THEC64 X-Windows Mod

Yes, the image that jj0 used is of Jessie:

Interesting observations.

The 'missing' RAM is used to load and execute the kernel I think. When you check the memory on a 'clean' Mini you get he same amount:

# free -m
            total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           105         29         76          0          0         12
-/+ buffers/cache:         16         89
Swap:            0          0          0


There is no console prompt or anything that is normally started at boot in a normal system. This is because the system is not booting from the rootfs, only running an  X11 session from it. I'm surprised the Mini's System information' screen is shown, apparently the bitmap that's on the screen when the X session is started is kept.

In a normal system, systemd starts the linux consoles (via a.o. console-getty.service). But as there's no normal boot this won't work. You can probably start your own console session on tty0, e.g. in the FEL hack I used yaft to do this. But you have to ask yourself what the use is when you can also start a terminal.


Get the nand_id program from this post. Run:

# nand_id 20 2112 read_id
id = c8 d1 80 95 42

This gives you the ID of the nand which you can use to google what chip it is.

E.g.
c8 d1 = ESMT F59L1G81MA = 1Gb = 128MB
98 da = Toshiba TC58NVG1S3HTA00 = 2Gb = 256MB

Use the 'ps' command to see which shell has been started. I think it's ash, not bash when using CTRL-SHIFT-T. That's the standard for LXTerminal but I modified the menu for it to start bash ('lxterminal -e /bin/bash'). I also symlinked /bin/sh to /bin/bash but apparently that doesn't quite work.

Because this is the rootfs that was distributed with the OlinuXino Lime A20 which closely resembles the C64Mini. But you can probably use a Debian Buster rootfs as well, as long as it uses Mali video drivers and armv7l architecture.

Yes, but the Raspberry Pi is better supported

Your picture was helpful. I used that system to install DOSBox, FUSE-GTK (ZX Spectrum), WXMaxima, QTOctave, perlconsole etc. I can run CP/M emulators in DOSBox and FUSE, and C64 emulators in DOSBox.

I had to remove YABasic before installing, and then reinstall it afterwards, since it was force installed.

What is the best way to shut down this system so that you don't corrupt the file? Should I run e.g. sync before Ctrl+] three times? Then I umount.

A disadvantage with this system is that I don't have access to any other disk space, since those under /media are empty, except olimex. I mounted it directly from the flash drive and didn't make a copy, but that went well. I need the extra space to compile e.g. VICE-3.4 in the Debian Jessie environment.

Is sound supported in the Debian Jessie for THEC64 MINI? What sound system? Is there a sound test program installed or that you recommend? I have not heard any sound.

Sound was supported in the FEL mode Linux.

Finally gave this a quick try tonight, looking nice I didn't have a mouse on me at the time, so was struggling with pure keyboard navigation via the maxi's keyboard. Don't think any of its c64 keys map to the pc's ALT key

Anyways, reading mobluse's posts about installing extra goodies sounds enticing, I'll try give that a go another night

Thanks for sharing JJ

Can Somebody please tell me what file i need to edit to adjust screen size (overscan) as I'm loosing the height of the taskbar on all 4 sides of the screen.
I've tried different screen settings on my TV and the best i can get is about 1/4 of taskbar to show not enough to see the window names when minimized

Thanks.

I've made a project for this Debian Jessie Linux that makes THEC64 internal keyboard easier to use.
github.com/mobluse/THEC64-keyboard

Since THEC64's keyboard doesn't have Alt, we swap Alt and THEC64/Win keys. The other keys are fixed so that the keyboard works similar to C64, but with the goal that all ASCII characters should be easy to type, since ASCII is more important than PETSCII in Linux.

The best program to test the keyboard with is Leafpad, since more characters works there than in LXTerminal. One can use Shift+Down and Shift+Right for Up and Left, respectively ─ unfortunately this doesn't work in the terminals. Shift+cursor keys are used to mark text in Leafpad, but this doesn't work now ─ you can mark with a mouse.

Hints: Restore on THEC64 is Tab on PC, and Run/Stop is Esc ─ e.g. Ctrl+Run/Stop opens the Start menu, and THEC64+Tab repeated, cycles the open Windows. Shift+£ is Delete, and Del is Backspace.

You can type some international characters using Shift+Run/Stop and Shift+Return before typing the character, e.g. ë and é.

Copy the folder to the USB flash drive. Run the install script inside Debian Jessie Linux for THEC64, then reboot (the image must be writable). There is also an uninstall script. This system does not change the internal flash, however there is no warranty.

Is it possible to get sound working on THEC64 and THEC64 MINI? How would one do that?

When I boot using this Debian Jessie image (fake upgrade) I don't notice any sound system. I can hear sound when I use THEC64 or THEC64 MINI normally e.g. on the carousel, and sound also works in FEL mode for THEC64 MINI. Is there a program installed in Debian Jessie that can give sound?

On THEC64 MINI all sounds in the /media/the64/ui/sounds/ directory works except menu.wav, but on THEC64 I got no sound and only an error message:
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:1667:(_snd_pcm_hw_open) Invalid value for card
aplay: main:722: audio open error: No such file or directory

The file menu_close.wav exists in THEC64 at the correct place.

Sure... done..

I can run all computers in VICE 2.4 now in THEC64 MINI (haven't tried yet in THEC64). I installed it using the flash drive in a Linux computer:
cd /media/pi/THEC64/
sudo mount rootfs.img /mnt/
sudo systemd-nspawn -D /mnt/
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install vice
Ctrl+] three times quickly breaks out of the container.
sudo umount /mnt/
I then inserted the flash drive in THEC64 MINI and booted Debian Jessie and copied the ROMs from another VICE directory I got when compiling VICE 3.4. You can also copy THEC64 files from nandb:
cp -r /mnt/nandb/usr/lib/vice/* /usr/lib/vice/
Then you can run x64 in Debian Jessie in THEC64 MINI. If you have the other ROMs you can run xvic, x128 etc.
I had to change Sound device name to alsa in Settings. I also changed Refresh rate to Auto and Maximum speed to No limit. Maybe there are more optimizations you can do.


They are still slower than 100% so Retro Games Ltd did a good job speeding up e.g. x64 on THEC64 MINI. I couldn't hear any sound from x64 even though aplay works in THEC64 MINI. I've not yet tried CP/M in x64 (with Z80 cartridge) and x128.

I figured it out. The alsa configuration file (/etc/asound in the rootfs.img) needs to be replaced with the same one as the TheC64 model (also /etc/asound but then on nandb of course). Then playing menu.wav works from aplay but also from player.

To allow you to do this you need to change the 'mount -o ro rootfs.img' to 'mount -o rw rootfs.img' in start.sh. Then you can copy the asound file. Then quit/logout and change the mount back to '-o ro' to avoid filesystem corruption. Or you can copy it on a different PC of course.

I also got x64 to play sound, by disabling hardware scaling wich increased frame rate. Disabling borders makes it even better by allowing it to run at 40-50fps.