Skip to content

Odroid C1/C2

This is a guide on how to build RetroPie on the Odroid C1/C1+/C2. This is assuming you are starting with a prebuilt image of Ubuntu from HardKernel's Website:

Download Ubuntu image for Odroid

HardKernel's releases for Ubuntu can be downloaded from https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-c2/os_images/ubuntu/ubuntu.

Extract the .xz file with a program like 7zip.
Write the .img file to your SD card or EMMC module with something like Win32DiskImager

Install RetroPie:

Odroid default user is "root" with the password "odroid".

Preliminary steps:

apt update && apt upgrade
apt install -y git
useradd -mb /home -s /bin/bash -G input,video pi
echo 'pi ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL' > /etc/sudoers.d/pi
passwd pi

NOTE: When the installation is done using the 20.04 LTS Ubuntu image, the mali-fbdev_20200618-r6p1-2_arm64.deb package (needed by the installation) will not install cleanly, due to a conflict with the libegl-dev package. To resolve the issue, force the overwriting of the conflicting file by installing the mali-fbdev package with the command

sudo apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" install mali-fbdev

Installing the RetroPie Setup Script:

Login as "pi" user and run

cd
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git
cd RetroPie-Setup
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh

Note if you have issues while compiling modules and it freezes up on you, then you need to tell it to only compile with one core by running the setup script with this:

sudo MAKEFLAGS="-j1" ./retropie_setup.sh

Installing Modules

All modules can be installed from the RetroPie Setup Script. First and foremost the two main packages you need in order for the majority of your system to run are RetroArch and EmulationStation:

Installing EmulationStation:

  • Option 5: Install EmulationStation

Killing X sudo service lightdm stop

open new terminal ctrl+alt+F1

Install EmulationStation Theme

  • Option 3: Install Themes

Installing RetroArch:

  • Option 5: Install RetroArch

Installing Emulators:

  • Option 5: Choose your emulators

Advanced Configuration

AutoStart EmulationStation

  • Option 3: Autostart EmulationStation

Rom Transfer

  • Option 3: Enable USBRomService

Samba Shares

  • Option 3: Enable Samba Shares

Ubuntu 14

Boot to Console:

sudo -s

sudo echo "manual" >> /etc/init/lightdm.override

To start lightdm on command:

sudo start lightdm

To restore your system so that lightdm is always started on boot:

sudo rm /etc/init/lightdm.override

Disable Screen Blanking in Console:

sudo nano /etc/kbd/config
comment out

BLANK_TIME
POWERDOWN_TIME

Fix sound not working/stuttering

If you have troubles with no sound or sound stuttering badly in menu or game, check your CPU usage via top or htop. If pulseaudio is using more than 20% then it may be the culprit. In my case, it was using 80%! I had only one sound card output (hdmi) so I completely removed pulseaudio with:

sudo apt purge pulseaudio

Ubuntu 16 (systemd)

Boot to Console:

sudo systemctl disable lightdm

To start lightdm on command:

sudo systemctl start lightdm

To restore your system so that lightdm is always started on boot:

sudo systemctl enable lightdm

Auto-login on startup

Update visudo editor:

sudo update-alternatives --config editor

Run visudo:

sudo visudo

This will open up /etc/sudoers file in editor you configured in first step. Add the following line to the end of the file:

odroid ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

This tells sudo that the odroid user doesn't need a password. Save and quit.

Then remove your password:

sudo passwd -d odroid

Test it all worked:

    sudo date

Should give you the date without asking for a password.

Edit the startup of our tty1 (replace with any tty of choice):

sudo systemctl edit getty@tty1

Add the following text, save and exit

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty -a odroid --noclear %I $TERM

Finally, restart the whole mess:

    sudo systemctl restart getty@tty1

Disable Screen Blanking in Console:

Edit /media/boot/boot.ini with your editor of choice.

Search for:

no_console_suspend

and replace it with:

no_console_suspend consoleblank=0

Finally, run:

bootini

and reboot for good luck:

sudo reboot

Fix sound not working/stuttering

If you have troubles with no sound or sound stuttering badly in menu or game, try disabling pulseaudio:

mkdir ~/.pulse
echo "autospawn=no" >> ~/.pulse/client.conf
pulseaudio -k

Then reboot, or restart emulationstation.

If the audio still isn't great, stutters or pops or echos, try the following:

Go to: RetroPie -> RetroArch -> Settings -> Audio

And set: Audio Latency (ms) = 192

Then don't forget to save! Configurations -> Save Current Configuration

Feel free to play with the value until it sounds right for you.

Fix games running too quickly or inconsistently

Go to: RetroPie -> RetroArch -> Settings -> Frame Throttle

And set: Maximum Run Speed = 1.0x

Then don't forget to save! Configurations -> Save Current Configuration

Back to top