redream not saving config

inolen

I've gotten quite a few RetroPie users join the Discord today describing this issue:
https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/gbhrl6/redream_for_retropie_doesnt_save_video_settings/

Any idea what's going on there? From looking at the shell script it seems to be symlinking redream.cfg like the cache directories, etc. so I would think it can save to redream.cfg. However, one guy who joined Discord "fixed" it by chown'ing his redream install directory so that doesn't seem to be the case.

If it's of any help, the first 2-3 lines and the last 2-3 lines should confirm the path (and if it's successful) in saving the options on startup and shutdown.

mitu

The installation script already makes the pi user (installation user) the owner of the install folder, so there shouldn't be any issues writing or saving the configuration file.

I'll re-try to install from scratch to see if anything comes up.

EDIT: Nope, I didn't get any errors. Installed from scratch, after cleaning up /opt/retropie/configs/dreamcast/redream also.
Installation creates $INSTALL_DIR/redream.cfg as a symlink to $CONFIG_DIR/redream.cfg, but doesn't create a .cfg itself (so it's a dangling symlink at install time). However, after the first run (and a successful exit) the .cfg file is created correctly.
Here's a log file from a first run - https://pastebin.com/raw/EgLJABP0.

inolen

Hey Mitu,

Thanks for confirming that it can work :) I'll keep an eye out on any more reports of this.

Jste84

Not a massive thing... But I have a couple of slight things similar to this.

Downloaded redream and works like a dream when I change video settings.

However, when I choose video settings to reduce the resolution... It doesn't display all the options... So I have to guess count or guess as to where the correct resolution is...

Also my config doesn't save and I have to do this each time i open redream.

That being said... It works amazingly and I'm happy to be able to play Dreamcast games!

mitu

@Jste84 Can you reproduce the error and then post your /dev/shm/runcommand.log log file ?

inolen

Hi Mitu,

Was debugging this with another user and I think I finally honed in on what's going on.

In short, the flash rom can't be written to which causes the app to assert when loading a save state / when closing if a game has been started, preventing the options from writing out.

I think there's one or two issues -

The install script symlinks flash.bin to /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/dc/dc_flash.bin but that directory may not exist. We don't require a bios or flash rom (the BIOS is HLE'd, and the flash rom is created from scratch), but we need to be able to write out the flash rom. redream always writes out the the same directory as the binary so it assumes the directory being written to always exists.
When the install script symlinks dc_flash.bin - it doesn't set it to be owned by the user like it does the config, etc. I'm not sure if this is an actual issue as a quick test on my machine shows this works fine as long as the target directory can be written to by the user, but I noticed it did this for the config, etc. so I thought there may be an issue with this that I'm unaware of.

mitu

@inolen said in redream not saving config:

When it symlinks dc_flash.bin - it doesn't set it to be owned by the user so we're unable to write to it (boot.bin is read-only, flash.bin needs to be read/write).

The symlink is root owned, but the original file should be owned by the run user (pi on RetroPie) and the user should be able to write it to it:

pi@pie4:/opt/retropie/emulators/redream $ pwd
/opt/retropie/emulators/redream
pi@pie4:/opt/retropie/emulators/redream $ ls -l flash.bin
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 38 May  2 05:44 flash.bin -> /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/dc/dc_flash.bin
pi@pie4:/opt/retropie/emulators/redream $ ls -l /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/dc/dc_flash.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 4 May  3 16:39 /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/dc/dc_flash.bin
pi@pie4:/opt/retropie/emulators/redream $ echo "blah" > flash.bin
pi@pie4:/opt/retropie/emulators/redream $ ls -l /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/dc/dc_flash.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 5 May  3 16:40 /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/dc/dc_flash.bin

I think the issue appears if the folder doesn't exist, as you noticed. We'll need to test this and we'll amend the installation scriptmodule.

BuZz

That makes sense - I'll make sure the directory is created.

BuZz

done.

inolen

Thanks a lot guys!

On the subject of configs, how are the ES control mappings stored? Are they available for us to parse and convert to our own profile format somehow?

mitu

The EmulationStation input configuration is saved in $HOME/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg. When saved, a generic script is triggered that auto-configures gamepads for a few emulators, looking for specific emulator scripts like these.
We could add a redream.sh script in configscripts that would generate or modify a redream.cfg with the user's chosen input configuration.

BuZz

@mitu might be easier to take the amiberry route and use the generated retroarch configs.

Works with existing configs then and will be more reliable.