Where do I find or change retropies usb path?
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I have mounted an external USB drive with retropie-mount on it, and it worked, but could not save my games. This was due to a permissions issue that was a bloody nightmare to fix. The short of it is I now have that drive mounting automatically in fstab to /mnt/pocket. Naturally this is not where emulationstation expects its files to be, so when I start it, I see no systems listed at all, only the retropie settings menu. If I comment out that line in fstab and reboot, everything comes back. But without that line, my games wont save.
I see 2 ways to fix this. Change the mount name in fstab to what retropie expects, which I dont know the name of, or find where retropie hides its setting to point to the new name of the usb mount and have it see its files again, which I dont know the location of.
Can anybody throw me a clue here? I'm happy to make progress on this and would like to get the thing working finally.
A 3rd solution would be telling retropie to save all its files (saves, scraped game info, lists, etc) to the sd card while just reading the roms off the external usb drive. If this is even possible, that is.
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@kikinaak what you're describing is basically the 'manual' part of https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive
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@dankcushions said in Where do I find or change retropies usb path?:
@kikinaak what you're describing is basically the 'manual' part of https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive
That was the primary guide I was following, the automatic section. Thats when the whole problem started. Initially it worked, but my list of psx games was getting rather bulky, to say nothing of the mame romset, so I was trying to organize them into subdirs under their respective rom dirs. So instead of all of them living in roms/psx (which worked fine) I was putting them in roms/psx/action, roms/psx/strategy and the like. This broke saves for psx, while for other systems such as snes it worked fine. I tried asking here and between that and my own research the only working theory I found was permissions, which was oddball because a vfat partition doesnt have any unless you hack them in via fstab. Cue the nightmare from my other thread. So here were the results...
Leaving the drive out of fstab, with roms all in one dir, retropie saw the games and could save.
Leaving the drive out of fstab, organizing roms into subdirs, retropie saw the games but could not save for the ones in subdirs
Mounting the drive via fstab to /mnt/usb where RP expected it caused the pi to not boot.
Mounting the drive via fstab to /mnt/pocket worked with full permissions, but RP couldnt find any of its files, hence this thread. Not just missing roms, but missing everything other than its settings menu.
In theory I should be able to tell RP to load roms off the usb but save saves, scrapes, etc to the sd card. I have no idea where these settings are, hence this thread.
I should also, in theory, be able to point RP to the new mount location of the drive after I get its permissions hacked via fstab, but again, I have no idea where the setting is, hence this thread.
These are things that guide does not cover.
Giving up and leaving the drive out of fstab and throwing all the roms back into a single dir, RP can see the roms and save.I am sick of beating my head against what should be a simple question, HOW do I organize my roms into easier to manage groups within a system?
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@kikinaak you're conflating a bunch of unrelated issues. there's no permissions issues if you follow the guide. creating subfolders will break emulators in lots of fun ways. don't do that.
Leaving the drive out of fstab, with roms all in one dir, retropie saw the games and could save.
right, solved?
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@dankcushions THAT is the start of this whole bloody sleigh ride.
My goal is simple, break up a monstrous rom list into manageable groups by genre. HOW?
Trying to find the answers is what led me to all these unrelated issues. -
I'm new and actually having the same issues. Following the automatic section of that guide works, but if you try to set up an automatic mount later it breaks everything. I'm not sure his question or his frustration is that unreasonable.
If he was going about this all wrong, how DO you guys sort your roms? Is there no other option to break it down into categories? -
@fargo7 i know you're the same person. bit weird.
Following the automatic section of that guide works, but if you try to set up an automatic mount later it breaks everything.
what?
If he was going about this all wrong, how DO you guys sort your roms? Is there no other option to break it down into categories?
some systems can handle subfolders apparently, but for mame and (evidently) psx, try:
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/EmulationStation#custom-collections -
@dankcushions said in Where do I find or change retropies usb path?:
@fargo7 i know you're the same person. bit weird.
Guilt by association? You seem to be on a bit of a warpath for a mod. I've been where he is, and he isnt wrong. None of the posts in either of his threads actually addressed his initial problem.Following the automatic section of that guide works, but if you try to set up an automatic mount later it breaks everything.
what?
That guide has two parts, automatic is great when it works, but it doesnt include an fstab setup. If for other reasons you need to mount that drive later in fstab, doing so does break retropie because you cant use /mnt/usb.
If he was going about this all wrong, how DO you guys sort your roms? Is there no other option to break it down into categories?
some systems can handle subfolders apparently, but for mame and (evidently) psx, try:
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/EmulationStation#custom-collections
Nice, but why didnt you bring this up when the OP made clear his initial problem was trying to sort his collection? -
as a mod i have access to information about user accounts. i know you're the same person. i also didn't ban you. anyway, onwards:
That guide has two parts, automatic is great when it works, but it doesnt include an fstab setup. If for other reasons you need to mount that drive later in fstab, doing so does break retropie because you cant use /mnt/usb.
i don't see why it would break retropie. one of the manual steps is to disable the usb daemon, so automatic method is disabled. the manual guide doesn't tell you to mount on /mnt/usb.
some systems can handle subfolders apparently, but for mame and (evidently) psx, try:
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/EmulationStation#custom-collectionsNice, but why didnt you bring this up when the OP made clear his initial problem was trying to sort his collection?
i don't think "OP" made it particularly clear, but we got there in the end. you'r.... they're very welcome :)
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