@mitu this was it. After digging in I did find the same problem and was able to just swap the <theme> tag and get it working

@rrrule32 "RetroPie" is a collection of shell scripts to assist with the download, installation, and configuration of various different emulator and front-end softwares on Linux computers running a Debian-based distribution.

Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer that runs Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution, and can output via HDMI to a television or computer monitor.

You can put RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi and connect it to your TV. You probably cannot put RetroPie on the TV itself, but really I don't know what they're doing with smart TV's these days so what do I know. If it runs a Debian-based Linux, it just might work.

You can force a certain resolution on the screen, though depending on your version of RetroPie that option may not be available through the Raspi Config menu (as it was recently removed).
What kind of TV is that (model) ? Can you try setting it to Game Mode so it's not doing any image pre-processing ? I think it's i the Picture settings of the TV, under Picture style (?).

@mitu It worked, in fact updating retroarch to version 1.15.0 fixed the issue.

@JeffwithaG no, I don't think anything like that is included with RetroPie.

Okay, so it seems as though what has happened is that changing the keyboard config in retroarch has basically broken the use of the onboard joystick and buttons that are connected to the Pimoroni hat that sits on top of the Pi4.

Again, this stuff is incredibly confusing... because inside of Retroarch when you are using the joystick and buttons it says that the device is "retropad" it says nothing about it being mapped to the keyboard.

Looking in Retroarch I can see now where all of my key mappings are busted and referencing the changes I made in the config file to remap KEYBOARD (not RETROPAD) config.

@sleve_mcdichael Thanks for your reply. I will look again in file manager. I am pretty sure the system rom folders were empty but will confirm and delete if they are in there.

(Side note to the forum: Sorry for not saying it sooner, but I’m running retropie on a Pi 3b plus and just reinstalled retropie. No change to the tab not working in-game since I boneheadedly unassigned it even with the freshy).

Try using the Gnome on Xorg session to log in, instead of the default (Gnome on Wayland). The issue occurs because of the Wayland session and SDL's fullscreen mode, which doesn't cover the entire screen.

@lostless thank you so much for the reply as I am new to the retropie community am bit of a bit of a noob to retropie and the ins and outs but I can get a keyboard and a cheap laptop tomorrow then what steps do I take thank you again
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@mahoneyt944 ok that sounds easy enough. Thanks!

@DTEAM Please open a separate topic and post a verbose RetroArch log, along with the details of your system.

@mahoneyt944

Great info, thank you sir!

@ganatbasa please add some more info about your system as detailed in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

It sounds like you may have acquired a system pre-configured and "ready-to-go." Note that, because it is not practical to troubleshoot a system that neither you nor we have any idea how is configured, third-party builds are officially not supported in any capacity. If that is indeed the case, you'll need to start over with the default, official image from https://retropie.org.uk/download. Start here: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/First-Installation/

(Unofficially, it sounds like your aspect_ratio_index may be misconfigured in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg or possible elsewhere.)

@mitu
Ok, I solved the issue.
The pad has a switch on its back to commute between different modes (Windows, Mac and so on).
It must be set to 'X' in order to be used with Raspberry; I found this suggestion on a Reddit post, since it wasn't mentioned in the walkthroughs I read on the web (or at least I missed it)...
By the way, I paired the controller again and tested it successfully with several games!

Thank you all very much for your help. Everything turned out updating the script retropie_setup.sh . Thanks a lot

[..[
already tried on samsung, and tried second hdmi port.
will show up list of starting services.
show splash screen.
show again list of starting services.
then blank screen.

Seems like when the resolution change or a busier GPU/system results in the black screen.

[...]
well, i feel it's firmware.

already tried batocera (2 different version), lakka, recalbox, retropie (3 different version & my backup 2 *.img from (2019)).
the symptoms are same.

Then the issue is not software - but a hardware one. It's strange because the hdmi_safe should boot with a very low resolution, which should help with wonky HDMI cables that fail on 1080p. Having the image shown on boot means the HDMI port is ok. Since you get the voltage drop icon, I'd say it's the power that's faulty.

pls don't try sudo rpi-update i don't want you guys get like me.

That's not recommended for regular updates and you shouldn't use it, especially since Buster based system may not getting the same testing by the RPT teams, with the latest kernel/firmware.

[...]
i'm curious with you guys, can help me with run uname -a, sudo vcgencmd version and run via ssh emulationstation --debug where it can run emulationstation. so i can compare and will try figure out

The EmulationStation log is the same, the firmware/kernel version are probably different on a system where rpi-update hasn't been run. The version will not help you much, but if you want to revert the rpi-update changes, you should reinstall the kernel/firmware by running

sudo apt-get install --reinstall raspberrypi-bootloader raspberrypi-kernel

Screen tearing is a issue of the Raspberry Buster Lite that the current RetroPie image is using. The upcoming version i think it will get rid from this issue.

Some users solved this issue, in the current version of RetroPie, after they use the experimental kms driver, but this add other issues. If you search in the forum about screen tearing you will find a lot of info. Also i recommend to read the wiki about the used of 4k TV with Rpi4: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Pi4/

@kiwiglen said in Help with wiring my arcade:

Retropie menu key, coin, and the 1/2 player

1 Player would be P1 Start, 2 Player P2 Start... same for coins P1 select and P2 select, the menu is somewhat tricky ... if you want to put that on a single button (without a hotkey), the hotkey must be disabled (AFAIK) and then EVERY function you want to use (save/load/save state select/volume/etc.) must be mapped to its own "key"/"button" within the retroarch.cfg config-file. Another possibility would be to connect the "Menu"-button to P1 Select (hotkey (default), or to whatever "button" is configured as the "hotkey") AND to a the "Button" which is configured to open the menu ("X" is default) - as you still need to connect the select and x button on their own, you need to build/rewire/crimp the plug/connector(s) to the controller.

Edit: IMHO with that "encoder" going without a "hotkey" and forfeiting a dedicated menu-button is the less troublesome route here.