RetroSwimAU/xtidebuilder

Streamlined Builder for XTIDE Universal BIOS

This is a nice automated way to build XTIDE Universal BIOS ROMs, including creating custom builds. The latter being the real benefit here.

What this does:

• Creates a containerised environment with
  • Debian Linux Bookworm
  • Bash
  • Subversion
  • GNU Make
  • NASM
  • UPX
  • Perl
• Clones the XUB Subversion repo
• Patches the Makefiles to be nice and unixy
• Patches out trailing whitespace in Revision.inc, which causes build errors (see BuB's video)
• Builds the XUB binaries using the checksum target, producing ready-to-burn ROM images, tested in QEMU.
• Builds the configurator utility, tested in QEMU.
• Using a Github Action, verifies weekly that the toolchain produces working results in Linux, and macOS x86+ARM.

Last manual validation:

Linux

macOS

macOS ARM

Last scheduled validation:

Linux

macOS

macOS ARM

On Linux and macOS:

• Install Docker
• Make sure current user can run docker without sudo sudo usermod -aG docker $(whoami). Might need a reboot.
• Clone this repository git clone https://github.com/RetroSwimAU/xtidebuilder then run ./runme.sh
• Receive XUB binaries

On Windows:

• Option 1:
  • Install WSL
  • Install Docker in WSL
  • Clone this repository git clone https://github.com/RetroSwimAU/xtidebuilder then run ./runme.sh
  • Receive XUB binaries
• Option 2:
  • Install Docker Desktop
  • Download this repo -- https://github.com/RetroSwimAU/xtidebuilder/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
  • Unzip it somewhere
  • Open Command Prompt or PowerShell and go to where you unzipped it. Make sure you see compose.yaml in dir.
  • Type docker compose up (Or docker-compose up maybe, if docker is an older version)
  • Should receive XUB binaries, look in src/trunk/XTIDE_Universal_BIOS/Build under where you executed the docker command.
  • NB: I haven't tried this. Tried it now, and it works great! :D

Extra features:

• Edit the options file under resources to affect how the build is performed
  • BUILD is the make target. E.g. all, small, large, custom, checksum, etc. Default is checksum, as this produces ready-to-flash ROMs.
  • CUSTOM_DEFINES is the list of modules to include in a custom build. E.g. MODULE_STRINGS_COMPRESSED, MODULE_HOTKEYS, MODULE_8BIT_IDE, etc.
  • CUSTOM_SIZE is the output ROM size for a custom build. E.g. 12288.
  • For a list of make targets and modules, see the Makefile contents: https://www.xtideuniversalbios.org/svn/xtideuniversalbios/trunk/XTIDE_Universal_BIOS/makefile
  • For more information, see the XUB build instructions: https://www.xtideuniversalbios.org/wiki/BuildInstructions
  • The example values I provided for a custom build came from Bits Und Bolts' video on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilEZB5pY0VI
• If you don't like Docker and wish to build directly in your Linux environment, got you covered.
  • Requires Make, NASM, UPX, Subversion, and Perl.
    • E.g. sudo apt install make nasm upx-ucl subversion perl
  • Clone the repo and run ./uncontained.sh
    • Scripts use GNU sed syntax, so on macOS, get gnu-sed from Homebrew brew install gnu-sed.
    • Then something like PATH="$(brew --prefix)/opt/gnu-sed/libexec/gnubin:$PATH" ./uncontained.sh should allow the script work.

Validation:

• On a weekly schedule, GitHub builds the checksum target, and boots the ide_386.bin artifact in QEMU with a pre-built HDD image.
• A screenshot is saved from QEMU and provided on the action summary to ensure the toolchain is producing viable binaries.
• The ARM validation currently does not use Docker, but rather tha uncontained.sh. This is a GitHub hosted runner limitation, may be fixed in the future.

Credits:

• Bits Und Bolts https://www.youtube.com/@bitsundbolts
  • For inspiring me to build this toolchain
• XTIDE Universal BIOS Team https://www.xtideuniversalbios.org/
  • For creating this truly incredible bit of software, keeping retro PCs alive, one EPROM at a time. <3