Ryan Houdek
aa871c797b
Previously we were only storing the 32-bit base address which isn't actually how segment descriptors work. In reality segment descriptors are 64-bit descriptors that are laid out in a particular layout depending on the 4-bit type value. In reality we only care about code and data segment layouts since the rest are bonkers. Describe these descriptors correctly and setup a default code descriptor for the operating mode that FEX is starting in.
FEX: Emulate x86 Programs on ARM64
FEX allows you to run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices, similar to qemu-user and box64. It offers broad compatibility with both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries, and it can be used alongside Wine/Proton to play Windows games.
It supports forwarding API calls to host system libraries like OpenGL or Vulkan to reduce emulation overhead. An experimental code cache helps minimize in-game stuttering as much as possible. Furthermore, a per-app configuration system allows tweaking performance per game, e.g. by skipping costly memory model emulation. We also provide a user-friendly FEXConfig GUI to explore and change these settings.
Prerequisites
FEX requires ARMv8.0+ hardware. It has been tested with the following Linux distributions, though others are likely to work as well:
- Arch Linux
- Fedora Linux
- openSUSE
- Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/24.10/25.04
An x86-64 RootFS is required and can be downloaded using our FEXRootFSFetcher tool for many distributions.
For other distributions you will need to generate your own RootFS (our wiki page might help).
Quick Start
For Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, 24.10 and 25.04
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 | python3
This command will walk you through installing FEX through a PPA, and downloading a RootFS for use with FEX.
For other Distributions
Follow the guide on the official FEX-Emu Wiki here.
Navigating the Source
See the Source Outline for more information.