Let's play X-COM on the ODROID U2

One of the classic games I always dreamt to play again (on bigger screens, with huge blocky pixels) is the original X-COM: Enemy Unknown (a.k.a. Ufo Defense).

Not many of them survived every time I played this game

Spoiler: Enemy Unknown works fine on our beloved U2s thanks to OpenXcom :)

I will explain here how to get it running in a few steps. You will need some patience and the original X-COM 1 game. See also OpenXcom's README.

Installing yaml 0.5 packages

You will need slightly more recent yaml packages than those provided with Debian Wheezy.

wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/y/yaml-cpp/libyaml-cpp-dev_0.5.1-1_armhf.deb
wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/y/yaml-cpp/libyaml-cpp0.5_0.5.1-1_armhf.deb
sudo dpkg -i libyaml*.deb

Compiling the sources

git clone https://github.com/SupSuper/OpenXcom.git --depth=0 
cd OpenXcom
mkdir -p buildcd build
cmake ..
CFLAGS="-marm -mcpu=cortex-a9 -mtune=cortex-a9 -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=hard" \
CXXFLAGS="-marm -mcpu=cortex-a9 -mtune=cortex-a9 -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=hard" \
ASFLAGS="-marm -mcpu=cortex-a9 -mtune=cortex-a9 -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=hard" \
make -j5
mv bin/data ~/.local/share/openxcom/data
## customize target of link with your favourite binaries location
ln -s $PWD/bin/openxcom /usr/local/bin/openxcom


At this point, if everything went fine, you have almost finished.

Using the original game

Run the game by providing the original game's directory:

SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa /usr/local/bin/openxcom -data /path/to/XcomEnemyUnknown/


NOTE: The prefixed SDL_AUDIODRIVER variable is needed to force usage of ALSA, since I get garbled sound with pulse. If you don't have pulse installed then it's safe to assume that you won't need this environment variable

Game options

From options, select full screen and change resolution to 1280x720 for best gaming experience.

Enjoy it! :)

Postfix, virtual mailboxes and aliases: priority matters

Sometimes - either for work or leisure - I need to configure Linux servers, and also mail servers.

The '90s lovely logo of Postfix

postfix is a great software that I like to use for mailservers; in this post I want to describe you one feature that works in a counter-intuitive way.

In postfix you can define mailboxes by specifying in your /etc/postfix/main.cf:

virtual_mailbox_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual_mailbox_maps

Official virtual MAILBOX example here

You can also specify aliases, e.g. mailboxes that directly forward to other mailboxes, by specifying:

virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual_alias_maps

Official virtual ALIAS example here
Aliases are useful for example when you want to define a catch-all alias forwarding all mail to the postmaster address.

Priority matters!

However, what I dislike is the priority applied to both: aliases have higher priority than mailbox maps (yes, you've read right).

The first time I configured an alias I got all mail delivered to the catch-all address because I thought that - being less catchy - the catch-all addresses would have less priority.

What you need to do is instead add identity definitions to the aliases map, this way:

john@example.com   john@example.com
mary@example.com   mary@example.com
berry@example.com  berry@example.com
@example.com       postmaster@example.com

In above example of virtual_alias_maps, the last line is the catch-all line, while the other lines are inherent to mailbox maps defined in virtual_mailbox_maps.

Now tell me if that's not counter-intuitive, error-prone (because of the duplication) and less easy to mantain.

The state of hardware acceleration on ODROID U2: 3rd round

There has been fermentation and progress regarding the ongoing 3.8 issues (performance degradation, FIMC/FMC), today I have tested the 3.8 hardkernel linux tree, added some missing patches and could finally complete my benchmarks.

Kernel	X11 Driver	Resolution	glxgears	es2gears	glmark2-es2	glmark2-es2 --fullscreen
3.0.90	ARM mali	720p	~ 140 fps	~ 599 fps	142	81
3.0.90	ssvb sunxi	720p	~ 144 fps	~ 620 fps	156	91
3.8.13.7	ARM mali	720p	~ 139 fps	~ 659 fps	143	81
3.8.13.7	ssvb sunxi	720p	~ 144 fps	~ 447 fps	87	48

You can compare these tests with the 2nd round of my benchmarks: did you notice the difference? :)

Yes, the performance degradation bug is fixed. Many thanks to ovversun, memeka and mdrjr for all their work and tests!