rpi-basilisk2-sdl2-nox

This script will automatically download and compile all the necessary source code to have a fully functional Basilisk II emulator running with SDL2 and without X Windows for maximum performance. In order to have an extremely light Linux system the Raspberry Pi OS Lite was chosen as the base for this project. As of this writing the following versions were used:

Raspberry Pi OS Lite version 2024-11-19-raspios-buster-armhf-lite
SDL2 version 2.26.5
Basilisk II version by kanjitalk755

Due to graphics hardware incompatibilities between RPi3 (VideoCore 4) and RPi4 (VideoCore VI), this script recommends running on a RPi versions 1, 2, or 3.

A 200MB disk image is also included here with pre-installed Mac OS 7.6.1 and Prince of Persia 1 for a quick demonstration of sound and graphics at 640x480 and 256 colors.

Getting started

Requirements

• A Raspberry Pi
• A blank SD card
• Your Raspberry Pi is connected to a network

Assumptions

• Your username for the raspberry pi is "pi"
• Your password is "raspberry" It is recommened that you change these

Step 1: Create a fresh Raspibian Lite image

1. Download and launch the Raspberry Pi Imager
2. Insert a blank SD card
3. Select your Raspberry Pi Device
4. Select Raspbian Lite as the OS, it's under Raspberry Pi OS (other)
5. Select the SD card as your storage device
6. Click next
7. Optional: Customise settings e.g. hostname, username and password, wifi settings
8. Proceed through the confirmation screens
9. When the SD card has been prepared eject it

Step 2: Install Basilisk II

To install Basilisk II, boot your Raspberry Pi from the freshly created SD card.

You may need to wait for the Pi to complete a few steps such as generating SSH keys and reszing the partition on the SD card. When promted to login use the username "pi" and password "raspberry", unless you have changed them.

Once you have logged in run the following commands:

sudo apt install git -y
git clone https://github.com/adamhope/rpi-basilisk2-sdl2-nox
cd rpi-basilisk2-sdl2-nox
bash run.sh

Note: The script will prompt you to update the system software.

• If you press y the system will update and you will need to re-run the following commands after logging in again:

cd rpi-basilisk2-sdl2-nox
bash run.sh

• If you press any other key Basilisk II will install and launch automatically.

When Mac OS is running you can select Shutdown in the special menu to return to the command line. You can manually start Basilisk II at any time by typing BasiliskII. Enjoy!

Taking things further

The following steps are optional.

Configuring Basilisk II

Basilisk II is a highly configurable emulator. It is likely that you'll want to change some of the default configuration options e.g.

• Path(s) to different hard drive images
• Changing the screen resolution, depending on which version of Mac OS you are emulating you won't always be able to do this directly in the guest vesion of Mac OS and you'll have to make changes in ~/.basilisk_ii_prefs instead.

Adding a different hard drive image

Basilisk II supports using multiple hard disk images. You can add aditional drive images by copying them in to your home folder and adding them to ~/.basilisk_ii_prefs e.g:

disk /home/pi/<name of disk image>

Changing display settings

You can change the screen resolution by editing the ~/.basilisk_ii_prefs and modifying the screen parameter. For some serious work, you can try the following:

screen dga/1024/768
displaycolordepth 16

Then go to Mac OS 7.6.1 Control Panel and under Monitors, select "Thousands" of colors.

Note: Many older games require 256 colours and will report an error if Thousands (16 bit) is selected.

Changing keyboard mapping

There is a folder called keyboard that has the default raw keycodes used by Basilisk II. Basically it converts the host OS scancodes into the emulated Basilisk II keycodes. This allows the ALT and WINDOWS keys to be assigned the COMMAND and OPTION keys respectively. There are many keycode sets depending on which video driver is being used, e.g. X11, Quartz, Linux framebuffer, Cocoa, or Windows. This is especially needed when using non-QWERTY keyboard layouts.

Note: If you are using an ADB keyboard with an ADB to USB adapter this will result in the command and option keys being swapped.

Start Basilisk II automatically on boot

These instructions will guide you through configuring your Raspberry Pi running Raspbian to boot directly into Basilisk II for a more seamless emulator experience. There is a 5 second delay where you can press a key to stay on the command line.

Step 1: Start Basilisk II automatically

Copy basilisk_autostart.sh to your home directory and make it executable:

cd ~
cp rpi-basilisk2-sdl2-nox/basilisk_autostart.sh .
chmod +x basilisk_autostart.sh

Open the /etc/rc.local file for editing:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Add the following line before the exit 0 line:

/home/pi/basilisk_autostart.sh &

Save and exit by pressing Ctrl + X, then Y, then Enter.

Step 2: Hide boot messages

Open cmdline.txt:

sudo nano /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt

Add the following options to the end of the line:

quiet splash

Save and exit by pressing Ctrl + X, then Y, then Enter.

Step 3: Enable Auto-Login to Console using raspi-config

sudo raspi-config

Navigate to System Options > Boot / Auto Login. Select Console Auto Login.

Reboot your Raspberry Pi to test the configuration:

sudo reboot

Getting help with Basilisk II, and Macintosh emulation in general

• E-Maculation wiki setup guides for Basilisk II and other emulators
• E-Maculation forums, active discussion about several Mac emulators]