Trouble upgrading OpenMSX on Raspberry Pi 400

Rookie (24)

03-08-2022, 17:10

Hello all,

I recently purchashed a Raspberry 400 with the goal of using it for the emulation of a Philips NMS8250, a machine I remember fondly. Both the Raspberry and OpenMSX are new to me, and I am having some trouble getting things to work.

My guide for the installation and upgrading process is a Dutch magazine called PC-Active. It's aug/sep-issue of 2022 (nr. 325) describes installing the emulator on Raspian Lite and updating / configuring it so that it runs at startup.

My main problem is in updating the emulator: the article describes how to get and dpkg two 17.01-packages, called "openmsx-data_17.0-1_all.deb" and "openmsx_17.0-1+b1_armhf.deb" from this repository. However, these don't exist.
There are alternatives for these, as version 18.0-1. Sadly, these fail to install, since they rely on two libraries that are newer than the ones available. (for instance libc6.1 needs to be >2.33, but a lower version is installed).

Can someone point me in the right direction in getting an updated version of OpenMSX to work on the 400? I'd appreciate it a lot!

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By sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4291)

03-08-2022, 22:29

Not familiar with the article or raspbian lite distro but have you tried updating your installed packages through the package manager?

sudo apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

03-08-2022, 22:35

Strange, all recent versions are there, except 17....

By Pentarou

Hero (559)

03-08-2022, 22:39

If you want that specific version you can get it from here:
http://snapshot.raspbian.org/202110130640/raspbian/pool/main/o/openmsx/

By Daemos

Prophet (2168)

04-08-2022, 12:16

I ditched rapsian the moment I bought a pi. All i need is the kernel, firmware and modules so for the hw part i use those ans debootstrap a most recent version of ubuntu, transfer the firmware and kernel modules in the image and boot into it with a custom initrd.

Cons: need some understanding and taking time to get this done.

Pros: libraries and software very up to date and running the distro of choice. You can then build your latest openmsx version natively and always be up to date.

By Oedov Oedidle

Rookie (22)

04-08-2022, 16:01

You wouldn't happen to have an outline of the various steps you took, I suppose, Daemos ?

By sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4291)

04-08-2022, 16:14

If you want Ubuntu it is easily installed on a Raspberry Pi: https://ubuntu.com/download/raspberry-pi

By Daemos

Prophet (2168)

04-08-2022, 19:08

Never documented it. but if you need it I can tell you how to do the steps. try the ready to go images first.

By Zwarteziel

Rookie (24)

06-08-2022, 10:58

Hello all,

I want to thank everyone for their answers. The alternative respository that Pentarou linked to has helped me to upgrade openMSX to version 17.0!

As a side note: Performance on the Pi 400 is a bit underwhelming (lots of framerate drops), so I will look into installing Ubuntu as sdsnatcher and Daemos suggested. Maybe another OS and/or version 18.0 will provide a slight improvement. I've read some messages regarding poor performance of OpenMSX on the Pi4 compared to the Pi3, so maybe there's more to it.

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

06-08-2022, 16:23

Best thing would be that the hardware and software supports OpenGL 2.1. This will enable the best performance for openMSX.

By Daemos

Prophet (2168)

06-08-2022, 20:36

Ohw boy. Poor performance...?? I just ordered a pi4b to experiment with the creation of a near real MSX. The testimage is extremely successfull. It boots like a real MSX and you can power it off like a real one. It uses a slightly modified version of openMSX to leave out some graphical details and more that give you more of that emulation feel. This machine boots up in a full black screen and you get openmsx. No mouse cursor no kernel messages nothing. If you power off openmsx the machine powers off along.

Anyway when the pi is in I will build the arm image for it and see where I get from there. If it works to spec I will document the details once the weather turns bad.

If the Pi cannot handle the emulator too bad. I will find other uses for it. Fingers crossed.

@Manuel: (offtopic) Where in the source can I find the little menu button that you see in the lefttop corner. That little button fades after some while. I have been searching through the source but no luck.