Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1

[praetorian55]

Good catch with the xpad driver - I'm not using those, but it definitely helps with the complete documentation process!

[danielmewhouse]

I did something like this sometime ago, but using Ubuntu Minimal ISO. Installed XFCE as desktop to make things easier to manage if something goes wrong, hided the taskbar and autologin/autolaunch ES. Was a great thing, until my laptop just died... Was an old laptop suffering with ages of use, the keyboard and touchpad don't working, it finally gave up and don't start anymore... R.I.P. my little RetroPie Laptop...

But I have a question: thats a way to make this Ubuntu RetroPie a portable thumbdrive to just put on the pocket and play on any compatible PC?

[movisman]

Not too sure on the portable thumbdrive idea i'm afraid, I personally think a few issues would crop up when attempting this, but other users might be better placed to advise.

A couple of other OS tips to add, I am still documenting the setup and hopefully at some point in the future I will be able to share something which is combined with the above documentation (just have a lack of time!)

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Disable screen blanking / energy saving features - Tested over HDMI on my Samsung TV.
This will prevent the TV from 'screen blanking' after 10 minutes of inactivity (screensaver and auto standby). This only happens outside of ES - so for example if you are installing an emulator from source in RetroPie-Setup and it takes longer than 10 minutes, the screen will go off and you have to wake with a keyboard or mouse, it won't wake with the controller which is a pain. Also, if you were in RetroPie-Setup messing around for more than 10 minutes with no keyboard interaction, it will blank out.

To solve, open a terminal (locally on the machine, NOT over SSH as it won't work) and type:

xset q

This will display the current settings, you will see screensaver and DPMS features are all on and set to 600 (10 mins).

To disable and remember for all subsequent reboots, type:

sudo nano ~/.xsession

Add xset s off && xset -dpms to the file - I put it as the first command before launching the Openbox session. Make sure both xset and openbox commands are separated by a line break.

Reboot and done

This will turn the screensaver off, and it will also disable the Energy Star features of the monitor/TV on every boot before Openbox is launched.

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Disable blinking cursor on boot (for me this occurs after grub but before the splashscreen, and momentarily before ES starts):

Open a terminal and type:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Where it says GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet splash" (if you followed the initial install instructions) change it to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet splash vt.global_cursor_default=0"

Save, and then run the following in the terminal:

sudo update-grub

Reboot and the cursor will be gone! Combined with the excellent initial instructions above, I now have a totally suppressed/silent boot with the exception of the plymouth splash screen.

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Footnote: If you get any TPM related errors flash up upon initial boot and don't use the feature, you can disable it in the BIOS to silence these. This is what I had to do on my machine. I also had to enable keyboardless operation in the BIOS to stop the machine halting on boot when no keyboard was plugged in.

Cheers

[praetorian55]

Nice work movisman!!!

[Clyde]

@movisman said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

Footnote: If you get any TPM related errors flash up upon initial boot and don't use the feature, you can disable it in the BIOS to silence these. This is what I had to do on my machine. I also had to enable keyboardless operation in the BIOS to stop the machine halting on boot when no keyboard was plugged in.

Oh yes, the infamous "no keyboard present, press F1 to continue" error. 😊

(The exact wording varies by manufacturer and firmware.)

[weaster007]

I really like what you did here but can anyone help me to install nvidia drivers and set up my display correct? I want to connect my laptop with emulationstation to my tv.

[fastpop72]

Thanks for this great guide.

Everything runs great but on my hardware i had issues with the lr-reicast core.

I have an H61 motherboard with Intel HD graphics integrated and this core gave me freeze problems right at the start.

Seems all was related to the i915 drivers that Ubuntu installs so i used this useful guide to install RetroPie on a Debian 9 Stretch minimal install distribution and my issues was solved. Maybe Debian install a different Intel drivers that gives me no issues.

Maybe this issue was caused only for my specific hardware but i wanted to share my experience.

[bloodykean]

@movisman said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

Set up temporary VNC SSH session for working on the box directly

has someone the script that was posted by Piskvor. The file is not available anymore.

[Panja]

Awesome guide!
I'm running Ubuntu Server 18.04.2 on a NUC7i5BNK with a DualShock 4 controller.
All is running through HDMI to my 46 inch TV (1080p).

Only problem I have is with the audio.
When loading a game, when the game actually begins I hear a (pretty loud) POP sound.
Audio is ok afterwards, it's just an annoying POP when the game loads.

Also I'm seeing an error message:

lvl0: VolumeControl::init() - failed to find mixer elements!

Any ideas about this issue?

[movisman]

@bloodykean said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

has someone the script that was posted by Piskvor. The file is not available anymore.

Hi,

Sorry for a delayed reply, I only check in every so often depending if i'm doing any work on my RetroPie build!

Actually, I do have a copy of the original script and I do still use it - I have pasted the contents here for you:
https://pastebin.com/02Rc3UFZ

Paste it into a notepad file and save it as a '.sh' file with a name of your choice.

Let's say you save it as vncssh.sh, the command to run would be "vncssh.sh pi@retropie-pc" - if the username is pi and the machine you are connecting to is retropie-pc.

If you need the file itself, I can always upload it to my google drive and share from there. The forum doesn't allow attachments, hence I can't upload it directly.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

[movisman]

@Panja said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

When loading a game, when the game actually begins I hear a (pretty loud) POP sound.
Audio is ok afterwards, it's just an annoying POP when the game loads.

Hi,

Not too sure about that i'm afraid, did you follow my additional tips on post #34, at the bottom is a piece about sound:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/18810/retropie-installation-on-ubuntu-server-x64-18-04-1/34

To be fair, this is more about onboard speaker vs. HDMI sound - it sounds like yours is already set correctly, but the pop is strange. But might be worth looking at. Maybe worth disabling any onboard sound in the BIOS anyway as part of any troubleshooting.

Also, if you have an up to date ES, within the sound settings, I believe my master volume is set to 50%, the audio card 'default', and the audio device 'master'. I need to check this though, that's just off the top of my head. If yours is different, perhaps change it to this and restart the box, see if it does the same after that.

I don't get the ALSA error in the terminal like you do, so it is probably indeed related to your issue.

Cheers

[movisman]

@Panja

Just saw your latest update here:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21923/retropie-x86-audio-pop-when-loading-games

Will reply over there.

Cheers

[Panja]

Thanks mate!

[bloodykean]

@movisman Great man! Thx1! :)

[scales11]

I just setup an older i7 laptop using this guide. Everything works great except one problem:

Regardless of the emulator and rom I am using, the screen will timeout after ~5-10 minutes of play. If I move the mouse or keyboard, the screen comes back on and all is fine...for another 5-10 minutes.

I think I found the same issue on git:
https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/7472#issuecomment-485452851

Does anyone have a fix for this?

[bloodykean]

@scales11 in terminal type "xset q" and what settings do you have?

[scales11]

@bloodykean, No I did not.

However, once I installed “xdg-utils” my screensaver/timeout was fixed. NOTE: xdg-utils is the Debian package that contains xdg-screensaver

I also noticed that with the install method I chose I do not have a ~/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg file. Could this file be somewhere else?

[movisman]

@scales11

Glad you fixed the issue. I must say I didn't get this problem when installing on Ubuntu Server 18.04.1 using my Samsung TV over HDMI, but I did get screen blanking after 10 minutes and I had to wake it up with a keyboard/mouse - it wouldn't wake with the controller.

I fixed this with the commands in post 38:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/18810/retropie-installation-on-ubuntu-server-x64-18-04-1/38

I also had an error saying 'xdg-screensaver not found' when exiting Retroarch from the Setup screen, but installing 'xdg-utils' (which in turn installs xdg-screensaver) clears that error. So it's worth doing that anyway if running RetroPie on Ubuntu Server which has minimal packages.

I have this on my own documentation (which I will publish at some point).

Cheers!

[movisman]

I also noticed that with the install method I chose I do not have a ~/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg file. Could this file be somewhere else?

I think the default is here off the top of my head:
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

[Panja]

I'm trying to get the Plymouth working on my Intel NUC8 but at boot I only see a black screen. Sometimes I get the RetroPie logo for a brief 1 or 2 seconds.
Any one have a clue whats going on?