new patch type, more aggressive patching

[ginge.git] / readme.txt

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GINGE - Ginge Is Not GP2X Emulator\r
release 4\r
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(C) notaz, 2010-2011\r
http://notaz.gp2x.de/\r
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About\r
-----\r
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Ginge is an application that can run many GP2X F100/F200, Wiz games and\r
programs on other ARM Linux platforms, which currently includes Pandora,\r
Caanoo and Wiz itself. It is not a full hardware emulator like MAME, PicoDrive\r
or similar, it does not emulate the CPU. It can be considered as compatibility\r
layer similar to Wine on PC Linux, however it does emulate small portion of\r
MMSP2 and Pollux system-on-chips. It operates by hooking certain system calls\r
and using realtime patching of code that accesses memory mapped hardware\r
directly.\r
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Usage\r
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Ginge comes with a launcher that is started when you run Ginge. The launcher\r
can then be used to start GP2X software, which will either run if it's\r
compatible, or just return back to the menu if it is not. In some cases it\r
might hang though.\r
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Keys are mapped to corresponding keys pandora, Wiz and Caanoo , except:\r
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Key              Pandora   Wiz              Caanoo\r
Stick Push       1         unmapped         Stick Push\r
Volume up/down   '.', ','  Volume up/down   Home+I/Home+II\r
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On pandora pressing 'q' will exit the menu or try to kill current application.\r
On Cannoo Home+Y tries to kill current application.\r
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Structure\r
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Ginge actually consists of 4 independent executables and a few scripts:\r
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+ ginge_sloader - loader of static executables\r
+ ginge_dyn     - dynamic executable handler\r
+ ginge_prep    - .gpe parser that selects the right handler from above\r
+ gp2xmenu      - the launcher/menu program\r
+ ginge_dyn.sh  - environment setup script for ginge_dyn\r
+ ginge.sh/gpe  - menu launcher script\r
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The menu is optional and can be replaced or bypassed completely. The only thing\r
it does is running ginge_prep on GP2X .gpe program, ginge_prep handles the rest.\r
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Changelog\r
---------\r
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r4\r
+ ginge now runs on Caanoo\r
* minor fixes in path handling\r
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r3\r
* improved exec handling, mostly for gpecomp.\r
+ added preliminary Wiz support, pcsx4all works.\r
* Wiz: since some stuff is written to /tmp, mount tmpfs there when starting\r
  to avoid wearing down flash.\r
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r2\r
* improved exit handling\r
* Wiz: should now return to Wiz menu after gp2xmenu exit\r
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r1 - initial release\r
+ icons provided by Inder\r
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License\r
-------\r
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gp2xmenu is based on GPH GPL source (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html).\r
Source is available at http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/ginge/gp2xmenu.tar.bz2\r
It is separate program and not linked to the remaining portion in any way.\r
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Ginge may come with some libraries. Those libraries are unmodified copies\r
of ones found in root filesystems in GP2X and Wiz and are included to more\r
accurately reproduce environment found on GP2X. Their source code may or may\r
not be available, I did not use it, but whatever I found is mirrored here:\r
http://notaz.gp2x.de/downloads/gp2x/src/410_all/\r
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Remaining portion is released under the MAME license, see COPYING file for\r
details.\r