Console emulators on 64bit

Message

SniperSlap · Post by **SniperSlap** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 1:58 am

Okay, so what's the process of getting gaming console emulators working under an AMD64 install?
Am I limited if the emulator is written partially (or wholly) in assembly? Are there any success stories so far of certain emulators on AMD64?

I've got piles of things working perfectly. If I didn't know any better, AMD64 is as stable if not more stable than x86-32!!! LOL

I have a very nice sexy system running with lots of great hardware features actually being used.

Any advice would be helpful. Still new to the whole "not being able to use everything I see" situation unfortunatley.

2crazy · Post by **2crazy** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 3:12 am

Hi,
especially emulators written in full or partially in assembler (32bit asm that is) will cause you problems. I think most of the time those asm routines get just replaced by much slower C code, if available.

An emulator completly written in C should have some speed improvement on your computer though.

You may have to run some of your favourites emulators in a 32bit chroot enviroment, at least for the time being.

cheers

SniperSlap · Post by **SniperSlap** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 7:07 pm

So, to run a chrooted emulator, do I have to be running in a 32bit chrooted copy of Xwin?

Or does 32bit compatibility simply bring 32bit programs over to a 64bit environment already in operation?

How do I go about setting up and maintaining a 32bit environment? I've noticed that I do have quite a few extra symlinks in "/" like lib32 or whatever...All new stuff to me still.

Thanks for all the help!

mike4148 · Post by **mike4148** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 12:20 am

I just run with multilib and compile stuff by hand. zsnes (written almost entirely in 32-bit assembly language) works perfectly this way. Just make sure that you add the "-m32" CFLAG as an argument to configure/in the makefile. For example:

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CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -m32" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -m32" ./configure

Most stuff compiles out of the box like that. Many other things work, but you have to mess with the build files a bit to get them to compile.

toofastforyahuh · Post by **toofastforyahuh** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 11:13 am

xmame definitely works on amd64, except for a few games that still segfault. Some parts are being cleaned up to be truly 64-bit clean as we speak.

I've never tried xmess, but presumably a similar state there.

SniperSlap · Post by **SniperSlap** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 10:57 pm

I grabbed a copy of the ZSnes sources and yeah, it looks quite promising! I'm anxious to get back hom to try my compile...If it does work, I'll be well impressed, 'cause I'll be using the best SNES emulator out there.

All of it's graphics calls are done using SDL, so lucky me...got that compiled and working.

This AMD64 system is just crisp so far.

So, when I do the compile, will I be able to run the end result in my 64bit Xorg sessions?

mike4148 · Post by **mike4148** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:47 am

So, when I do the compile, will I be able to run the end result in my 64bit Xorg sessions?

I do, so the answer must be yes

.

SniperSlap · Post by **SniperSlap** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 1:48 am

Well, fine & dandy, but it seems like after trying

CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -m32" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -m32" ./configure

I get stuff along the lines of "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu": machine "x86_64-unknown" not recognized

Basically:

configure: error: This Target is Not Supported

So, how'd you get it working???? I have a funny feeling like my CFLAGS aren't actually being taken to heart.

JazzSax006 · Post by **JazzSax006** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 2:43 am

-m32 is an argument used if you have multilib support on your 64bit install (USE="multilib"). So if you want to use it, you'll need to add "multilib" to your use flags and then recompile glibc and gcc. There might be some other progs that need recompiling for multilib to work as well...can't remember since I used multilib from the start

. Basically, though, multilib allows you to compile 32bit binaries without having a full 32bit chroot environment.

EDIT: After adding "multilib" to your use settings in /etc/make.conf, I *think* that you can use

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emerge -pv --newuse world

to re-emerge the necessary packages on your system (assuming you are using a semi-recent version of portage)

SniperSlap · Post by **SniperSlap** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 1:49 pm

Hrm, sounds good. I should probably get to adding some other things in there as well while I'm at it.

I know I have /lib32 and all that stuff, so could it be that it's already installed? Or am I actually missing a whole package (or few) at this point?

mike4148 · Post by **mike4148** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 3:54 am

There are two things you have to do to build zsnes (I hadn't done this in a while; I started from scratch to document exactly what was involved here....) 32-bit on amd64. First, zsnes will totally override any CFLAGS; don't both specifying them. To fix the unrecognized CHOST thing, run configure like so:

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linux32 ./configure

linux32 makes the command it runs behave exactly like it were running on an i686. This gives configure an i686-pc-linux-gnu CHOST, which is good enough for it to set things up. Next, you have to put in your own CFLAGS, to include the -m32. After running configure, open the file config.status in the current directory (zsnes-1.36/src). You'll see a line like

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s%@CFLAGS@%-pipe -I. ..........%g

That is, a huge line with zsnes's preferred CFLAGS. Take out the -march, all the -f's, and the -O, and replace them with yours, with a -m32 somewhere. For example, I replaced (all on one line)

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s%@CFLAGS@%-pipe -I. -Wall -D__LINUX__ -I/usr/X11R6/include -I/usr/include/SDL -D_REENTRANT -D__OPENGL__ -Os -ffast-math -fomit-frame-pointer -fschedule-insns2 -s -march=pentiumpro%g

with

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s%@CFLAGS@%-pipe -I. -Wall -D__LINUX__ -I/usr/X11R6/include -I/usr/include/SDL -D_REENTRANT -D__OPENGL__ -O3 -s -march=opteron -m32%g

After fixing the CFLAGS, run

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./config.status
make -j3

or similar to build 32-bit zsnes on amd64.

andyjeffries · Post by **andyjeffries** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:42 pm

SniperSlap wrote:So, to run a chrooted emulator, do I have to be running in a 32bit chrooted copy of Xwin?

Or does 32bit compatibility simply bring 32bit programs over to a 64bit environment already in operation?

How do I go about setting up and maintaining a 32bit environment? I've noticed that I do have quite a few extra symlinks in "/" like lib32 or whatever...All new stuff to me still.

Thanks for all the help!

Have a look at the document I wrote:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php? ... 500298ff31