my tweaks right after installing RetroPie 4.6

meleu

What's up friends! Long time no see...

What a huge coincidence just happened... My wife ~~demanded~~ kindly asked for some Super Mario World sessions playing from the couch (not on our arcade build). Then when I came here to download the latest version of RetroPie I see that @BuZz (cheers, dude!) has just released 4.6!

I became excited (specially because the RetroAchievements feature in RetroArch 1.8.5 is pretty neat) and decided to install it from scratch (by the way, I've just edited the wiki with some new info, hopefully it'll be in the official docs soon).

I remember that four years ago we shared the tweaks we make to our RetroPie setup, but I think some things are a little differente today. Then I decided to take some new notes about the tweaks I made right after installing RetroPie 4.6 on an SD card and share here. I hope it can be useful for some of you guys. ;)

Here's the list of the hardware I used

Raspberry Pi 3
32GB Micro SD Card
USB Keyboard (Brazilian layout)
46" TV
External bluetooth dongle

Here are the steps done right after the very first boot of my 4.6 install:

In the first run, EmulationStation asks for input configuration and I do it for the keyboard.
EmulationStation > RetroPie Setup > Configuration / tools > consolefont > Large. So I can see what's on my 46" TV screen from a comfortable distance.
Press F4 to go out from EmulationStation and then run sudo raspi-config and
2.1. Localisation Options > Keyboard layout > other > Portuguese (Brazil)
2.2. Localisaton Options > wi-fi > Brazil
2.3. Interfacing options > SSH
2.4. Change User Password
Type exit on the terminal to go back to the EmulationStation, and then choose the wifi in the RetroPie menu and follow the instructions on screen to get connected (note: it's important to finish the steps in the item 2 above so you can set up your wifi and type the password correctly).
Once we're able to connect, RetroPie Setup > Update everything
- note: when I did this on a 4.5.1 install, I needed to sudo raspi-config > Boot Options > Desktop/CLI > Console Autologin. However, in 4.6 this wasn't needed.
Disable the raspi3 onboard bluetooth controller (it doesn't work fine for me):
- go to the terminal (usually pressing F4 to exit EmulationStation)
- open /boot/config.txt in your favorite text editor (you'll also need sudo for root privileges).
- add a line containing dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt (I put it in the start of the file).
- reboot
Once my bluetooth dongle is alive, I connect my bluetooth controllers via RetroPie menu > bluetooth and follow the instructions on screen.
Configure input for all my controllers (in EmulationStation, press Start and then configure input).
- after configuring input for all my controllers, I immediately edit their .cfg files in order to disable the exit emulator via Select+Start and reset game via Select+X (it's really frustrating when you press them and accidentally go out of the game ruining your progress). It's possible to accomplish this with this oneliner:
  sed -i 's/^\(input_\(exit_emulator\|reset\)_btn\)/#\1/' /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads/*.cfg
- note: with the input_exit_emulator disabled, the way to go out from RetroArch is invoking the menu (usually Select+X) and them "Quit RetroArch".
Install the RetroPie-joystick-selection tool (I should take a shorter name 😓, sorry for that guys):
- curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meleu/RetroPie-joystick-selection/master/install.sh -o install.sh bash install.sh
- Once it's installed, I go to the EmulationStation > RetroPie menu > Joystick Selection. And enable the "by name" method.
- I'm a lucky owner of 3 8BitDo controllers: NES30, M30 and a SN30. Then I go to the System specific joystick selection and set the NES30 as the default player1 on NES, the M30 as the default player1 on Mega Drive, and the SN30 as the default player1 on SNES.
Configure RetroAchiements (the template I've just put on the wiki is pretty complete, with all possible options)
Time for cosmetics: install some EmulationStation themes (lately I'm sticking with the default Carbon).
Install the "launching image":
- RetroPie Setup > Manage packages > Manage experimental packages > launchingimages > Install from pre-compiled binary. Once it's installed it becomes available in the Configuration / tools menu, then let's check it.
- Go back to the main RetroPie Setup screen > Configuration / tools > launching image > Image generation settings. For the Carbon theme I just change the following options:
  - theme: carbon
  - no_ask: true (I know the generated images for Carbon looks good, no need to ask me if I liked it)
- Once the Image generation settings are done, I go one screen back and choose Generate launching images.
It's common my wife/kids accidentally enter the runcommand menu while the game is loading, then I disable that going to EmulationStation > RetroPie Menu > Runcommand Configuration, and use this config:
- Launch menu: disabled
- Launch menu art: enabled (to see the sexy launching images)
- Launch menu joystick control: disabled
Upload ROMs
(Here I would scrape art for the ROMs, but fortunately I have such assets in a backup.)
HAVE FUN

What about you guys? What tweaks are you making after installing RetroPie 4.6?

BuZz

Useful list. Thanks and welcome back!

Clipo

Thank you for the keyboard setup

windg

My tweaks :

Configure input for the keyboard from ES menu.
i am setting a new password ( from raspi-config > Change User Password)
Change resolution from 1920x1080 to 1280x720 (raspi-config > Advanced options > Resolution)
Enable SSH ( raspi-config > Interfacing Options)
Change all Localisation Options to US_UTF-8(raspi-config > Localisation Options)
Configure overscan settings (from terminal, sudo nano /boot/config.txt)
Configure input for the gamepad from ES menu, i am adding and some entries to the gamepad.cfg file (/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig)
Install Scummvm, Drastic emulators. (from Retropie Setup menu)
Update the system (from Retropie Setup menu)
Change/adding some settings in the retroarch.cfg file ( /opt/retropie/configs/all )
Disable splashscreen, change transition type to instant, change volume to 80% .
If everything is ok i take back-up the image and the gamepad.cfg, retroarch.cfg, config.txt files. I am converting the image to NOOBS-compatible image with this guide to use with NOOBS Lite for a setup.

wmarcio

@meleu você é brasileiro?
Somos dois aqui então hein...

Keltron3030

@meleu thanks for the nice little checklist. Having not updated my image in maybe a year or more (was on stretch), it was time for me to update as well. I use the tronkyfran theme so I had to do my obligatory update to the virtualboy console image (the stock one is pretty bad). Maybe someone could update the theme with the one I made. .

The only hurdle I've run into thus far is related to multi_switch.sh which I know you worked on with crcerror.

I downloaded the script, updated autostart.sh, and installed raspi-gpio

At this point I'm not sure why the switch is not triggering a shutdown. Do you happen to be using multi_switch.sh successfully with this latest version?

PS... One other thing that had been bugging me since I updated to 1.8.1+ was that the new menu widgets seem to often cause the screen to get "cut-off" when a leaderboard or login pop-up came on the screen. I'd say it happened more than 30% of the time and would force me to reload the game and cross my fingers. I was hoping that the issue would somehow be resolved in this latest update but that was not the case. Fortunately I was able to determine the cause of the issue so maybe someone will also benefit from reading this. The bug seems to be related to the auto-sizing option in Settings>OnScreen display>OnScreen Notifications>Auto Scale graphics widgets

Disabling this feature seemed to solve the problem.

Update: The issue is still present unfortunately ☹️

meleu

I've edited the OP putting some other tweaks I did.

The items I added:

sudo raspi-config...
- ...
- Interfacing options > SSH
- Change User Password
Configure input...
- (...) disable the exit emulator via Select+Start and reset game via Select+X (it's really frustrating when you press them and accidentally go out of the game ruining your progress). It's possible to accomplish this with this oneliner:
  sed -i 's/^\(input_\(exit_emulator\|reset\)_btn\)/#\1/' /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads/*.cfg
It's common my wife/kids accidentally enter the runcommand menu while the game is loading, then I disable that going to EmulationStation > RetroPie Menu > Runcommand Configuration, and use this config:
- Launch menu: disabled
- Launch menu art: enabled (to see the neat launching images)
- Launch menu joystick control: disabled

meleu

@Keltron3030 I'm getting the issue you mentioned too. Very weird indeed. Gonna do some investigation when I have some free time.

Regarding the multi_switch, let's see if @cyperghost has something to say about it.

Keltron3030

@meleu yeah, hoping he has some insight. Btw, I map the combo button to the right control stick (click down) on my 8bitdo. This makes it nearly impossible to reset the game accidentally and avoids having to visit the retroarch menu to exit.

Darksavior

@meleu I use a few tweaks from here. Some are probably not compatible, so I can only approve of the ones I've used.
https://www.evernote.com/client/snv?noteGuid=38bf9df7-5f96-4451-90e7-7d72c07f225b&noteKey=8d57114e589b5a39147ffd9d6c5df1e0&sn=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.evernote.com%2Fshard%2Fs3%2Fsh%2F38bf9df7-5f96-4451-90e7-7d72c07f225b%2F8d57114e589b5a39147ffd9d6c5df1e0&title=RetroPie%2Bimage%2B-%2Bpost%2Binstall

I disable Wait for network at boot. Disable Serial. SSH. Set kb layout to US. Change elevator=deadline to elevator=noop (not sure if this does much). Remove avahi daemon. Remove samba (I use ssh-ftp). Disabled triggerhappy. Uninstall USB Rom Service. Boot times should be better.

Retroarch has an aspect ratio bug. Its default is set to "custom". Changing it to "core provided" seems to fix that.

Set-up to run games from usb (the stick is in the cart). Install gamecon driver for my original snes pads. Transfer back scraped art, configs, etc. Install the pegasus frontend. Install my personal buggy crappy custom stock theme but I love it.

And of course, install your joystick selector.

cyperghost

@meleu Hello my friend :) I just reinstalled RetroPie 4.6 just for testing your tweaks and they are working fine. How are you and your beloved ones? Some people have lots of free time now, esspecially the younger oner. Maybe some of these will continue the work that was introduced a long time from the older ones. You know the Raspberry is a tinker-platform.

For Retro-Gaming I'm looking to the BATOCERA system. Meanwhile it's an outstanding distribution with lots of features and improvements made. The only thing, as it's a embedded linux system you can't quickly install a new emulator core for example.

Personally I'm well and healthy all close relatives, friends and parents and wife are too. That is not usual in these days. So have a nice day ... feel well. Cya

@Keltron3030 The multi_switch is working on 4.6. Maybe you did not set the x-bit or used a wrong set of parameters.

Keltron3030

@cyperghost thanks for the confirmation, I guess I'll have to screw around with it some more.