Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.

lesk

Hi!
Raspberry pi3
Retropie 4.4
Installed from scratch
No usb harddrive.

I searched this forum for this and found this thread:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11161/i-can-t-change-emulator

On the last post there is a link to another thread with a command that I first tried:
sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/retropie/configs

It made it so I could change the default emulators, but not the specific emulator for a rom.

Then I tried this command:
sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/retropie/configs/all

I still can´t change the specific emulator for a rom. And now, whenever I start a game or quit a game I see a bunch of text that was not there before.

Also when I start a game, like a nes game. It says couldn't write nes config something retroarch. And the resolution is really bad =/

mitu

@lesk Since you're just beginning, I'd say you start over again, you may have messed up your folder permissions and who knows where/how they're broken.
To change emulators, use the Runcommand launch menu - https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Runcommand/#runcommand-launch-menu - there's no need to edit any file.

lesk

@mitu
Thanks for the reply!

I have used the Runcommand launch menu. It was when I was trying to change emulators for arcade games that I discovered that, whenever I choose an emulator for the rom it gave me that permission denied message in the bottom.

That's when I searched this forum for a solution. Found the thread I linked to. It gave a list of commands to try, and I tried them.
Now it's all messed up.

Unfortunately, I've spent a lot of hours setting up Retropie the way I want it. Fortunately, I made a backup yesterday before this happen.

But. If I go use my backup, I will still not be able to change emulators. Any idéa why?

mitu

@lesk said in Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.:

But. If I go use my backup, I will still not be able to change emulators. Any idéa why?

Post the error you get when changing the emulators and it's not working and we'll try to figure it out.

lesk

@mitu
I get this error:
/opt/retropie/configs/all/<bunch of letters that seems random> permission denied

It appears for like a half second on the bottom left screen when I try changing emulators.

To make things even weirder... It stopped when I used this command: sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/retropie/configs. But only when I choose default emulator for all roms. Changing video setting for emulator, or changing specific emulator for rom still gives me that message.

mitu

@lesk There's no such thing as default emulator for all ROMs, you can only set a default emulator for a system or a ROM since there is no single emulator to run every type of ROMs. What exactly are you trying to accomplish ? Be specific - which ROM, which system, etc. ?

lesk

@mitu said in Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.:

@lesk There's no such thing as default emulator for all ROMs, you can only set a default emulator for a system or a ROM since there is no single emulator to run every type of ROMs. What exactly are you trying to accomplish ? Be specific - which ROM, which system, etc. ?

Well in the Runcommand launch window it says - Default emulator for all roms.

Above I wrote:
" It was when I was trying to change emulators for arcade games that I discovered that, whenever I choose an emulator for the rom it gave me that permission denied message in the bottom."

But it applies to all systems. Nes, Snes, GBA and Arcade. Those are the ones I've checked.

mitu

I can't reproduce this on a stock 4.4 system. Runcommand will modify the file /opt/retropie/configs/<system>/emulators.cfg, were <system> is the system where you want to change the emulator. The files are owned by the user pi, so if you fiddled with the permissions, check the user has write access to them. As an example, here is my /opt/retropie/configs/emulators.cfg

lr-fbalpha = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-fbalpha/fbalpha_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
lr-mame2003 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame2003/mame2003_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
advmame = "/opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/bin/advmame %BASENAME%"
default = "lr-fbalpha"

lesk

@mitu
Don't think I´ve fiddled with any permissions. I have followed guides to change themes, add background music and to hide boot text, emulationstation, and the raspberries to show at boot.

How can I check that the user has write access? I´m a total noob when it comes to linux commands etc.

mitu

@lesk You can list the permissions from the command line with ls

# show the permissions for the NES system
ls -l /opt/retropie/configs/nes/emulators.cfg

lesk

@mitu
Ah okay.
So I press F4 on the keyboard to open up the terminal.
Type in ls -l /opt/retropie/configs/nes/emulators.cfg to see what permission the NES system has?

Would I see all permissions if I just do ls -l /opt/retropie/configs

dankcushions

@lesk said in Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.:

@mitu
Don't think I´ve fiddled with any permissions.

but then

On the last post there is a link to another thread with a command that I first tried:

sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/retropie/configs

that's "fiddling with permissions" :)

anyway, one thing you can try: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/FAQ#reset-ownershippermissions-of-homepiretropie-roms

lesk

@dankcushions said in Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.:

@lesk said in Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.:

@mitu
Don't think I´ve fiddled with any permissions.

but then

On the last post there is a link to another thread with a command that I first tried:

sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/retropie/configs

that's "fiddling with permissions" :)

anyway, one thing you can try: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/FAQ#reset-ownershippermissions-of-homepiretropie-roms

Hahaha, that just shows how much of a noob I am ^^
Thanks, I will try this when I'm back home.