EM86 v0.2 may be downloaded from the following location:

Quick Start Guide

Here, in a nutshell, are the steps needed to install EM86 on your system:

1. Download kernel-patches/alpha-patches-2.0.30-0.2.gz, apply these patches to a stock 2.0.30 kernel, build, test, and install the kernel.
2. Download and install the following packages in the following order (use the --ignorearch option to rpm if necessary):
   RPMS/em86-0.2-1.alpha.rpm
   RPMS/em86-x86-0.2-1.i386.rpm
   RPMS/em86-baselibs-0.2-1.alpha.rpm

Package Details

Here are detailed descriptions of what's available to download.

kernel-patches: Currently this directory contains one file: alpha-patches-2.0.30-0.2.gz. As the name implies, this is a set of kernel patches against kernel version 2.0.30. A set of patches for the latest 2.1 release is under development and will be released shortly.

The generic Linux/Alpha kernel allocates process virtual memory above 4Gb, whereas emulated x86 code cannot access any virtual address above 2Gb. Among other things, this patch automatically detects that an emulated program is running and adjusts its memory allocation strategy accordingly.

To apply the kernel patch, proceed as follows:

1. Start with a stock, unmodified, 2.0.30 source tree. If you do not have such a tree, download one here.
2. Copy the patch file to the base of your 2.0.30 source tree:
        # cp alpha-patches-2.0.30-0.2.gz
3. Change your directory to the base of your 2.0.30 source tree:
     # cd /usr/src/linux
4. Apply the patches:
     # gunzip < alpha-patches-2.0.30-0.2.gz | patch -p1
5. Configure and build a kernel for your system configuration.

RPMS: This directory contains the actual binary installable components of EM86 in a series of rpm packages. Don't be intimidated by the number of files in this directory: most of them are collections of x86 shared libraries, and most of these are optional. The following are the only required components:

• em86-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: This is the actual EM86 executable.
• em86-x86-0.2-1.i386.rpm: These are x86-based utilities and libraries that are also a part of EM86. These include ldconfig86, ldd86, and libc-thunk.so.
• em86-baselibs-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: These are the x86 shared libaries needed to run the most common applications (e.g. libc.so, libm.so...)

You almost certainly want to install the following:

• em86-X11libs-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: You must install this if you intend to run any X-based applications.

In addition to these components, you may also need to install one or more of the optional components in order to run your favorite applications:

• em86-ImageMagick-lib-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: Install this if you are running any applications that use the callable ImageMagick interface.
• em86-binutils-libs-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: These libraries are needed by some development tools.
• em86-f2c-libs-0.2-1.alpha.rpm
  em86-p2c-libs-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: These packages contain runtime libraries needed by programs built with the Fortran-to-C (f2c) and Pascal-to-C (p2c) translators.
• em86-libgr-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: This package contains libraries needed by some programs to decode different graphic file formats (FBM, JPG, PBM, PGM, PNM, PPM, RLE, TIFF).
• em86-libpng-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: This package contains libpng.so, needed by some programs to decode PNG graphics files.
• em86-svgalib-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: SVGA graphics libraries, for graphics without X windows. Tell you the truth, I have not tested SVGA applications and I don't know if they'll work or not.
• em86-tcltk-libs-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: Libraries needed by applications written with the TCL and TK toolkits.
• em86-xview-libs-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: Libraries needed by applications written with the xview toolkit.
• em86-misc-libs-0.2-1.alpha.rpm: Miscellaneous libraries that did not seem to fit in any other category: libncp.so, libexpect.so, libmh.so, libsnmp.so

Install the required components as follows in the following order:

1. rpm -ivh em86-0.2-1.alpha.rpm
2. rpm -ivh --ignorearch em86-x86-0.2-1.i386.rpm
3. rpm -ivh em86-baselibs-0.2-1.alpha.rpm

If you are running Red Hat 4.0, you may need to specify the --ignorearch flag for all of the above commands; early versions of Red Hat used "axp" rather than "alpha" as the architecture identifier.