Author Topic: A couple of rootfs upgrades...  (Read 34130 times)

Elta (OP)

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A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« on: December 04, 2009, 03:07:34 pm »
Hello people :D

I have made a couple of modifications to my rootfs (based on Dingux system 20091022) that could be useful to other people, so I'm sharing them here.

Don't forget to make a backup of your files, just in case.

20091208

- Updated busybox to 1.15.2
- Patched SDL to ignore invalid video modes.

rootfs 20091208:
http://www.mediafire.com/?zthdvtn1ngd

toolchain patch 20091208:
http://www.mediafire.com/?vdjyzw3cqwi

20091203

- SDL updated to  1.2.14
- SDL_mixer updated to 1.2.11 (Fix mod music: just4qix etc...)
- inittab: SD card remounted with noatime option, eliminating unwanted writes to the SD card. mmcqd should behave now :)

rootfs 20091203:
http://www.mediafire.com/?mfk4qqnynnt

toolchain patch 20091203:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1jteugyylr2

New Ports
(Those need rootfs 20091208 or later)

RotateGear:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jmqkt5hgzym

Hexen 1.6.1: (Don't forget to copy the WAD file too!)
http://www.mediafire.com/?dhmmzidzynw

Heretic 0.2.1: (Don't forget to copy the WAD file too!)
http://www.mediafire.com/?dmiyzx2ztjj
« Last Edit: December 08, 2009, 10:51:26 pm by Elta »

eule

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2009, 04:13:22 pm »
Cool, will test and report. Do you mean the SD-bug is fixed? :D

qbertaddict

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2009, 04:35:58 pm »
I need to do some more tests but all the hiccups i used to get with sound and framerates on the old rootfs are gone!!!! Great work. I'm going to try on my buddies dingoo next

qbertaddict

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2009, 04:55:28 pm »
The emulators are working great but the fps seem to be choppy and duke3d doesn't run for me anymore

Goon8

  • Guest
Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2009, 10:26:18 pm »
+1 for your efforts mate!

Will test this asap..

Are you apart of the Google.code group? If not you should send a request to join atleast then your effort are documented and central.

Thank you!

Elta (OP)

  • Posts: 21
Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2009, 01:59:38 am »
The emulators are working great but the fps seem to be choppy and duke3d doesn't run for me anymore

For the FPSes running choppy, they run choppy on my machine too (except EDuke32 because the music can be turned off)
It has been like that for me since midi emulation via timidity was added to the rootfs.
Do you remember if the music was playing before ?
The music use a large chunk of CPU and so far I've found no way to turn it off. (-nomusic command line option would have been nice and setting the volume to zero doesn't help as the music is still playing)
I think someone will have to get the source, comment some code to remove the music and recompile  ;)

For Duke3d, there are 2 ports.
I use EDuke32 and it runs like a champ. Actually, I was playing it in the train earlier.  ;D
When I'm back home I'll try to run the other port.
I will also document how to modify the rootfs.

Another thing worth mentioning:
I'm not using the latest kernel (zImage); the one included with system 20091022; as I was having big framerate problems with it. (Picodrive 60fps->40fps).
I haven't seen this problem mentioned anywhere so I was wondering if other people have this problem too.
I use instead the kernel with poweroff enabled that was posted in another thread.

Quote from: Goon
Are you apart of the Google.code group? If not you should send a request to join atleast then your effort are documented and central.

I'm not registered at all on Google Code. I only have a Sourceforge account :P

qbertaddict

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2009, 03:35:47 pm »
I use eduke32 as it runs much better. I will try the ipu non ipu and power off zimages and see what gets the best results. I love the fact that my emus play perfect now though. So i rather turn off sound in the ports than the have jumpy emus

zear

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2009, 04:30:26 pm »
My experience with an old ipu kernel tells me that with ipu enabled, many eduke32 mods are unplayable.

tuki_cat

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #8 on: December 05, 2009, 09:03:43 pm »
Just tried these out and the emus now run much smoother,

Thanks!

qbertaddict

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #9 on: December 06, 2009, 02:29:04 am »
Yeah its weird I no longer get stutters on my emus. That rules. My eduke is still messing up though I'm going to reinstall it and see what happens.

QBert

  • Guest
Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #10 on: December 06, 2009, 06:29:15 pm »
This updated rootfs appears to have solved the "stuttering" issue with Dingux applications. This is something I appreciate greatly!  :)

Big thank you Elta!

Elta (OP)

  • Posts: 21
Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #11 on: December 08, 2009, 10:48:10 pm »
A couple more modifications today 20091208:

- Updated busybox to 1.15.2, mainly for the ftpd related fixes as I use that now to transfer files to my Dingoo.
- Patched the SDL to ignore invalid video modes.

(See first post for links)

The Dingoo for now only support 16 bit video modes but the framebuffer driver report other bit depths as being present and usable.
This new patch prevent the SDL from seeing these non functional modes.
So what happens if an application request a 320x240x8 video mode?
SDL will set 320x240x16 and provide a "shadow surface" to fool the application into thinking it's running in 8 bit mode.
In other words we don't have to modify the source code anymore and the SDL does all the work for us :D

To illustrate this, I've compiled a few games:
(Those will only work with the new rootfs, and will look squashed horizontally on an older rootfs)

RotateGear:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jmqkt5hgzym

This one used to lock up as soon as I try to rotate the world, now run fine.
Fixed a memory problem too.

Hexen 1.6.1: (Don't forget to copy the WAD file too!)
http://www.mediafire.com/?dhmmzidzynw

Heretic 0.2.1: (Don't forget to copy the WAD file too!)
http://www.mediafire.com/?dmiyzx2ztjj

Those two now run blazing fast even with music on. ;D
They are based on the lastest versions available on sourceforge and now include a -nomidi command line to disable the music.
« Last Edit: December 08, 2009, 10:52:54 pm by Elta »

Goon8

  • Guest
Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #12 on: December 08, 2009, 11:00:43 pm »
Mate, you're a machine! This is the quickest I've seen such epic improvements to Dingux. Outstanding!

Really appreciate it!  ;D

QBert

  • Guest
Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #13 on: December 08, 2009, 11:33:41 pm »
Those two now run blazing fast even with music on. ;D
They are based on the lastest versions available on sourceforge and now include a -nomidi command line to disable the music.

I really appreciate the effort you're putting into improving Dingux and the ported apps. Thank you again Elta!

dgh

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #14 on: December 09, 2009, 12:05:46 am »
In which directory in the local folder would I place the toolchain file ?

Elta (OP)

  • Posts: 21
Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #15 on: December 09, 2009, 01:02:48 am »
In which directory in the local folder would I place the toolchain file ?

The toolchain files are only used to develop applications for the Dingoo and are used on the PC, not the Dingoo itself. :)

eule

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #16 on: December 09, 2009, 09:32:01 am »
Err, the toolchain is for porting/deving programs, if you?re not a dev, you don?t need it.  :D And it should go to your computer.  ;D
Oops, the mighty Elta has spoken. Thanks for your work Elta!

joyrider

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #17 on: December 09, 2009, 01:01:59 pm »
The noatime and nodiratime mounting was already known a long time, i even posted it and the a320 forums when i found it out and most just didn't care. I even posted my findings on google code as an issue back then: http://code.google.com/p/dingoo-linux/issues/detail?id=40

I used it all the time,well i used to, cause i couldn't care less anymore about my dingoo at the moment, but it should be worth putting in the renice command as well (just read the google code issue). The real cause of it all is the mccqd process, mounting with nodiratime and noatime helped a bit.

I'm just amazed that it took so long before anyone even used it.

on a side note:
I don't program anymore for dingoo and don't think i will again, most users just use some preassembled pack, and have no idea how to do this or how to enter commands them selves let alone read a readme or follow it. Heck i'm even more amazed that there are still some people that can't seem to get dingux installed. People just buy the dingoo cause it's cheap and want to play games on the emulators, but can't seem to figure out stuff themselves, although there are exceptions most are like this.

Programming (in my spare time) depends on my mood and if i feel it's not worth it anymore to do this, i just quit with it. I guess that's what happend with me and my dingoo and got a bit frustrated at the end. I'm a programmer in daily (job)life so programming in my spare time is not always something i want to do. I'm currently happy with playing games on my ps3 or pc in my spare time. It might change again someday but won't be soon i guess and i don't know if it'll be for the dingoo then.

batman52

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #18 on: December 09, 2009, 01:33:59 pm »
@joyrider: too bad you don't mean to develop for dingoo anymore: i believe you were one of the best developers in there.

eule

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Re: A couple of rootfs upgrades...
« Reply #19 on: December 09, 2009, 07:58:29 pm »
Yeah, sad to hear that... 
It?s true, some of the spirit, enthusiasm and excitement of the early days is gone.  :-\ But my Dingoo still doesn?t fail to impress and surprise me; that may be quite different for you, you probably know the Dingoo like your vest pocket.
One thing to add: I for myself still use an oooold local pack with dmenu 0.2, edited the config files thousands of times and read lots of readmes, quite average dingoo-user. Unlike a spamming troll raping this forum not long ago.

First Booboo(?!), now joyrider...  :'( bad days in Dingooland. Hope to see a new work of you sometime again.  :)

 

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