Minor FS-UAE dialog issue - fs-uae.sh not displaying dialog box when kickstart is missing

movisman

Sure, not a problem.

If I take my additional .sh scripts out of the equation, by default, fs-uae.sh (which I kept, unmodified) wants a kick13.rom to be in the BIOS folder. My kick13.rom is valid, and if it's there, everything works.

If I rename my kick13.rom or move it - because the kick13.rom path/name is no longer true (lines 23>26 of fs-uae.sh), the script is configured so it (should) display the dialog when loading a rom, asking the user to place kick13.rom in the BIOS folder. It should then quit after 15s.

This doesn't seem to happen correctly. The dialog does not appear as intended.

reicast.sh has a very similar check at the bottom of the script for dc_boot.bin (same piece of checking code). If I rename or move my dc_boot.bin, I get the correct dialog with 15s countdown, shortly after the loading screen appears. I can replicate reliably.

Does that help? The small piece of code checking the existence of the BIOS is the same (save for filenames etc) between both scripts, but fs-uae.sh doesn't show the dialog in the event of a missing kick13.rom.

Cheers!

movisman

So essentially in terms of steps, just rename or move your kick13.rom elsewhere, start a rom, does the dialog box with countdown appear?

mitu

@movisman I don't have it installed and I'm running on a PI, so there's a bit of a fiddling that I'd do to see it in action. Did you do any other configuration from the stock installation - disabled the runcommand menu by any chance ? Maybe the dialog is starting minimized and you don't notice it ?

movisman

@mitu

I wondered that at first, but the reicast one displays fine, so I don't think that is a problem?

I believe my runcommand is set to default, the only feature I use is the loading screen where you can press a key to configure emu preferences. Switching this off makes no difference. Maybe there is a difference in the way runcommand calls the FS-UAE script Vs Reicast initially which prevents the dialog?

movisman

Confirmed anyway, runcommand.sh is the same as the defaults programmed here on first install:
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/blob/master/scriptmodules/supplementary/runcommand.sh

Cheers

mitu

Yeah, the reicast start script seems similar to the fs-uae script, so it should work the same. I'll try to give it a test and see if I can reproduce it.

A Former User

How good is the CD32 emulation ? If you don't mind me asking.

movisman

@mitu

Thanks very much, let me know what you find!

Cheers

movisman

@John_RM_70

Hi, bit early to say as ive only tried a couple of cues/Isos, however the CD32 should emulate as well as an A1200, as they are similar hardware. So it should be fine?

A Former User

Thanks for that. Sounds good.
I only emulate the Amiga 500, for now, since I have a real Amiga 1200 and prefer to use that, rather than the Pi.

movisman

@John_RM_70

Glad that you have a working A1200, I'd keep hold of that! But yeah, A1200/CD32 seems fine on FS-UAE. I don't know intricate details on accuracy, but it seems as good as A500.

Cheers

A Former User

I have been thinking of cashing in on the retro popularity, at the moment (especially the Amiga 1200), and selling it on. Mine is 68030 40mhz accelerated, 128Mb, 16Gb SDcard, custom LEDs, VGA out on a Dell LCD. Mine is all boxed, lovely condition, and they're going for more than I originally paid for, back in the 90s.
I also have a real Amiga 500, and was thinking of hooking it upto the same Sony CRT as the Pi and trying to see if I can get the Pi to look almost indistinguishable from the real thing. I am shocked at how good the Pi looks when using composite 240p, and a lot of tweaks. My real NES, looks almost identical to the Pi - on the same TV. Amazing little device. Can't wait to see if the Pi Foundation release a more powerful version, soon. Here's hoping for 2Gb ram, a faster CPU, even SATA would be great for a internal SSD.

movisman

@John_RM_70

True indeed, the emulation is so close now on some systems, with the right tweaks and filters. Unless you are a purist I can see the temptation to move the original hardware on. Your A1200 sounds like an excellent example, and genuinely useful with the VGA output and SD card, etc. Agreed with the Pi though, brilliant device. I hope they release one with enough grunt to make some arcade, DC and N64 titles work better than they currently do. Would love Gamecube but can't see that happening on ARM. All work great on x86 though, but the form factor, power consumption, convenience and price make the Pi an excellent device for retro emulation, especially the 8/16 bit era.

mitu

@movisman Ok, so I've reproduced your problem. The funny thing is that the dialog is started, but the output is redirected in /dev/shm/runcommand.log !. If you run tail -f /dev/shm/runcommand.log while you wait for the Runcommand to finish, you'll see the countount on the screen.

I don't know if reicast has something special, but for this a workaround is to replace


if [[ ! -f "$kickfile" ]]; then
    dialog --no-cancel --pause "You need to copy the Amiga kickstart file (kick13.rom) to the folder $biosdir to boot the Amiga emulator." 22 76 15
    exit 1
fi

with

if [[ ! -f "$kickfile" ]]; then
    dialog --no-cancel --pause "You need to copy the Amiga kickstart file (kick13.rom) to the folder $biosdir to boot the Amiga emulator." 22 76 15 2>&1 >/dev/tty
    exit 1
fi

This makes dialog show your the error about the bios. I guess it's a bug, you should add it to the issue tracker and mention this thread. Minimal steps to reproduce

Install fs-uae (only works on x86 platforms)
Add an empty .adf file in ~/RetroPie/roms/amiga, then restart ES. Make sure you don't have a kick13.rom file in ~/RetroPie/BIOS .
Launch the game through ES. Runcommand launch message stays on the screen for more than 10 seconds, obscuring the error message about missing kick13.rom not being present in the BIOS folder.

BuZz

I will look into it. I may just remove it as we don't have these requesters for most other systems. Also the hardcoding to kick13 isn't ideal and it should perhaps have some more launch options. don't really use fs-uae via retropie (prefer to use it's own gui).

movisman

@mitu @BuZz

Hi guys,

Thanks for looking into this. Agreed its not critical to have the warning at all, because when you install FS-UAE from experimental it shows instructions on what the user needs to do anyway. Maybe this could just be expanded? If it's an easy fix maybe it's worth keeping it, but up to you of course. Of the emulators I use, I think only Reicast displays a similar warning if your BIOS is incorrect/missing, and this works, but could also be removed if it's troublesome or you don't think it has much value. Dunno if it's really needed.

Agreed using the GUI outside of RetroPie is the best way to use FS-UAE, but launching via RetroPie is pretty nice to have, especially for my setup which is Ubuntu with RetroPie on top, controller plugged into a mini PC which is hooked up to the TV (console style), and it does work. Especially for CD32 as it is a 'console' and the games seem to work out of the box without needing a keyboard/mouse attached. Some people would definitely like that I think. I created 4 launch scripts, for A500, A600, A1200, and CD32, each pointing to their own hardcoded BIOS file with their own launching parameters when FS-UAE is called. Using the documentation on the FS-UAE website, for the CD32 .sh file I removed all the floppy related stuff, and was able to change the code which calls FS-UAE at the bottom, so that it uses the correct directory for CDs etc, system type etc, and boot the .cue accordingly. I had to add .cue to my es_systems.cfg as well of course. This means CD32 cues can be launched from ES with working parameters. For the other machines, I added the additional lines from the linked post on my original thread, so instead of just loading the selected game into DF0, if you have a zip containing all the discs, it will extract and load each disc into each drive (if you have a zip file containing each disc), up to 4 drives - meaning in most cases, when it asks for DF1 the disc is already in the drive, and off it goes. In addition to all the above I installed the IPF plugin for FS-UAE so that .IPF files are supported. This could potentially be added to the install script.

I haven't tested the machines in depth but it does appear to work. I have the default emulator set to A1200, but choose a specific one if needed, like I would any other system. I was surprised that I got CD32 to work, but it actually wasn't too difficult in the end after faffing about with the settings.

Let me know if you want me to share these options and if you would consider adding the new scripts. Maybe you have a better way of adding more launch options but this seems to work and definitely enhances the default FS-UAE instance for x86 users (which is our only choice at the moment it seems).

Thanks!

movisman

@BuZz

Hope you are good. Just further to the above, would you consider adding '.cue' files as an extension to platforms.cfg for Commodore Amiga, to assist with launching CD32 images? I have made my own separate es_systems.cfg, but this is the only change from the default and I can't see any harm in having it in there. CD32 actually works pretty well on FS-UAE under x86, the particular Ubuntu install I was working on which is connected direct to the TV doesn't have a keyboard attached - I just plug a controller in when I wish to use it, so having a collection of CD32 games which just work is quite nice for an Amiga console style fix.

Cheers!

BuZz

@movisman sure. Please can you open an issue. Can do a PR if you like as it's a simple change. Thanks.

movisman

@BuZz

Thanks a lot, appreciate it. I raised a PR for it to be added.

Cheers

movisman

If interested, I can also raise another PR at some point regarding my post above, where I have custom launching scripts for A500, A600, A1200, and CD32 and a modified emulators.cfg to suit. Maybe you can take a look at it and see if you are happy to add it in. I know it's x86 only and probably not a priority but I think it improves on the defaults for those who use it.