How to compile SheepShaver on RPi4?

[Frank Carvalho]

Hi

Just registered on this forum, as I have a question regarding compilation of SheepShaver for the Raspberry Pi 4.
I have successfully compiled SheepShaver on a Raspberry Pi2+, on the newest version of Raspbian, and it runs and opens in RetroPie 4.7.1 by using xinit.

However I am unable to repeat this success on the RPi4. I DO get SheepShaver to compile, using the same steps, but execution of SheepShaver crashes RetroPie badly, blanking the screen and making it totally unresponsive. I belive that som running memory is being overwritten or something like that.

On the PRi2+ the following procedure works:

git clone https://github.com/cebix/macemu
(I did try the https://github.com/kanjitalk755/macemu fork, but have not had any luck compiling it)
sudo apt-get install build-essential git
sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev x11proto-xf86dga-dev libesd0-dev libxxf86dga-dev libxxf86dga1 libsdl1.2-dev
cd SheepShaver/
make links
cd src/Unix/
NO_CONFIGURE=1 ./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-sdl-video --enable-sdl-audio --disable-vosf --disable-jit-compiler --with-gtk --enable-addressing=direct,0x10000000
make

As I said, this produces a nice running version of SheepShaver on RPi2+ (and most likely on RPi3 as well).

I understand that there are architectural differences between the to Raspberries, as it goes from 32-bit to 64-bit, and there are changes to the addressing-layout. So I suspect the direct addressing option has something to do with the problem, but that is as far as I've come. I haven't done any serious C/C++-programming for 20 years, so I am not really at home in the details of the art anymore.

Suggestions, anyone?

Thank you

Frank Carvalho

[adespoton]

Hi

Just registered on this forum, as I have a question regarding compilation of SheepShaver for the Raspberry Pi 4.
I have successfully compiled SheepShaver on a Raspberry Pi2+, on the newest version of Raspbian, and it runs and opens in RetroPie 4.7.1 by using xinit.

However I am unable to repeat this success on the RPi4. I DO get SheepShaver to compile, using the same steps, but execution of SheepShaver crashes RetroPie badly, blanking the screen and making it totally unresponsive. I belive that som running memory is being overwritten or something like that.

On the PRi2+ the following procedure works:

git clone https://github.com/cebix/macemu
(I did try the https://github.com/kanjitalk755/macemu fork, but have not had any luck compiling it)
sudo apt-get install build-essential git
sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev x11proto-xf86dga-dev libesd0-dev libxxf86dga-dev libxxf86dga1 libsdl1.2-dev
cd SheepShaver/
make links
cd src/Unix/
NO_CONFIGURE=1 ./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-sdl-video --enable-sdl-audio --disable-vosf --disable-jit-compiler --with-gtk --enable-addressing=direct,0x10000000
make

As I said, this produces a nice running version of SheepShaver on RPi2+ (and most likely on RPi3 as well).

I understand that there are architectural differences between the to Raspberries, as it goes from 32-bit to 64-bit, and there are changes to the addressing-layout. So I suspect the direct addressing option has something to do with the problem, but that is as far as I've come. I haven't done any serious C/C++-programming for 20 years, so I am not really at home in the details of the art anymore.

Suggestions, anyone?

Thank you

Frank Carvalho

I'd suggest trying further to get the kanjitalk755 fork working; it will require SDL2, but also has better success working with managing "direct" addressing. I'm unsure of how Raspbian handles address allocation though, so it may not be transparently re-allocating calls based at 0 -- which hasn't been an issue under 32-bit systems, but might result in exactly what you're experiencing here.

[Frank Carvalho]

OK, thanks for the response. I'll see if I can figure out how to get the kanjitalk-fork working, once more.
The way I go about this, it to use my RPi2+ as a testing ground, where I can make mistakes and experiment, before I attempt compilation and installation on my Pi400. I only have the one, so I really don't want to mess my installation up. I could get another SD-card of course......
But this is also how I observed the difference between the two versions of the RPi.

/Frank

[Frank Carvalho]

I tried the kanjitalk fork first on the RPi2+, with the standard compile instruction found in the README file. Compile is fine, but when I start, I get the Settings dialog, and upon "Start" the following:

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sudo xinit ./SheepShaver


X.Org X Server 1.20.4
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 5.4.0-54-generic armv8l Raspbian
Current Operating System: Linux retropie 5.4.72-v7+ #1356 SMP Thu Oct 22 13:56:54 BST 2020 armv7l
Kernel command line: coherent_pool=1M snd_bcm2835.enable_compat_alsa=0 snd_bcm2835.enable_hdmi=1 snd_bcm2835.enable_headphones=1 bcm2708_fb.fbwidth=1824 bcm2708_fb.fbheight=984 bcm2708_fb.fbswap=1 vc_mem.mem_base=0x3ec00000 vc_mem.mem_size=0x40000000  console=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty1 root=PARTUUID=1054d210-02 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline fsck.repair=yes rootwait loglevel=3 consoleblank=0 plymouth.enable=0
Build Date: 01 December 2020  05:59:57PM
xorg-server 2:1.20.4-1+rpt2+deb10u2 (https://www.debian.org/support) 
Current version of pixman: 0.36.0
	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Wed Jan 20 19:34:01 2021
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
SheepShaver V2.5 by Christian Bauer and Mar"c" Hellwig
ERROR: Cannot map Low Memory Globals: Invalid argument.
xinit: connection to X server lost

waiting for X server to shut down (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

I did add:

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echo "vm.mmap_min_addr = 0" >>/etc/sysctl.conf

and even a suggestion I found of adding:

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vm.map=0

So the low memory mapping is an issue on the RPi2+ with the default settings. Now I will try the options of the original instructions I tried.

[Frank Carvalho]

I tried the original recipe for compile, with the

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./configure --enable-sdl-video --enable-sdl-audio --disable-vosf --disable-jit-compiler --with-gtk --enable-addressing=direct,0x10000000

Starting the app behaves the same, only now it fails with :

Code: Select all

SheepShaver V2.5 by Christian Bauer and Mar"c" Hellwig
ERROR: Cannot map first Kernel Data area: Invalid argument.

... instead of the Low Memory message from before.
So I am going back to the vanilla configuration, which BTW outputs this during configure. Not sure if it sheds a light on the issue or not:

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checking how to disable position-independent code... cannot
checking whether __PAGEZERO can be Low Memory area 0x0000-0x3000... no
checking whether we can map Low Memory area 0x0000-0x3000... no

[Cat_7]

Hi,

Did you try to run SheepShaver as root? On my Fedora machine that gets me past the "cannot map" error.

Best,
Cat_7

[Frank Carvalho]

Yes I did, and it still didn't get me past that error. Had to startx as root, and start SheepShaver from the initial Xterm, but alas, it still fails.

[Frank Carvalho]

I do believe that I solved the problem!
I had to go with the cebix fork to make it work. Once again I followed the recipe above with the direct addressing. But this time I checked the items of

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sysctl -a

and I noticed that the vm.mmap_min_addr = 0 line wasn't there, even though it is in /etc/sysctl.conf. Aha! So after running sysctl -p it appears in the list, and now my PPC emulation finally starts on the RPi 400! So for some reason the /etc/sysctl.conf file is ignored at boot, and this is the real problem.
After doing this, I can now start SheepShaver with 512Mb RAM and boot with the proper disks and ROM in RetroPie 4.7.1, using this line:

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sudo xinit /home/pi/compile/macemu/ .......  /SheepShaver

As expected it runs fast and smooth on the RPi4.

I still haven't had any luck getting the kanjitalk branch to run, but I might now give it just another try.

[Frank Carvalho]

Dang! This was so much the problem. After compiling the kanjitalk branch with direct addressing, it also boots!
So I will go with this branch in the future, as it is actively developed.