Linux On The C64 & X86 Zima SBC With PCIe – LWDW 390

Canonical forgets to i386, shoving Linux onto a C64, kernel 5.6 brings the rumble, and the low-cost Zima SBC with bonus PCIe hole.

Listen:

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
08:56 Ubuntu i386 won’t die
14:58 Linux kernel 6.5
18:28 Linux on the C64
24:14 X86 Zimaboard with PCIe

Ubuntu i386

https://popey.com/blog/2023/08/i386-in-ubuntu-wont-die/

Wow, because of issues with Steam on Ubuntu I always install the Valve Steam .deb and not the one in the Ubuntu repositories.
There are issues with System76’s Pop!_OS Steam client in the Pop!_Shop also with the 32-bit drivers and they recommend installing Valve’s instead.
And everytime I install the Valve .deb the i386 drivers get installed.
Back in June of 2019 Ubuntu attempted to do something rather bold.
That something was dropping all 32-bit support beginning with the upcoming Ubuntu 19.10 release.
RIP WINE & gaming.
Even though Canonical reversed course a few weeks later, Steam announced that it would not support future Ubuntu releases.
One of the many reasons the Steam Deck is running Arch.
Someone forgot to add 32-bit support to the image on the new Flutter-based installer.
Install the official Steam *.deb.

Linux Kernel 6.5

Linux creator Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 6.5, and it has some very important new features.
Debugpoint.com states, “For users of high-core count Intel Xeon, AMD EPYC, and high end desktop processors, this release is bringing parallel CPU boot support aimed at significantly reducing kernel boot times.”
- This feature will greatly benefit large core count servers, enabling faster boot times.
There is complete MIDI 2.0 support, the widely-used MIDI protocol for musical devices, in Linux Kernel 6.5.
- Including notable enhancements such as higher resolution, improved articulation, and the Universal MIDI Packet for streamlined transmission of multiple MIDI messages.
The kernel now defaults to using the AMD P-State EPP driver, so users with AMD Ryzen Zen 2 or newer should expect performance gains and improved power efficiency with Kernel 6.5.
The EXT4 file-system gains faster parallel direct I/O overwrites, Btrfs gets various misc performance improvements, and there is an assortment of fixes to the Paragon NTFS3 driver.
And for Microsoft Xbox controller users on Linux, there are tactile enhancements here as more controllers support rumble in Linux kernel 6.5.
And for those who are using an ASUS ROG Ally, sound issues are resolved in 6.5.
Oooh, and one of my favorites, AMD FreeSync now enabled by default.
- I use FreeSync enabled monitors for all my AMD GPUs.

Linux 64

https://github.com/onnokort/semu-c64

The “can it run linux” joke used to apply to the C64. No longer.
Onno Kortman has taken semu, a minimal RISC-V emulator, and cross-compiled it with llvm-mos, an LLVM port to the MOS 6502 processor, in order to run Linux on the Commodore 64.
My first thought was “surely this will not fit in 64k of ram!”. And it doesn’t. It requires a 16MB REU.
This isn’t Linux running on C64 per se. This is C64 emulating a RISC-V environment on which Linux runs.
Also, it would take about a week to boot on real hardware.
Yeah, 6502 is very poorly suited to C-style code.
Oh, now this is exciting news!
I bet it would run on my Commodore 128 as well.
LUnix, or “Little Unix”, is a Unix-like operating system developed for the C64 and C128.
That is the closest we have gotten to a Linux C64 port until now!
I was in Junior High when the C64 was introduced in early 1982.
My family bought it at Toys R Us, and I still have it in my vintage computer collection :-)

Slice of Pi

Zima board

https://www.zimaboard.com/

Anyone want a glass of Zima?
If you do, you’re going to need an oddly shaped glass.
The idea of ZimaBoard came from a robot character from the HBO TV episode “Love Death and Robots”.
X86 in dual and quad-core options with 2 to 8 GB of RAM.
2X LAN / 2X SATA.
And the odd option, an external PCIe hole.
At full tilt this critter only consumes 10 W.
Really considering ordering a 2gig model for testing.
This is an awesome alternative to the Raspberry Pi, Zimaboard.
“The Zimaboard is a low-cost single board server for makers and geeks” states the manufacturer’s website.
But the big news here is that the Zimaboard is an Intel x86 quad-core single board computer instead of the RasPi’s ARM SBC.
It has a unique and stylish design, with its upper side consisting almost entirely of metal cooling fins for passive cooling.
And it has an PCIe slot that protrudes on its side.
At the bottom, there is a partially transparent plastic, or black tinted Plexiglas.
There are only 4 small black Phillips screws on the bottom, which also makes the board easy to open.
The Zimaboard has a gray design with orange accents, and the “Zimaboard” lettering is also in orange on the top and bottom of the unit.
Next to the PCIe slot is an I/O panel where there are contacts that can be soldered for further connections, such as power, switches and LEDs.
There are 3 Zimaboard models available ranging from $119-199 from dual-core to quad-core.