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Compiling PAL equations on Linux

A project log for Logic reader

Simple and cheap logic reader for PC with USB

keithKeith 06/09/2026 at 21:360 Comments

I use my logic reader to record the behaviour of programmable logic chips, with the aim of making replacements. So I eventually need to write and compile proposed PAL equations.

I use Linux on my home PC, and don't want to temporarily swap to Windows in the middle of a session.

There are some Linux programs for compiling PALs but I found them limited in devices compared with the Windows programs written by the chip manufacturers.

So I use Linux Wine to run the free Opal suite that runs under MSDOS. Nice and simple, no Windows GUI needed. 

Open your Linux terminal and type the following command:

wine cmd

A new prompt will appear inside your terminal that looks like

Microsoft Windows 10.0.19043

Z:\home\keith>

This presents my home directory as a virtual DOS/Windows drive.

I keep my PAL programming work on a USB drive, on a USB expander with the USB dongle for my wireless keyboard and mouse. This is so I can move them all at once to my antique device-programmer and computer. NB I have to do this before switching it on, so Win98 detects them. Win98 will not detect them later on.

Now I have to make my USB drive look like a DOS drive to wine. The command winecfg will open a GUI. I have previously defined my  MSDOS-formatted USB drive (named USBDOS, appearing as /media/keith/USBDOS) to be drive G: so I simply type G: and I am 'in' that drive.

I then type

cd DOS/opal/Applix_1616/logic

 and I'm in a workspace.

I have had some issues with wine before, so I installed a program called DosBox.

Now any attempt to run a DOS program from Wine opens a DosBox window, briefly, then closes.

So I now open DosBox from my Linux Games options, and again a Z drive is shown.

Type:

mount [virtual-drive-letter] [path-to-linux-folder]

which in my case is

mount d /media/keith/USBDOS/DOS

DosBox is annoyingly accurate in that it won't handle file/directory names longer than 8 characters.  I can cd to OPAL but not to Applix_1616. It suggests I use Applix~1, and this works. I then cd to the logic directory.

From there I can run 

..\..\eqn2jed.exe -d PAL16R8 1616_U5.EQN

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