--- # 86Box + Avalonia86, installed as AppImages. # # WHY AppImage: 86Box is not in the Ubuntu archive. The alternatives were a # Flatpak (adds a ~1-2GB runtime, and its sandbox complicates letting the # manager pass per-VM config paths) or building from source (large Qt6/SDL2 # toolchain, manual updates). Upstream publishes official Linux AppImages for # BOTH 86Box and Avalonia86, so this is a single file each, no runtime, no # sandbox, and the manager can point straight at the binary. retro_86box_dir: /opt/86box # Pinned. Bump deliberately — a silent upstream change to the emulator is not # something you want arriving with an unrelated play run. retro_86box_version: "6.0" retro_86box_build: "b9001" retro_86box_url: "https://github.com/86Box/86Box/releases/download/v{{ retro_86box_version }}/86Box-Linux-x86_64-{{ retro_86box_build }}.AppImage" retro_86box_mgr_version: "1.5.1" retro_86box_mgr_url: "https://github.com/notBald/Avalonia86/releases/download/v{{ retro_86box_mgr_version }}/Avalonia-86-for-Linux-x64-{{ retro_86box_mgr_version }}.AppImage" # ROMs are NOT bundled with 86Box (licensing). Without them no machine will # boot — the emulator starts and then cannot find a system BIOS. retro_86box_roms_url: "https://github.com/86Box/roms/archive/refs/tags/v{{ retro_86box_version }}.tar.gz" # AppImages need FUSE. Ubuntu 24.04 does not ship libfuse2 by default; without # it an AppImage fails with "dlopen(): error loading libfuse.so.2". # patchelf + setcap are needed to make TAP networking work (see below). retro_86box_packages: - libfuse2t64 - patchelf - libcap2-bin # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # TAP networking: why the AppImage is extracted instead of run as-is # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # 86Box's TAP backend creates the tap device itself and enslaves it to a # bridge (verified in src/network/net_tap.c): # ifr.ifr_flags = IFF_TAP | IFF_NO_PI; ioctl(fd, TUNSETIFF, &ifr); # ioctl_or_fail(sock, SIOCBRADDBR, &ifr_bridge); /* create bridge */ # ioctl_or_fail(sock, SIOCBRADDIF, &ifr_bridge); /* enslave the tap */ # so it needs CAP_NET_ADMIN (upstream's own error text says as much). There is # no "pre-create the tap and hand it over" path -- the setting is a BRIDGE # name, not a tap name. # # File capabilities cannot be applied to the AppImage: the real ELF lives # inside a read-only squashfs mounted through FUSE with nosuid, where the # kernel ignores file caps entirely. So the AppImage is extracted once and the # extracted binary carries the caps. # # That in turn breaks the AppImage's own library loading, because a file with # capabilities runs in secure-execution mode (AT_SECURE=1) and glibc drops # LD_LIBRARY_PATH -- which is exactly how AppRun points the binary at its # bundled Qt. Two patches fix it, and BOTH are load-bearing: # 1. PT_INTERP is the RELATIVE path "lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2"; it must be # made absolute or exec fails with "required file not found". # 2. The rpath must be DT_RPATH (--force-rpath), NOT the modern DT_RUNPATH. # RUNPATH is not inherited by transitive dependencies, and 8 of the # bundled libraries (libicuuc, libpcre2-16, libFLAC, ...) are needed by # Qt itself rather than by 86Box, so with RUNPATH they are "not found". retro_86box_app_dir: "{{ retro_86box_dir }}/app" retro_86box_bin: "{{ retro_86box_app_dir }}/usr/local/bin/86Box" retro_86box_wrapper: /usr/local/bin/86box retro_86box_interp: /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 retro_86box_caps: "CAP_NET_RAW,CAP_NET_ADMIN=eip" # Taken from the AppImage's own AppRun.env (APPDIR_LIBRARY_PATH), made # absolute. Keep in sync if a future 86Box release changes its bundle layout. retro_86box_rpath_dirs: - "{{ retro_86box_app_dir }}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu" - "{{ retro_86box_app_dir }}/usr/lib" - "{{ retro_86box_app_dir }}/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu" - "{{ retro_86box_app_dir }}/lib/x86_64" # The bridge 86Box should attach its taps to. Must match tap_bridge_name. retro_86box_tap_bridge: br-retro