Ryan Houdek
35cf7703b1
Previously in order to enable thunks, we needed an independent
description file of which thunks to be enabled. This is nice for quickly
testing out new games by setting `FEX_THUNKCONFIG` environment variable.
For users that just want to enable thunks this is an unwieldy
indirection that doesn't make much sense at a glance.
Previously this meant you needed two files as an example:
```
ryanh@ubuntu-linux-20-04-desktop:~/.fex-emu$ cat thunks.json
{
"ThunksDB": {
"GL": 1,
"Vulkan": 1
}
}
ryanh@ubuntu-linux-20-04-desktop:~/.fex-emu$ cat AppConfig/EnderLiliesSteam-Linux-Shipping.json
{
"Config": {
"ThunkConfig":"~\/.fex-emu\/thunks.json"
}
}
```
Instead of this unwieldy redirection just support `ThunksDB` json
directly in the AppConfig.
```
ryanh@ubuntu-linux-20-04-desktop:~/.fex-emu$ cat AppConfig/EnderLiliesSteam-Linux-Shipping.json
{
"Config": {
<...>
},
"ThunksDB": {
"GL": 1,
"Vulkan": 1
}
}
```
As can be seen this makes this significantly easier for new users
getting in to thunks. Depending on which path to enable thunks the user
is more comfortable with, they can still enable them using the
`ThunkConfig` option or embedding directly in the application
configuration.
Additionally this removes the older non-ThunksDB path to loading thunks.
All users of it have moved on to using ThunksDB.
FEX - Fast x86 emulation frontend
FEX allows you to run x86 and x86-64 binaries on an AArch64 host, similar to qemu-user and box86. It has native support for a rootfs overlay, so you don't need to chroot, as well as some thunklibs so it can forward things like GL to the host. FEX presents a Linux 5.0 interface to the guest, and supports both AArch64 and x86-64 as hosts. FEX is very much work in progress, so expect things to change.
Quick start guide
For Ubuntu 20.04, 21.04, 21.10, 22.04
Execute the following command in the terminal to install FEX through a PPA.
curl --silent https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FEX-Emu/FEX/main/Scripts/InstallFEX.py --output /tmp/InstallFEX.py && python3 /tmp/InstallFEX.py && rm /tmp/InstallFEX.py
This command will walk you through installing FEX through a PPA, and downloading a RootFS for use with FEX.
Ubuntu PPA is updated with our monthly releases.
For everyone else
Please see Building FEX.
Getting Started
FEX has been tested to build and run on ARMv8.0, ARMv8.1+, and x86-64(AVX or newer) hardware. ARMv7 and older x86 hardware will not work. Expected operating system usage is Linux. FEX has been tested with Ubuntu 20.04, 20.10, and 21.04. Also Arch Linux.
On AArch64 hosts the user MUST have an x86-64 RootFS Creating a RootFS.
Navigating the Source
See the Source Outline for more information.
Building FEX
Follow the guide on the official FEX-Emu Wiki here.
RootFS generation
AArch64 hosts require a rootfs for running applications. Follow the guide on the wiki page for seeing how to set up the rootfs from scratch https://wiki.fex-emu.org/index.php/Development:Setting_up_RootFS
