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Installing the Amiga Software Development Kit on Linux

So you want to use the Amiga SDK? Luckily for you we at Amiga World are here to help out with tutorials, hints and tips.

If you're among the curious that fancy a plunge into the new Amiga SDK to see what it has to offer, you may well benefit from our walkthrough. Here we will show you how to get the SDK up and running and, soon enough, writing programs. It is also advisable that you have a look at our SDK companion article, "First Impressions of the Amiga SDK" for a more technical journey through the many features of the SDK.

Initial Steps

The SDK comprises the ElateOS-based intentTM multimedia environment hosted on top of Linux. In order to install the SDK, you will need to install Linux first, which is where a lot of the trouble could start.

Recipe for Disaster

You have two choices: You could buy a ready-made system--many are being distributed around the world by authorized outlets--or concoct your own. There are many advantages to buying an authorized d'Amiga developer box-not the least of which is the excellent package of support that comes with each d'Amiga-but if you don't fancy the ready-cooked variety, then it's time to put on that apron and start creating. First, you will need a PC and one distribution of Linux for flavoring. Gently mix the PC and Linux until an OS appears.

Some lumps may appear depending on the flavor of Linux used. Any package based on RedHat 6.2 will require a fix to the ncurses part of the OS, available at www.amigadev.net in the third party download section. RedHat 6.1 (which is recommended) or packages built around it won't have this problem.

The initial Linux part of the recipe should be reasonably straightforward providing you have plenty of room to store it, typically 2Gb (even more so if you want to dual boot the machine with Windows). Without sufficient room, the installer will start omitting parts, which can lead to problems especially if you leave out the compiler and/or peripheral programs critical to using the machine in a desktop role.

So now the last thing left is a sprinkling of the SDK on the top and everything should be ready to cook.

The Proof is in the Tasting

The SDK installation is really where the headaches can start, so we'll try to ease this as much as possible, as we would hate for you to have to mix in aspirin, too!

Boot up Linux and log in as root. You should be looking at an X Window manager of one type or another (KDE is a personal favorite here), and you should see an icon for the CDROM drive. To avoid some problems later on, we'll avoid the setup icon and start off by opening an X Terminal. If you haven't bothered running an X manager then the process is the same from the console too. Make sure you have the SDK CD in the drive and type the following:

cd /mnt/cdrom
./setup


The SDK installation greeting requester

This will now run the setup program to start the installation of the SDK. Click on 'Next' and you will be greeted with the license agreement screen. Keep in mind that this license agreement was not supposed to be included with the CD and should be disregarded-you won't be bound by its terms (v1.0).

You will be asked for a developer ID number which you should have acquired from the Amiga Support Network Web site (www.amigadev.net, see the sidebar). Enter it and press 'Next' again.


Enter Developer Id requester

You will now need an unlock code which is derived from the Developer ID, so you will now need to point your browser at www.amigadev.net/developer/dbase/unlock.php. You will be asked for your UserID (again it will be ADxxx) plus your password. Pressing OK moves you to another screen where you have to enter the System ID that should be displayed in the SDK setup window. Be careful here, the numbers are long and one typing mistake could lead to hair pulling! Press the 'Get Unlock Code' button to get your code, and type it in the installer window.


Enter Username requester

Now the installer should be ready to start installing the SDK. After a short time the installer will announce that it has finished and the SDK is installed.

Getting your Developer ID Number
  • Go to the Amiga Support Network Web site (www.amigadev.net).
  • Click the 'Join Amiga Support Network' link toward the bottom right of the page.
  • Enter the requested information. Write down the password you provide!
  • Write down your ID number, which will be Adxxx and appear on the right side of the screen.
  • Amiga will send you a confirmation email.

Take it out for a Thrash

The SDK comes with a veritable fistful of documents describing just about every inch of its components, as well as the developer documents (akin to AutoDocs) that describe how we can interact with the intent(TM) environment.

Most people want to first duplicate the many screenshots of the SDK in action, so we will start off by launching the AVE (Audio Visual Environment) and having a browse around. Type this into the console:

intent_media

You should see a window appear with a boing ball background. This is the AVE window and from here you can check out the demos and programs available so far. Click the right mouse button in the window and a small menu should appear. By selecting ave-demos you can view all the demos available one at a time, whereas ave-avedemos launches the whole lot in one go. Check them out carefully, as there is some nice stuff in there, especially the boing ball that you can throw around with the mouse!

Getting Under the Bonnet (that's Hood to you Yanks)

Once you get bored with that, and it doesn't take too long, you will start thinking about what the SDK is all about: Developing software. Select AVE-shutdown from the menu and you will be back to the console. Type:

intent_shell

You will be thrust into an unknown world all ready for discovering. This shell works like any other shell, but the command names tend to follow the Linux convention for cryptic filenames. Luckily the manual helps here and has an overview of the Amiga shell starting on page 11. Be sure to have a good read of that section.

Issuing a 'dir' command will list the contents of the current directory, which when first run will be the root directory of the Amiga file system which contains the necessary files to get the system up and running. One important point to note here is that the contents of the Linux directory from which the shell was run are merged into the Amiga root to make it easy to share files between them. If you logged in as simon, for example, your current Linux directory would be /home/simon. Supposing you launched the Amiga shell from there, files in that directory would also show up in the Amiga root listing so you can create program source files from /home/simon with a Linux editor and compile them under Amiga without having to move files around.

The source files for all the demos you played with earlier are all supplied so you can go straight into demo/ave/ to view these. The files with the .asm extension are all Virtual Processor source code, and the .00 are the executables which will run in the AVE environment.

Documents Abound

Also installed are heaps of documents to keep you going for ages. These are accessible from Linux, stored in /usr/doc/intent in HTML format with extensive links to allow easy navigation. Have a good read through some of these and familiarize yourself with some of the more useful features.

Over the coming issues we will introduce you to some of the features of the SDK, and give an insight into the AVE and its GUI by writing small programs. We'll build a foundation in the basics that will help you a lot.

See you next issue!

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