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Author Topic: AROS Icaros distribution questions  (Read 6722 times)

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Offline BitSeekerTopic starter

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AROS Icaros distribution questions
« on: November 01, 2018, 04:56:09 PM »
The Distribution page does specifically say that Icaros will run in Virtualbox so I have set up the AROS Icaros desktop OS distribution in a VirtualBox virtual machine  on my Linux computer. I have it up booting up and running, but have run into a number of issues. I have looked in the documentation but so far have not found the answers. For example:

- how does one move "drawers" around on the desktop? The usual intuitive click and drag does not seem to work although the mouse pointer works fine. Tried left, right and center buttons, all to no avail.

- how does on mount a USB drive? I enabled USB in the AROS System and in my USB stick in the virtual machine but it does not detect it or recognize it anywhere?

Furthermore, regarding this statement on the AROS SourceForge website:

"It's an independent, portable and free project, aiming at being compatible with AmigaOS at the API level (like Wine, unlike UAE), while improving on it in many areas."

I took this to mean that AROS will run most original Amiga software including games, but someone the other night told me that it will not. Could someone clarify please? Broadly, what Amiga software will it run? What will it not run?
« Last Edit: November 01, 2018, 05:09:48 PM by BitSeeker »
 

Offline Minuous

Re: AROS Icaros distribution questions
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2018, 07:51:46 PM »
It won't run any Amiga software, only software compiled specifically for AROS x86 platform. Also it only supports the OS3.1 API from 1994, so any software that uses features introduced since 1999 won't be able to be ported to it.
 

Offline wawrzon

Re: AROS Icaros distribution questions
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2018, 09:38:37 PM »
aros is source compatible. that means it is binary compatible when run on amiga (m68k). on x86 you wull need an emulator. afaik there is janus uae, but im no expert on aros x86. also unlike what minous says aros s not just compatible with 3.1 api. this is just a bottom line. in some areas it improves upon or is clearly superior, in some others it is still lacking. it lacks for instance a native reaction gui implementation. instead it has mui compatible zune.
 

Offline wawrzon

Re: AROS Icaros distribution questions
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2018, 09:41:00 PM »
also, wanderer the default desktop might not be to your liking. instead you might try scalos. i think it is in extras subdirectory.
 

Offline BitSeekerTopic starter

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Re: AROS Icaros distribution questions
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2018, 10:20:12 PM »
It won't run any Amiga software, only software compiled specifically for AROS x86 platform. Also it only supports the OS3.1 API from 1994, so any software that uses features introduced since 1999 won't be able to be ported to it.

Thanks for the confirmation. It will be interesting to see how this project develops as for any OS to survive it needs applications...

aros is source compatible. that means it is binary compatible when run on amiga (m68k). on x86 you wull need an emulator. afaik there is janus uae, but im no expert on aros x86.

Ok, maybe I'm being a numpty here and should have realised that you can't natively run m68k binaries on an x86 processor without some form of emulation layer! I just kind of got the evidently mistaken impression that this was somehow incorporated. Even so, it looks like an interesting project in its own right.

I'm already looking at FW-UAE on Linux regarding emulation to run original Amiga games. Have run into some legal implications which I need to understand better. Probably will need to licence the necessary roms from AmigaForever then I will be good to go.

... also unlike what minous says aros s not just compatible with 3.1 api. this is just a bottom line. in some areas it improves upon or is clearly superior, in some others it is still lacking. it lacks for instance a native reaction gui implementation. instead it has mui compatible zune.

Well it did say somewhere that it should be considered as alpha software so I guess its still very much under development and features may yet be added. Perhaps that's why I can't mount a USB stick yet either?

BTW, thanks for your recommendations regarding the desktop. I will have a look at scalos.I have no objection to trying to understand the default desktop though.
« Last Edit: November 01, 2018, 10:27:13 PM by BitSeeker »