(Bad)Newsflash for Dingux: Dingux causes file corruption on writing to mini-SD

No silver lining ever goes without a cloud.  Admist the Dingoo La Bamba of recent days, Booboo unfortunately reports that:

SHOWSTOPPER I have minor good news: both the network over USB and FTP server work fine. And here are the bad news: there is a data corruption problem when writing to the miniSD in linux. Some users had reported filesystem corruption but seemed to be a minority and I suspected could be a compatibilidy problem in a certain type/brand of card. This is a fscking showstopper and has become right now #1 in the priority list. The only workaround as of now is to NOT WRITE AT ALL to the miniSD. I know this means states cannot be saved (brightness, volume, game states, etc) since there is right now no safe place to store them. I will dedicate all efforts to identify the problem and fix it as soon as possible, but this is likely to take some time since the error is not deterministic nor predictable. If you want to check it out yourself, run in your A320 the following commands: cd /boot dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=100 | tee test1.bin | md5sum md5sum test1.bin cp test1.bin test2.bin md5sum test2.bin The three calculated MD5 sums should be equal (the first one is calculated from the pseudorandom data as it comes out of /dev/urandom, the second one is calculated from the same data stored in file test1.bin, and the third is caculated from file test2.bin which is a copy of test1.bin. The corruption seems to happen on writing. Reading is ok, which you can test yourself by calculating the MD5 sum of a large file many times. All will yield the same value, whereas whenever you copy the data to a new file the MD5 sum will change.

While this is quite distressing, you can still use Dingux perfectly well if you don’t do any saving or writing to the card within Dingux. Writing to the mini-SD using a PC is fine of course. And the good news IMHO is that …. well, Booboo is on it!

In the meantime, fans of Monkey Island will just have to play the game in a single session:(

How to run debian-mipsel applications in Dingux (or everything you kinda need to know to port some stuff but were afraid to ask)

Thanks to Batman52, some of the arcane wizardry behind porting apps is mildly demystified by this most excellent tutorial: http://a320.freeforums.org/how-to-run-debian-mipsel-application-on-dingux-t895.html#p7408

Go on, take the red pill!

Enable music on Dingux Doom

Robert2098 has a handy tip to enable music in Doom and other MIDI games.  Thanks, Robert!

If you install the Timidity instrument files, you also have music in prDoom, Duke3D, Heretic Hexen, Rise of the Triads and possibly other games that play midi music through SDL. Download the file: http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/timidity/timidity.tar.gz Extract it to your SD card to: /local/lib/ After extracting you should have the directory: /local/lib/timidity/ Now you should have music while playing Doom.

While we’re on the topic of Linux … try this for a bit of fun

Taking a break for a moment from our favourite pocketable world changing little chicklet, I muse that It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a piece of hardware in possession of a perfectly usable OS must be in want of a Linux distro.

Take this piece of obsolete GOLD, for example, which would have set you back $1500 back in good old 2004:

So what if it looks like an electric typewriter? That’s its only downside.  This is the Psion Netbook Pro, the great grandfather of today’s eeePC, MSI Wind and Dell Minis.  It’s about the same highly portable yet usable size as any modern netbooky-type PeeCee, and came with a still respectable 400mhz Intel XScale PXA255 processor, 128MB of RAM, an SVGA 800 x 600 touchscreen, an AMAZING KEYBOARD which you could actually touch type on, and in the best design the perfectly usable Microsoft Windows CE NET 4.2.  So well loved – not in fact - is the OS on this otherwise potentially great machine, that its little brother, the Psion Netbook, with 32MB RAM and a 190 MHZ chip – but running the elegant EPOC (the predecessor to the Symbion OS which powers many of today’s mobile phones) - often sells for at least $50 more on Ebay.

Why do I mention all this? Well, I bought one the other day, and I love it.  In fact, you can buy a Netbook Pro today on Ebay for less than a hundred bucks – if you’re lucky, perhaps even for $83.91. So, it’s an incredible bargain, if you need an extremely cheap yet absolutely capable mini-PC which you can actually do productive work on. And it runs Linux – even though no one seems to know about this.  I put this down to the fact that the few Psion sites remaining in the known universe look like they were written for NCSA Mosiac (like this one) and appear to have all ceased activity by 2007, while it was only until 25 May 2009 that someone actually posted a message on HPC forums describing how to do it.

While the information on how to get Linux onto it (including the files required to do this) is not too hard to Google for, it is not obvious. So, to help the undeservingly unthriving Psion Netbook Pro lovers out there, this is how you do it: http://psionlinux.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-install-linux-on-psion-netbook.html 

Now, can anyone do a C64 Emulator for this?

EVERYTHING ported to Dingux!

Espontaneo requests ….

Hi there, Please could somebody port EVERYTHING to the dingux - I would really like everything, ever I'd do it myself but I don't have the time or the ability. I don't mind if you have to reverse engineer something - it's supposed to be easy (what is open sauce anyway, some kind of wonderful condiment?) Thanks in advance. I know you'll do this IMMEDIATELY because I put request in the title and this happened once. PS: How do I install dingux? I've looked about but thought It would be easier to have someone explain it AGAIN. PPS: What games would you recommend I play? I'm looking for an Shooter/RPG/Strategy/Golf game featuring angry walruses and large breasted robots.... PPPS: Not "Final Fantasy Golf Spaceshop warrior IX" I've played that to death. PPPPS: Has anyone thought of making the power/button/radio/GBA work in dinugux?, I suppose I must be the first. PPPPPS: I like sarcasm.

Kobo Deluxe ported to Dingux

A mysterious figure known as 50m30n3 over on the free-forums has released a port of the popular space shooter Kobo Deluxe. He explains:

The config file is in local/home/ so the $HOME needs to be set accordingly.
The highscores are written to local/home/.kobodl/
Select - Menu
Start - Enter/Pause
A - Shoot
X - No in menu
Y - Yes in menu

Dowload it here & discuss here.

A600's Dingux Cpu-Scaler

The man behind the recent picodrive port as well as the cpu-scaling apps for the original firmware gives us yet another gift: system-wide cpu-scaling for dingux! A600 explains in this thread:

I've compiled a binary for setting the clock speed (from 200 to 430 MHz). Copy it to local/bin and execute it with cpu value; for example, cpu 360

Download it here and enjoy! Thanks A600!

ingood releases Dingux Star Control 2

Often requested, this cult classic now finds its way onto Dingoo, thanks to ingood! By the sounds of it, any feedback on the port is welcome, and you should post it here: http://a320.freeforums.org/request-star-control-2-dingux-port-t880.html

Alrighty then, first release here (binaries, source and data included, 12.5MB): http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?u1dnjzzly4d If you just want the source (2.2MB) it's here: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mtrwmiknmon I've tested the main game, saving/loading, supermelee. No problems so far, but I can't really test it all myself. If people who really know this game could report bugs that'd be helpful. I haven't tried the OGG music or voice files, if you want to download and test them just put it in the local/uqm/content/packages folder.

Fixed Megadrive emulator for original Dingoo firmware released

Elto has fixed the screen problems on the Dingoo’s original Megadrive emulator!  See here:

This is the same emulator that ships with the Dingoo, but hacked to use the quick double buffer technique. That took a bit longer to do than I expected, mainly because of stupid cache issues (basically cache writeback writing data in the wrong place o_O), but here it is : http://www.mediafire.com/?yyrglymwwyw (source code included, just in case) Just copy md.sim to your Dingoo and enjoy !

Powermanga Ported to Dingux

Another great looking shooter has been ported to Dingux: Powermanga! Props, yoannd26!

Hi, I have ported the game Powermanga for dingux with the help of zear . Use the new rootfs 28/07/2009 with SDL Joystick supports. This is a dynamically compiled port of powermanga to the Dingoo Linux. Installation: Copy the powermanga in the /local directory, then run the executable. for example /local/games. Controls: D-PAD - D-PAD B - special fire Y - Fire START - START SELECT - SELECT Bugs: / current version has somes slowness during the game. / The game is in 320x200. Download: http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/dingoo.cgi?2,1,2,0,3,117

Dingux Picodrive Youtube festival – Directed by boson2higgs

Let the footage speak for itself. Thanks boson2higgs!

ameratsu’s Dingoo review

There are many Dingoo reviews on the web, but most predate Dingux – for a pretty current review, you could do a lot worse than this one: http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=80906

Pretty good reading if you’re new to the ‘scene.

“Nigel is likely to have” Nofrendo NES emulator released

Zear has released “Nofrendo”, a Dingux NES emulator.  Read the notes in his post carefully! Thanks zear!

It's dynamically compiled, and will work only with dingux-system-20090728 rootfs. The sources are included. There is no sound in the current release. I disabled it because it slows down the emulation speed pretty badly. Download: archive mirror

By the way, if you speak Italian and Dingoo, you might want to check out Zaxxon’s blog

Zaxxon has a blog full of coding stuff which looks incredibly useful, if you know what you’re doing … check it out here: http://a320.forumfree.net/

Original firmware SDK for Linux PC Users released

Real men do not run Windoze, and they know how to code as well! Thanks to Zaxxon, they never have to leave Linux to code for the original firmware now:

Zaxxon: I created a python script to generate files .app in Linux. With this script I have access to all symbols exported from ccpmp.bin. Now I have to complete the dingoo.h file with the prototypes of the functions. Download: Dingoo MySDK This archive contains the dingoo.o file and scripts needed to generate the .app file. Also contains the classic "hello, world!" to show how to use.

Dodgin’ Diamonds 2 ported to Dingux by darfgarf

Dodgin’ Diamonds 2 for Dingux has been released … it’s a shooter with a good range of power ups by the looks of it.  Thanks darfgarf!

UPDATE: i've gone through the code to try and speed it up a bit, in short, it won't, will experiment with overclocking before startup when i get time (if someone knows how to overclock from inside dingux, please say) +1 ported game, this still needs quite a bit of work, but it's at the playable stage, so have a play and report any bugs (i know about slowdowns and the graphics glitch at the bottom of the screen) controls: in menu: start selects an item select goes back ingame: a:fire select+L+R:quit select+X:pause select+Y:screenshot (saves in the same folder as the excecutable just extract it somewhere and ./dd2 however you want dodgindiamond2-dingux-1.0.zip

Booboo delivers another glorious kernel and toolchain update!

Thanks to the tireless labour of our hero Stakhanovite Booboo, who never ceases toiling for the Dingux revolution, so as to benefit the loyal proletarian masses who stand firm in defiance of the decadent bloated empires of Sony and Nintendo, yet another kernel and toolchain update from available, as always, from http://code.google.com/p/dingoo-linux/downloads/list

The improvements this time:

Summary of changes for system: Enabled joystick support in SDL but forcing the dummy driver. Minor fix in automatic subdirectory creation in /usr/local. Summary of changes for toolchain: Properly installed vorbis integer decoding library (Tremor) (hope so, untested). Enabled joystick support in SDL but forcing the dummy driver.

Another great day in Dingoo history - Picodrive released!!

Thanks to one of the most talented members of the scene, A600, Notaz' masterpiece Picodrive has finally been ported to the Dingoo. For the few of you not in the know, Picodrive is a Sega Genesis(Megadrive)/CD/32X emulator geared towards handheld devices. This is easily one of the most highly anticipated ports to date, so what are you waiting for? Get it hot & fresh here & don't forget to give A600 (and Notaz) your utmost appreciation!

wejp posts brightness control scripts for Dingux

wejp has done some tinkering under the hood, and has implemented a brightness control for Dingux:

I’ve added a display brightness control menu to dmenu on my Dingoo, which makes it possible to easily adjust the display backlight brightness. The brightness setting will be saved to disk and automatically loaded on boot.

  Go here: http://wejp.k.vu/dingoo-a320/display-brightness-control to find out more!

Video of Dingux Open Tyrian

And here is more motivation:

Video of Dingux running SNES/SMS emulators

In case you need a push to get into Dingux, this video might provide the required motivation:

Alekmaul posts native Colecovision emulator!

Suddenly, I’m wondering why we needed Dingux at all :)  Alekmaul has posted another classic emulator for the Dingoo’s native firmware; props Alekmaul!  I only have one thing more to say to you, Alekmaul: c64 please? Pretty please?

Colecovision emulator for Dingoo by alekmaul on Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:52 am Hi, little post to say that now, here is a Coleco emulator for Dingoo. You don't need Linux to use it, it's a native Dingoo SIM file. Put ColecOO.SIM in your GAME directory. Put your .COL games where you want. Use "Interesting game" from Dingoo menu and choose your .COL file, the emu will launch with the game Again, i used s2d sdk to make this emulator because i can't do some nice sound without it. You can see my webpage about it here : ColeCOO For Dingoo. Also, the website is in French Dowload here : ColeCOO

darfgarf posts Defendguin Dingux port

darfgarf has ported a great looking Linux defender clone to Dingux:

yep, ported it, had to scale down all the sdl_blits form 640x480 to make it work, so if there's any images that look huge, just give me a shout with some kind of hint how to find it and fix it also there's no sound control, so either fix it yourself or live with it (i have put the initial volume down from what it was, if you really want go into the options screen and guess where the control is, but the option screen is screwey anyways (due to scaling the graphics or something) to run: ./defendguin from menu system/whatever it's loaded once the sound starts, just hit a and you'll get the main menu buttons: d-pad:move ship A:laser B:bomb L:afterburner of some kind, doesn't really do much R:change direction EDIT: push power button to exit while in game think that just about covers how to use it, enjoy (and if anyone suggests i port a hardcoded 640x480 game again, i'll scream ) defendguin-dingux-1.0.zip (1.96 MiB) Downloaded 8 times

Dingux Dualboot installer downloaded more than 2000 times

It struck me while looking at the Google Code site that the Dingux Dualboot installer has been downloaded (as at the time of this post) 2026 times , which I think is significantly more downloads since FAT32 Dingux was released (is there any way to check this?). Make of this figure what you will, but it does strongly suggest that there are at least:
* 2026 people who are interested in, or plan to install Dingux; and
* 2026 actual Dingoo owners, or people who are very likely to buy a Dingoo.

This post is brought to you by the Ministry of Pointless Numbers.

New Dingux Kernel and toolchain released

Booboo has released another kernel and toolchain!

"ChangeLog (for the system):

• Backported from kernel 2.6.24.6 fix for usb ethernet gadget. Now Windows RNDIS driver works (but ethernet communication is still broken and will fail a few seconds after starting and high bandwidth transfer via FTP).
• Patched SDL so SDL_NOMOUSE=1 is no longer necessary.
• Updated to busybox-1.14.2 + current patches.
• Added symlink /etc/TZ ---> /usr/local/etc/timezone
• Automatic creation of default subdirectories in /usr/local.
• Automatic creation of default /usr/local/etc/timezone."

Read about it and grab it here:
http://www.dingux.com/2009/07/system-and-toolchain-updated.html

toddler updates mini-SD image again – local-0.8.zip

Can’t keep up? toddler is now on local-0.8.zip.  Open Tyrian is the latest game to be added.  Go here: http://a320.freeforums.org/fat32-sd-image-local-0-8-updated-24-07-2009-t813.html for more.

Mushroom Roulette beta for native Dingoo OS released

Another game released!  Grab it here: http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/dingoo.cgi?0,0,0,0,27,111

ingood ports Open Tyrian to Dingux

ingood has ported this kick ass shooter to Dingux:

I agree, Tyrian is an awesome game. So I've ported it to Dingux. As the game is freeware I've included all necessary files in this release. Unfortunately it's too large to just upload on the forum, so I've used mediafire: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mjt4ne1m4mu Some caveats: - The game doesn't run full screen at this stage. (320x200 instead of 320x240) - Sound quality is less than ideal, especially voice samples and explosions. - Some degree of slowdown is noticeable when lots of objects are on screen. - Seems to be a large performance hit with transparent objects. DONT use "Pentium" quality setting, use "High" at best. Installation instructions are in README-DINGOO.txt.

toddler updates warpedflash’s image – local-0.6.zip

Toddler has updated warpedflash’s SD image for quick Dingux installs. The latest version includes sdlroids and Rise of the Triads.  Read full details and grab it here: http://a320.freeforums.org/fat32-sd-image-t813.html#p6678

ingood posts Dingux Rise of the Triads

Just so we have most of them, ingood has posted another Doom-era 3d shooter, Rise of the Triads for Dingux:

Rise of the Triad port (Dingux) by ingood on Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:17 pm Here it is. Works with the current dingux release. You'll need to download the shareware version, try here: ftp://ftp.3drealms.com/share/1rott13.zip. Extract those files a directory on your SD card and copy rottsw to the same place. If you have the full version use the rott file instead. NOTE: The game won't work if HOME isn't set to something writeable. Warpedflash's local.zip does this so it should work fine there, other rootfs packages may do it too. Please look at README-DINGOO for more information. Attachments rott-dingux-1.0.1.tar.gz Source and binary files (Data files not included, see post) (2.46 MiB) Downloaded 28 times

Thx ingood!

AlekMaul ports Rick Dangerous to original firmware!

There's life in the old girl yet - and Alekmaul proves this with his port of Rick Dangerous to the native firmware. No Dingux required! Grab it here and discuss it here: http://a320.freeforums.org/rick-dangerous-for-dingoo-t841.html

Lotsa little updates to Complete Idiot’s Guide for Windoze

With input from the A320freeforums, the guide has been updated several times in the last 24 hours. The links here will always contain the latest version.  If you downloaded it earlier but did not actually flash your Dingoo yet, please download a later version.

warpedflash posts (what appears to be) an improved local.zip file for quick Dingux installs

Those using toddler’s miniSD image for FAT Dingux installations might also like to try warpedflash’s hot off the presses local.zip file instead.  Simply unpack the file onto your mini-SD card after installing Dualboot.  For those using the idiot’s guide, until I update the links, you might want to use this local.zip file instead of Toddler’s.  Here are the features:

Dmenu theme/local dump for easy start by Warpedflash on Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:58 am I know that there is already a local dump but i didnt like the theme used or want all of the apps included so i went about making my own. mrdriller on irc liked it and suggested sharing it so i am The icons are nicked from gnome (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/GNOME_Desktop_icons) and look good on the dingoos screen background is a section of a file i had anyway (if you know the source i will happily link it) a couple of the crummy game icons are from me so yay Games Blockrage Doom (shareware) Duke3d (full only because shareware didnt work) Heretic (shareware) Hexen (shareware) Open Liero REminisecence (full because no one cares lol) SDLRoids Waternet Emulators Scummvm (Steel sky/Amazon queen inc) Mame4all (A couple of the free mame roms inc) Snes9x (2 legal roms inc) SMSPlus (2 legal roms inc) Media GMU Music Player Sound Maximum (100) Normal (66) Low (33) Mute (0) System File explorer Display terminal (if you cant get something running, shows terminal for 15s so you can check errors) Reboot Local dump (inc games etc) http://warpedflash.com/dingoo/local.zip dmenu dump (just menu/graphics) http://warpedflash.com/dingoo/dmenu.zip

wejp releases FAT Dingux compatible GMU

Well, you can read the headline! Read about it and grab it here: http://wejp.k.vu/gmu/new-dingux-released-gmu-update-required

What next? X environment and apps?

A promising post from cyberic99.  Is an X environment just around the corner for Dingoo?

I managed to compile some apps with openembedded/Angstrom. I was waiting for the standard rootfs to check that they were running. In fact this a a bit of a hack but it enables to port applications very easily. To run applications, I put binaries and all the needed libraries into a 'package' file, which is mounted on a loop. Then I have a wrapper which can launch the binary with the correct environment. So I have a X server and some applications on top. I also have 'strace' utility running, which could be usefl for developer. And also dropbear ssh server. Why do I need to run an ssh server on the Dingoo? To mount it via sshfs, for instance. There are some problems left but I think this is a good start. xmms runs for instance, but is very slow, I don't know why. But the main problem is that there is no way (for now) to move the mouse pointer, except when connected to the PC. When connected I can use x2x, which enables the mouse from my computer to control the cursor on the dingoo. I think this main problem will be solved soon, either with a wrapper, or with a native app. I plan to put the files somewhere if anyone thinks there is some interest of doing it.

Idiot’s Guide to installing Dingux using Windows released

With the release of FAT Dingux, it is now possible to install Dingux using only Windows!  As promised, here is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Installing Dingux – Using Windoze Edition.  Grab the guide here in PDF, zipped here, or here for HTML.

18 October 2009 Update:  The above links will always contain the latest version of this guide. While the guide was written in July 2009, the technique shown in it remains the same as at the update date shown in green.  However, the guide refers to toddler’s or warped flash’s “local.zip” files, and contains links to these files, which are outdated. The links used to point to the A320 freeforums, until the dastardly Dan deleted them! Grab the latest version of the critical local.zip file, referred to in the guide here: http://boards.dingoonity.org/index.php/topic,32.msg80.html#msg80

toddler updates his mini SD image for FAT Dingux again

Toddler has posted another update to his miniSD image for the new FAT32 Dingux again, bringing all apps to the latest versions.  Read about local-0.4.rar and download it here:

Fat32 SD Image by toddler on Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:29 pm My SD backup local-0.4 Download the file from here then extract it SD. http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mimq2mm0d2h All games and applications is the latest version. Have fun. Contents Games: Biniax 2 Blockrage Heretic Hexen OpenLiero Doom Duke3d REminiscence Super Transball 2 Waternet Gnurobbo Emulators: MAME4ALL MAME4ALL ScummVM SMS Plus Snes9X Applications: dmenu GMU (no progress) Edit : Blockrage, OpenLiero, Stransball2 and scummvm has been updated, gnurobbo added. Edit : Duke3d added. Thanks sewave

chaoticbob posts revised scummVM release – solves issues

Chaoticbob has posted a new version on the A320 freeforums to solve the issue of the previous release not being able to write to /root under FAT Dingux:

New version of ScummVM here. Now saves all data in the directory it is run from. So if you are using dmenu you should set it to change to the ScummVM directory.

Ta, chaoticbob!

noproblem’s very helpful NeoGeo/CPS1/2 link surprise

For those of you who wish to do something else with your spare time than patch NeoGeo and CPS1/2 ROMS for the Dingoo’s native emulators, noproblem has a very helpful solution on this thread: http://a320.freeforums.org/fianlly-got-neogeo-done-t820.html

I recommend you check it out if it’s been a problem for you!

Slaneesh chats about Mame4all - v1.1 hopefully out this weekend!

Slaneesh, all round Dingoo good guy, and porter of the blessed Dingoo Mame4all, exchanged some banter with some fellow Dingoo-Scener’s recently (really recently – look right:)).  The chat is worth preserving:

Slaanesh (guest): Fixed Pole Position crash. strider_mt2k: I'm tempted to make a joke about letting off the gas in turn three, but i won't strider_mt2k: :) Slaanesh (guest): Adding some volume controls to the front end. So you can start the game more quietly... This is a request from my wife. strider_mt2k: gonna grab a shower brb strider_mt2k: thanks agin for the info Slaanesh (guest): Release v1.1 should be this weekend. Mistabeen: Do you have any idea if there might be video-out support in the future (I asume this needs to be supported by dingux first tho) Slaanesh (guest): Oh and using a new compiler - so getting a bit of extra speed from that. Slaanesh (guest): I'd like to do a video out support but like you said ideally it needs support from Dingux - though it's not impossible to do it without it's support. Mistabeen: it's probably best to wait and see where dingux is heading Mistabeen: no need to waste time on something that might just be easier once it's officialy suported Slaanesh (guest): Yes - Booboo is doing some good things. Mistabeen: a small question slaanesh to get a programmers point of view on it Slaanesh (guest): sure Mistabeen: do you think Luaplayer from the psp would be portable to the dingoo Slaanesh (guest): I'm not familiar with Luaplayer Mistabeen: it's an interpreter that runs Luacode Mistabeen: it's the only language I know, haha xD Slaanesh (guest): Anything is possible. I just looked on the homepage, it's written in 'C' and ASM. So it's probably fairly doable.

Most games reported working on new FAT Dingux!

Over at this thread, reports are coming through that most (err, actually, all, by the looks of it) apps appear to be working.

yoannd26 has recompiled prboom, the Doom emulator, which you can find here.

toddler has provided an archive of what’s on his FAT32 card (some games are reported out of date, but still useful for a quick install) here.

New Dmenu released for FAT32 Dingux

Quick as a flash, rookie1 has re-released dmenu for Booboo’s new Dingux.  Thanks rookie1; speed of light!

dmenu 0.2 by rookie1 on Mon Jul 20, 2009 3:32 pm dmenu 0.1 should work with booboo's latest rootfs without recompile. However I've made some minor changes to go inline with his rootfs. Hence dmenu 0.2. Enjoy. Changes in 0.2 - Dynamically link against libconfuse since it's provided by the rootfs. dmenu binary is now smaller - Remove the mechanism to restart dmenu after the executed program has finished. This is not required anymore if you are using init to respawn dmenu. For the above to work, you need to create a script file called /usr/local/sbin/main with the following content, Code: Select all #!/bin/sh export SDL_NOMOUSE=1 cd /usr/local/dmenu ./dmenu Note that you need to change /usr/local/dmenu in this script to the directory where you have dmenu installed. <Edit> I've decided to make the setup easier for windows users. Please download dmenu-0.2a.zip instead. It has all the directory structure in place (/local/dmenu and /local/sbin/main). Just directly unzip this file to your SD card and it should work automatically. Enjoy <Warning: it might overwrite your existing /local/sbin/main. so take precaution if you want to keep your existing /local/sbin/main> Attachments dmenu-0.2a.zip (410.5 KiB) Downloaded 28 times

Status of apps which need to be recompiled for Booboo’s new iteration of Dingux

Sh@dow reports below that MAME4ALL already works on the new FAT32 only Dingux.

Keep an eye on this thread: http://a320.freeforums.org/recompiling-of-linux-apps-for-new-rootfs-using-new-toolchain-t806.html for progress on the recompiling of the rest of the apps!

Out of date – but still marginally useful - idiot’s guide to installing Dingux using Linux released!

Timing is everything in comedy, as well as in writing Dingux How To Guides!  Rather aptly for a guide aimed at complete idiots, here is a guide which, if you’re intending to install Dingux once only, you’d be an idiot to follow!

Booboo’s release of the new iteration of Dingux which doesn’t require an EXT3 partition means that this guide is only likely to be useful for a few weeks at most.  However, the work has been done, so here it is: I present the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Installing Dingux (Using Linux Edition).  Grab it here in PDF, here in .zip, or here for HTML.

If you want to finish up with a Dingux install that has all the current emulators (including MAME4ALL and SNES9x) and an installed dmenu, then this is worth a try.  Just bear in mind that something potentially better has now been released, and is likely to be the Dingux of the future.

Booboo releases new system installation pack for Dingux – No need to install via Linux anymore!

For those of you who are uncomfortable in working with Linux to install Dingux, as promised by Booboo, he has now released a new system installation pack which requires only a single FAT32 partition to be on the miniSD Card.  This release is significant as a Linux PC is no longer needed to get Dingux going! It also means files like ROMS can be transferred to and from the miniSD card after Dingux is installed using Windows (the previous release required you to use Linux whenever you wished to transfer files to the EXT3 partition). 

Read about it and GRAB IT from here: http://www.dingux.com/2009/07/system-installation-pack-and-toolchain.html !

The downside is that for the moment, none of the current apps may work with this iteration of Dingux [but as Sh@dow points out below, MAME4ALL does – do we need more? Yay!].  Zman’s .zip file (read this) will also not work. So if you desperately want to see the Dingux emulators in action at the moment, the old method using EXT3 is still the only real option. However, Booboo expects that developers will quickly rerelease the apps so that they work with this iteration.

ChaoticBob posts new version of ScummVM

From the A320freeforums:

Version 0.2 changes: Curse of Monkey Island now works. It runs nearly full-speed, totally playable. Any other games that use VGA graphics should work as well. Not sure how well the ship combat in the middle will work though . It's now using the latest SVN version of ScummVM so some more games should be supported. Left trigger is now mapped to "0" so you should be able to get through copy protection dialogs. Start and Select keys swapped around, Start is menu key Select is skip cinematic. Fixed crash when pressing menu key again while in the menu. One thing to note is I've made some fairly large changes and due to the fact ScummVM supports so many games I can't really test any significant amount of them. So it would be great if you could post up what games you get working. Another thing, I have a bad feeling the older version may have been built with no optimization flags at all (why wouldn't they use -O2 by default?). So it may be possible this version will be a hell of a lot faster . Static Binary (DingooFiles, might not be updated yet) Mirror Source (DingooFiles) Mirror

Thanks ChaoticBob!

Booboo releases system installation pack & toolchain

Big news for all you windows users! Booboo has released a package containing the kernel image & a root-filesystem in ROMFS format. What this means to you is drag'n drop support; there is no need for the ext2/3 filesystem anymore. Other notable improvements in this release include usb file-transfer (via ftp), menu auto-run & another boot-speed increase. For devs we have an updated toolchain and many more libraries include in the rootfs. Grab them on booboo's google code & stop by his blog for more details & instructions.

New version of GMU beta for Dingux

A new beta release of GMU has been released! Read, discuss and download here: http://wejp.k.vu/dingoo-a320/new-gmu-beta-release-for-the-dingoo-0-7-0-beta3#comments

Thanks wejp!

Video of native Dingoo Odyssey emulator

scastromkt has posted a video of the new native Dingoo Odyssey emulator in action!

Nice little picture

Found the above in my travels … cute.

zman_3007’s .zip file makes getting the main Dingux apps going a whole lot easier!

Installing Dingux comes in 4 distinct stages.  At the moment, it goes like this:

1. Flash Booboo’s dualboot patch (to allow Dingoo to boot to Linux)

2. Prepare an SD Card with a FAT partition, and a Linux (EXT3) Partition

3. Put the linux kernel (“Zimage” file) in the FAT Partition

4. Create the directories Dingux expects in the EXT3 partition (Also known as installing the “rootfs”)

Then, after you’ve done all that, what will happen?

You’ll see, effectively, this (only against a black screen … very hardcore):

<Penguin picture> Blah blah linux blah init setup dll very technical stuff stuff code code module blah blah …. Blah blah linux blah init setup dll very technical stuff stuff code code module blah blah …. Blah blah linux blah init setup dll very technical stuff stuff code code module blah blah …. Blah blah linux blah init setup dll very technical stuff stuff code code module blah blah …. Blah blah linux blah init setup dll very technical stuff stuff code code module blah blah …. …. Login: _

Yep, steps 1 to 4 above get you to a usable Dingux system, featuring …. a command line! To actually enjoy Dingux, you still have to do step 5, which is:

5. Install the applications

Step 5 sounds simpler than it really is. Underestimating step 5 is like underestimating the power of the dark side.

First, you have to get Dmenu up and running.  Then you have to put on the good stuff, like Duke, Doom, SNES9x, and the app that goes “Who’s yo’ daddy, all?! Eat me, bitches!” - MAME4All! The relevant files for each app need to be obtained, unpacked, proper permissions and other wierd linux blessings put on them, moved to the right directories, and then, Dmenu needs to be configured to launch them all. This is very fiddly, unless you particularly enjoy moving files and tinkering under the hood at 3AM in the morning.

In fact, Step 5 is normally accompanied by step 5.5:

5.5 Transformation:

Step 5 has the above effect on most normal people.

As step 5 can easily take as much time as steps 1 to 4, and you have to do it right for each app, I recommend a great solution: IGNORE STEP 5.  Work smart, because now, thanks to zman_3007, you can!

zman_3007 has now done all the hard work in step 5 for us! All you need to do is:

Go here to read more, or click here, to download zman’s .zip file of everything which needs to be on the  EXT3 partition so you’ll have dmenu, snes9x, MAME4all and many other goodies on your Dungux’d dingoo preinstalled! Now, there is no need to individually install them - all you have to do is unzip this onto the blank EXT3 partition on your MiniSD card, and you’ll be up and running on bootup! (In fact, if you use zman’s .zip file, you can pretty much ignore step 4  as well)

(BTW: There is no dodgy stuff in the .zip file. So, you have to put ROMS in the right EXT3 directories of course, which zman_3007 explains are here:

MAME: /root/mame4all/roms SNES: /usr/games/roms/snes Sega Master Systems: /usr/games/roms/Seg-Master_System Gameboy: /usr/games/roms/gameboy

Try this link for some MAME4ALL roms (you may need to download utorrent to get the roms).

You’ll also need to copy the right files over to run Doom, Duke, Heretic and Hexen. But all of the above is just copying ROMS into folders, which you should basically know how to do, even with the original firmware:))  

What can I say but that we all owe a big thank you to zman_3007! (PS zman: do you know how to make a C64 emulator for Dingux?:))

NeoPop-SDL Proof-of-Concept

This morning Zear and I (mostly Zear ;]) managed to get NeoPop-SDL (a Neo-Geo Pocket/Color emu) to compile statically and run straight away. Currently it runs slow, without sound and with graphical artifacts outside of emulation, but it does run (games are emulated just fine). If you'd like to take it for a test run you can grab the executable here, or if you'd like to help take it out of it's POC status you can download the source here. Hopefully all of us (or rather the few of us who had them) will soon be re-living fond memories of past handheld joy. =]

Biniax 2 released!

It seems it was only yesterday that Yoannd26 released Biniax v1.0.... wait... it was only yesterday! Well, not to be outdone he's gone & released an updated version. This version is more colorful & looks very entertaining! Yoannd26 would like to thank Ezial for helping him with this version of the game. Thanks guys! We're all looking forward to more releases =D Download it here, Discuss here (french forums, translated link)

Mplayer: the lost video

Way back in May, before dual-boot was released & commands had to be fed to the dingoo via usb, a video demonstrating mplayer running on the Dingoo was posted... and forgotten about.



In the info section he posts all the options he passed to get it working. I was able to successfully compile it using the following (I also had to patch it before compiling to eliminate an error with ivtv):

./configure --disable-langinfo --disable-iconv --disable-vm --disable-mencoder --enable-cross-compile --cc="mipsel-linux-gcc -mips32" --host-cc=gcc --as=/opt/mipseltools/mipsel-linux-as --target=mips-linux --enable-fbdev --disable-fastmemcpy --disable-x11 --disable-xmga --disable-xv --disable-xvmc --disable-libamr_wb --disable-dvdread --disable-md5sum --disable-termcap --disable-live --with-extraincdir=/opt/mipseltools/include --with-extralibdir="/opt/mipseltools/lib: /opt/mipseltools/mipsel-linux/lib" --disable-libavutil_so --disable-libpostproc_a --disable-libpostproc_so --disable-libavcodec_mpegaudio_hp --disable-mad --disable-toolame --disable-twolame --disable-libmpeg2 --disable-musepack --disable-liba52 --disable-pthreads --disable-ass --disable-fastmemcpy --disable-dvb --disable-dvbhead --disable-alsa --disable-pnm --disable-tv-v4l2 --disable-tv-v4l1 --disable-radio-v4l2 --disable-ivtv --enable-fbdev --enable-directfb --enable-static

When I go to run it however (must pass -vo fbdev fyi) I get an error along the lines of 'line 1 syntax error unexpected "(" '. Evidently I'm not the only one running into this error; Yoannd26 stated via IRC that he has run into this many times while trying to port games. So, I'd like to use a street shout-out: If anyone knows a solution or can get it compiled & working themselves, please don't hesitate to let us know (I'm sure we're all clamouring to watch some anime on that gorgeous little screen ;]).

(P.S. Don't forget to --enable-ass again when you're done, lol)

MAME 4 All video tutorial

In lieu of his other videos, z_man3007 has uploaded a new in-depth four-part tutorial on getting mame 4 all up & running. These videos are step-by-step & are very helpful for newcomers. They even include instructions for eliminating the console bug you may have heard about. Questions? Point them here. Watch links below.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Zear updates stransball2, readies more releases

Our friend Zear has updated his port of Super Transball 2 for Dingux. This release brings speed improvements as well as bug-fixes. The file is currently pending approval over at the archive, but can be downloaded from a mirror here. Zear also reveals that a port of Linball is on it's merry way. More details & discussion on this thread.

Official recovery tool updated

What appears to be a new recovery tool for Dingoos with the newer LCD controller has surfaced over on the official Shenzhen Dingoo Digital site. If you've bricked your Dingoo (white screen) and you have one with the newer LCD controller, or if you'd just like to restore it to complete factory default, looks like you're in luck.

Dmenu Icon Pack

Quadomatic has uploaded an icon-pack with custom icons for use with Dmenu. Included are quality icons for many recent releases, a nice finishing touch for your UI. Icons are sourced from the liquido skin and neostuey's icon pack, Download it here. (P.S.- The borders are just from my preview program & not the actual images)