Splash Screen cannot read /home/pi/splashscreen

Tebasaki

I've gone through many tuts online and they roughly say the same method for setting it to have custom splash screens (easy!) however it doesn't read (cant read) anything un that folder.

It can play default pics and vids on bootup.
I tried downloading the extra ones offered but they don't work either (they reside in the splashscreen folder as well
I just for this fresh pie up and running last week.
I've uninstalled and reinstalled the splashscreen mod.
I cannot find a solution for this anywhere else
PI B+
correct power
keyboard, hdmi to monitor, USB stick for games, power all that's plugged in
using emustation

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

simpleethat

one thing I noticed is that the splashscreens should be in home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreen not home/pi/splashscreen

Tebasaki

@simpleethat said in Splash Screen cannot read /home/pi/splashscreen:

one thing I noticed is that the splashscreens should be in home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreen not home/pi/splashscreen

It is, I was just writing from memory.

Tebasaki

Update: it seems that there's another thread talking about maybe this issue, but I couldn't find the fix (it just alluded to running the retropie-setup script.

This post

So I did that, and no luck.

So I'm reverting (using win32imager) to restore an older version (right after I got it up and going) and try it again. I have a feeling it won't work, but I've tried everything else.

Tebasaki

Update: flashed the old version of retropie and I still get the error: it can't open any file in that folder when booting up, but it can preview the files in the menu.

simpleethat

Are you trying to run the splashscreens from the USB stick as well? I've had problems with that in the past and will just put them on the SD card.

Tebasaki

No. Just from the /home/pi/retropi/splashscreen folder.

I also tried booting it up without the USB stick and still no luck.

I mean, where is the default folder located? I'll just mv everything into that folder since it'll play pics and vids in there.

simpleethat

to install my own I've always used home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreen where the .txt file is saying to put your custom splash screens there

Halvhjearne

iirc there is a bug, that makes the spashscreen skip between selections from the custom list after an update.

have you tried selecting the custom list again in retropie setup?

Tebasaki

@simpleethat said in Splash Screen cannot read /home/pi/splashscreen:

to install my own I've always used home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreen where the .txt file is saying to put your custom splash screens there

Yep. My folder has that txt file as well.

Tebasaki

@Halvhjearne When you say custom list, what are you referring to? I know there's this list thing in the section that can be used for something.

Halvhjearne

@Tebasaki

now i dont have a raspberry installed infront of me, but iirc there is an option in the retropie setup for the spashscreen, where you can choose either the default, random, custom list or single splash.
unless you are using the default option, you have to go and select the custom list or splashscreen again after each update of retropie or it will just skip through them when you boot, for some reason.

i was just guessing this is your problem?

Tebasaki

I was able to get one playing! It took me by surprise. Then I rebooted to check and see if it works.
Nope.
Reboot again.
Nope.

Eventually I was able to append to the list that one that worked and remove everything else. Then I turned on the randomizer to do just that list. It's working! (For now)

Oddly enough, when put my other mp4 in there (created the same way as the first one) it doesn't play, nor does it play static .jpg splashscreens that it got from the download extra ones.

Note: It still previews all the files fine.

Tebasaki

Here's what I've discovered (the process):

I went on youtube and extracted (in mp4 format) 9 videos (varying from 10-40 seconds).
I plunked them in the splashscreen folder.
In the splashscreen menu I went through them, one at a time, and added them to the .list, removing the previous item (so only one would play. (I believe I had random on to also play the .list or maybe not, doesn't matter)
I reboot and see if they play.
For the ones that wouldn't play, I renamed them slightly until they did. I got all of them to play.
I added them all to the .list (and only them) and then rebooted.
Kinda got it!

As it turns out, they all play (after dozens of reboots) however there's a 50/50 chance that one will play at all; that is' half the time none of them play, and half the time one of them plays.

This seems to be a coding issue on the part of the Retropie image, and not something that I might have caused.
For the last step. I'm going to go into the command line, find the default location of the splashscreens, move them all somewhere, then dump all my videos in there and try a random from the default folder.

Tebasaki

The location of the default splash screens is opt/retropie/supplementary/splashscreen/

Does anyone know how to get there?

Tebasaki

Was able to navigate to the opt/retropie/supplementary/splashscreen folder (in order to replace those defaults with my own videos.

I don't have access.

After searching the googs (google) I found out how to access it. (thank God for my years of DOS)

timekills

Couple comments:

When using a USB drive through the auto-move capability of RetroPie, the entire RetroPie folder is read from the USB drive; i.e. it "replaces" the RetroPie folder on the boot sdcard.
The videos you place in the USB folder of RetroPie/splashscreen (which becomes "/home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreen") can be read by the Splashscreen functionality, and even randomized - with some caveats I'll note below.
You can always move the video splash screens to the sdcard folder of "opt/retropie/supplementary/splashscreen" and use them from there as well. You can do that in a number of ways: from the command line (F4) then copy or move the files from the "/home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreen" folder to the "opt/retropie/supplementary/splashscreen" or do the same through SSH or through the built-in File Manager application from the RetroPie settings subfolder.

Hint: sudo cp "/home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreen/whatever your video.mp4" "/opt/retropie/supplementary/splashscreen/whatever your video.mp4" wil copy the file. Replace cp with mv if you want to move the file. You must do this as SU (sudo) because the opt folder allows only root read/write access

Caveat 1 for randomizing: Best to append the video files to the splashscreen list, and then randomize off that list
Caveat 2 for randomizing: Frequently the very first file name on the splashscreen list will be multiple files all in one long line. Recommend deleting that entire line and manually typing in the first line.
Editing the splashscreen list is fairly easy.
A. In the Splashscreen settings, go to "Append splashscreen to list"
B. Choose Own/Extra splashscreens (if your files are in the home/pi/RetroPie/splashscreen folder) or RetroPie splashscreens (if you moved them to the opt/retropie/supplementary/splashscreen folder)
C. Select the line you want to append (add to) the list and hit OK.
D. Hit Ok again to confirm the appended line
E. Repeat B-E for all the files you want to add to the list.
Again - I recommend after you're done appending the files that you go back to "Manually edit splashscreen list" and make sure that first line has ONLY the one file on it. I also again recommend you manually type that one in. It might be easier to do this after you've appended a few files because you can just copy one of the lines you appended as the first line, and then delete the original (now duplicated line.)
Once your splashscreen list has all the videos you want in it, one vide per line, go back to Disable splashscreen randomizer and enable it (or disable and then re-enable it.) You'll want to select the "Randomize /etc/splashscreen.list" selection.