Author Topic: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine  (Read 13294 times)

battlecat

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Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« on: August 28, 2015, 09:54:59 AM »
Hello:

I have an older p4. Yes I know it 's old. :) I just don't think its garbage yet.

I want to wipe this machine of its WinXP and install a Linux distro for use with Attractmode with MAME only.

What is the best distro that will most likely work with an older machine and attractmode? Currently I am looking at LUBUNTU as the main distro.

Any thoughts on this?

battlecat

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2015, 10:02:33 AM »
I just installed LUBUNTU in a Oracle VB just to test it out.

I downloaded the package for 32 bit and received this error when attempting to install the .deb via GDEBI:
Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: libavresample1 (>=6:9.16-0ubuntu0.14.04.1)

Is there an easy fix for this? I am not a dedicated programmer. I was hoping to find something to install to a low end machine to get my arcade cabinet back up and running before Halloween.

Thanks again!
-BC

battlecat

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2015, 10:51:34 AM »
Update

I ran the sudo apt-get update for the LUBUNTU distro and rebooted. Sadly though I am still receiving the error in the GDEBI package manager.

Thanks
--BC

battlecat

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2015, 12:07:22 PM »
Okay Update. I created a VirtualBox for the latest version of Ubuntu for the desktop. I installed Attract Mode without any issues there.

So Ubuntu's minimalist version LUBUNTU does not support all of the requirements for AttractMode but plain old Ubuntu does.

Good to know. Now to test on Linux Mint as well.

Thanks
--BC

akafox

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #4 on: August 29, 2015, 05:58:19 AM »
Sorry i did not see your post.

Actually Lubuntu works just fine. That is what I use for mine. Also MINT will work also. I use that as well. It works fine.

Ubuntu and variants (MINT, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu) are debain based. Thus debain will work work. The only difference is the default desktop. Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop. KDE uses the most resources to run the desktop. Ubuntu uses the unity desktop and uses less than kde does. Lubuntu uses the LXDE desktop even less still. The best thing to run is a window manager (WM) not a desktop environment (DE) as they take less CPU and ram. The best thing to do is run MAME in a frame buffer that way you are not running a desktop/gui at all so that you have all the ram and CPU available to you. However that is beyond this writing! (I don't think that attract mode can run in a frame buffer though.)

I use Lbuntu and I use the openbox WM and not LXDE because it takes less resources and my system runs smooth. Most of my set ups are low end..no reason to have a blazing (expensive) computer to emulate on. You can pick up a "perfect" computer for less than $100 now. It will run 85-90 of the mame catalog...though MESS will struggle a little for some systems. (Although that may just be mess.) but you can use other emulators for other systems too.


People want life easy..then complain about it

battlecat

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2015, 12:46:19 PM »
Hello:

Thanks for the response!

I did test the Lubuntu from Ubuntu and it did fail on the install. I did list the error from GDEBI.

I was testing on a Virtualbox and I am not sure if that really had an effect on anything.

Can you provide any guidance on how to get the version of Lubuntu that you use? Link?

Also how do you set it up so that it boots into the Openbox WM and not into a log in manager and then into a desktop environment? If you have any good tuts or links to them I would appreciate that.

Thanks for your feedback.
--BC


akafox

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #6 on: September 01, 2015, 11:36:19 PM »
I did test the Lubuntu from Ubuntu and it did fail on the install. I did list the error from GDEBI.

Could you post the error please? Or is it the same from last time?

I was testing on a Virtualbox and I am not sure if that really had an effect on anything.

It should not effect anything on install or working. A VB install thinks it just a normal OS on a real computer. However running say..an emulator or a game in a VB might seem slow as you are running in a slower environment than your actual hardware.

Can you provide any guidance on how to get the version of Lubuntu that you use? Link?

Sure here is the link http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/14.04/release/ It is to an "older" version 14.04 it is still supported though and you should not have any problems. I have problems installing from 15.04 as well. Until they update the repositories fully there is no way around that..that is easy anyway.

Also how do you set it up so that it boots into the Openbox WM and not into a log in manager and then into a desktop environment? If you have any good tuts or links to them I would appreciate that.

Best way to do that is when you set up at install when you make your first account (your super user..or administrator account in windows-ese) check the box that says don't use password to log in. Or if it is already installed click on your menu then goto system tools --> users and groups. From there you can change your password settings...(not needed to log in.)

As for openbox, linux will remember the last environment you used the last time you logged out and log you into that environment automatically. There is something I posted here http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=171.msg926#msg926 (it's the third or fourth post on the thread i think) some time ago..I wasn't beautiful or anything..but it got the job done and you had to know that it was a computer desktop you were looking at to know that it was one. That is I made it start antimicro and attract mode..thus I turned on my machine and it took me to the game selection screen without needing to do anything. Let me know if you need help.

I do have a question...when you say P4...I have to ask...please post your specs. That is your CPU speed number of cores, architecture (32 or 64) and amount of ram that you are using (and your graphics card if you want).
People want life easy..then complain about it

battlecat

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2015, 04:51:55 AM »
Hello:

I just booted up the version of Lubuntu that I was receiving the GDEBI error on. It is Lubuntu 15.04 from the Ubuntu site.

It is the same error listed in the first post. I just did the updates to the VB and it still happens. So that means I need an old version of the operating system.

I plan to grab the older version of Lubuntu you recommended today and give it a try in the VB while I am at work. I will be able to get to the desktop later this weekend.

As for the machines specs I will also look those up. I am not sure. I know that I had it running a full machine setup in the past with both Linux and XP with no real issues. I just really like AttractMode and have a liking to tinkering with the machine. Hence why I like to start over from scratch.

Thanks again for taking all the time to reply. I appreciate it.

--BC

akafox

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #8 on: September 02, 2015, 06:24:07 AM »
I know that I had it running a full machine setup in the past with both Linux and XP with no real issues. I just really like AttractMode and have a liking to tinkering with the machine. Hence why I like to start over from scratch.

Yes I understand that. :) I actually went to Linux because I wanted a modern operating system. I still have my XP disc and it works fine. However all the font ends for windows that are made to run on low-end machines are not being updated. I am not going to get a high end computer to run an arcade cabinet...I don't have the money "to throw away" like that. "Hand-me-down" computers are great for these kinds of things. Keep the $1,000 or more computers to work on  :P
People want life easy..then complain about it

battlecat

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #9 on: September 02, 2015, 08:06:53 AM »
I just finished installing Lubuntu 14.04 on a VB.
I installed AttractMode with no issues! Yeah!

Now to try your other suggestions out at lunchtime! :)

Thanks again!
BC

battlecat

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #10 on: September 04, 2015, 01:44:12 PM »
Hello again:

I installed AttractMode to my freshly installed and updated Linux Mint 17.2 machine.

I have installed MAME from this site: http://sdlmame.wallyweek.org/repository/

I know that the version of MAME that I installed is not an ubuntu official repo but in my experience it works better than the official repo version.

I have installed AttractMode 64 bit deb via GDEBI successfully.

I run AttractMode via the terminal and get this message:

battlecat@battlecat-OptiPlex-760 ~ $ attract
Starting Attract-Mode 1.5.2 (Linux)
Config: /home/battlecat/.attract/attract.cfg
Segmentation fault


Any suggestions? This is my main machine of course and I do not plan to use AttractMode on it. I just wanted to try it out and get my settings ready for the older P4 that I have in the arcade cabinet.

What info can I provide for this?

Thank you,
BC

battlecat

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Re: Linux Distro - MAME only - Low-end Machine
« Reply #11 on: September 04, 2015, 02:02:17 PM »
Hey all:

Something I found that is missing in the instructions is that there is an option in the menu to scan the roms! That did the trick for me.

Sorry I was referencing the tuts in the forum. I just saw that there is a tut on the official site https://github.com/mickelson/attract/blob/v1.5.0/Readme.md and I was not using that one. That one worked for me.

This is awesome!

BC
« Last Edit: September 04, 2015, 02:06:17 PM by battlecat »