Flatpak

This is a method for distributing MAME using the Flatpak format. The main reason for this is on locked down systems that only allow sandboxed user applications.

Security

The use of Flatpak here is not intended to secure MAME or provide any isolation from the rest of your system. MAME requires access to many of your systems resources including, but not limited to, devices for controllers, X11 sessions, filesystems writable for configuration and readable for data files, networking, and audio. The Flatpak provided sandbox must be opened up in many areas for MAME to function properly.

Building

build_icons.sh will download the logo from the https://www.mamedev.org site and resize it to various sizes to use as an icon.

build_local.sh will invoke the flatpak-builder application to compile MAME and generate a Flatpak package.

org.mamedev.MAME.yaml is the main Flatpak manifest that includes build and install information.

Manifest

An explanation for some of the options included in the `org.mamedev.MAME.yaml' manifest file.

org.kde.Platform is used for its Qt support, required to build the MAME debugger.

--device=all added to allow various input devices, controllers, etc.

--persist=.mame writable location used for cfg, diff, nvram, etc.

--filesystem=host:ro primarily to be used for external data, roms, samples, etc.

Patches

Currently these are the patches applied:

ldopts.patch enables an option for the linker to strip debug symbols.

use-system-lib-flac.patch works around FORTIFY_SOURCE compiler option that causes errors in the included libflac.

Running

A default minimal ini file is in the sandboxed /etc/mame/mame.ini. Run MAME from the command line with the -createconfig argument to create a new mame.ini in your home directory. Modify this new mame.ini to configure MAME.