Vice (all machines) crash on startup

[Vanessa Dannenberg]

Binary package hint: vice

Vice simply doesn't work at all for me. I've downloaded and installed the ROM images already, but all of the various machines (x64, x128, xpet, etc) return the same result. The program simply displays a few messages and exits:

=======================
vanessa@rainbird:~$ x64
Set fontpath: `xset fp+ /usr/lib/vice/fonts'.
*** VICE Version 1.22 ***

Welcome to x64, the free portable C64 Emulator.

Current VICE team members:
A. Boose, D. Lem, T. Biczo, A. Dehmel, T. Bretz, A. Matthies,
M. Pottendorfer, M. Brenner, S. Trikaliotis, M. van den Heuvel.

This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
See the "About VICE" command for more info.

X11: Found 24bit visual.
XRandR: X11 XRandR extension not available, using default display mode.

Exiting...

vanessa@rainbird:~$
=======================

What should happen:

The normal behavior of VICE is to dump a bunch of debug information to the console, initialize its configuration directory (if it doesn't exist yet), and initialize the emulated machine, which should normally start with a window filled with colored garbage which gets replaced quickly with the standard startup screen for the machine in question (X64, C128, etc). The emulator will normally ask me if I wish to save the machine settings on exit, which I assume is when the actual config files are created.

[guidol (monk-e)]

Dear Vanessa,

Could you attach the output of the following commands:

lsb_release -a
uname -a
apt-cache policy vice

[Vanessa Dannenberg (vanessadannenberg)]

Here you go:

vanessa@rainbird:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 8.04.1
Release: 8.04
Codename: hardy

vanessa@rainbird:~$ uname -a
Linux rainbird 2.6.22.19 #2 SMP Wed Jul 23 02:33:17 CDT 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

vanessa@rainbird:~$ apt-cache policy vice
vice:
  Installed: 1.22-1
  Candidate: 1.22-1
  Version table:
 *** 1.22-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/multiverse Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[guidol (monk-e)]

The problem could be your kernel.
Hardy ships with a .24 kernel while yours is a .22.

Could you try installing the .24 kernel and try again?
Open up Synaptic and search for the linux-generic package and install/upgrade it.

If it's already installed or upgraded to .24 then maybe you need to select it at the grub start menu.

[Vanessa Dannenberg (vanessadannenberg)]

Sorry it took so long to get back to you on this...

My system started really giving me a headache over the last several days, with the default kernel refusing to boot at all. Between that and a few miscellaneous issues, I decided it would be better to just wipe it all and start over from scratch. Using the official Ubuntu CD (i.e. the pressed one you can order), I did a fresh install, brought in VICE and most of my usual programs, and moved my home directory back into place. After fixing the ownership of my files, everything was back to normal.

I opted *not* to build a new kernel, and just stick with the stock Ubuntu-supplied package (2.6.24-19-generic).

Despite all of that work, I'm still getting the same messages.

[Vanessa Dannenberg (vanessadannenberg)]

I'm now using a 2.6.26.5 kernel (compiled myself), and have tried re-installing Vice, to no avail. Attached is an strace log trying to run x64 with no parameters, with only an empty ~/.vice directory. Exact same problem as before.

[Vanessa Dannenberg (vanessadannenberg)]

Without making any changes, I uninstalled the Ubuntu package, installed libxaw7-dev, and then downloaded and compiled Vice 2.0 from the author's website. Installed it via checkinstall and at least x64 seems to work fine. The resultant .deb file is attached in case someone wants to echo it through to the repositories. If you need more information, I'll try to provide what I can.

[Richard Logan (richard-logan)]

I am having similar issues with vice. It cannot find kernal files, I have placed the files into the /home/xxxxx/.vice directory but no joy unfortunately.

When x64 is invoked I receive the following :-

richard@mymachine:~$ x64
Set fontpath: `xset fp+ /usr/lib/vice/fonts'.
*** VICE Version 1.22 ***

Welcome to x64, the free portable C64 Emulator.

Current VICE team members:
A. Boose, D. Lem, T. Biczo, A. Dehmel, T. Bretz, A. Matthies,
M. Pottendorfer, M. Brenner, S. Trikaliotis, M. van den Heuvel.

This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
See the "About VICE" command for more info.

X11: Found 24bit visual.
XRandR: XRandR reports current display: 1920x1080@50
C64MEM: Error - Couldn't load kernal ROM `kernal'.
Machine initialization failed.

Exiting...

You have asked about commands in previous posts, so I thought i would add those to the post :-

richard@mymachine:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 9.04
Release: 9.04
Codename: jaunty

richard@mymachine:~$ uname -a
Linux Aries 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:58:03 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

richard@mymachine:~$ apt-cache policy vice
vice:
  Installed: 1.22.dfsg1-0.1
  Candidate: 1.22.dfsg1-0.1
  Version table:
 *** 1.22.dfsg1-0.1 0
        500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

I also have libxaw7-dev installed, hope you can help .

Thanks in advance

Richard

[GaryW (gnubyexample)]

more /usr/share/doc/vice/README.ROMs
"The ROM images for the 8-bit components required to make VICE are
copyrighted, and you install them at your own legal risk..."

mkdir -p ~/.vice/C64

If you did choose to find and install those 8-bit components named basic,chargen, and kernal into directory ~/.vice/C64 then that is a decision for yourself.

[Bartosz Kosiorek (gang65)]

Here you have solution of this bug:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1135058

[Bartosz Kosiorek (gang65)]

Please check if this error still exist on the Ubuntu 9.10 Koala.

[billrichards (richards-bill0)]

Vice doesn't start for me in 9.10
bill@bill-laptop:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10
Codename: karmic
bill@bill-laptop:~$ uname -a
Linux bill-laptop 2.6.31-14-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 14:04:26 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
bill@bill-laptop:~$ apt-cache policy vice
vice:
  Installed: 2.1.dfsg-2
  Candidate: 2.1.dfsg-2
  Version table:
 *** 2.1.dfsg-2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/multiverse Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
bill@bill-laptop:~$

[Richard Logan (richard-logan)]

Vice works well for me in Karmic 64 bit, no problems at all !