Retropie on Raspbian Buster

romanbsd

I'm unable to start emulationstation on buster:

Linux retropie 4.19.57-v7+ #1244 SMP Thu Jul 4 18:45:25 BST 2019 armv7l GNU/Linux

log:

lvl2: 	EmulationStation - v2.8.4rp, built Jul 14 2019 - 23:22:03
lvl2: 	Parsing XML file "/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/resources/mamenames.xml"...
lvl2: 	Parsing XML file "/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/resources/mamebioses.xml"...
lvl2: 	Parsing XML file "/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/resources/mamedevices.xml"...
lvl2: 	Creating surface...
lvl0: 	Error initializing SDL!
	
lvl0: 	Renderer failed to initialize!
lvl0: 	Window failed to initialize!

Tried rebuilding emulationstation.
I even tried sdl2 from this PR: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/pull/2770

ii  libsdl2-2.0-0:armhf                  2.0.9+dfsg1-1+rpt1+videocorerpi1      armhf        Simple DirectMedia Layer
hi  libsdl2-dev                          2.0.9+dfsg1-1+rpt1+videocorerpi1      armhf        Simple DirectMedia Layer development files

Still doesn't work. What can it be? What can I check?
Thanks!

mitu

@romanbsd Are you using a PI4 ? Then see @buzz's previous reply.

romanbsd

Nope. RPI 3B+

mitu

@romanbsd What variant of Raspbian are you using ? The full (desktop) or the lite version ? Are you starting Emulationstation from the console or from the desktop environment ?

romanbsd

I upgraded the retropie's raspbian to buster by changing /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list

mitu

@romanbsd Buster is not supported at the moment - as it's stated through this topic. If you'd like to test RetroPie on Buster, then you should start from scratch and perform a Manual Installation.

romanbsd

I understand that. Unfortunately I learned that after the upgrade. Having said that, I'm willing to do some debugging before I reformat and reinstall :)

mitu

@romanbsd Did you re-install from source all the RetroPie's packages ?

romanbsd

@mitu I did. Did the complete update from the RetroPie-Setup
Since then I recompiled emulationstation with:

retropie's sdl2 (installed by RetroPie-Setup)
buster's sdl2 (modified sdl2.sh to return version as "2.0.9+dfsg1-1+rpt1" for that)
sdl2 from this PR: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/pull/2770
All behave the same.
It's interesting that the reason for error is blank.

mitu

I forgot about the version bump - but I think it should work with variant 1. I don't have a buster install at the moment on the RP3, so I can't confirm.

psyke83

I haven't been focusing my attention on testing the legacy driver on RPI3 + buster yet, but I did verify that my SDL2 PR branch works correctly at least with emulationstation (when re-compiled after the videocore version of the SDL packages are installed). I re-checked again, and it's still working fine.

I'm testing from a buster desktop image; perhaps the dist-upgrade from stretch has caused compatibility issues. A full log of the SDL2 build might be helpful in diagnosing the issue.

romanbsd

Silly me. The HDMI cable was disconnected.

POPEYE

I connect Pi over Composite, and I have problem with overscan. If I don't use overscan_scale, then screen size is fine in Console and Desktop, but it doesn't fit screen in EmulationStation and RetroArch. If I use overscan_scale, then screen size is fine in EmulationStation and RetroArch, but there is black frame around the screen in Console and Desktop. In RetroPie 4.3 (Raspbian Jessie) I only configured overscan in config.txt and everything is fine everywhere.

I installed all optional packages, but three of them refused to install: snes9x (snes9x-RPI), love-0.10.2, uqm (it seems, it installed packages from Source, even though, I selected to install from Binary; may be it is normalfor this kind of installation).

POPEYE

Forgot to say: it is Pi 3 B+ and RetroPie 4.5.3 (according to RetroPie Setup Script).

BuZz

Buster isn't officially supported yet by RetroPie so not all packages will work. There are firmware issues related to composite out that may be related - eg https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/issues/1285 and https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/issues/1201

POPEYE

I connected composite audio and I have wheezing and, like, slow sound in RetroArch. I have changed audio settings in raspi-config and in RetroPie options. In VLC and Kodi sound seems to be normal.

POPEYE

It is not only sound slow, the whole emulation in RetriArch is slow (around 30 fps).

hostolis

Hello guys!
Is it now fine to (manually) install retropie on Buster, on a pi3 b+?

mitu

Yes, but you can also install the 4.6 release image, it's based on Raspbian Buster Lite.

hostolis

@mitu I already have a manual install on my p3 b+, and after updating retropie, I got 4.6 on stretch (I want to avoid losing my settings).
The retropie-setup.sh wont auto-install buster (I did select update underlying os kernel etc).

It holds back the kernel I think, this is what i get after I do apt-get upgrade.

/forum/assets/uploads/files/1588604063889-a65b9d74-53f6-41b4-9959-bc80a77a2c50-image.png

So you think it is ok to unblock the packages and let them install via sudo apt-get upgrade?