RetroArch 1.6.9 Crashes When Navigating

hansolo77

I updated my RetroArch last night and immediately noticed a problem with it. If I go to the RetroPie system, and select RetroArch (to load up RetroArch without a game to change configurations), the program crashes whenever I try to move left or right in the menus. I'm not sure what "theme" I'm using, it's not the default but rather the one that looks like the PS3 home screen with an animated wave in the background. I think it's called XMB? Anyway, it works fine when I navigate up and down, but crashes immediately after pressing left or right. I'm not sure what changed.

This happened last night, and today I restored my SD card from a backup and it worked correctly. Then I tried to update again, and it's doing it again. I'm clicking on "Update from Binary" (not from source). However I did from Source last night and it had the same results. So this problem must exist in the x.x.9 build. I'm surprised it hasn't come up for anybody else yet. Leads me to believe this problem is local to me only.

RetroArch works great if all I'm doing is playing a game. But if I, for instance, want to check my achievements, RetroArch crashes as soon as I bring up the menu and try to navigate to them.

I checked the retroarch.cfg file and nothing is apparently different. I did, however, copy my original retroarch.cfg file to my computer before updating just in case. When I copied it over the new one, it still crashes. Here is my current retroarch.cfg file:
https://pastebin.com/3zwTZp6x

I'm not sue if my setup is replicable. But here is what I'm using:

Raspberry Pi 3 - Standard (no overclock)
8gb MicroSD (class 10)
Roms are stored on a USB attached Hard Drive
Primary controller is "Player 1" on an Xbox360 wireless
I have multiple controllers I can use, but none are connected during this
Output is via HDMI to an HD TV

Is there any way to bring up a crash log, or see the output of the video slower? I ask, because when RetroArch crashes, there is a brief line of text that it shows before switching back to EmulationStation. I've also noticed it when I try to launch RetroArch before it loads. I'm sure that line is the key to what is causing the crash, but I can't see it.

mitu

@hansolo77 You could try enabling verbose logging in the Runcommand options when running a ROM, then invoke the RGUI while in-game and reproduce the error.
Upload the log file (/dev/shm/runcommand.log) to pastebin.com to see what's causing the crash/error.

hansolo77

Ah good call. I'll try that and report back.

hansolo77

GRR

I managed to capture the log on my pre-updated system here:
https://pastebin.com/at2rZTe2
Looks like everything is good. So I went into the RetroPie Setup menu, updated the script, then updated RetroArch using the latest beta. After that was done, I reboot the system and tried again. Now I cannot get the RunCommand menu to load up. It doesn't recognize when I'm pressing buttons. I mash like crazy ALL of them, and still nothing. Is there something in the new RetroPie-Setup script that might be giving me issues here? In either case, all I'm getting is a SEGMENTATION FAULT:
https://pastebin.com/nLn21HNL

EDIT - I was able to exit EmulationStation and ran a full verbose log of the game from the terminal. Everything loads up exactly like before. But once I trigger the RetroArch menu, back out of the "Quick Menu" and try to move over to the next menu, it crashes. The terminal only displays:

[INFO] [CHEEVOS]: posted playing activity.
[INFO] [CHEEVOS]: posted playing activity.
Segmentation fault

Which is line 258 of the "old" runcommand log... https://pastebin.com/at2rZTe2

mitu

@hansolo77 Hm, seems something similar to https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/5768, recently reported and fixed.
However, I don't think updating from source would help, since the RetroPie module pulls specifically the 1.6.9 version (https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/blob/9b4fc28c9c05ecedb3899f463ff3c7496160f6ac/scriptmodules/emulators/retroarch.sh#L36).
Can you try modifying that line in /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/emulators/retroarch.sh and replace 1.6.9 with master and then try updating from source with the RetroPie setup script ? Maybe it will fix the problem.
Make sure you copy the original retroarch.sh file you modify and after updating you revert the fix, otherwise updating RetroPie-Setup will give you an error because of the local change.

dankcushions

@hansolo77 said in RetroArch 1.6.9 Crashes When Navigating:

I checked the retroarch.cfg file and nothing is apparently different. I did, however, copy my original retroarch.cfg file to my computer before updating just in case. When I copied it over the new one, it still crashes. Here is my current retroarch.cfg file:
https://pastebin.com/3zwTZp6x

you shouldn't use this retroarch.cfg - it is not a retropie default. retropie default ones will be saved as retroarch.cfg.rp-distwithin the config folder after an update of retroarch - you should rename that to retroarch.cfg

hansolo77

@mitu said in RetroArch 1.6.9 Crashes When Navigating:

@hansolo77 Hm, seems something similar to https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/5768, recently reported and fixed.

The crash happens anytime I try to navigate around in the menus, not just when I try to browse the achievements. That was just an example. I get the crash by loading up RetroArch standalone, without any cores loaded.

@dankcushions said in RetroArch 1.6.9 Crashes When Navigating:

you shouldn't use this retroarch.cfg - it is not a retropie default. retropie default ones will be saved as retroarch.cfg.rp-distwithin the config folder after an update of retroarch - you should rename that to retroarch.cfg

Shouldn't the Setup script do all that automatically? Why would I have to manually manipulate the config files? And if I replace the retroarch.cfg files with the default one from RetroPie, won't that remove all the customizations currently inside the exiting one?

jonnykesh

@hansolo77 I'm using the latest RA (xmb menu)and it runs fine. It's most likely your customisations causing the issue. Just rename the file rather than deleting it. You can restore it later if needed.

dankcushions

@hansolo77 said in RetroArch 1.6.9 Crashes When Navigating:

@mitu said in RetroArch 1.6.9 Crashes When Navigating:

@hansolo77 Hm, seems something similar to https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/5768, recently reported and fixed.

The crash happens anytime I try to navigate around in the menus, not just when I try to browse the achievements. That was just an example. I get the crash by loading up RetroArch standalone, without any cores loaded.

@dankcushions said in RetroArch 1.6.9 Crashes When Navigating:

you shouldn't use this retroarch.cfg - it is not a retropie default. retropie default ones will be saved as retroarch.cfg.rp-distwithin the config folder after an update of retroarch - you should rename that to retroarch.cfg

Shouldn't the Setup script do all that automatically?

how do you mean? the setup script won't automatically overwrite your config with the defaults, as you may not want that. i have suggested that we add a function to "reset to defaults", but that requires a bit of work.

Why would I have to manually manipulate the config files? And if I replace the retroarch.cfg files with the default one from RetroPie, won't that remove all the customizations currently inside the exiting one?

yes, but my point is that you have obviously tweaked your retroarch.cfg manually as it's huyge. normally it would be a much smaller file, even if you have tweaked settings via supported methods.

eg, there's stuff in your pasted .cfg that is non-default, such as menu_driver = "xmb"

if you want to run your own setup, that's fine, but we can't support it :) however i suspect your issue is nothing to do with the settings. settings shouldn't cause a crash.

hansolo77

@dankcushions I'm not against trying. I just wanted to understand why and how this might help. I will attempt this again shortly. I'm on vacation this week so I have plenty of time. It's also not like my life depends on this, I have a working backup. :)

hansolo77

I did as suggested, and replaced the current retroarch.cfg with that of retroarch.cfg.rp-dist after updating RetroArch. Everything went to crap. The old original interface to RetroArch loaded (not really a problem) but when I tried to change it to the one I'm familiar with, I couldn't navigate. My Xbox360 pad, while being recognized (evident in the onscreen displays) wouldn't work. So I pulled out my keyboard. It too didn't work. I rebooted multiple times to try and see what was going on. My "new" retroarch.cfg still looked the same as the rp-dist one, with all the lines *commented out. I noticed during one of the reboots that it was indicating my Mayflash Adapter was being recognized as "Input 0". So I connected a controller to that port, and still nothing. I was about to pull my hair out and forget the whole thing. Then I took a gander at the link you posted (supported methods). I had never really used that method to change settings. I always made the changes INSIDE RetroArch, and enabled the "Save Configurations on Exit" option. Anyway, while in there, I saw a utility to let me change the controller mappings, so my Xbox360 controller would be in #1. After that, things started falling back into place. When I look at the retroarch.cfg file now, all the *comments are gone, and it's back to being a HUGE file. However, the original file was 1699 lines long, this new one is 1701. So there are at least 2 new lines, plus the things that might have changed, settings that were removed, etc. In either case, it looks like it's working now. Seems like a lot of unnecessary work to get a simple RetroArch update. I've updated plenty of times in the past and never had to do that. Weird.

madmodder123

@hansolo77 I am having this same issue after updating from RetroPie 4.3.6 to 4.3.7, I tried using the .cfg files from 4.3.6 but the issue still occurred. I then deleted all the cfgs and then it worked with only the keyboard, so now I have to set up all of my settings again :'(

I am still glad I keep backups though, it makes diagnosing issues or reverting back easy. I started a changelog file so I can track which changes have been made between backups.

Anyways I guess ill give the Configuration Editor a shot.. Thanks

hansolo77

Yeah after various attempts at fixing it, it looks like the problem is with the way RetroPie adjusts the retroarch.cfg file in preparation for the new RetroArch update (or possibly the LACK of preparation for it). In all my attempts, every single time I updated RetroArch into 1.6.9, it broke the config file.

Another off topic issue the new version of RetroArch is having is that it wants to create a new retroarch.cfg file for every system, and seems to ignore the default one located in /opt/retropie/configs/all. Specifically, if I delete the one located in /opt/retropie/configs/nes, then launch an NES game, it creates a new config file that has completely ignored the default settings (like the chosen menu driver, menu opacity, even RetroAchievement login, not to mention the controller setup). This is getting very upsetting, especially because I spent nearly my entire vacation last week coming to the conclusion that it's a new feature in RetroArch that RetroPie is not set up to work with yet.

Speaking of which, I will probably need to create a new support topic for that. But yes. Erasing the default retroarch.cfg file located in /opt/retropie/configs/all and replacing it with the "skeleton" config retroarch.cfg.rp-dist does seem to fix the problem with the crashing.

deviath

Running latest Retroarch on Nvidia Shield TV and when I navigate over N64 or NES collections specifically the whole system locks up and crashes

mitu

@deviath You might try the Libretro forums for reporting this, the forum is for the RetroPie project.

deviath

@mitu copy that. Thank you