VOGONS

New CDROM ODE Emulator using Raspberry Pi

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First post, by danifunker

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Greetings!

I am the author of a new open source project. I love the idea of the ZuluIDE but since I'm the proud new owner of an ITX Llama, I don't like the fact that I need some kind of adapter to get it work, and the price is a little steep.

I've developed a "plug-n-play" solution with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (I believe a Raspberry Pi Zero W would work). As someone who doesn't solder, I've picked up a Pi Zero 2 WH, and a Waveshare 1.3inch OLED HAT and voilla, and they just plug right in together.

Setup is extremely simple, all you need are the following:
32GB+ SDCard
Pi Zero 2 W
Wireless network connection in your home
USB cable (plug into the data port)

Optional:
Case
Waveshare 1.3inch OLED HAT.

Unfortunately this project doesn't support CD Audio yet, but I am hoping to work with it. I've also figured out a way to keep bootable CDs working throughout the boot process (you can review some of the details in my repo). Much of this is ITXLlama focused since it's got a snazzy USB 2.0 port on it, but the device should work on anything with a USB2 or higher port on it, including modern systems. For headless builds, it's accessible through a very bare-bones web page (http only) which performs all of the basic functions I would expect of an ODE.

Please provide comments & feedback, and if you have Linux kernel development experience, please reach out!

Reply 1 of 6, by mscdex

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Did you mean to post a link to the project or is this closed source or ?

Reply 3 of 6, by flynnsbit

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I have the IDE Simulator (https://shop.tattiebogle.net/product/prod_EkTnv3Tk2Trxhf) and the one thing that it has over all the others is the ability to set the ISO/disc image using a dos utility. This small feature adds tremendous value for auto run batch scripts for games. You can have a large collection that is playable from a nice menu system if you can auto mount the discs. CD-Audio is also a great feature to focus on. Very cool you are doing this!

Here is the IDE Simulator util: https://issues.tattiebogle.net/view.php?id=14 and here is the documentation for it. https://issues.tattiebogle.net/dokuwiki/doku. … ulator:protocol

I'm sure your setup is completely different, but any way to automate setting the disc would be huge. Even serial commands would do it as you could just echo them to the port.

Reply 4 of 6, by danifunker

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flynnsbit wrote on 2025-04-20, 04:37:

I have the IDE Simulator (https://shop.tattiebogle.net/product/prod_EkTnv3Tk2Trxhf) and the one thing that it has over all the others is the ability to set the ISO/disc image using a dos utility. This small feature adds tremendous value for auto run batch scripts for games. You can have a large collection that is playable from a nice menu system if you can auto mount the discs. CD-Audio is also a great feature to focus on. Very cool you are doing this!

Here is the IDE Simulator util: https://issues.tattiebogle.net/view.php?id=14 and here is the documentation for it. https://issues.tattiebogle.net/dokuwiki/doku. … ulator:protocol

I'm sure your setup is completely different, but any way to automate setting the disc would be huge. Even serial commands would do it as you could just echo them to the port.

Wow, thank you very much for this pointer! I don’t have much experience with DOS programming (I only made one little program in my life to change the contents of win.ini when I was in high school to help facilitate a thin client environment). It sounds like a great feature to implement. I’ll need to look into it once I’m ready to tackle the custom Linux kernel development part. Definitely a great feature to have in place.

The links you provided are very helpful for the atapi commands being used.

Reply 5 of 6, by mscdex

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I noticed you mentioned the long boot times. While it would be quite a major change, it may be worth looking into using something like buildroot to create a much leaner (both userland-wise and kernel config-wise) custom system to reduce the boot times (and potentially have other positive side effects).

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