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Pazaz · October 2, 2025, 3:14am

Got a RISC-V SBC today to experience this architecture in its relative infancy.

            .-/+oossssoo+/-.               orangepi@orangepirv2 
        `:+ssssssssssssssssss+:`           -------------------- 
      -+ssssssssssssssssssyyssss+-         OS: Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS riscv64 
    .ossssssssssssssssssdMMMNysssso.       Host: ky x1 orangepi-rv2 board 
   /ssssssssssshdmmNNmmyNMMMMhssssss/      Kernel: 6.6.63-ky 
  +ssssssssshmydMMMMMMMNddddyssssssss+     Uptime: 15 mins 
 /sssssssshNMMMyhhyyyyhmNMMMNhssssssss/    Packages: 1479 (dpkg) 
.ssssssssdMMMNhsssssssssshNMMMdssssssss.   Shell: bash 5.2.21 
+sssshhhyNMMNyssssssssssssyNMMMysssssss+   Terminal: /dev/pts/0 
ossyNMMMNyMMhsssssssssssssshmmmhssssssso   CPU: Ky X1 (8) @ 1.600GHz 
ossyNMMMNyMMhsssssssssssssshmmmhssssssso   Memory: 490MiB / 7836MiB 
+sssshhhyNMMNyssssssssssssyNMMMysssssss+
.ssssssssdMMMNhsssssssssshNMMMdssssssss.                           
 /sssssssshNMMMyhhyyyyhdNMMMNhssssssss/                            
  +sssssssssdmydMMMMMMMMddddyssssssss+
   /ssssssssssshdmNNNNmyNMMMMhssssss/
    .ossssssssssssssssssdMMMNysssso.
      -+sssssssssssssssssyyyssss+-
        `:+ssssssssssssssssss+:`
            .-/+oossssoo+/-.

My conclusion: this 1.6 GHz processor’s performance is close to the last Pentium 3s (1.2 - 1.4 GHz), maybe edging past it a bit. I don’t have any hard numbers on hand, just my opinion from experience.
I’m running whatever baseline these package maintainers are building for, so I have no clue how optimized the software side is. It’s not “impressive” for a 2025 device but it is given how new it is! All hail open source.
This is the future, it’s only up from here. I couldn’t use it as a daily driver (not a masochist sorry!) but I’m happy to keep it as a test device and be able to watch RISC-V improve over time with it.

It’s got 8 cores, and this is a 8 GB RAM variant using DDR4. I installed a 64 GB eMMC module, and I’m getting 288 MB/s sequential write speed on it. Total system power draw never exceeded 5W.

Yes, the first chance I got I tested RS2. As easy as git clone ... + apt install openjdk-21-jdk

I saw fairly period-accurate performance for this game, even though that wasn’t the goal it was interesting to see. The average was probably 25 fps. Different areas were fixed at 22, 27, 35, and 48 fps. The worst dips went down to 12 fps. Much faster compared to the recommended spec Jagex advertised - 500 MHz / 128 MB RAM. I have an old Pentium 3 machine and I got 12-20 fps on that.

I couldn’t try the web client, it needs to fully preload thousands of files before it runs and was taking ages… maybe a different browser or newer chromium would help, not sure yet. Or waiting 20 minutes lol. The Java client works differently and I was able to run that, connected over WiFi to my desktop running the server.

Bun is not available for RISC-V currently so I couldn’t try running the server on it. I might find/compile node for it and try that to benchmark.

I’m going to play around with this more, maybe I can optimize the server/client codebase to run on “lower” specs like this and bring benefits to more devices.

edit

I forgot to mention! The system was only $65. There are much more capable RISC-V boards for $300-1000 that I’m sure perform well (not as well as putting that money into x86 for the time being…)
It’s a great budget friendly entrance if you’re curious about the architecture. Wait for RVA23 boards in the next few years if you’re not the curious type

Pazaz · October 2, 2025, 9:34pm

I got the webclient running in Firefox on that RISC-V system!
It took 8 minutes to load the game to the login screen the first time, but it was quicker after that. The webclient preloads and extracts all the assets ahead of time to be more seamless, clearly that’s detrimental here. No clue where the bottleneck is.

FPS was rough. Felt like I was logged into a Pentium 2 on that webclient.
4-5 fps in a spot where it was 20-22 in Java.
7 fps in a spot where it was 48 in Java.

I wonder how I can improve things. I’d also like to compare the C client here, and see what kind of architecture optimizations can be done.

Espionage724 · October 2, 2025, 10:04pm

I got a iBook G4 running with OS X 10.4 Tiger a few days ago! 2004Scape client didn’t seem to load from Safari 4.1.3 and 2 Firefox forks (Ten and IPC or something).

I’m not sure what else to really use that computer for spec-wise, but 2004Scape on it would be pretty cool! ~~I downloaded an archive pack of browsers for PPC and will try out other browsers~~ and could try out Java (I wonder if there’s a general year to mark browser reqs? HTML5 around 2008? no browser Opera/Netscape/etc in that pack worked)

Espionage724 · October 5, 2025, 9:12pm

So far looks like it’s going to be a classic Blizzard games laptop

DevilutionX (Diablo 1) provides a native 10.4 Tiger PPC dmg; works perfectly!
My Diablo 2 install ISO was out-the-box 1.10; I prefer 1.06 but I’ll probably roll different classes and keep real Classic on my Windows laptop

WoW WotLK apparently doesn’t support PPC (only Intel), but TBC does. I didn’t like the pre-installed 2.4.3 zips and figured out patches from a retail DVD install; still installing 2.0 atm, but if the patches work out ok to 2.4.3 I’ll figure out a localhost/LAN server next

No browser on 10.4 and Sorbet Leopard loaded 2004Scape, and I couldn’t figure out how to get the .jar to connect to a different IP (something about a worlds.json?).

I’m not sure if Java would run 2004Scape better than through a browser, but on a 2013 MBP/C2D and Firefox ESR I found the FPS not smooth (if Java would be comparable I’m thinking performance wouldn’t be good; I have 1.33GHz PPC G4).

Espionage724 · October 6, 2025, 5:00am

I did it!

Finding sources for patches with free download limits and different versions was fun but I got the same isos for Windows and PPC Mac, same patch flow, and now know how to make clean WoW Vanilla and TBC clients!

Tests out good while outside along with 2004Scape too:

All documented on my wiki for anyone to reproduce too

Pazaz · October 6, 2025, 5:01am

Now, document on your wiki!

jimbob · October 6, 2025, 11:23pm

I developed a method to stop my cards throttling — a fairly sophisticated means of improving air flow, if I don’t say so myself! Perhaps I should put a small bag of ice on top of the fan, nothing could possibly go wrong with that, right?

(implied sarcasm, in case you missed it)

The cards are used for AI/ML workloads, the actual accomplishment is that I finally finished writing my MSc thesis on hyperbolic embeddings for hierarchical knowledge retrieval, but I doubt anyones very interested in that!

Espionage724 · October 6, 2025, 11:49pm

I heard something about condensation potentially being an issue with temp shifts, but otherwise I thought about having a dryer hose exhaust out the window during winter

I did something like that though with some extra 120mm PC fans kind-of lying on-top of stuff like the area between the CPU heatsink and GPU!

Done (edited onto other post)

Espionage724 · October 8, 2025, 10:15pm

CMaNGOS was ok, but MaNGOS was way more interesting to set-up (notes)

Mainly need to finish up polish with script hookups and figure out updates, but it starts and works good with the iBook on LAN!

I have past experience with the bulk-sql file merge thing and manual DB management with MaNGOS, but that was easier for me to figure out than figuring out details with a 1.4K+ line batch file (seemingly both it and CMaNGOS expect separate DBs and one user; I do separate DBs with separate users)

jimbob · October 9, 2025, 1:20am

Disclaimer: I don’t know anything at all about CMaNGOS or MaNGOS core, beyond the fact that they’re at least somewhat similar to what Nostalrius used to bootstrap their project back in 2015/16!

Still, since I’ve had a few drinks, so I figured I’d leave a comment!

It’s always a little bit like wtf whenever you encounter a .bat (though, I very rarely work with anything windows focused) or a .sh file with more than a few hundred lines of code; at that point it’s like, perhaps some kind of abstraction (or more appropriate tooling) is warranted here

I assume this type of tooling is still the de-facto standard for folks that are looking to host WoW private servers?

Espionage724 · October 9, 2025, 2:00am

The external scripts for DB bases and updates seems consistent with MaNGOS and CMaNGOS.

TrinityCore does it automatically from the auth/worldserver (only have to import a full world DB initially, but initial character/auth DBs and their + worldserver updates are auto-imported on auth/worldserver start; I prefer this for not having to be concerned about sql updates later)

I just found out that TBC lowered XP requirements 20-60 or something in patch 2.3 and another, and I want the harder experience of Vanilla

I’m thinking going from MaNGOS One to Zero shouldn’t take too long, but that’s what I thought about coming from CMaNGOS like 18 hours ago

Edit: Got a working Zero server in about an hour; I forgot 1.12.1’s options menus! This’ll be fun

Espionage724 · October 9, 2025, 6:32pm

Reinstalled WoW Vanilla on the iBook and everything looks good!

A laptop from 2005 with a CPU before Apple went Intel, handling the same WoW install and patch flow from that era in 2025, connected to a server built from source some hours ago, and the iBook even handles fine on wifi floors-down connected to a modern 6-AX router

And everything with the iBook and OS X config, WoW client isos/patches, and localhost server config is documented! Now I can finally play it

Espionage724 · October 16, 2025, 9:54pm

Was re-setting up websites, and figured I’d toss Linux on my phone real quick

pmbootstrap worked no problem straight from docs and camera/wifi/cellular core stuff works along with Firefox, KeePass, and VLC!

Loads 2004Scape too:

branon · October 16, 2025, 10:41pm

~~What phone is that?~~ It’s a OnePlus 6, I see now!

I would like to switch to a Linux phone, I made an honest attempt to do it with the PinePhone but ultimately found the hardware too flaky for daily use.

Software-wise it was fine but given the less-than-reliable modem/middleware, slow eMMC, and power management issues it just never got off the ground for me.

I’ll buy a Librem 5 if the impending Android sideloading changes impact me, but would prefer something more cost-effective…

Espionage724 · October 19, 2025, 2:52am

WoW 1.12.1 on Linux with localhost server! (notes)

Non-root MariaDB and socket stuff was fun to figure out but I like the results and it’s similar to how I load it on Windows.