THEC64 X-Windows Mod

I agree you can make changes to XWM if you mount the rootfs as rw. But did you install those themes with apt, apt-get or dpkg, or in another way?

You need to use the USB Type A port as that is the one that supports OTG switching between Host mode and Client mode. Note you can still power THE64 from the power port.Lubuntu is based on Ubuntu, if they use the same Network Manager then it should still work OK.This is actually quite a cool idea. You could power the Pi and THE64 from e.g. a dual-port USB PSU so you don't have power issues and use the USB Type A port just for the network connection. You could even build the Pi into the case and connect it to the THE64's USB Type A and power port internally.Yes it does as that is already running. There is a method (called kexec) to replace a running kernel with a new one but that doesn't work on THE64 I think. And as the standard THE64 doesn't boot from USB currently the only way to change the kernel is to install a new one in nanda. This is certainly possible but then you have to consider whether you want to risk that. I've done it with my THE64's, e.g. my Mini now first checks if there's a kernel on a USB drive and if do loads that. I will publish the method on the forum some time when I have it working for the Maxi/VIC-20 as well.

Do you get an IP address on THEVIC20? If so then you're halfway there. Remember that (unless your Pi Zero acts as DNS server) you need to set a suitable DNS server in /etc/resolv/conf. Also the Pi Zero needs to act as an IP router.

If you don't get an IP address you can try to create a bridge between the Pi's wlan0 and it's usb0. Then run dhclient on THE64 and you should get an IP address and nameserver assigned from you internet router. For the Pi to have IP connectivity itself you have to run dhclient on the bridge interface as well.

Using the Pi Zero (or any Pi) has the advantage you can use a normal micro-USB to USB data cable.

I don't use Lubuntu but from the info here I gather you need to first connect THEVIC20 tot the PC and start XWM so that OTG mode is active. This should create the 'virtual' usb0 network card on the PC. Then you go to the network manager in Lubuntu (Preferences->Network Connections) and enable sharing on the usb0 device. 
The sharing will  (at least on my Ubuntu) set up the DHCP server on Lubuntu that assigns an IP address to then rndis0 interface on THEVIC20 when dhclient asks for it.

Could you use a USB WIFI Dongle or a USB to RJ45 Adapter(my USB to RJ45 Adapter, it blue, does work on THEC64 Mini FEL MODE) with THEC64 X-Windows Mod, I guess it would depend on if there's a modgel for the kernal and if it works with it or can be modified to work with it, and you would have to have 2 modgets, one of THEC64 Mini and one for THEC64 Maxi cause there kernels are not the same and uses different SoC(System On a Chip, there like ASIC(Application-specific integrated circuit) Chip, which came first..? the Chicken or the Egg, well Commodore did cause of there Chicken Head logo.. got to be funny with Covid 19 around.)...?

My USB to RJ45 Adapter

On the Mini you could use it, if you remember I provided the kernel modules for this one in one of the earlier threads. So all you have to do is replace the asix.ko module that is load in start.sh with the one for this adapter.

It's much easier to set up a bridge on the Pi Zero W between (in your case) wlan0 and usb0. I don't have a Pi Zero W but on a Pi Zero with added ethernet adapter and a new, clean RaspberryOS install I followed only the 'Setup the network bridge' part of this instruction, and in addition to the instructions for eth0 I did the same for usb0, creating an automatic bridge between eth0 and usb0. In your case, replace eth0 with wlan0 of course.

Now when I run XWM on the Maxi (powered by the Pi Zero's OTG port) the usb0 interface that is created on the Pi Zero is automatically added to the bridge. And because it is bridged with 'the rest of the network' running dhclient on rndis0 on the Maxi gives it an IP-address and nameserver on your local network so you are immediately in business.

I use an OTG cable (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go#OTG_micro_cables).

Update: Link updated to TheC64-X-Windows v3.zip:

• Adds evtest-gtk tool, can be used to determine what each button on a joystick/gamepad is called. Use if you want to change Project Carousel on USB XMW start or gamefolder switch buttons
• Sound now works though can still hickup as memory is very tight
• Added some missing /dev folders - thanks threader
• If there is no nandb but there is a mmcblk0p2 then mmcblk0p2 is used instead of nandb - useful for those that use e.g. a Maxi Pi

Download from Mega...Here or from One Drive...Here.
This is a custom firmware upgrade for the Mini and the Maxi that rather than upgrade something instead starts an X-Windows session, allowing you to copy games, edit files like gamecotrollerdb.txt etc using a graphical desktop:


It will startup with a file manager with bookmarks to the '/usr/shares/the64' directory, the full rootfs and the USB disk, and also a terminal window.
In addition there are icons on the Desktop to:

• Backup the nand and the 'usr/shares/the64' files to the USB disk, to a backup directory. It creates new copies every time you run it.
  
• Run the evtest-qt joystick test program

To quit and get back to theTheC64 mode logout use the red 'switch off' logout button.

You need a keyboard and mouse attached to the TheC64 though the Maxi's keyboard works as keyboard.

To use it, unzip the zipfile to an USB disk (preferably a fast one) that you know works on TheC64, e.g. that you already know the TheC64 can load games from. It needs to be 2GB or more. Then go to the System Information menu where you can 'upgrade'. This will start the X-Windows session, depending on the speed of your USB disk it can take some time to start.

There are some graphical glitches with the application windows not refreshing, if you encounter this minimise and then maximise the window and it will be redrawn ok.

You can make a screenshot using the PrtSct key.

The rootfs image itself is a copy of the Olimex A20 Lime rootfs. Remember that TheC64 has very little memory (and doesn't support a swapfile) so memory-hungry applications won't run. And obviously there's no network.

Use at your own risk. Make a backup first. I'm not responsible for anyone bricking his/her TheC64 by using this.

Thanks to both cyanic and raxrip  who created the firmware unpacker/packer that makes this possible.

The joystick icon was made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

A brief overview of how to add/change things on the rootfs image:

From the TheC64:

• In 'start.sh' on the USB drive change the 'mount -o ro /mnt/rootfs.img /tmp/chroot' to 'mount -o rw /mnt/rootfs.img /tmp/chroot' to make it writable
• Put any stuff you want to change/add also on the USB dirve, e.g.background image, software packages. For software packages you need do download the corresponding .deb package for Debian Jessie
• Run the 'update' on the TheC64. The rootfs image is now read/write so you can make any changes you want. To install a .deb package do 'dpkg -i xxxx.deb'

From a PC running Linux:

• Mount (a copy of) the rootfs.img on a suitable directory, e.g. sudo 'mount rootfs.img /mnt'
• You need to have qemu-user-static installed and possibly binfmt installed
• If you want to run X-Windows programs from the rootfs and have them displayed on your PC's screen, then from a normal terminal window on your PC do:
  # xhost +
access control disabled, clients can connect from any host
# echo $DISPLAY
:1

• Start a root command-line session from the rootfs image: 
  sudo chroot /mnt /bin/sh or 
  sudo chroot /mnt /bin/bash
  
• Do:
  export DISPLAY=<$DISPLAY from above>
  
• You can now edit the filesystem and also install packgages with apt-get and should have a normal network connection
• Some X programs will run on your screen, e.g. 'xclock'. But many others won't.
• Instead of using systemd-nspawn you might also be able to use Docker or qumu
• After logging out of the session do a 'sudo umount /mnt' and copy the rootfs image back to the USB drive for use on the TheC64

I show some of the programs running here: IBM PC emulator (DOSBox) running a C64 emulator running FORTH, a Jupiter Ace emulator (xAce) with native Forth, and BASIC (YABasic) for Linux.

I took the time to try out the 'qemu-user-static' approach and 'chroot' to a copy of the Olimex/Debian image to a dir. I also tracked down the last relevant Debian repository for jessie in the Debian snapshots archive snapshot.debian.org/.
<SNIP>Huh?

I can now set up to compile some Lima drivers and see what happens, though the list of dependencies for just building Mesa will surely mess up dependencies between a clean jessie and this mess, i messed up with installing ca-certificates from 'stable' anyway as that dragged with it a libc6 update, then there's the case of this, git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/drivers/gpu/drm/lima?id=a1d2a6339961efc078208dc3b2f006e9e9a8e119 , I'll try building a module ofc. 

Cheers!