HOWTO: Install zsnes with libao support on AMD64

[Tolaris]

The server is currently down, after yet another hard drive failure. The packages should still be somewhere in this thread in an attachment if you'd like to search for them.

Sorry to hear that! I've uploaded the last zsnes32 for hardy amd64 package to my repository. See:

http://www.tolaris.com/apt-repository/

[dfreer]

Oh no! Condolences... will you let us know when it's back up? Your repository was, to my mind, at least, one of the highlights of the Ubuntu community.

I will certainly let people know if it comes back up

[Matoridi]

Sorry if this sounds alarmist, but...

Does that mean your repository might not come back?

If so, where can I find Zsnes? I plan to install Jaunty on my computer, and Zsnes is not in its repositories.

[Tolaris]

Sorry if this sounds alarmist, but...

Does that mean your repository might not come back?

If so, where can I find Zsnes? I plan to install Jaunty on my computer, and Zsnes is not in its repositories.

It's in my repo for hardy. It should work on Jaunty, just use the hardy repo source line. Repo instructions:

http://www.tolaris.com/apt-repository/

[epsilon72]

So, I've had absolutely no luck with ZSNES up to this point on Debian amd64 - unfortunately, dfreer's and nach's (an admin at the zsnes forums?) binaries segfault on me, and the execstack program doesn't do anything for me.

Today though I tried my binary built by my amd64 Gentoo setup (all you have to do in gentoo is 'emerge zsnes'). It uses SDL instead of libao. This one works flawlessly with no segfaults and good sound quality (as long as sound output is set to 48000hz. I do load the snd_pcm_oss and snd_seq modules automatically...i'm not sure if that makes a difference or not). My debian native libsdl uses alsa, and I also have ia32-libs installed.

I would attach the binary to this post, but it looks like ubuntu forums doesn't want attachments other than specified filetypes.

[dfreer]

Sorry if this sounds alarmist, but...

Does that mean your repository might not come back?

Currently my server has been converted to desktop use; as such, it is unlikely that my repository will come back up (the Falcon Repository Manager software I used is no longer mantained/working as well). By the time I ever do bring it up it will be highly likely that my repository will be obsolete or forgotten anyways. I'm still amazed at how much traffic I ever got in the first place.

I still monitor these threads on occasion and still have all my original material available on request. And BTW, compiling ZSNES is relatively simple and a great way to learn how compiling work for people new to linux.

So, I've had absolutely no luck with ZSNES up to this point on Debian amd64 - unfortunately, dfreer's and nach's (an admin at the zsnes forums?) binaries segfault on me, and the execstack program doesn't do anything for me.

Nach is one of the ZSNES developer's, yes. Not familiar with execstack and after reading it's man page I'm still not entirely clear on why it would help.

Today though I tried my binary built by my amd64 Gentoo setup (all you have to do in gentoo is 'emerge zsnes'). It uses SDL instead of libao.

Did you place symbolic links for the 32-bit libao libs? This would explain why our binaries (built using --enable-libao) segfaults on your Debian AMD64. If SDL sounds great to you, however, run with it I always preferred using libao myself as I would get "scratches" when using SDL.

I would attach the binary to this post, but it looks like ubuntu forums doesn't want attachments other than specified filetypes.

tar/zip it up first They probably do that to save on bandwidth and security reasons.

[epsilon72]

Well, what I did is fetch the 32-bit version of libao from packages.debian.org and put the appropriate files and symlinks into /usr/lib32/. I suppose I could've tried symlinking to the 64 bit version of libao, but I remember it complaining to me when I tried to LD_PRELOAD the library beforehand so I didn't try that. I'll have to give it a try just to see if it'll work...

Anyways, I'll try and attach my zsnes binary for anyone who wants to use it. It comes with no warranty, I'm not guaranteeing that it'll work for everyone, yadda yadda blah blah blah, you get the point

As I said before, it runs fine for me with squeeze's libSDL, ia32-libs, and with a couple of alsa modules like snd_seq and snd_pcm_oss loaded.
I'm wondering...seeing as how zsnes is so easy to install in Gentoo, why isn't there an amd64 version in debian and jaunty's repositories? (obviously, I know there's no such thing as a true 64-bit version of zsnes, but that doesn't mean 64-bit machines can't run it..)

[dfreer]

Well, what I did is fetch the 32-bit version of libao from packages.debian.org and put the appropriate files and symlinks into /usr/lib32/. I suppose I could've tried symlinking to the 64 bit version of libao, but I remember it complaining to me when I tried to LD_PRELOAD the library beforehand so I didn't try that. I'll have to give it a try just to see if it'll work...

The idea is:
Install 32-bit libao libs into /usr/lib32/ and /usr/lib32/ao/plugins-2/, sounds like you did this already. But then, you need to symbolically link the libs in /usr/lib32/ao/plugins-2/ to /usr/lib/ao/plugins-2/, renaming them so that they do not conflict with the 64-bit libs already there. Here's an example:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib32/ao/plugins-2/liboss.so /usr/lib/ao/plugins-2/lib32oss.so

The segfault comes from libao, not zsnes or LD. The main lib libao.so.2, contains hardcoded paths to it's plugin libs (you can run strings on the file to see them). It will only look for the files in /usr/lib/ao/plugins-2/.

BTW, not sure if you know, in debian /emul/ia32-linux/ is generally used whereas in Ubuntu /usr/lib32/ is used.

If this is what you did and it still segfaults, I would then suspect that the binary has been optimized for features that your processor can't handle.

I'm wondering...seeing as how zsnes is so easy to install in Gentoo, why isn't there an amd64 version in debian and jaunty's repositories? (obviously, I know there's no such thing as a true 64-bit version of zsnes, but that doesn't mean 64-bit machines can't run it..)

That is another can of worms, mainly due to debian (and hence ubuntu) is not truly multi-arch ready. Not sure why they suddenly decided to introduce a 64-bit package in the repos (and they just as suddenly decided to pull it), but I suspect it's a policy thing. I can get into a discussion of the current multi-arch problems in debian/ubuntu if you are really interested, but I can get pretty verbose

[epsilon72]

The main lib libao.so.2, contains hardcoded paths to it's plugin libs (you can run strings on the file to see them). It will only look for the files in /usr/lib/ao/plugins-2/.

Ooohh okay, that makes sense now. I didn't know the directory was static like that.

[BTW, not sure if you know, in debian /emul/ia32-linux/ is generally used whereas in Ubuntu /usr/lib32/ is used.

Yeah I noticed that; I just use /usr/lib32 out of habit (gentoo). Fortunately there's a symlink already in place to get me to the right place.

That is another can of worms, mainly due to debian (and hence ubuntu) is not truly multi-arch ready. Not sure why they suddenly decided to introduce a 64-bit package in the repos (and they just as suddenly decided to pull it), but I suspect it's a policy thing. I can get into a discussion of the current multi-arch problems in debian/ubuntu if you are really interested, but I can get pretty verbose

Heheh, maybe some other time hopefully amd64 debian gets better multilib support in the future though.

[acer8930]

Which source would be the best to add for 9.04 Jaunty?