building on ubuntu server 16.04

damanbaird

@esmith13 i also dont understand why there hasnt been a bootable image for x86 made there has been one made for Lakka but that s**t is horrable looking!

damanbaird

@esmith13 I've also looked up on how people build Internet kiosk thinking all i had to do was replace their Firefox & or chrome install with retropie.... that has NOT worked out for me.

Kokomo

@damanbaird said in building on ubuntu server 16.04:

@esmith13 I'm sorry my controller issues is the same as yours, i should of been more clear. To be technical, it does see that im using a USB game controller but wont let me set it up.

Hello,

I know it's an old topic, but have you got any news about it? I have setup Ubuntu 17.10 with your "configuration" but have the same problem with the controllers. I can't configure them at the emulationstation startup.

Best Regards
Kokomo

esmith13

This issue has not been resolved. That said - this concept was modified and continued in another thread HERE

May I suggest looking at that for my post (#29) that begins with "BACK FROM THE DEAD!!!!! :-)"

Basically, using the lightest weight full *buntu install (Lubuntu 17.10) I got the system to appear as if it booted directly to emulationstation after a 'home grown' retropie splashscreen. It doesn't waste any resources, just the 200mb of so of disk space used by lxde and a few apps being installed.

Give it a shot.

WARNING: Do NOT use *buntu 18.04. (Tested releases are 16.04 and 17.10) libretro has issues with xorg/gl/video drivers in that release and the temporary fix is to switch to wayland on the login screen but a bunch of lightweight distros like Lubuntu don't support wayland.

mitu

@esmith13 said in building on ubuntu server 16.04:

WARNING: Do NOT use *buntu 18.04. (Tested releases are 16.04 and 17.10) libretro has issues with xorg/gl/video drivers

Do you have any reference of this, besides the posts in the forums ?

esmith13

I have no reference, but I have confirmed via personal experience of upgrading two existing dedicated PCs that ran 17.10 (a dell optiplex 3020 and a surface pro 3) and a clean install from scratch of 18.04 on a dell optiplex 3020 that the video freezes within about 30 seconds or less of a game rom running while sound/input/etc all continue to work fine behind the frozen image.

mitu

@esmith13 Have you reported this to the RetroArch devs ? Maybe providing some logs will help diagnose and fix the issue - whatever that is. Is it the same game/rom or happens with every libretro core ?

praetorian55

Hi all - I'm a bit late to the party, but I learned a good deal on my quest to get an x86 retropie box on Ubuntu server.

@damanbaird - Thanks for the writeup on the things you tried, as it saved me a ton of time!

Anyway, I was successful in building out Ubuntu server 16.04.4 and 18.04 with both Xorg and Wayland. I settled on Wayland since it allows me to run the games in DRM/KMS mode which can help a bit with input lag.

Where I got stuck (and it looks like where @damanbaird got stuck as well) was getting emulationstation to launch, which requires X. I tried the recommendations I saw in the various kiosk tutorials mentioned above and ran into the same problem - It appeared as though emulationstation could not find X or the input drivers.

The key I found was to run a window manager that allows for an autorun. This allows X to load fully and then the window manager launches emulationstation without issue.

Steps I followed 1-3 from @damanbaird's writeup, plus:

Once openbox is installed, create and edit ~/.config/openbox/autostart
```
gnome-terminal --full-screen --hide-menubar -e emulationstation 
```

(Running emulationstation under a terminal emulator allows the runcommand program to shell out and retroarch)

Edit (or create and edit) the ~/.xsession file
```
exec openbox-session
```

Edit (or create and edit) the ~/.bash_profile file:

if [[ -z $DISPLAY ]] && [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]]; then
  startx
fi

edit /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/override.conf

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --noissue --autologin username %I $TERM
Type=idle

With that I got exactly what I wanted, an x86 ubuntu server build that loads right into Emulationstation with full functionality. (The one other thing you'll probably want to do is to enable your retropie account to sudo without a password)

The setup for wayland is a bit different but similar - I was able to use the .15.2 version of the swaywm and configure it similarly to openbox's autorun

praetorian55

I had a few more notes to help make it pretty:

SET OPENBOX BACKGROUND TO BLACK
---edit openbox autostart file
---used script example below from https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=226139
---set to black before calling emulationstation
-------->setting it after causes gray -> black transition

SET A BACKGROUND COLOR

    BG=""
    if which hsetroot >/dev/null 2>/dev/null; then
      BG=hsetroot
    elif which esetroot >/dev/null 2>/dev/null; then
      BG=esetroot
    elif which xsetroot >/dev/null 2>/dev/null; then
     BG=xsetroot
    fi
    test -z $BG || $BG -solid "#000000"

CHANGE GNOME-TERMINAL BACKGROUND
--open gnome terminal in openbox
--go to profile preferences and set color
--go to profile preferences and uncheck scrollbar in "Scroll" area

johnodon

EDIT: I found an article that shows the same and instructs to create the '/etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d' folder. Trying that now.
EDIT#2: Confirmed. Both the 'getty@tty1.service.d' folder and 'override.conf' file need to be created.

@praetorian55 said in building on ubuntu server 16.04:

edit /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --noissue --autologin username %I $TERM
Type=idle

Is this part correct? That path does not exist for me on Ubuntu Server 16.04.

johnodon

UPDATE: I was able to get rid of the two errors below (menu file and dbus-launch) by installing 'menu' and 'dbus-x11.

OK. @praetorian55 I performed the first 3 steps of @damanbaird 's post followed by your steps. Server is auto-logging in but all I get is a black screen with the mouse pointer.

FYI...not sure if it helps but I see this in the ~.xsession-errors file:

Xsession: X session started for pi at Sat Jul 28 08:37:17 EDT 2018
localuser:pi being added to access control list
Openbox-Message: Unable to find a valid menu file "/var/lib/openbox/debian-menu.xml"
Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Failed to execute child process "dbus-launch" (No such file or directory)
Failed to launch bus: Failed to connect to session busError constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0: Failed to execute child process "dbus-launch" (No such file or $
Failure: Module initialization failed

Any ideas?

TIA!

John

johnodon

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johnodon

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johnodon

I now have ES starting as expected. I am on to adding roms and testing RA and controls.

FYI...I am capturing the things I had to do to get this all to work (at least for me) and I will post a comprehensive guide.

John

johnodon

Added a few roms and vids play nice...no need for OMX since my laptop has accelerated HW. However, there is no sound. I'm guessing I will need to play with pulseaudio a bit.

Also, RA is having issues. It either launches to a black screen, or, starts to load the rom (ROM checks) and freezes.

I'll continue to play.

mitu

@johnodon said in building on ubuntu server 16.04:

Also, RA is having issues. It eitehr launches to a black screen, or, starts to load the rom (ROM checks) and freezes.

Use the Configuration Editor and set the video_threaded configuration to false for all Libretro cores. This should solve the video issue.

johnodon

@mitu said in building on ubuntu server 16.04:

@johnodon said in building on ubuntu server 16.04:

Also, RA is having issues. It eitehr launches to a black screen, or, starts to load the rom (ROM checks) and freezes.

Use the Configuration Editor and set the video_threaded configuration to false for all Libretro cores. This should solve the video issue.

Thanks @mitu but the choppy vids I was referring to are the video previews in ES. Wouldn't this change only be for gameplay using RA?

mitu

@johnodon My advice only refers to the problem you mentioned about RA:

Also, RA is having issues. It eitehr launches to a black screen, or, starts to load the rom (ROM checks) and freezes.

You mentioned that the video previews are ok

Added a few roms and vids play nice...no need for OMX since my laptop has accelerated HW

johnodon

@mitu Sorry if I wasn't clear or misunderstood.

OK. So turning off video threading in RA may fix the issue of RA crashing or freezing? I wasn't aware...thank you for that. I'll give it a try.

Yes, vid previews are running much better on x86 (really one of the main reasons I want to get this to work).

johnodon

Sound is now working in ES and RA. I had to install 'alsa-base' so I could launch alsamixer to unmute Master and Speaker.

I have also successfully tested Zaxxon and Battletoads (mame2003) and Metal Slug (fbalpha).

@mitu On this latest attempt I did not set video threading to false. I'm actually wondering if the issue may have been on folder permissions...meaning RA was not able to write to the mame2003 or fba subfolders (I use the arcade folder). I ran 'resetromdirs' in Configuration/Tools and everything is working as expected so far.

The last thing to do is just cleanup...change background color of the terminal window, etc. So far this is running exactly as I wanted.