MegaZeux Development VMs

This page contains VM images for testing MegaZeux (and potentially other software) for non-x86 architectures via QEMU. Each image contains a cloned copy of the MegaZeux Git repository, all tools required to build a local copy of MegaZeux, and a minimalist window environment (i3) to run MegaZeux in.

The login for all VMs is mzx with the password mzx, and the MegaZeux Git repository is typically located at /megazeux.

This page is currently a work-in-progress. Because of this, they are behind a password; ask Lachesis for it on Discord.

Linux/BSD (main architectures)

These architectures usually correspond to existing or future MegaZeux ports and are fairly well-supported by Linux and/or BSD distributions. The x86_64 and i686 architectures are omitted because there is currently no point in maintaining development VMs for them.

Build times provided were observed using an i7-7700 running QEMU from a hypervisor guest, and are mainly intended to give a sense of scale. These may vary significantly depending on your machine and setup.

Architecture	Related Ports	Distribution	Options	make unit testworlds	Fails	Other Issues	Image	Links
ARMel qemu-system-arm	Nintendo DS Nintendo 3DS GP2X	TODO
ARMhf qemu-system-arm 5.2.0	Android Raspberry Pi PlayStation Vita Pandora	Debian 10.9	-M virt -m 2048 -cpu cortex-a15 -smp 4 -kernel [...] -initrd [...] -append "root=/dev/vda2" -drive [...] -device virtio-blk-device,drive=hd0 -netdev user,id=eth0 -device virtio-net-device,netdev=eth0 -usb -device usb-ehci,id=ehci -device usb-mouse,bus=ehci.0 -device usb-kbd,bus=ehci.0	2m01s (-j4) 58s (-j4) 14s	—	No working video. Use run.serial.sh.	896M	See ARM64.
ARM64 qemu-system-aarch64 5.2.0	Android Nintendo Switch	Debian 10.9	-M virt -m 2048 -cpu cortex-a57 -smp 4 -kernel [...] -initrd [...] -append "root=/dev/vda2" -drive [...] -device virtio-blk-device,drive=hd0 -netdev user,id=eth0 -device virtio-net-device,netdev=eth0 -device VGA -usb -device usb-ehci,id=ehci -device usb-mouse,bus=ehci.0 -device usb-kbd,bus=ehci.0	2m33s (-j4) 1m13s (-j4) 17s	—	—	949MB	Debian Wiki (archived) Blog post with more detailed info. (archived) Both of these are outdated; the BIOS image seems to be included out of the box in newer QEMU versions.
MIPSeb qemu-system-mips 5.2.0	—	Debian 10.9	-M malta -m 512 -kernel [...] -initrd [...] -append "root=/dev/sda1 console=tty0" -drive [...] -device usb-mouse -device usb-kbd -vga std	~30 min. ~16 min. 31s	—	—	1.01GB	Setup (archived)
MIPSel qemu-system-mipsel 5.2.0	PlayStation Portable	Debian 10.9	-M malta -m 512 -kernel [...] -initrd [...] -append "root=/dev/sda1 console=tty0" -device usb-mouse -device usb-kbd -vga std	~36 min. ~21 min. 35s	—	—	910MB	Setup (archived)
MIPS64el qemu-system-mips64el 5.2.0	—	Debian 10.9	-M malta -m 256 -cpu 5KEc -kernel [...] -initrd [...] -append "root=/dev/sda1 console=tty0" -device usb-mouse -device usb-kbd -vga std	~25 min. ~14 min. 30s	—	RAM values above 256M don't work, may be a QEMU 5.2 bug or a kernel bug.	915MB	Setup (archived) More info (archived)
PowerPC qemu-system-ppc	Mac OS X Nintendo Wii Nintendo Wii U	Debian Unstable 10.0	-L pc-bios -boot c -M mac99,via=pmu -m 1G -prom-env "boot-device=hd:,\yaboot" -prom-env "boot-args=conf=hd:,\yaboot.conf" -drive file=ppc.debian10.qcow2,format=qcow2,media=disk -serial stdio -g 1024x768x32	4m49s 2m27s 17s	—	—	737M	QEMU Wiki (archived)
PowerPC 64 qemu-system-ppc64	Mac OS X
RISC-V RV64GC qemu-system-riscv64	—	Fedora Rawhide

Linux/BSD (secondary architectures)

These architectures do not correspond to any current MegaZeux ports (Alpha, m68k, PA-RISC, SPARC) or are generally more effort to get set up than the rest (SH-4). MegaZeux will probably never run on actual hardware several of these architectures.

Architecture	Related Ports	Distribution	Options	make unit testworlds	Fails	Other Issues	Image	Links
DEC Alpha qemu-system-alpha	—	Debian 5.0.10
Motorola 68000 qemu-system-m68k 5.2.0	—	Debian Unstable 2021-04-17	-M q800 -m 1000M -kernel [...] -initrd [...] -append "root/dev/sda1 rw console=ttyS0 console=tty" -drive [...] -net nic,model=dp83932 -net user -g 800x600x16	4m19s 2m30s 22s	—	When sdl_set_video_mode is modified to accept RGB555 and force_bpp=16 is used (shouldn't be necessary), video does not draw correctly.	761M	QEMU Wiki (archived)
PA-RISC qemu-system-hppa	—	NetBSD 9.0
SPARC qemu-system-sparc	—	Debian 4.0 r4a
SPARC64 qemu-system-sparc64	—	NetBSD 9.0
SuperH SH-4 qemu-system-sh4	Sega Dreamcast

Setup

If (for whatever reason) you want to set up your own VM images, this is roughly how all of the VM images above were generated.

1. Set up initial QEMU disk image.

   qemu-img create -f qcow2 platform.debian10.qcow2 20G
   

2. Extract installation media vmlinux/initrd from ISO (if needed) and set up initial install.sh script.
3. Run installer. Leave root password blank, create user mzx with password mzx and sudo access. Do not install a desktop environment.
4. Set up run.serial.sh script and run.
5. Set up ~/.Xresources. This is required to make urxvt not look awful.

   # "lumifoo" by gutterslob.
   
   ! special
   *.foreground:   #888a8c
   *.background:   #1e2021
   *.cursorColor:  #888a8c
   
   ! black
   *.color0:       #515151
   *.color8:       #707172
   
   ! red
   *.color1:       #bf6382
   *.color9:       #eaaec2
   
   ! green
   *.color2:       #65a446
   *.color10:      #aed49b
   
   ! yellow
   *.color3:       #ad8a43
   *.color11:      #d4c3a0
   
   ! blue
   *.color4:       #6b85c2
   *.color12:      #afc4e9
   
   ! magenta
   *.color5:       #9e6bb8
   *.color13:      #d2b1e2
   
   ! cyan
   *.color6:       #5c9d88
   *.color14:      #a4d0c1
   
   ! white
   *.color7:       #919191
   *.color15:      #d0d0d0
   

6. Set up /bin/l (chmod a+x).

   #!/bin/sh
   
   LC_COLLATE="C" \
   ls -la --color=always --group-directories-first "$@"
   

7. Install packages (Debian assumed, will be different for other platforms):

   sudo apt install git p7zip-full build-essential gdb zlib1g-dev libpng-dev libogg-dev libvorbis-dev libsdl2-dev xorg i3 i3lock i3status suckless-tools xdm lynx
   

8. Set up MegaZeux repository:

   sudo mkdir /megazeux
   sudo chown mzx:mzx /megazeux
   cd /megazeux
   git clone https://github.com/AliceLR/megazeux .
   

9. Build MegaZeux:

   ./config.sh --platform unix-devel --enable-fps [any other flags here. release builds are NOT recommended.]
   time make [use -jX with -smp]
   time make unittest [use -jX with -smp]
   time testworlds/run.sh unix-devel
   

10. Set up run.sh script and make sure the VM can start up with graphics and run MegaZeux with the software renderer. This may take some trial and error to get right, which is why the QEMU options are provided in the above tables.
11. If preparing a VM tarball, use a compressed copy of the VM image instead of the original:

    qemu-img convert -c -O qcow2 platform.debian10.qcow2 platform.debian10.compressed.qcow2