Further improvements to package management
Added 2021-03-17 01:06:04 +0000 UTCJust a quick update to let you know what I've been working on.
After the recent overhaul of source package management (so source packages only update when there has been changes) there were some issues from some users with slow connections. This has been resolved and I improved the network error messages that are shown when things fail.
There have been others minor issues with the changes for a couple of packages which have also been fixed (the svn version checking had some issues). The issues were just that packages updated when they didn't need to. None of the changes affected the actual code being installed.
I have a work in progress PR for replacing the current dispmanx configuration which allows choosing of sdl1 backend driver for rpi1/2/3 with legacy driver. It extends this and allows configuring of backend for sdl2 also and adds the option to force a package to launch under X. In some cases this can help with issues and performance with SDL2 emulators (on Kms).
Btw we intend to update SDL2 as soon as upstream changes slow down a bit. There has been a lot of work on the sdl2 Kms backend (used on the RpI4). The last time I checked a week ago it seemed to work well, so am keeping an eye. We have a bunch of custom SDL2 changes the biggest being code we have to switch screen mode in SDL2 via runcommand. We want to make sure upstream has stabilised before reworking this. (This sdl2 work was done by Mitu who also puts in a huge amount of work on the forum. I do share project donations with the other developers of course.).
RetroArch btw is still held back as we are waiting on the next v1.9.1 release due to fixes that were added after v1.9.0 which would be problematic to backport. We will stick to v1.8.8 until then.
Primarily my focus is still on improving management of installed software and in the RetroPie vein, giving users more choice to control over how things run etc.
Oh. And a project I helped on some time ago is finally available to buy. I worked on the recording / remastering of the tracks for a Vinyl - Bitmap Brothers Odyssey - which has some of the classic game music from the Bitmap Brothers with artwork from Dan Malone.
https://readonlymemory.vg/shop/media/the-bitmap-brothers-odyssey
Cheers
Jools
Comments
There's some audio snippets on https://soundcloud.com/romaudio/sets/the-bitmap-brothers-odyssey To note I am not connected to read-only memory - I don't get royalties also :-). You can of course listen to the music without buying the album by playing the old games or listening to the ripped audio - eg via my old Amiga and retro computing website https://www.exotica.org.uk It's a handsome vinyl (imho) with lovely cover art and was done working with the Bitmap Brothers and all tunes are properly licenced etc. The in-game music from chaos engine is technically a bit different from the game as in game it switches tracks seamlessly depending where you are so I merged a few of the in-game patterns into one for the album.
Jools Wills
2021-03-17 10:00:31 +0000 UTCThanks for the update! Is there a way to try out the music before buying?
Clyde
2021-03-17 06:10:51 +0000 UTC
