Help with jzIntv on Linux (Trisquel)

[+DZ-Jay]

Hello,

 

I am working on a special project and it requires running jzIntv on Linux.  The specific flavor of Linux is one called Trisquel.

 

I’ve never used the emulator in Linux (in fact, it’s been like 15 years since I last used Linux at all), so I do not know what to expect.

 

Is there anything special that I need to do to get jzIntv working on Linux?  I mean, any special drivers or libraries I need to install separately?

 

Also, I need to prepare a stupid-simple, fool proof set of instructions for a non-techie person to set it up in his own.  Can someone help me with that?

 

    Thanks!

     dZ.

[Zendocon]

I know about Trisquel, but I've never used it.  But what you're describing sounds just like my PIDE, which is a Linux-based environment running on an Android device.

 

As for libraries, all you should need is SDL2 (and maybe pulseaudio).  My PIDE instructions allow you to get jzIntv compiled from source, although there's one tweak to the Makefile for now.

[+DZ-Jay]

7 hours ago, Zendocon said:

I know about Trisquel, but I've never used it.  But what you're describing sounds just like my PIDE, which is a Linux-based environment running on an Android device.

 

As for libraries, all you should need is SDL2 (and maybe pulseaudio).  My PIDE instructions allow you to get jzIntv compiled from source, although there's one tweak to the Makefile for now.

 

Hi, @Zendocon,

 

Thank you for the response.  To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I quite get what your PIDE does or offers.  I thought it was an integrated development environment in the style of something like Delphi, Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc., where the editor, debugger, and various inspectors are combined.

 

What I am actually looking to do is this:

• I have a ROM to give to someone who wants to run on a Linux computer running Trisquel.
• I will provide the ROM + emulator (jzIntv) to the user.
• The user will set it up himself.
• However, I need to provide idiot-proof, simple-as-pie, straightforward instructions for this individual to set it up.
• The individual is completely non-technical, and lives far away, so I cannot aid them directly.

In other words, the ideal thing would be to bundle the emulator, all its dependencies, and the ROM in some sort of package that the user could just easily and simply execute without fiddling with command line parameters etc.

 

I can do that in Windows using a typical installer package; I can do this in Mac OS using a DMG image with an Automator script; but I have no idea what would be the easiest way to get it done for Linux -- especially because, once copied over, it needs to just work, I won't be able to support installing missing libraries, drivers, or compiling anything.

 

Of course, if someone can help me do this, that would be great; but I would humbly settle for some guidance on what options I have and how to do it.

 

Please keep in mind that I am sort of old, sort of stupid, and sort of lazy, so I can't really deal with much complexity myself.  I'm more of a point-and-click, GUI-addicted sort of guy.

 

     -dZ.

[Zendocon]

Instructions are provided on that page I linked earlier, and in the Introduction, I explain the purpose of creating one's own PIDE.

 

The instructions are written to be understandable (I hope) by somebody with an average reading level, yet unambiguous.  The hardest part is importing one's own files from a previous environment.

 

If you look at the illustrations at the top of the page, you'll get an idea of the end product.  You'll have a sort-of Linux desktop computer running on an Android phone/tablet, with everything installed to develop and play Intellivision games.  I step you through installing IntyBASIC, the latest version of jzIntv, essential Linux packages, and a desktop-based text editor of your choice.

 

The requirements are on the front page.  You'll need a fairly new device (any 5G-ready device should be fine, but my late-gen 4G devices work just fine) and a physical keyboard, bare minimum, with ~2GB of internal storage space and ~3GB RAM.  Other things like a mouse and micro-SD card are helpful but non-essential.

 

 

[+DZ-Jay]

1 hour ago, Zendocon said:

Instructions are provided on that page I linked earlier, and in the Introduction, I explain the purpose of creating one's own PIDE.

 

The instructions are written to be understandable (I hope) by somebody with an average reading level, yet unambiguous.  The hardest part is importing one's own files from a previous environment.

 

If you look at the illustrations at the top of the page, you'll get an idea of the end product.  You'll have a sort-of Linux desktop computer running on an Android phone/tablet, with everything installed to develop and play Intellivision games.  I step you through installing IntyBASIC, the latest version of jzIntv, essential Linux packages, and a desktop-based text editor of your choice.

 

The requirements are on the front page.  You'll need a fairly new device (any 5G-ready device should be fine, but my late-gen 4G devices work just fine) and a physical keyboard, bare minimum, with ~2GB of internal storage space and ~3GB RAM.  Other things like a mouse and micro-SD card are helpful but non-essential.

 

 

OK, thanks, I really appreciate it, but that all sounds like overkill (for this at least).  I just need to run a single game ROM for play on  Linux, that's it.  No development, no IntyBASIC, no GUI launcher, no options, etc.

 

This project is quite simple, and the use case is simpler still:  once the emulator and ROM are set up: simply run the game and that's it.

Because the person who is going to install and run the game is a non-techie, I would like to prepare a very simple set of instructions, something like "extract ZIP, copy these files here, double-click icon."

 

I appreciate the help.

 

    dZ.

Edited October 6, 2022 by DZ-Jay

[mr_me]

Trisquel is based on Ubuntu so it should be similar.  Typically the SDL library is installed from the package repository from terminal, e.g. "sudo apt-get install libsdl2-2.0-0".  Jzintv can be downloaded and placed anywhere but typically would go under "/home/user/bin/".  You can also create a bash script file that runs your rom with jzintv settings and include it in the zip with the jzintv executable and rom files.

[+DZ-Jay]

6 hours ago, mr_me said:

Trisquel is based on Ubuntu so it should be similar.  Typically the SDL library is installed from the package repository from terminal, e.g. "sudo apt-get install libsdl2-2.0-0".  Jzintv can be downloaded and placed anywhere but typically would go under "/home/user/bin/".  You can also create a bash script file that runs your rom with jzintv settings and include it in the zip with the jzintv executable and rom files.

 

Alright!  Thanks for that, it helps greatly to assuage my fears that it was going to be a hassle.  To be honest, the last time I used Linux, you still had to do mostly everything by compiling packages yourself, and edit manual config files.  I know it's come a long way since then, I just haven't actually had the opportunity to use it.

 

     -dZ.

[mr_me]

Traditionally, Linux programs are meant to be source code compatible.  You'd compile the source code or someone would do that and put it in a central repository for that Linux distribution.  Here we have a compiled Jzintv Linux executable for download.  I don't know which Linux it was compiled for but it works in Ubuntu.

[+DZ-Jay]

It's been a very long time since I've used Linux, so I need to ask:

 

Suppose I need the PC to run the game unattended, is there a way to make the emulator run at start up without even logging in?  The idea is that if the machine crashes or needs to be restarted, it should just boot up into the emulator.

 

Any help will be very much appreciated!

 

     -dZ.

[zzip]

On 10/5/2022 at 6:01 PM, DZ-Jay said:

 

Hi, @Zendocon,

 

Thank you for the response.  To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I quite get what your PIDE does or offers.  I thought it was an integrated development environment in the style of something like Delphi, Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc., where the editor, debugger, and various inspectors are combined.

 

What I am actually looking to do is this:

• I have a ROM to give to someone who wants to run on a Linux computer running Trisquel.
• I will provide the ROM + emulator (jzIntv) to the user.
• The user will set it up himself.
• However, I need to provide idiot-proof, simple-as-pie, straightforward instructions for this individual to set it up.
• The individual is completely non-technical, and lives far away, so I cannot aid them directly.

In other words, the ideal thing would be to bundle the emulator, all its dependencies, and the ROM in some sort of package that the user could just easily and simply execute without fiddling with command line parameters etc.

 

I can do that in Windows using a typical installer package; I can do this in Mac OS using a DMG image with an Automator script; but I have no idea what would be the easiest way to get it done for Linux -- especially because, once copied over, it needs to just work, I won't be able to support installing missing libraries, drivers, or compiling anything.

 

Of course, if someone can help me do this, that would be great; but I would humbly settle for some guidance on what options I have and how to do it.

 

Please keep in mind that I am sort of old, sort of stupid, and sort of lazy, so I can't really deal with much complexity myself.  I'm more of a point-and-click, GUI-addicted sort of guy.

 

     -dZ.

The absolute easiest way is to provide a shell script they run that runs jzintz and any parameters required.

 

then tar up the directory containing everything (unzip sometimes needs to be installed by the end-user, but tar will always be present)

 

tar cvzf jzintv-dist.tgz  myfolder

 

send them jzintv-dist.tgz,  have them extract it and run the shell script..  this could either be done from UI or CLI.

[+DZ-Jay]

18 minutes ago, zzip said:

The absolute easiest way is to provide a shell script they run that runs jzintz and any parameters required.

 

then tar up the directory containing everything (unzip sometimes needs to be installed by the end-user, but tar will always be present)

 

tar cvzf jzintv-dist.tgz  myfolder

 

send them jzintv-dist.tgz,  have them extract it and run the shell script..  this could either be done from UI or CLI.

Thanks, but that problem has already been solved.
 

(Still, I appreciate the response.)

 

What I need now is to run the shell script at start up, so that the machine can boot directly into the game, and run unattended.

 

   dZ.

[zzip]

1 minute ago, DZ-Jay said:

Thanks, but that problem has already been solved.
 

(Still, I appreciate the response.)

 

What I need now is to run the shell script at start up, so that the machine can boot directly into the game, and run unattended.

 

   dZ.

There's multiple ways to do this.     What I did on one system to automatically launch a game launcher menu was create a file named rungamelauncher.sh.desktop in $HOME/.config/autostart

 

It looks like this,  change the Exec line to match your shell script

 

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=/opt/gamelauncher/rungamelauncher.sh
Hidden=false
NoDisplay=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Name[en_US]=Game launcher
Name=Game launcher
Comment[en_US]=
Comment=
 

Now this will only run when a particular user logs in.   Some systems are configured to have a particular user automatically login so this works great in that case.   

 

I'm not sure what your use case is,  but maybe a live-usb would work?   You take an existing live-usb, add your configuration and then just give the usb flash drive to your end-user(s).   they plug it in and it boots