Oberon/Android

The GNURoot Debian app is an environment allowing any Oberon capable of working as a subsystem of a Linux system, to work in Android.

Oberon V5 RISC emulator on GNURoot Debian on Android on an Alcatel 9015B tablet with keyboard and mouse connected by Bluetooth.

File Transfer

For an external medium (SD card or USB), a contemporary Android supports only FAT. Neither an Oberon filesystem nor a Linux ext filesystem is directly accessible from Android. This is a serious constraint (showstopper) for practical use of an Oberon system on Android. The system is useful for programming exercises. Aside from a removable medium, files can be transferred by FTP and SCP.

Keyboard and mouse

Connect a keyboard and mouse using Bluetooth or USB On-The-Go. Verify that both work.

Install the GNURoot Debian app

Open the Google Play Store and install Xserver XSDL and GNURoot Debian. Several tutorials are found with a search for "android gnuroot install".

Update and install Debian packages

Can require more than 60 minutes. To avoid tedium, attend to other work.

Start GNURoot Debian and execute these in the terminal. The full lxde isn't necessary for Oberon.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get install nano lxde-core build-essential libsdl2-dev git

Add a user account

$ sudo adduser <me>

Install and run the Oberon RISC emulator

$ su <me>

Create a local repository for the emulator

If you want oberon-risc-emu to be in your home directory then,

cd ~

If you want another location then,

mkdir myPreferredDirectory
cd myPreferredDirectory

Then make the local repository.

git clone https://github.com/pdewacht/oberon-risc-emu.git

Your local copy of the repository is now in your home directory or myPreferredDirectory, in a subdirectory named oberon-risc-emu.

Compile the emulator

cd oberon-risc-emu
make

Make an alias for starting Oberon

The screen dimensions of a particular device can be found with a search. Google "Alcatel POP7 specs" for example. Then edit .bashrc to create an appropriate alias,

nano /.bashrc

This is an example. Adjust to requirements.

alias OberonV5="cd /oberon-risc-emu ; \
  ./risc --size 1024x600 ./DiskImage/Oberon-2016-08-02.dsk"

Alternatively.

alias OberonV5="cd myPreferredDirectory/oberon-risc-emu ; \
  ./risc --size 1024x600 ./DiskImage/Oberon-2016-08-02.dsk"

Save with <ctrl>+o. Exit nano with <ctrl>+x.

Start the emulator

Start GNURoot Debian. Tap the Xterm icon, 4th from the right in the menu bar. Touch in the Xterm to focus it. Then,

source .bashrc
OberonV5