Author Topic: New 'MAMEBUNTU' Live CD Distro? (Read 23035 times)

Silas (son of Silas) · « **on:** November 08, 2009, 01:16:26 pm »

I currently use SDLMAME on Ubuntu Karmic fronted by Wah!Cade on the laptop I am on now, but I have another ancient HP laptop running a completely stripped down Ubuntu Gutsy with no Gnome, fluxbox and SDLMAME that boots straight to the Wah!Cade Gui with all of the 'Linuxy' bits hidden and a custom Usplash that makes the whole thing look like a dedicated arcade appliance, complete with preview movies of each game, startup and shutdown animation etc.

When my cab is done, my plan was to basically formalize my build and release it as a stand alone Linux distro that can be maintained with the latest versions of everything and released on a 6 monthly basis for people to either install as the whole operating system or as a live distro to boot from CD or USB.

Another option would be to have a key press sequence (say boot whilst holding the player 1 button or something) that would allow the machine to boot into a fully functioning desktop for DVD ripping, watching movies or whatever?

Anyone interested in a standalone DVD/USB/Installable "arcade machine in a box" distro?

nox771 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2009, 06:22:10 pm »

That sounds really cool. I would download that. Combined with a single or dual player homebuilt controller (something like a usb connected standalone controller) you could gift family/friends a controller+liveCD combo they could use to turn an ordinary PC into a game machine (with none of the setup headaches).

djfunkshun · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2009, 08:56:45 pm »

Wow. That is a really great idea. I would be interested in a distro of that nature. Keep us posted!

vorghagen · « **Reply #3 on:** November 09, 2009, 01:29:24 am »

Would be extremely interested in this distro. I'm running Karmic at the moment and plan to install SDL and wah!cade shortly. Having a distro do it all for me including hiding the linuxy stuff would be a perfect solution.

tikbalang · « **Reply #4 on:** November 09, 2009, 06:56:29 am »

count me in. i myself is trying to build a zipslack/advmame/advmenu distro but my unfamiliarity with linux is a big problem. my goal is an easy to use/install distro geared for dos/win users.

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #5 on:** November 09, 2009, 08:50:33 am »

Noted for interest.

GadgetGeek · « **Reply #6 on:** November 09, 2009, 12:49:26 pm »

Yes please.

Silas (son of Silas) · « **Reply #7 on:** November 09, 2009, 01:02:19 pm »

~~Which would be of more use to people, a live CD or and installable distro?~~

Just answered my own question before I finished typing, I'll make it a live distro, with a menu option to install

massive88 · « **Reply #8 on:** November 10, 2009, 02:46:38 pm »

Yes this would be very cool, looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

cosam · « **Reply #9 on:** November 10, 2009, 06:02:18 pm »

This would be a great way to get folk up and running with the minimum of effort. I may even have something to contribute ;-) One thing though: where do all the ROMs come from? I think you may get in trouble if they were simply bundled on the CD/DVD.

Have you seen how the Ubuntu derivatives (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.) work? They are basically one meta-package which installs everything from the splash screen and themes to the window manager and configuration. You can even switch between derivatives using a single "apt-get install <whatever>-desktop" command. This approach allows you to tailor the distribution without the hassle of maintaining all the "uninteresting" packages - you just borrow them from Ubuntu itself. If you want a live and/or installation CD, you just take the standard Ubuntu image and make sure your meta-package installed by default.

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #10 on:** November 10, 2009, 07:17:13 pm »

You would provide your own roms I'm sure...

mikeyv23 · « **Reply #11 on:** November 10, 2009, 10:07:41 pm »

This would be a great help to those still learning about setting up Linux along for an arcade environment. Count me in as interested and willing to help with testing if needed!!

cosam · « **Reply #12 on:** November 11, 2009, 04:01:13 am »

Quote from: HarumaN on November 10, 2009, 07:17:13 pm

You would provide your own roms I'm sure...

Yes, if you're installing to hard disk you just copy them over. I'm just wondering how you'd access them if your OS is running off a CD, which presumably can't be unmounted. I guess you could put them on the PC's hard disk and mount the file system from the live CD environment. There are other methods too, but I think all of them require some step other than just booting a CD before you'd have a workable system (i.e. one with some games on it).

Silas (son of Silas) · « **Reply #13 on:** November 11, 2009, 06:09:56 am »

Quote from: cosam on November 11, 2009, 04:01:13 am

Quote from: HarumaN on November 10, 2009, 07:17:13 pm
You would provide your own roms I'm sure...
I'm just wondering how you'd access them if your OS is running off a CD, which presumably can't be unmounted.

I have been experimenting with the minimal install distribution version of Ubuntu, creating a ramdisk into which the OS is loaded, so that once the OS is up and running the CD can be unmounted and the drive used for a ROMS disk. Much the same way that you can with Puppy Linux. You can also boot from USB which allows access to the DVD drive anyway.

And yes.... You provide your own legally owned ROMs.

cosam · « **Reply #14 on:** November 11, 2009, 06:51:34 pm »

Quote from: Silas (son of Silas) on November 11, 2009, 06:09:56 am

I have been experimenting with the minimal install distribution version of Ubuntu, creating a ramdisk into which the OS is loaded, so that once the OS is up and running the CD can be unmounted and the drive used for a ROMS disk.

Good stuff. How much memory are we talking about for the RAM disk?

Hopefully I should have a .deb package of my FE soon, and possibly an alternate usplash theme if you're interested (I have one with the MAME logo and a little animated Pac Man as the progress bar).

okambi · « **Reply #15 on:** November 24, 2009, 04:12:45 pm »

Interested indeed.

Encryptor · « **Reply #16 on:** December 11, 2009, 03:27:52 pm »

Any news on this LiveCD?

Encryptor

Silas (son of Silas) · « **Reply #17 on:** December 13, 2009, 02:29:02 pm »

Quote from: Encryptor on December 11, 2009, 03:27:52 pm

Any news on this LiveCD?

Encryptor

I have a 32bit (64bit to follow) distro that boots and runs but needs some prettying up for the sake of the Windows Die Hards who get dizzy if they see text on a black screen.

I kind of ground to a halt when my development server (also my media server, so no movies or TV until I fix it) blew its mobo about 10 days ago. I have ordered a new one that should be here by Friday (5 more days). I have some issues around hardware support that I am attempting to make as seamless as possible. I have Nvidia nailed but at the moment it runs like a dog with older ATI graphics cards. I was working on that when my mobo 'upped it's lunch'.

My other concern is whether I lost any data when my server died. We'll see!

Grasshopper · « **Reply #18 on:** December 13, 2009, 02:43:43 pm »

I'd also be very interested in this. I've tried XMAME on Ubuntu and it works reasonably well. But I haven't had the time to set it up properly, or to try other versions of Linux MAME. So a Live CD with everything properly set up would be very useful to me.

polaris · « **Reply #19 on:** December 13, 2009, 02:56:45 pm »

yep i'd love this too

Masterful Gaze · « **Reply #20 on:** December 30, 2009, 01:26:34 am »

Quote from: polaris on December 13, 2009, 02:56:45 pm

yep i'd love this too

Ditto that.

I've been thinking about going the linux route myself but have absolutely no experience with it. Something like this would give me a great place to start from.

saurian333 · « **Reply #21 on:** January 06, 2010, 11:21:23 pm »

Quote from: Grasshopper on December 13, 2009, 02:43:43 pm

I'd also be very interested in this. I've tried XMAME on Ubuntu and it works reasonably well. But I haven't had the time to set it up properly, or to try other versions of Linux MAME. So a Live CD with everything properly set up would be very useful to me.

I also liked how well XMame was running. However, if you have problems with it, don't expect any help. Everyone who's into MAME on Linux will tell you to use SDLMame instead, since XMame's last update was to MAME .106. My only gripe with it was that it sucks with PulseAudio (current default in Ubuntu), introducing a lag that is impossible to eliminate, but I think the libsdl-1.2debian-pulseaudio (or something like that) package fixes that (at least it did when I encountered a similar problem on SDLMame. The only version I got working properly was xmame-sdl, so if you're on a computer with enough power to handle it, you might as well use SDLMame anyway.

EDIT: By the way, the tip on that PulseAudio SDL package is from this thread, currently stickied at the top of the forum. I haven't tested the theory on that fixing XMame lag yet, but I have a good feeling it will.

If anyone here is serious about getting a Linux build going, start a thread and ask about it! I'm more than willing to share my experiences here. I can help with the more basic Linux stuff as well as a little bit of MAME-specific stuff (haven't gotten too deep into it yet). I'd love to see more Linux-based cabs out there. It's so much more efficient and configurable than Windows. I think more people would get into it if the Linux forum here was more active.

ArcadeKO · « **Reply #22 on:** April 22, 2010, 04:28:51 pm »

This would solve so many problems for me - I tried for weeks to get a FE working on puppy and finally just gave up - this would be awesome - did you ever get this done?

pmc · « **Reply #23 on:** September 14, 2010, 09:33:39 pm »

Old thread... but I'm now interested too. My cabinet HD crash has me re-installing TinyXP at the moment and I'd luv an opportunity to dump it for a Linux alternative.

ammi · « **Reply #24 on:** September 16, 2010, 03:24:29 am »

i do not know this Distro, but maybe zxmamecd is what you are looking for
www.zxmamecd.eu

we are working on an update with highscore.dat support for the next version and several other things.

General_Faliure · « **Reply #25 on:** October 22, 2010, 08:56:39 am »

Hello.

I am also interested in this.
Right now i use the script from this page: http://alphaboxmedia.net/home/?cat=4
Its a setup script that sets up Wah!cade on Xubuntu 9.04 and removes some unnecessary packages.
Scroll down to the bottom and you will find a setup guide for Xubuntu 9.04, he is now working on a script for Ubuntu 10.10.
I have set up an arcade cab using this.
Here are some pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/Ger.Dumont/ArcadeCab?feat=directlink

Greetz, Ger.

emphatic · « **Reply #26 on:** December 16, 2010, 02:57:37 pm »

This indeed sounds awesome. Idea/feature request:

Boot up Option #1 Vertical frontend, 15kHz
Boot up Option #2 Horizontal frontend, 15kHz

Boot up Option #3 Vertical frontend, 24kHz
Boot up Option #4 Horizontal frontend, 24kHz

Perhaps an even better approach would be allowing two installs, 15 or 24kHz and then the orientation could be chosen as the Live-CD boots?

newmanfamilyvlogs · « **Reply #27 on:** December 16, 2010, 03:07:24 pm »

I wonder how this will stack up versus things like Puppy Arcade?

http://scottjarvis.com/page105.htm

Silas (son of Silas) · « **Reply #28 on:** December 19, 2010, 02:35:11 pm »

I have started working on this again...... Update to follow....

Rok · « **Reply #29 on:** December 31, 2010, 11:37:55 pm »

I am very interested in this!

timb · « **Reply #30 on:** January 06, 2011, 05:53:18 am »

I registered on this forum just to express an interest in this. I write for a website with decent exposure as well, so if the project goes ahead I could help promote it.

I'd be interested in doing some artwork too if you needed the help.

ArcadeAddict77 · « **Reply #31 on:** February 04, 2011, 04:02:27 pm »

I would be interested in seeing this as well

ulfur · « **Reply #32 on:** February 27, 2011, 01:23:25 pm »

Yes! I'm very interested in this. Please release it as soon as possible

I'm going to build a cabinet based around the hardware out of an old Dell C610 laptop and would like to run a minimal linux based mame installation.
So far what I've seen, AdvanceCD, ZXMAMECD, Lincade and KnoppiXMAME are all either quite out of date, a biatch to install, not easily customizable or far from what I desire in terms of boot/ui.

What you described sounds perfect, booting directly into a mame launcher with customizable appearance.
I'd even accept partial package or just a tutorial on what you have done.
I'm also willing to help out in any way I can, I'm a software engineer with considerable experience in this kinda stuff.

Let me know if you need a hand but in any case I hope I see something from you soon

ps. Just like timb in the post above, I registered to this forum specifically to state my interest in this.

wad · « **Reply #33 on:** July 18, 2011, 11:33:11 am »

Silas, any updates?

C4N3 · « **Reply #34 on:** February 03, 2012, 04:22:25 pm »

I'm very interested in this, was this ever released?

Ansa89 · « **Reply #35 on:** February 05, 2012, 04:18:49 am »

@Silas (son of Silas): probably you already know (but just in case you don't) there is an ubuntu based cab-distro called AGES. Maybe you can get some patches from that project.

Now some (really personal) consideration: ubuntu was a good distro (until 11.04), but with newer release I started hating it.
Instead of ubuntu I suggest debian: more configurable, more stable, tons of software ready to be installed, tons of hardware architecture officially supported.
Debian really could be the "universal operating system".

denete · « **Reply #36 on:** March 28, 2012, 03:05:45 pm »

I'm guessing this was vapor.

neogeo123 · « **Reply #37 on:** April 05, 2012, 05:42:47 pm »

Would still love to see this....Something like XBMC for emulators would be mint!!


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