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X-Amiga beta release now available! |
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Written by Bloodwych
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Wednesday, 07 November 2007 |
X-Amiga has been released - a BETA download of an emulated Classic
Amiga environment for standard PCs, all thanks to Amir Ansari
(Fractallyte) who put the pack together in an easy-to-install ISO image.
Why is it special? Well, this is a very lite Linux distribution that
only contains the required files to boot a PC directly into an emulated
Amiga and Workbench environment.
Of course, this isn't the first of this kind of packs, but this one sounds like it's building up to be the best.
More information about X-Amiga
(taken from the official site)
What is it?
X-Amiga provides a small, streamlined environment for Amiga emulation.
At its foundation is a minimal version of Linux, designed to run E-UAE. It has a fraction of the overhead of Windows or OS X: under 40MB for a full installation, with a bootup time of about 15 seconds - nearly as fast as a real Amiga.
X-Amiga currently runs on x86 platforms. PowerPC and 64-bit versions are planned.
More Details
Features:
- Linux kernel 2.6.22
- Optimised for i586 processors and above
- Fast boot times
- Minimal (linked against uClibc)
- Secure (no root login)
- Display optimised for LCD (60Hz refresh)
- Works in a multiboot system (GRUB)
Support for:
- USB storage devices
- Network cards (kernel, ndiswrapper)
- Sound cards (ALSA)
- CPU frequency scaling
- CD writing
- Amiga fast-filesystem
(Please note: some advanced features require manual configuration.)
What's Linux?
A free operating system; an alternative to Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. X-Amiga is specially built using Gentoo Linux.
What's E-UAE?
A version of the U* Amiga Emulator for Unix-like OSs (including Mac OS X and Linux) developed by Richard Drummond.
System requirements?
x86 computer; free hard drive or partition with at least 40 MB space (more
for AmigaOS and applications); VESA-compliant graphics card (most
modern cards); ALSA supported sound card.>
You'll also need to install an Amiga KickStart ROM and operating system. If
you don't own an Amiga, the best place to obtain these is from
Cloanto's Amiga Forever package.
X-Amiga can easily co-exist with other OSs on the same computer.
Will it work with a native Amiga hard drive?
The Linux kernel includes experimental support for reading/writing from/to an Amiga FFS partition. Amiga floppies won't
work - it's a hardware issue. However, the installer CD includes
CatWeasel drivers and tools, so it should be possible to transfer disks.
How do I install it?
Download
an installer CD for your platform. The installation process is
relatively straightforward, although (as usual) some computer knowledge
is assumed. Each step is detailed here.
The standard installer requires 256MB RAM. A low memory version will be available soon.
Wireless networking?
If your network card has native Linux support, it'll work 'out-of-the-box'
here. If not, there may be alternative solutions or workarounds...
Blame manufacturers, not Linux.
Is X-Amiga similar to Amithlon?
No.
Screenshots.
A screenshot of the X-Amiga installation GUI
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 07 November 2007 )
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