Metadata not saving with nespi case

Vaca2097

Okay so I am working with an rpi 3b, running retropie 4.3.7 inside of a nespi case. Following Yahmez's instructions I modded the case to enable soft shutdown /reset and set it up with his Python script. Works great but I soon realized it wasn't saving Metadata on shutdown. So after some digging I found meleu's shutdown service and attempted that.

Now I'm stuck. I followed the instructions word for word multiple times and it just doesn't seem to be doing anything. Not even that issue with the power led staying on for some time after shutting down. No doubt I'm missing something but not sure what. The only part I wasn't sure of was the creation of killes.service. It says it must be done with super user privileges. I used the sudo command, is this sufficient?

What about adding a wait command into the python script so the system has time to save before shutting down? I tried this but my understanding of Linux is embarrassing. Don't really know what I'm doing.

jonnykesh

@vaca2097 The only way to save metadata is to cleanly exit Emulation Station via the main menu. Any other method will result in any scraped info being lost. You could restart ES after scraping, that would save the data and then you could shutdown with the button.

Vaca2097

@jonnykesh I have not yet tested scraping because games were scraped prior to setting up with the nespi case. However I plan to use the selph scraper which I think has to run without ES anyways. The issue I've been seeing is that favorites (aside from the very first one I chose) and play count are not saving. I know in Yahmez's script it uses shutdown - h now. Is that not sufficient for a clean shutdown?

jonnykesh

@vaca2097 shutdown -h now is not a clean exit from ES. There is a thread on it here recently. Link https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/12895/ensuring-es-gracefully-finish-and-save-metadata-in-every-system-shutdown

Vaca2097

Thank you for taking the time and the link. Unfortunately that was the script I had attempted to make work but have had no luck. Does anyone have any more ideas by chance?

jonnykesh

@vaca2097 I would say to give meleu a shout by tagging him on the thread, he is usually responsive and more than willing to help if he has the time.

cyperghost

@jonnykesh said in Metadata not saving with nespi case:

@vaca2097 The only way to save metadata is to cleanly exit Emulation Station via the main menu. Any other method will result in any scraped info being lost. You could restart ES after scraping, that would save the data and then you could shutdown with the button.

Sorry, this isn't true. The trick is to create a specific file to /tmp and then send TERM-signal to ES binary only.
Mainly @meleu and @cyperghost (and other testers) did a hard work to invoke these commands and as an essence of this meleu developed the nice ES shutdown service.

meleu

@cyperghost shouldn't we post the link? :D
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/12895/ensuring-es-gracefully-finish-and-save-metadata-in-every-system-shutdown

Vaca2097

@meleu I have gone through making the shutdown script several times and for the life of me it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Will it show a message during shutdown that I should be seeing? If I can't get it to work am I risking corruption using shutdown -h now as part of th soft shutdown script?

meleu

Oh... sorry, I didn't read your OP before :)

@vaca2097 said in Metadata not saving with nespi case:

Will it show a message during shutdown that I should be seeing?

Nop.

If I can't get it to work am I risking corruption using shutdown -h now as part of th soft shutdown script?

No data corruption when using shutdown -h. Not at all.

Also, if you used my method correctly even a shutdown -h would save ES metadata.

Please, connect to your pi via SSH. Then perform the commands below and copy'n'paste the output of eache one to a text file. And finally paste the file's content on dumptext.com and post the link here.

ls -l /etc/killes.sh
cat /etc/systemd/system/killes.service
sudo systemctl enable killes

Valhalla_Pi

Does this only happen for freshly scraped roms? like do a regular quit, shutdown after scraping then can you use the power down button scripted?

Or does that delete everthing that was saved on the safe shutdown?

Vaca2097

@meleu sorry for the delay, family stuff. Copied the commands exactly as you have them and this is what I have. http://dumptext.com/52QE0b16#

meleu

@vaca2097 one of those commands were wrong (my fault). Can you try it and post again?

the command I'm interested now is:

cat /etc/systemd/system/killes.service

Vaca2097

@meleu ah gotcha. Here you go. http://dumptext.com/mR3shHLX

Vaca2097

@meleu any ideas on what I can do?

meleu

@vaca2097 please, do the following:

boot up your RetroPie and wait for EmulationStation
add some games to your Favorites
go to another computer and connect to your pi via SSH
perform this command: bash -x /etc/killes.sh 2> debug.txt (it will kill your EmulationStation)
that command generates a the file debug.txt, grab this file and paste its content in dumptext.com
restart your pi (sudo shutdown -r now) and check if your Favorites were saved.

post here the dumptext link with that debug file.

Vaca2097

Okay this is what I found http://dumptext.com/NGD4cO7u

Vaca2097

@meleu was that the right file? I can't really make any sense of it.

Vaca2097

bump

Vaca2097

Does anyone have any further suggestions before I give up on this?