[Coco] Does anyone know how to boot a Linux machine straight to a CoCo emulator?

[Barry Nelson]

PS: Although I have not tested this, the theory is that although the emulator should auto start, you should still be able to access a text login prompt by pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 through F6. The first section in /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager sets up the X11 session to automatically login, and the second section in the users .xinitrc should launch the emulator with the X11 window manager. If you don't want the window manager you could replace the .xinitrc with a file containing just the following (I think).

#!/bin/bash
exec mess coco3

Or something similar. This example is for SuSE linux, which happens to be what I run at home. Other linux distributions will differ.


On Dec 5, 2015, at 4:49 AM, Barry Nelson <barry.nelson at amobiledevice.com> wrote:

> On SuSE linux, you might be able to edit /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager (I have not tested this). Set
> DISPLAYMANAGER_AUTOLOGIN="cocoemuuser"
> where cocoemuuser is the name of a user (not root) on your system to auto login. Set
> DISPLAYMANAGER_PASSWORD_LESS_LOGIN="yes"
> Finally, create a .xinitrc in that users home directory containing something like this:
> 
> ====
> #!/bin/bash
> #
> # Sample .xinitrc for SuSE Linux
> # This script is called from 'startx' when you start an X session
> #
> 
> #
> # In case everything goes wrong, we at least fall back to a plain xterm
> #
> failsafe="xterm -ls -T Failsafe -geometry 80x24-0-0"
> trap "exec $failsafe" EXIT SIGHUP SIGINT SIGPIPE SIGTERM SIGIO
> 
> #
> # Some bash (1 and 2) settings to avoid trouble on a
> # failed program call.
> #
> set +e > /dev/null 2>&1
> set +u > /dev/null 2>&1
> set +o posix  > /dev/null 2>&1
> if type shopt > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then
>     shopt -s execfail
> else
>     no_exit_on_failed_exec=1
> fi
> 
> #
> # Source common code shared between the
> # X session and X init scripts
> #
> . /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.common
> 
> #
> # Special for twm
> #
> case "$WINDOWMANAGER" in
>     *twm) xsetroot -solid darkslateblue
> esac
> 
> 
> #
> # Run CoCo emulator here
> #
> cd /directory/where/emulator/is/installed
> mess coco3 &
> 
> # 
> # finally start the window manager
> #
> unset WINDOW_MANAGER STARTUP
> exec $WINDOWMANAGER ${1+"$@"}
> 
> # call failsafe
> exit 0
> ====
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> John Guin johnguin at hotmail.com 
>> Sat Dec 5 00:49:24 EST 2015
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Marc Charbonneau
>> Sent: Friday, December 4, 2015 9:23 PM
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Does anyone know how to boot a Linux machine straight to a CoCo emulator?
>> 
>> On Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 11:49 PM, John Guin <johnguin at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> > I'm thinking that this should be as easy as a batch file in windows to 
>> > boot windows, then immediately launch an emulator full screen.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > But I am not familiar enough with Linux to know how to do this.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Does anyone know how to do this or could point me to a reference for this?
>> > Debian if that matters.
>> >
>> >
>> You want to start it right after you login ?
>> Depends on what Window Manager you are using.
>> 
>> Or maybe you don't want a window manager, just that emulator running.
>> 
>> -----
>> 
>> Correct - I want to go straight to the emulator while only loading the bare minimal linux overhead.
>