Kodi 18 Port missing "emulators" section in "Game Addons"

thimad

Hi!

I've installed retropie 4.4 and the kodi port successfully on my raspberry pi 3 B.
Pi Model or other hardware: 3 B
Power Supply used: official raspberry power supply (2.5 A)
RetroPie Version Used: 4.4
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie using balena etcher
USB Devices connected: none
Controller used: PS3 six axis over bluetooth
Error messages received: "This game isn’t compatible with any available emulators" and missing "emulators" section in "game addons" repository.
Log found in /dev/shm/runcommand.log: (only had 2 lines, not relevant)
Guide used: https://koditips.com/retro-games-kodi/
Emulator: i can't install any (that's the problem!)
How to replicate the problem: Visit the RetroPie-Setup Screen, select Optional Packages, and select Kodi. Installation can take 10 minutes. After installation, you will be able to go to the Ports section and view Kodi as an option.

In kodi (leia, version 18) i can't find the Emulators section of the "Game Addons".

I have installed the game addon called IAGL (The Internet Archive Game Launcher), but in the addon configuration, there is the secion "External Launchers" with "My System Type" to select. I haven't found an exact match, but i've tried "Linux/Kodibuntu", also "Librelec" (remix/Sx05RE and S905), "Gamestarter Addon", but none worked. Some of them allow you to set the Retroarch path, which I set to /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch, and "retroarch system folter" to ~/RetroPie/BIOS.

Then, there's the section "Setup Wizard", where I tried the "emulator launcher" set as either "Kodi Retroplayer" and also "External", and then "Execute Setup Wizard".

Anyway, I haven't found any combination of "system type", "external launcher", "retroarch app location", "retroarch system FOLDER", etc that works.

The guide I followed says: "From the Kodi main menu, click on the Add-ons icon (open box icon). Select Install From Repository, Click on the Kodi Add-on, Repository, Click on Game Add-ons, Select Emulators, From the giant list of emulators you now see, you have to install the ones you wish to use."...... But there is no "Emulators" section to select.

Whenever I try to launch a game from IAGL, i get "This game isn’t compatible with any available emulators".

Can anybody help me launch games from within kodi leia port on retropie 4.4?

Thanks!

mitu

@thimad I think you'll have better luck asking this on the Kodi forums - though the IAGL addon looks a bit shady.

Rascas

The game addons (emulators) are not available on Raspbian yet. And using external programs/launchers does not work on the Raspberry Pi.
Anyway you are better using RetroPIE for games, Kodi's retroplayer is still a bit buggy and of course, slower.
And yes, that IAGL is pretty much piracy, but since RetroPlayer without it would loose a lot of interest, it is ok for them...

thimad

@mitu That's a pitty... I've tested kodi 18 os Libreelec and OSMC and they both show the "emulators" section of the addons...

I think the problem is with the PORT (optional package) made for retropie...
I wanted it on top of retropie because retropie comes with fake PS3 controller drivers, sixpair tool, sixad, which are nearly impossible (for me) to install on other raspberry operating systems... But anyway... thanks!

thimad

@Rascas Yes, I understand it may be slower, but the integrated look and feel with the rest of kodi sounds nice... and the "emulators" section exists on OSMC and Libreelec running Kodi 18... Anyway, it's a pitty...

mitu

@thimad said in Kodi 18 Port missing "emulators" section in "Game Addons":

I think the problem is with the PORT (optional package) made for retropie...

I doubt it, RetroPie includes Kodi as-is released by the Kodi team, there's not modifications to it. But, as @Rascas said, if the addon is not available in the Kodi repositories (for Raspbian), then it's not going to be in RetroPie.

Rascas

@thimad The problem is not the Port Kodi package in RetroPie, the problem is that the game addons don't exist for it.
There isn't an "official" Kodi binary for Linux systems like there is for Windows, Android and MacOS (check their site under downloads) except for Ubuntu x86 that have an official PPA for Kodi. It is up for Linux distribution maintainers to compile Kodi and all it's binary addons. Raspbian/RetroPie/Pipplware have Kodi and all binary addons, only the game addons (the emulators) are missing.
I am the maintainer, the problem is that the game addons itself are very big, lots of emulators to compile and maintain, specially for only 1 or 2 guys. And probably you have to compile 2 different binaries of each emulator, one for armv6 and another for armv7 for best performance. Compiling all game addons will take , much like, 3 or more time than compiling Kodi alone.

If you want, you can compile them yourself, the code is here:
https://github.com/kodi-game
And here is the instructions:
https://kodi.wiki/view/Compiling_Kodi-Game

If somebody is willing to help me with this, I can make them available.

herb_fargus

@Rascas it seems like a lot of duplication of effort to replicate what is already on retropie. It's probably faster and simpler for people to just use a spare SD card with libre-elec if they want Kodi as their driver for everything.

I personally don't see the benefit to retroplayer over standalone retropie or the cores and I wonder how much it would impact the processing if any. If you and others want to go through the work to compile it, more power to you, but in my testing with libre-elec a while back I didn't personally see a benefit over retropie as it was buggier, had less cores etc

thimad

@herb_fargus Ok, but switching SD cards is not pleasant. Also, having one interface integrated for everything is surelly good! Dual booting would be an option, but I've decided to give kodi a try.

Retropie has the advantages of having joystick drivers and many packages that others don't, I know that. That is why I wanted retropie as the main system (to allow the installation of those packages), and kodi only as a port. But my idea was, once kodi was running games, to set up retropie to boot directly into kodi.

I ended up achieving what I wanted by installing OSMC, then installing RetrOSMC (which installs retropie on OSMC), installing the driver packages from retropie's scripts, and having OSMC/kodi as my main system (with emulators in the addons section). Now I can play them on kodi. I admit, image quality is worse, but I have faith they will improve with future updates! This was the first Kodi release with support for games. Give them some time... I love kodi...

Anyway, guys... thanks for the support! :-)

thimad

Here is how I did it in OSMC (it is related to retropie because i have used retrosmc scripts, based on retropie, as a part of the solution):

Install OSMC and SSH into it. Then...

UDPAGRE OSMC TO KODI LEIA

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
(add the following line in the very first line of the file)
deb http://download.osmc.tv/dev/gmc-18 gmc-18 main
(to save the file, press CTRL+O, ENTER, CTRL+X)
wget -qO - http://download.osmc.tv/dev/gmc-18/pubkey.asc | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
dpkg -l | grep mediacenter-osmc | awk '{ print $3 }'
(the last command should show OSMC version 17, which has KODI version 18)

INSTALL RETROSMC AND PS3 DRIVERS

cd /home/osmc
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mcobit/retrosmc/master/install-retrosmc.sh .
chmod +x install-retrosmc.sh
./install-retrosmc.sh

Go to "manage packages" > drivers > ps3controller > install from source (wait) > configuration/options > install ps3 controller (clone support gasia) > pair ps3 controller (clone support gasia) (follow instructions) > Then "connect controller through usb", then disconnect usb, and pair via bluetooth… It may not pair yet.

UNBLOCK BLUETOOTH

apt-get install rfkill
rfkill unblock all
hciconfig hci0 up

MAKE JOYSTICK RECONNECT AUTOMATICALLY IN THE FUTURE

sudo su
echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="input",ACTION=="remove",RUN+="/bin/systemctl restart sixad"' >> /etc/udev/rules.d/999-sixad.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && udevadm trigger
sed -i 's/exit 0//bin/systemctl restart sixad\nexit 0/g' /etc/rc.local

INSTALL EMULATOR ADDONS

From the Kodi 18 (Leia) main menu, click on the Add-ons icon (open box icon). Select Install From Repository, Click on the Kodi Add-on, Repository, Click on Game Add-ons, Select Emulators, From the giant list of emulators you now see, you have to install the ones you wish to use. If you can't find the "Emulators" section, some distros don't compile them. The script install-retrosmc.sh (above) may have some hidden menus to download and install all cores (emulators) in one shot. Give it a try. Also, check under kodi settings "my addons" to see if you don't already have all the emulators installed.

Now, install some other game addon (research about your options!) which uses "Kodi retroplayer" to launch games. It will require some emulators addons (also called libreto cores) to have been downloaded and installed already on kodi.