It's Christmas again! And, as like as we did three years ago, when we early-released a preview version of Icaros 2.2, we would like to repeat ourselves with a quite advanced beta of Icaros Desktop 2.3! After a short patrons-only early access, this new version of the distribution is now available for download (only the Live! edition is being "released" this time).

But what's new, exactly? Well, if you followed our recent development, you'll find in this version everything we put in last october's early preview, plus a far more advanced, simplier to use, version of HostBridge (this is for Linux hosted users only, though). Isn't this enough? So why not playing guitar with Frets/C++, AROS port of Frets on Fire? You will need an accelerated card to enjoy it, and even better a Guitar Hero controller to make the most of this game, but if you're into Bemani/Music games, you won't stop playing this for months! And if you're a more serious user, you can now show and edit spreadsheets from OpenOffice and Excel, while Icaros keeps track of your meetings.

WHAT'S NEW

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With the precious help by Nicola Scendoni, we are trying to enhance the integration between AROS and Linux when running Icaros Desktop in hosted mode. Many things are changing, with one of them being how current MyWorkspace subdirectories and their ASSIGNs will be handled. Back in 2009, when I decided to add the 'MyWorkspace' drawer to Icaros environment, I wanted to mimic how Linux "/home" and Windows "\users" directories behave, placing also some nice subdirectories inside, for Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music and Downloaded files (let's call them 'user projects'). More recently, with the addition of Magellan, also a Desktop directory was made, to let people store their files (and not only aliases) on the workbench. This makes sense on a native installation, because these folders do not exist on AROS. But on hosted installations, where user project folders already exist, there is no need to create them again.

There are many little changes I should have really made long ago. One of these is changing the way AmiStart preferences are handled. You should know that Icaros Desktop provides three different settings for its lower side application dock:

1. Compact - the default one, at the center of the screen, with selected applications and no task management on the bar (window management is available, though, in the "Start menu" on the left corner)

2. Full - almost the same application shortcuts on the left, followed by tasks list populating when opening windows and programs

3. Custom - ideally, your own customizations that should be accepted and kept like they are. In theory, because this setting never worked and was somehow a "keep it like it is" option in Icaros Settings.

Well, this implementation has always been really poor, due to my very basic skills when done. The ugliest consequence was the fact that your customizations to the bar were lost every time I decided to change the default applications shown within the icons bar. This happened because I went for an even uglier solution: inside the System/Amistart directory, you would find the following ones:

AmiStart - the program itself
AmiStart.info - its icon
AmiStartCompact - ready to be used icon for the compact layout
AmiStartFull - ready to be used icon for the full layout
sm.prefs - preferences file for the full layout
smlite.prefs - preferences file for the compact layout

A mess. And Icaros Settings handled these files in a very dumb way, renaming the proper info file into AmiStart.info, so that either AmiStartCompact+smlite.prefs or AmiStartFull+sm.prefs were used by AmiStart. This was, and please accept my apologies, plain stupid. A far smarter solution would have been keeping a single icon file (so: AmiStart.info only) and change sm.prefs according to your selected behavior. Luckily, from now on this will change. First of all, starting with Icaros 2.3, there won't be all those files anymore, but I created the /shape/sm directory in AmiStart's one, populanting it with three different settings: full (as usual), lite (the compact one) and... well, "Hosted", a new setting which includes also host applications imported with HostBridge. Since AmiStart.info's tooltypes will now point to Envarc:Icaros/sm.prefs, settings will survive to updates. Unless you decide to change behavior with Icaros Settings, obviously: in this this case, your current settings will be (obviously) overwritten.

We know you're all thrilled about the future 64 bit releases of Icaros Desktop but, as you may have noticed, there is still too much to do before a user-friendly release. In the meanwhile, mainstream 32-bit Icaros Desktop continues to mature. We have still many amazing projects for this version of the distribution and we would like to give you a glimpse of the recent additions. Beta testers and supporters on Patreon should have already got the download links but, if you wish to try yourself, you can become a Icaros supporter on Patreon too!

Office program LEU is opening and editing XLS and ODT streadsheets on AROS

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Yes, you've read it right. It's time to enter the 64-bit Amiga era by the front door, taking advantage of modern x86-64 processors like Core and Ryzen. But beware: this is pre-alpha, un-stable, un-finished, un-reliable software. It's good to see it in action, to check what's working and what's not, to get familiar with latest AROS development, but it's definitely no good yet for everyday's use (which also means that if you didn't consider 32-bit Icaros Desktop ready for this scope... well, this is even worse).

DOWNLOAD ICAROS 64 PRE-ALPHA WIP ISO
(785 MB, .zip file format)

PLEASE NOTICE THAT...

> Status of 64bit AROS and Icaros software - is this available? Discover here!

1. you can't install it natively onto a hard drive. Or, better, you can, if you manually run InstallAROS from a shell (icon has been removed to avoid temptation). Problem is that it won't boot afterwards.

2. you can install it onto a 64bit Ubuntu/like distribution. Just sh linux-hosted-install.sh from the Linux shell. For now, we've limited memory size to 8 GB. Edit the environment variable Icaros/hostedmem to add more memory.

3. Many programs, drivers, games etc won't run. Or they will crash. Or produce weird errors. Remember: x86-64 AROS is still work-in-prog alpha software, with some parts barely mantained

4. gcc isn't working at this stage. I know you're eager to compile your software for 64bit AROS, but the only way to do this, for now, is using the AROS build system on a Linux machine.

5. We need help. We absolutely need help. We disperately need help. Please, don't send flowers, but help improving 64 bit AROS and 64 bit software ports as much you can. I talk expecially to you, my brave coders!

6. Have I told you we need your help? For the rest... Enjoy!

SPECIAL THANKS

I (Paolo Besser) would like to thank everyone who helped me reaching this stage, which include all AROS and 3rd party developers I bugged and asked help for. They patiently explained me how to compile, how to use AROS build system's metamakes, they fixed my mmakefile.src files when I could not understand what to do, they even patiently built their programs and sent them to me for inclusion. ALB42 sent me a working executable of Leu this morning. Without your help, I wouldn't be writing these lines.

PROBLEMS?

Please head to this topic on AROS-EXEC if you need to file a bug report or to ask help for this pre-alpha release:
> Icaros 64 PRE-ALPHA WIP discussion

One of the best (and also most scaring) features of AROS is its own build environment, which is driven by metamake files and can be a little difficult to understand. But, even before playing with the develoment system, the simplier need to install Linux and configure it for AROS development can be a show-stopper to many people. Well, no more: here you can find an already configured Linux machine based on Ubuntu 18.04: just download, unpack, add run it with VMware Player.

DOWNLOAD AROS Development Environment .vmx
(4.5 GB, .7z file format)


In order to run it, you need

- VMware Worksation/Player 15 for Linux or Windows (or Fusion for MacOS X)
- A dual core (or better) processor
- 4 GB (or more) RAM
- 20-50 GB of disk space (*)
- Internet connection

VirtualBox: The machine has been created for VMware, but it's been reported to work correctly on VirtualBox as well. To run it with VirtualBox, create a new virtual machine and attach the provided .vmdk file as disk drive. Use the suggested specs for CPU, RAM, etc.

(*) The virtual machine is configured with a 40 GB vmdk hard disk image in thin provisioning. This means that it will initially take about 18 GB of space, but it will grow with time. The VM is configured to use 2 GB of memory and a single core processor, but you're encouraged to update these settings to 2 CPUs and 3 GB of RAM. Moreover, no hardware virtualization is initially set: please add "Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI" virtualisation and "CPU performance counters" virtualisation to increase performances. If your system supports it, add IOMMU virtualisation as well.

AROS x86-64 being compiled on Linux

The machine provides a bare Linux 64bit installation with development stuff, AROS sources (updated to Sept. 30th, 2019) and VMware Tools. The initial screen resolution is 1440x900, but it can be easily adjusted resizing its window. The VM already supports clipboard sharing and drag'n'drop of files to transfer files between the host and the guest operating system. Pre-configured user is called 'arosdev' with password 'arosdev': please change the latter as soon as possible, to enhance security.

COMPILING AROS

We have already configured AROS to build for the x86-64 ABIv1 target. This means we have also downloaded all necessary stuff (which would normally require another GB of downloads) and placed it in a separate directory. To begin with, you only need to know that:

~/sources  includes AROS source tree, the one you can get with git from the following address: https://github.com/aros-development-team/AROS.git

~/portsrc  includes package needed when compiling AROS (portsources). You'd normally be supposed to download them every time you build AROS from scratch

~/x86-64  is the directory you must build AROS from. You will find instructions on your desktop.

So, if you want to compile AROS for x86-64, you only need to start a shell and enter:

cd x86-64
make

NOTE: on this virtual machine we've already given the needed configure and make commands, which would have been:
../sources/configure --target=pc-x86_64 --enable-ccache --with-gcc-version=9.1.0 --with-binutils-version=2.32 --with-portssources=~/portsrc 
make -j 2 && make -j 2 distfiles
otherwise, you'd be assumed to compile at least once the whole sources, before doing anything else!

COMPILING AROS FOR DIFFERENT ARCHITECTURES

You are encouraged to create also different directories from /home/arosdev with different AROS targets, for instance ~/m68k or ~/arm, and use them to build your sources also for different CPU architectures. Remember: once you start using the AROS build system for your sources, you can easily build them for several targets on the same Linux machine. Just remember to specify --with-portssources=~/portsrc when configuring. For instance, let's assume you wish to create the linux hosted version of 64bit AROS. First of all, open a shell and be sure you're in your home directory

cd ~

then, create a ~/linux-64 directory

mkdir linux-64

now move into your newly-created directory

cd linux-64

and configure AROS sources for the new target

../sources/configure --target=linux-x86_64 --enable-ccache --with-gcc-version=9.1.0 --with-binutils-version=2.32 --with-portssources=~/portsrc

and then you can build

make -j 2

You may need to install other required components. Please remember to keep a internet connection alive while building. Required commands and switches may vary for different targets, please join AROS developers team for further information. 

NOTE: x86-64 AROS is using a work-in-progress version of ABI v1, while 32bit Icaros Desktop is still bound to AROS ABIv0. This development environment IS NOT suited for compiling to ABIv0 i386. If you wish to release your apps for current 32bit version of Icaros, please learn how to adapt and compile on aros.sourceforge.net.

HOW TO COMPILE YOUR APPLICATIONS

If you're going to write applications for AROS, you have several available options: writing your program inside AROS directly and using AROS gcc to compile it, using a crosscompiler on Linux and, last but not least, letting the AROS build environment to manage your sources. Currently, you must use the build system (since 64bit AROS gcc does not work at the moment). This means you must learn how to use its metamake system. This will take some extra time but it will be well spent.  Why? For two very simple reasons:

1. you integrate your sources once, and you can compile it forever (or, at least, until something else inside AROS breaks your code...)

2. you can compile the same sources for several AROS target and, believe in me, if you wish to release your app for x86, x64, 68k and ARM, this can be extremely useful

As already explained, for Icaros 64 we are using the AROS build system. We have created a /icaros subdirectory inside our local source repository with, inside, every application we need to be ready-to-compile for the distribution. For now, mainly shell utilities we use in our shell scripts, but nothing prevents us from integrating also more complex stuff, once we'll get the proper metamake.src file.

IMPORTANT: you are only supposed to keep AROS sources updated. Either configuring git on the Linux Development Environment or by simply downloading them from https://github.com/aros-development-team/AROS.git with a browser, and then overwriting older files with newer ones: x86-64 is a moving target, some times the ABI will change breaking binary compatibility with formerly compiled programs. Just update sources, reconfigure, make and let your programs work again!

ADDING YOUR SOFTWARE

Now that we have a working AROS build system, it's time to use it to compile your software. You will do this providing both source files and a metamake script called 'mmakefile.src'. One for each project you need. Metamake scripts are a sort of recipe that tells the crosscompiler what to do. Unluckily, I am not able to tell you how to correctly write one, but I can give you at least a vague idea. Inside of ~/sources, create a 'personal' drawer for your programs.
and, inside of ~/sources/personal, create a different 'projectname' subdirectory for each program, for instance ~/sources/personal/myproject

Now, let's imagine you have a myproject.c and myproject.h files for your program: you should place them into ~/sources/personal/myproject and create a mmakefile.src script in the same directory, for instance:


Pay attention to the first line (#MM local-personal-myproject : includes linklibs), the bold part is the one you will call with the make command, from the root of the target directory
If you need further information, please read also the following resources:

> The AROS build system, and how MetaMake works on aros.org

> Aros/Developer/BuildSystem on Wikibooks.org

> "How I compiled deark for 64bit AROS" on this site.

NEED HELP?

Unluckily we can't provide user support on this virtual machine. But we have a discussion topic already set up for this on AROS-EXEC. Please ask your question there:

> Discussion about the Dev Env on AROS-EXEC.org