

success
Cheers for sharing. I installed now the 32bit version of Lubuntu which seemed to work.

There is now a new build for the Wah!Cade package, which is working now pretty good on my system (wahcade_20130128mahcade_all):
http://www.mameau.com/mahcade/

Thanks

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #38 on: February 26, 2013, 08:31:11 pm »
 I just did a fresh install of lubuntu, followed your guide and I am now able to start wahcade! Thanks for the easy guide. Does anyone have tips on customizing wahcade? It displays the rom .zip file name. When I open mame itself it will display both .zip and game name. What about the cover art  or at least disabling that screen as well?

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Re: Basic Lubuntu with Wah!Cade Tutorial
« Reply #39 on: February 28, 2013, 04:05:35 am »
Does anyone have tips on customizing wahcade?

http://wahki.mameau.com/

Have a look at the configuration and extras sections of Wah!Ki. Let me know if anything is specifically missing and perhaps we can address it there.
mameau - My random bits | Wah!Ki - A Wah!Cade wiki | Mah!Cade - Experimental Wah!cade Branch | ListGen | Lazarus