The most exciting news in March is the start of work on a prototype emulator ABIv0 for the 64-bit version of AROS. Deadwood is not resting on its laurels and is consistently delivering on its earlier announcements. A working emulator would enable a smooth transition to the 64-bit version of the system, without forcing a recompilation of the entire 32-bit software base currently available. AROS, the first AmigaNG system, will also be the first fully 64-bit AmigaNG system :) It is worth mentioning that the emulator is to run completely in the background, and it will not matter to the user whether he runs the 32-bit version of the software or its native 64-bit version. Ultimately, the emulator is supposed to be compatible with about 80% of the old software, the rest will require recompilation. Keep in mind, however, that what is being developed now is still only a prototype, and we can expect a fully functional solution, according to the development plan, more in the coming quarters than months.
In the March poll for “ Irritating Bug of the Month,” a bug in ahci.device won by an overwhelming majority. The problem was that during the “Wipe Disk” operation, only 7.9 GB was left allocated to the partition, regardless of the disk size. Currently, after fixing this bug, a partition can already occupy the entire disk (but no more than 127 GB, as this is still the limit in AROS for a single partition). By the way, the boot time of the AHCI device has been halved, and at the same time a new optional argument in the bootmenu - “slowerstart” - has been introduced, which restores the longer loading time.
Irritating bug of the month - March 2024.
As usual, I encourage you to participate in the next vote. This time, to celebrate half a year of poll activity, we are in for a surprise - as many as two bugs will be singled out and fixed :) Link to current poll.
News in AROS Archives from March:
GLFW (v.3.4)
(author: serk118)
GLFW is a cross-platform open source library for developing OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan applications. It provides a simple, platform-independent API for creating windows, contexts and surfaces, reading input, handling events, etc.
GLFW 3.4
Raylib (v. 5.0)
(author: serk118)
Raylib is a simple and easy-to-use library for video game programming. Raylib is strongly inspired by Borland’s BGI graphics library and XNA framework and is particularly well suited for prototyping, tools, graphics applications, embedded systems and education. Thanks to serk118, we have this library on AROS in the latest version 5.0.
More about GLFW and Raylib for AROS can be found on the port author’s website: http://serk118.blogspot.com
Raylib 5
Nano demo (v. 1.2)
Arrakis demo (v. 1.0)
(authors: Kakiarts/TRBL)
Nano and Arrakis are ports for AROS of two demos originally released on the Apple iPod Nano G1. The ports were compiled for AROS by Farox.
The demoscene group Kakiarts released Nano on the EVOKE demoparty in 2006. It was their first demo for the Apple iPod Nano G1. A decade later, for the 2016 Nordlicht demoparty, the group released a second demo, Arrakis.
The ports for Aros use SDL 1.2 to run and run at a resolution slightly lower than 800x600 using a 4x upscaler coded by the original author. Since the resolution used by the iPod is 176x132, so on AROS the demos run at 704x528.
Nano & Arrakis demos
Feedback (nr 14)
(author: Void)
This music-pack contains most of the submissions from the 4-channel Amiga music-compo at GERP 2023, a demo-party held in Sweden in January 2023. Compared to packs #10 and #11 presented last month, release #14 also features a new design.
Feedback #14
Bars & Pipes (v. 1.0)
Bars & Pipes Dev_Tools (v. 1.0)
(authors: Blue Ribbon, Alfred Faust)
Bars & Pipes is a MIDI sequencer with very creative capabilities. By dropping your tools into Pipelines, you can easily experiment without making permanent changes to your recorded song.
After Franck Charlet took the trouble to write a driver that is the link between camd.library and camdusbmidi.class of the Poseidon USB stack, Alfred Faust completed an implementation of Bars & Pipes on AROS. The driver is the first to be a really well-functioning MIDI for AROS. It always works with ONE MIDI interface. However, it can have multiple ports - up to 16. Theoretically, with a 16-port USB-MIDI interface, you can address 16x16 = 256 independent MIDI channels (instruments).
Alfred Faust has integrated this new option into Bars & Pipes for AROS. 16 new independent MIDI-IN and MIDI-OUT tools are available. It was possible to implement 138 tools (including 32 MIDI tools) and 1 accessory for AROS. The latest version of the AROSone distribution from AROS Build ABI_V0, dated January 30, 2024, was used for the implementation.
The Bars & Pipes archive also contains all the required files:
- program files (Bars & Pipes, tools, accessories, 64-color interface, etc.).
- new system files (camd.library, camdusbmidi.class, usbmidi - new driver)
- different fonts for the program
- many manuals, including instructions for Bars & Pipes Pro 2.5
Bars & Pipes
Los Malditos Demo (v. 1.0)
(author: Juan Carlos Herrán Martín)
The game is a free adaptation of the Timun Mas mythical books of the 1980s and 1990s. It is a point and click adventure drawing from the “Dungeons & Dragons” and “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” with graphics created with the help of AI. A concept demo of the game is available for download. The production is being developed constantly.
Los Malditos Demo
IcarosFix (v. 2.3.2)
(authors: Aros, Third Part Dev)
Icaros was at one time the most popular AROS distribution. Unfortunately, it has not been updated for several years. This archive contains a set of patches for Icaros 2.3. To install, overwrite the files. This is an unofficial patch.