Has anyone tried to root the VCS?

[atarimonster]

you can find on hackaday a solution to root the VCS. https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/rooting-the-atari-vcs-800/

Has someone tried it out. My technical knowledge is to low to under stand the whole procedure...

Perhaps someone can make a tutorial to follow the necessary steps to access root via ssh or tty.

[THX-1138]

Honestly, I use the Atari OS just to buy and download the games.  I have a M.2 fitted in my VCS and by default it boots into an Atari themed Linux install.  This let's me mount the storage partition, access those dashboard files and because VCS games are just Linux games, I can backup and run them directly.  End result is my setup let's me run all my Linux development and productivity stuff, access all my media content, Steam and GOG games, all my Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit and ST/Falcon stuff and play my VCS games from the desktop.

[zzip]

6 hours ago, atarimonster said:

you can find on hackaday a solution to root the VCS. https://hackaday.com/2021/07/27/rooting-the-atari-vcs-800/

Has someone tried it out. My technical knowledge is to low to under stand the whole procedure...

Perhaps someone can make a tutorial to follow the necessary steps to access root via ssh or tty.

I guess I should ask what your goal is in rooting the Atari OS?  With the VCS it's very easy to run an alternate OS that you have full control over

[atarimonster]

1 hour ago, zzip said:

I guess I should ask what your goal is in rooting the Atari OS?  With the VCS it's very easy to run an alternate OS that you have full control over

The goal is to modify some ini files; for example mame.ini. So you can change vcs 7800 games and so on; directly under Atatri OS. I'm not interested into pirate games.

[digitalbilly]

On 7/15/2022 at 4:34 AM, THX-1138 said:

Honestly, I use the Atari OS just to buy and download the games.  I have a M.2 fitted in my VCS and by default it boots into an Atari themed Linux install.  This let's me mount the storage partition, access those dashboard files and because VCS games are just Linux games, I can backup and run them directly.  End result is my setup let's me run all my Linux development and productivity stuff, access all my media content, Steam and GOG games, all my Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit and ST/Falcon stuff and play my VCS games from the desktop.

hi newb here can you please share how your able to run backuped games on your linux desktop.

 

ive already got atarios running on a laptop via the factory image and ihave purchaced games can you please share what needs to be done to load vcs games on a linux platform?

[THX-1138]

21 hours ago, digitalbilly said:

hi newb here can you please share how your able to run backuped games on your linux desktop.

 

ive already got atarios running on a laptop via the factory image and ihave purchaced games can you please share what needs to be done to load vcs games on a linux platform?

They'll just run off the 'storage' partition as is or if copied to another drive (such as a VCS M.2 drive if installed).  Some games may require additional libraries, DOS and 7800 games will need DOSBox and MAME working and may require a custom script to start them.  If you're competent with Linux all this should be quite straight forward, if not, it would be a bit complicated to explain easily, I'm not much of a teacher I'm afraid.

[zzip]

15 minutes ago, THX-1138 said:

They'll just run off the 'storage' partition as is or if copied to another drive (such as a VCS M.2 drive if installed).  Some games may require additional libraries, DOS and 7800 games will need DOSBox and MAME working and may require a custom script to start them.  If you're competent with Linux all this should be quite straight forward, if not, it would be a bit complicated to explain easily, I'm not much of a teacher I'm afraid.

That gives me an idea.   Create a "smart script" that can display a menu of games installed on VCS storage and  figure out the launch method (native/dosbox/mame) and run them from the Linux distribution of your choice.   I was never sure if there was DRM or network check-in that would prevent this from working.

[THX-1138]

12 hours ago, zzip said:

That gives me an idea.   Create a "smart script" that can display a menu of games installed on VCS storage and  figure out the launch method (native/dosbox/mame) and run them from the Linux distribution of your choice.   I was never sure if there was DRM or network check-in that would prevent this from working.

I had a similar thought a while back - if Atari ceased all VCS support, some scripts could be created to transfer a users purchases to a Linux install, configure them and add them to the desktop. 

For me at this point, I do it manually for each item I buy - I don't really use the AtariOS to play games, just to buy stuff to be honest.  Most stuff 'just works' requiring little more than a launcher and icon (although I do copy them over to the Linux drive so as not to risk damaging the original).

(Some caveats, I've only ever tested any of this on Ubuntu and Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu), not sure about other distros.  Also, I don't know if online stuff in games work as I don't use those things.)

Attached pic showing my Linux 'start' menu and installed VCS games (with some others).

[zzip]

4 hours ago, THX-1138 said:

I had a similar thought a while back - if Atari ceased all VCS support, some scripts could be created to transfer a users purchases to a Linux install, configure them and add them to the desktop. 

For me at this point, I do it manually for each item I buy - I don't really use the AtariOS to play games, just to buy stuff to be honest.  Most stuff 'just works' requiring little more than a launcher and icon (although I do copy them over to the Linux drive so as not to risk damaging the original).

(Some caveats, I've only ever tested any of this on Ubuntu and Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu), not sure about other distros.  Also, I don't know if online stuff in games work as I don't use those things.)

Attached pic showing my Linux 'start' menu and installed VCS games (with some others).

Nice!

 

I also have to wonder what the feasibility of going the other way is.    Create 'homebrew' and other game packages, like say Dos games that you can install in Atari OS, and they will just show up on the dashboard.   Obviously the 3D parallex images in the Atari Dashboard are not standard desktop icons, so we'd have to provide that, but I wonder if there are other things to watch out for.

[THX-1138]

11 hours ago, zzip said:

Nice!

 

I also have to wonder what the feasibility of going the other way is.    Create 'homebrew' and other game packages, like say Dos games that you can install in Atari OS, and they will just show up on the dashboard.   Obviously the 3D parallex images in the Atari Dashboard are not standard desktop icons, so we'd have to provide that, but I wonder if there are other things to watch out for.

From what I've seen discussed on Discord in the last day or two, Atari may making this functionality ready for use with their 'Homebrew' app.

From Discord:

[+CyranoJ]

The topic means something totally different in Australia.

[zzip]

12 hours ago, THX-1138 said:

From what I've seen discussed on Discord in the last day or two, Atari may making this functionality ready for use with their 'Homebrew' app.

From Discord:

Interesting...    I wonder if it will only be able to install downloaded packages or if you can install your own?    Some of the stuff I'd want to install would be old commercial games I have that could not be distributed that way.

[digitalbilly]

On 12/15/2022 at 2:33 AM, THX-1138 said:

I had a similar thought a while back - if Atari ceased all VCS support, some scripts could be created to transfer a users purchases to a Linux install, configure them and add them to the desktop. 

For me at this point, I do it manually for each item I buy - I don't really use the AtariOS to play games, just to buy stuff to be honest.  Most stuff 'just works' requiring little more than a launcher and icon (although I do copy them over to the Linux drive so as not to risk damaging the original).

(Some caveats, I've only ever tested any of this on Ubuntu and Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu), not sure about other distros.  Also, I don't know if online stuff in games work as I don't use those things.)

Attached pic showing my Linux 'start' menu and installed VCS games (with some others).

can you please share how you get this menu screen on linux?

I can boot to atariOS (also on other hardware) and buy games I can also browse the game folder and launch games by simply double clicking on the game under ubuntu

I'm still a bit of a noob when it comes to linux but I would love to learn more.

[THX-1138]

On 12/27/2022 at 9:31 PM, digitalbilly said:

can you please share how you get this menu screen on linux?

I can boot to atariOS (also on other hardware) and buy games I can also browse the game folder and launch games by simply double clicking on the game under ubuntu

I'm still a bit of a noob when it comes to linux but I would love to learn more.

Sorry, thought I'd replied to this.  This is just the standard start menu from XFCE in Linux Mint (Whisker Menu).  It's just got a dark theme running on the system and I've resized the menu to fill the screen.
If you're running Ubuntu, that has the GNOME desktop and that is already a fullscreen menu.  Games etc. can be added manually, as I said before I'm not much of a teacher but briefly, this is what I do:
1. I copy the game from the VCS storage partition so as not to accidentally alter or damage the original.
2. I try to run it from a terminal, if it works then yippie, if not I use 'ldd' to find out what libraries are needed or command line options may be needed.
3. I create a launcher for the app, there will be a nice GUI way to do it for Ubuntu just as there is for mine.

In time I may automate this...  I've had a plan to make a little utility that can be run on a fresh install of Linux (Ubuntu or Mint etc) and it will import all the VCS games, setup Atari emulators and desktop wallpapers/themes.

 

[Rodgie]

On 12/15/2022 at 4:33 AM, THX-1138 said:

I had a similar thought a while back - if Atari ceased all VCS support, some scripts could be created to transfer a users purchases to a Linux install, configure them and add them to the desktop. 

For me at this point, I do it manually for each item I buy - I don't really use the AtariOS to play games, just to buy stuff to be honest.  Most stuff 'just works' requiring little more than a launcher and icon (although I do copy them over to the Linux drive so as not to risk damaging the original).

 

How do you use the AtariOS to buy and download games?  Do you go into the BIOS, switch the boot order, reboot (into AtariOS), login and buy+download games to the VCS, then go back into the BIOS to switch the boot order back to boot from the M.2 and restart again?

 

What did you do to theme the Mint desktop with Atari?

 

Edited January 1, 2023 by Rodgie

[THX-1138]

22 hours ago, Rodgie said:

How do you use the AtariOS to buy and download games?  Do you go into the BIOS, switch the boot order, reboot (into AtariOS), login and buy+download games to the VCS, then go back into the BIOS to switch the boot order back to boot from the M.2 and restart again?

 

What did you do to theme the Mint desktop with Atari?

 

I have my VCS boot order set to USB>SSD>eMMC.  I just leave it at that, so by default, unless I put a USB thumb drive in, it will boot to the internal m.2 drive I installed by default.
Then, if I want to start AtariOS to buy and download games, I power-on tapping ESC and go into the boot manager and select the Atari OS instead of the Linux drive.  Once done in AtariOS, I just reboot.

Theme is just the Mint dark theme, I use a custom wallpaper, install some custom fonts and icons.  I also maximise the XFCE start menu (whisker menu) to fill the screen and adjust the icon sizes, resize the dock etc.

[zzip]

On 1/1/2023 at 12:50 PM, Rodgie said:

How do you use the AtariOS to buy and download games?  Do you go into the BIOS, switch the boot order, reboot (into AtariOS), login and buy+download games to the VCS, then go back into the BIOS to switch the boot order back to boot from the M.2 and restart again?

 

What did you do to theme the Mint desktop with Atari?

 

I installed grub which gives a nice menu to select your OS.   It also gives more time to make your decision than BIOS which expects you to hit escape as soon as it boots

[JerryN]

On 7/15/2022 at 6:34 AM, THX-1138 said:

Honestly, I use the Atari OS just to buy and download the games.  I have a M.2 fitted in my VCS and by default it boots into an Atari themed Linux install.  This let's me mount the storage partition, access those dashboard files and because VCS games are just Linux games, I can backup and run them directly.  End result is my setup let's me run all my Linux development and productivity stuff, access all my media content, Steam and GOG games, all my Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit and ST/Falcon stuff and play my VCS games from the desktop.

Hi,

   What Atari Themed Linux install do you use ?    This sounds like a great solution for me. 

[zzip]

2 hours ago, JerryN said:

On 7/15/2022 at 6:34 AM, THX-1138 said:

Honestly, I use the Atari OS just to buy and download the games.  I have a M.2 fitted in my VCS and by default it boots into an Atari themed Linux install.  This let's me mount the storage partition, access those dashboard files and because VCS games are just Linux games, I can backup and run them directly.  End result is my setup let's me run all my Linux development and productivity stuff, access all my media content, Steam and GOG games, all my Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit and ST/Falcon stuff and play my VCS games from the desktop.

Hi,

   What Atari Themed Linux install do you use ?    This sounds like a great solution for me. 

I did something similar to THX-1138,   I just took a vanilla Ubuntu Linux and installed an Atari-themed game launcher on top of it that launches by default.   It can be controlled by a game controller so it behaves more like a console than a desktop PC.