When it comes to emulation, nothing beats the ingenuity of the Linux community. Today I’m sharing an amazing project by his maker and developer, Paul Rickards. biorhythm. Using a handheld Linux platform known as PocketCHIP, Rickards set up a Mac II emulator known as his Mini vMac. If PocketCHIP sounds familiar, you’ve probably previously raspberry pi version designed to work with Raspberry Pi CM4.
The PocketCHIP unit is battery powered, so it’s completely portable. It is intended to work with the Linux operating system, but offers some flexibility regarding OS choice. It features his QWERTY keyboard for user input and also has a 480 x 272 pixel touchscreen for video output.
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According to official documentation, Mini vMac is a collection of emulators designed to bring compatibility with older Macintosh software on newer hardware. Mini vMacs are Griffel ProjectThanks to the PocketCHIP project, the old-school Mac experience is now available on the go.
When Rickards tried to run a Mini vMac on PocketCHIP, he was delighted to discover a package already put together by another manufacturer, Zzxzzk115 ( This package can be found on GitHub). This configuration was made specifically for PocketCHIP, but needs a little work by Rickards to get it up and running on the handheld.
Setting up a Mini vMac depends on which OS you start with. In this case, Rickards is using his Debian’s Jessie distribution, which required a few extra steps to get going. This may not be necessary if you are running Bookworm (latest). You can follow Rickard’s progress on the official website. Biorhythm Blog.
If you want to recreate this setting, or change it to raspberry pi projectCheck out the original blog post shared at Lickers — and look into PocketCHIP’s CM4 version to give it a Pi flavor.
