Controller support in NOOBS?

mediamogul

I've given 'NOOBS Companion' a try and before I begin, it should be said up front that I believe this is definitely the easiest way to go about multi-booting without using the NOOBS boot screen. However, there are a few caveats that should be mentioned. First of all, the 'Boot-Back' script installed to RetroPie does not exit Emulation Station cleanly and any metadata changes or last played games will not be saved. This can be solved by adding your own routine to exit ES above the boot switch command. Something like the following should work.

ESPID="$(pgrep -f "/opt/retropie/supplementary/.*/emulationstation([^.]|$)")"
if [ -n "$ESPID" ]; then
  kill "$ESPID"
  while s=$(ps -p "$ESPID" -o s=) && [ "$s" ] && [ "$s" != 'Z' ]; do
    sleep 1
  done
fi
sleep 1

Another issue is that the NOOBS boot screen will still come up if you happen to reboot by any other means than the Kodi addon or ES script. This is because the autoboot.txt file is not being generated by this method. This is somewhat minor, but it should always be remembered for situations such as RetroPie updates.

The final issue has already been touched upon by @EctoOne above. If using an external USB drive for ROMs in RetroPie, the Kodi addon will not install the ES script to the external location, but rather the default ~/RetroPie/roms/kodi/. This can be solved by moving the script yourself to the analogous external location.

I want to reiterate that I still like this way despite of it's drawbacks. It's much easier to setup and works well enough without any modifications in most cases. That said, I'm probably going to keep with the manual setup process I've been using, due to the more reliable behavior between reboot methods.

mediamogul

@mediamogul

Something else that I've just noticed is that NOOBS Companion also alters /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg to allow the installed script to launch. The problem is that it seems to alter every system entry contained in the file. In many cases, this would only affect those who have Americanized their system listings (Genesis/MegaDrive etc). However, I have made various changes to this file that I maintain myself and anyone who does likewise would see those changes overwritten. Luckily, I always keep backups and was able to restore. A bigger issue might come in the future when the es_systems.cfg file is changed by the RetroPie team at a distribution level. At that time, NOOBS Companion would override, but not overwrite those default settings with its own older base settings.

mitu

@mediamogul said in Controller support in NOOBS?:

A bigger issue might come in the future when the es_systems.cfg file is changed by the RetroPie team at a distribution level.

You're referring to the user custom es_systems.cfg, the RetroPie scripts usually modify the system wide (you can call it distribution level) configuration file at /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg, so I don't think there's going to be a conflict here. I wonder though if an user hasn't customized the file, would the installation of said script copy and customize the es_systems.cfg to the user's folder or just modify the system's es_systems.cfg ?

mediamogul

@mitu said in Controller support in NOOBS?:

I don't think there's going to be a conflict here.

Seeing as how niche all this is, it's unlikely to be much of an issue, but for those unaware that the Kodi addon alters this file, it could become a troubleshooting matter for those few later on. For instance, any visible file types added to the system-wide location would be ignored by the older file overriding it.

I wonder though if an user hasn't customized the file, would the installation of said script copy and customize the es_systems.cfg to the user's folder or just modify the system's es_systems.cfg ?

I took a quick look at the install script and it appeared to always copy and alter.

EctoOne

Just a quick question, wouldn't it be good to add those informations to the wiki as well?
I personally prefer using PINN on both of my Pis even though I only use one system on each of them. The reason is that they aren't very accessible behind my TV and PINN makes it easy to update/reinstall any OS without me having to remove the SD cards.
The only thing that bugs me a little bit, is that there is no official NOOBS build of Retropie. The one available in PINN is created by the developer of PINN, I'm not saying that there is something fishy about it (I have no clue how to even check that and the dev seems very nice and helpful) but there's always a chance that there might be something unwanted added.
I suggested PINN often here since I found it myself like half a year ago but since english is not my main language, I never dared to edit the wiki.

paradadf

@mediamogul I hope I didn‘t do much of a harm on your setup by recommending the addon. For me, it works perfectly, but I don‘t touch the system that much.
I must add that matthuisman is very responsive in his blog and will most likely improve his scripts if he reads this/someone reaches him.

mediamogul

@ectoone said in Controller support in NOOBS?:

Just a quick question, wouldn't it be good to add those informations to the wiki as well?

It's probably best to leave this information to be fully detailed elsewhere. Officially recommending anything outside of the default image could potentially set a bad precedent and open the doors to support problems for the forum.

@paradadf

I hope I didn‘t do much of a harm on your setup by recommending the addon.

No, not at all. I was very excited to try it and happy to do so. Also, as I said earlier, under most circumstances, NOOBS Companion is still a nice option. Many of the issues I found are lessened by first time installs and with users such as you describe yourself to be, who don't maintain their own system modifications. The only things that would really affect all users is the metadata not being saved and the potential to boot into the NOOBS boot menu outside of the options made available by NOOBS Companion.

I must add that matthuisman is very responsive in his blog and will most likely improve his scripts if he reads this/someone reaches him.

I might try to contact him sometime in the near future, even if it's for nothing more than to incorporate a more appropriate shutdown sequence for Emulation Station.

paradadf

@mediamogul regarding the autoboot.txt, I think the option „set to default boot“ does create that, but I don‘t have my pi to check right now.

mediamogul

@paradadf said in Controller support in NOOBS?:

I think the option „set to default boot“ does create that, but I don‘t have my pi to check right now.

It does and the same option is also noted in the manual method above, but then you're limited to always booting and rebooting statically to the partition you chose, as opposed to booting and rebooting dynamically to the partition you're currently in, which is how the systems would behave normally without a multi-boot setup.

Generating a dynamic autoboot.txt could really be added by anyone to NOOBS Companion with very little trouble. All it would take is to add a reliable mount point directory into the addon file structure and then alter the script to mount the partition to that directory, add the file, unmount and reboot. Most Kodi addons are just directories and script files and its very easy to customize their behavior.

paradadf

@mediamogul now I got what was meant ;).