Difference between revisions of "Distro-agnostic emulator packages for Linux"
(→Flatpak: Added FS-UAE and VICE. Added how to get the list of available packages.) |
(Added link to Flathub app detail pages, added MAME snap, and AppImageHub finally lists RPCS3.) |
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| Line 8: | Line 8: | ||
Flatpak (formerly xdg-app) is a distro-agnostic application framework. It is a decentralized system and has no central package repository. Instead, the user must manually add the repository's URL to the system before packages can be installed, like in [[Emulation on Ubuntu|Ubuntu's PPA]]. | Flatpak (formerly xdg-app) is a distro-agnostic application framework. It is a decentralized system and has no central package repository. Instead, the user must manually add the repository's URL to the system before packages can be installed, like in [[Emulation on Ubuntu|Ubuntu's PPA]]. | ||
| − | [https://flathub.org/ Flathub], probably the biggest Flatpak repository, has several emulators | + | [https://flathub.org/ Flathub], probably the biggest Flatpak repository, has several emulators. |
To install emulators from Flathub, add the location of Flathub repository to your system: | To install emulators from Flathub, add the location of Flathub repository to your system: | ||
| Line 29: | Line 29: | ||
|- | |- | ||
|[[RetroArch]]<ref group=N>[https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-with-flatpak/ Official Flatpak Announcement of RetroArch]</ref> | |[[RetroArch]]<ref group=N>[https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-with-flatpak/ Official Flatpak Announcement of RetroArch]</ref> | ||
| − | |org.libretro.RetroArch | + | |[https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.libretro.RetroArch org.libretro.RetroArch] |
|- | |- | ||
|[[Dolphin]] | |[[Dolphin]] | ||
| − | |org.DolphinEmu.dolphin-emu | + | |[https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.DolphinEmu.dolphin-emu org.DolphinEmu.dolphin-emu] |
|- | |- | ||
|[[DOSBox]] | |[[DOSBox]] | ||
| − | |com.dosbox.DOSBox | + | |[https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.dosbox.DOSBox com.dosbox.DOSBox] |
|- | |- | ||
|[[FS-UAE]] | |[[FS-UAE]] | ||
| − | |net.fsuae.FS-UAE | + | |[https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.fsuae.FS-UAE net.fsuae.FS-UAE] |
|- | |- | ||
|[[mGBA]] | |[[mGBA]] | ||
| − | |io.mgba.mGBA | + | |[https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.mgba.mGBA io.mgba.mGBA] |
|- | |- | ||
|[[Nestopia]] | |[[Nestopia]] | ||
| − | |ca._0ldsk00l.Nestopia | + | |[https://flathub.org/apps/details/ca._0ldsk00l.Nestopia ca._0ldsk00l.Nestopia] |
|- | |- | ||
|[[PCSX2]] | |[[PCSX2]] | ||
| − | |net.pcsx2.PCSX2 | + | |[https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.pcsx2.PCSX2 net.pcsx2.PCSX2] |
|- | |- | ||
|[[PPSSPP]] | |[[PPSSPP]] | ||
| − | |org.ppsspp.PPSSPP | + | |[https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.ppsspp.PPSSPP org.ppsspp.PPSSPP] |
|- | |- | ||
|[[Snes9x]] | |[[Snes9x]] | ||
| − | |com.snes9x.Snes9x | + | |[https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.snes9x.Snes9x com.snes9x.Snes9x] |
|- | |- | ||
|[[VICE]] | |[[VICE]] | ||
| − | |net.sf.VICE | + | |[https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.sf.VICE net.sf.VICE] |
|} | |} | ||
<references group=N /> | <references group=N /> | ||
| Line 72: | Line 72: | ||
*[[ScummVM]] [https://uappexplorer.com/snap/ubuntu/scummvm] | *[[ScummVM]] [https://uappexplorer.com/snap/ubuntu/scummvm] | ||
*[[Virtual Jaguar]] [https://uappexplorer.com/snap/ubuntu/virtualjaguar-jz] | *[[Virtual Jaguar]] [https://uappexplorer.com/snap/ubuntu/virtualjaguar-jz] | ||
| + | *[[MAME]] [https://uappexplorer.com/snap/ubuntu/mame] | ||
==AppImage== | ==AppImage== | ||
| Line 77: | Line 78: | ||
The user must give the 'execuable' permission to the AppImage package (chmod +x ./appname.AppImage) but this is the only requirement. | The user must give the 'execuable' permission to the AppImage package (chmod +x ./appname.AppImage) but this is the only requirement. | ||
| − | Unfortunately, emulator adaption is very poor compared to other two systems. [[RPCS3]] is the most notable emulator to officially adapt this format, but aside of [https://forums.libretro.com/t/linux-retroarch-runtime-for-every-modern-distro-with-appimage/4965 unofficial build of RetroArch] and [https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-dolphin-as-appimage-on-linux Dolphin] (both are outdated compared to upstream releases) no other emulators are known to available in this format. | + | Unfortunately, emulator adaption is very poor compared to other two systems. [[RPCS3]] is the most notable emulator to officially adapt this format, but aside of [https://github.com/probonopd/qemu-ppc QEMU_PowerPC] (A PowerPC emulator), [https://forums.libretro.com/t/linux-retroarch-runtime-for-every-modern-distro-with-appimage/4965 unofficial build of RetroArch] and [https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-dolphin-as-appimage-on-linux Dolphin] (both are outdated compared to upstream releases) no other emulators are known to available in this format. |
| − | List of AppImage packages can be found in [https://appimage.github.io/apps/ AppImageHub] | + | List of AppImage packages can be found in [https://appimage.github.io/apps/ AppImageHub]. |
[[Category:FAQs]] | [[Category:FAQs]] | ||
Revision as of 03:57, 14 May 2018
Distro-agnostic packages are application portability solutions in Linux.
There are thousands of different distributions of Linux, and many of these use different package systems to manage application installation. Some popular ones are .deb format used by Debian, Ubuntu and its variants, and there is also RPM format used by Fedora, RedHat, and many others. Packages of game console and computer emulators exist for popular Linux distros, usually available from the official software repositories of the distribution, but they are usually very old compared to the upstream versions. In addition, these packages are typically made only for one single version of the distribution, and due to dependency problems these can not be used in other distros. There are at least three new package formats that are aiming to bring application portability to the Linux ecosystem. Packages using these formats are quite huge in file size due to bundling all dependencies in it, but they can run in any popular Linux distros.
Flatpak
Flatpak (formerly xdg-app) is a distro-agnostic application framework. It is a decentralized system and has no central package repository. Instead, the user must manually add the repository's URL to the system before packages can be installed, like in Ubuntu's PPA.
Flathub, probably the biggest Flatpak repository, has several emulators.
To install emulators from Flathub, add the location of Flathub repository to your system:
$ flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
List of available application package names can be obtained by the following command:
$ flatpak remote-ls flathub
Use the following command to install the emulator from Flathub:
$ flatpak install flathub Package Name
Available emulators and its package name is listed below.
Snappy
Snappy, also called 'snaps' or just 'snap', is a distro-agnostic application framework made by Canonical, the Ubuntu devs. Unlike other formats, it is a centralized system and has the official repository to download the packages from.
Snappy has the following emulators:
- RetroArch (Official Announcement)
- Hatari [1]
- DOSBox [2]
- FS-UAE [3]
- Atari800 [4]
- VICE [5]
- ScummVM [6]
- Virtual Jaguar [7]
- MAME [8]
AppImage
AppImage is a package format that allows software distribution without a superuser permission. Unlike the other two, AppImage does not have a system to find, download, install and uninstall the packages. Instead, it works like Microsoft Windows exe files with no DLL requirements. The user must give the 'execuable' permission to the AppImage package (chmod +x ./appname.AppImage) but this is the only requirement.
Unfortunately, emulator adaption is very poor compared to other two systems. RPCS3 is the most notable emulator to officially adapt this format, but aside of QEMU_PowerPC (A PowerPC emulator), unofficial build of RetroArch and Dolphin (both are outdated compared to upstream releases) no other emulators are known to available in this format.
List of AppImage packages can be found in AppImageHub.
