how to compile the ROM

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giobbi
Posts: 38
Joined: 11 Jul 2021, 22:12

how to compile the ROM

Post by giobbi »

hi all,

(((I'm having troubles using the forum Search tool... it always tells me "word too common" etc. so I can't really search what I need for...)))

I wish to compile the ROM but I have no idea how to do that... :oops:

Is there any good soul here that can write some (dumb proof ;) ) instructions, or give me a link where to find them?

BTW I was looking for the offline emulator (hoping it let me choose the ROM image) to avoid me programming endless eproms... but for the same reason above (bad search tool) I can't find the link ...
giobbi
Posts: 38
Joined: 11 Jul 2021, 22:12

Re: how to compile the ROM

Post by giobbi »

nobody here know how to compile the whole ROM?

I'm going to build a couple of Gigagtron more, and I wish to use at least one of them as "Art sculpture" with a nice frame and a display, and I wish to change the ROM avoiding the initial menu and running directly a program (i.e. to show an image or a fractal etc.) at every boot.

Does anybody can give me some help about that? I would compile a custom ROM an program the eprom.
at67
Site Admin
Posts: 647
Joined: 14 May 2018, 08:29

Re: how to compile the ROM

Post by at67 »

It's pretty simple, git clone or download the gigatron-rom repo, type "make dev.rom" on Linux or MacOS.

For Windows you'll need a Linux/Unix compatible make to do the same thing, (or you could convert the makefile to nmake format and use nmake), I used chocolatey to download equivalent Linux tools on to Windows, (e.g. "choco install make"); there are other ways to get Linux like behaviour under Windows, (Google is your best friend :P).

Here's a link to a guide to building your own bespoke ROM: https://forum.gigatron.io/viewtopic.php?p=1958#p1958

P.S. My emulator can load external ROM's, you just need to edit "loader_config.ini"
giobbi
Posts: 38
Joined: 11 Jul 2021, 22:12

Re: how to compile the ROM

Post by giobbi »

at67 wrote: 20 Aug 2021, 20:18 It's pretty simple, git clone or download the gigatron-rom repo, type "make dev.rom" on Linux or MacOS.

For Windows you'll need a Linux/Unix compatible make to do the same thing, (or you could convert the makefile to nmake format and use nmake), I used chocolatey to download equivalent Linux tools on to Windows, (e.g. "choco install make"); there are other ways to get Linux like behaviour under Windows, (Google is your best friend :P).

Here's a link to a guide to building your own bespoke ROM: https://forum.gigatron.io/viewtopic.php?p=1958#p1958
Thank you so much, thanks to your help it was much, much easier than I believed!

Sharing some info: under Win7 you should install and older version of python (I've chosen the 3.6.5) and change the makefile, replacing all the instances of "python3" with "python". And, of course, run the make from a dos shell with administrative privileges.

Chocolatey is great, I didn't know it! It took me a little while to make it run (it lacked the powershell 3 on my PC) but then it worked flawless.
at67 wrote: 20 Aug 2021, 20:18 P.S. My emulator can load external ROM's, you just need to edit "loader_config.ini"
Just a question: I'm copying the DEV.ROM as test.rom in the emulator folder; it didn't have much success editing the loader_config.ini.... any clue?
at67
Site Admin
Posts: 647
Joined: 14 May 2018, 08:29

Re: how to compile the ROM

Post by at67 »

giobbi wrote: 21 Aug 2021, 20:33 Sharing some info: under Win7 you should install and older version of python (I've chosen the 3.6.5) and change the makefile, replacing all the instances of "python3" with "python". And, of course, run the make from a dos shell with administrative privileges.
Would this work on Windows installations that have both Python2 and Python3 installed? i.e. Doesn't the "python" command default to the Python2 executable in the Python software eco-system?
at67 wrote: 20 Aug 2021, 20:18 Just a question: I'm copying the DEV.ROM as test.rom in the emulator folder; it didn't have much success editing the loader_config.ini.... any clue?
I don't understand, if you have a new ROM named "test.rom", just add it to the end of "loader_config.ini" like this:

Code: Select all

[ROMS]
RomName0    = ROMv3y.rom
RomType0    = 0x28
RomName1    = dev.rom
RomType1    = 0xf8
RomName2    = ROMv4_bmwtcu.rom
RomType2    = 0x38
RomName3    = SDCARD.rom
RomType3    = 0xf0
RomName4    = SDCARD_bmwtcu.rom
RomType4    = 0xf0
RomName5    = ROMvX0.rom
RomType5    = 0x80
RomName6    = test.rom
RomType6    = 0xf8
See how I added it to the end and just increased it's id number by 1? If it was the only entry it's id would be 0. The RomType field is currently not important, (only used for display purposes), but you should make sure it is correct for future compatibility. So for a test.rom based on a dev.rom with minor changes it's RomType would be 0xf8.
giobbi
Posts: 38
Joined: 11 Jul 2021, 22:12

Re: how to compile the ROM

Post by giobbi »

well, the loader_config.ini on my PC is a little different, just few lines:

Code: Select all

[Comms]                ; case sensitive
BaudRate    = 115200   ; arduino software stack doesn't like > 115200
ComPort     = 2        ; can be an index or a name, eg: ComPort = COM5
Timeout     = 5.0      ; maximum seconds to wait for Gigatron to respond
GclBuild    = C:/gtEmu/roms ; must be an absolute path, can contain spaces
It came from your gtEMU.zip file I got from one post of yours (this .zip contains the emulator I'm using, since the one I compiled refuses to start) and I didn't see there was another, more complete, in your contrib folder. Sorry for that.
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