Change Order that Systems are Displayed on Home Screen

Dochartaigh

SSH into your Pi and edit /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg. You want to move the <system> to </system> blocks of text into whatever order you want them.

mattrixk

@Dochartaigh: Awesome, thanks heaps. I'll give that a go when I get home and let you know how it went.

dudleydes

@mattrixk You should create a copy of es_systems.cfg in the /home/pi/.emulationstation and edit the copy. The version in /etc/emulationstation will be overwritten on updates so you'll lose your changes.

edmaul69

@dudleydes /home/pi/.emulationstation is now just a shortcut to where you should put the edited file. The real location is /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation

mattrixk

It works! Thanks to @Dochartaigh, @dudleydes and @edmaul69 for the help.

sirhenrythe5th

Is it possible to edit the order also without SSH?
I dont have a PC and managed everything by using a Smartphone and the Pi itself.
But i still could not change the order.

What i tried is to open the file with the sudo nano syntax.
So far so good.
What i am missing is the possibility to mark the lines / systems and finally cut & paste them.
Is this possible in general?
THX for help!

chipsnblip

nano has some keyboard commands, as long as you can input them on your phone, check here: http://staffwww.fullcoll.edu/sedwards/Nano/UsefulNanoKeyCommands.html#CopyAndPaste

sirhenrythe5th

@chipsnblip not from the Phone, but a Keyboard connected to the Pi did the job ☺.

Thank you so much, this "Alt" + "A" was the combination that i was looking for. 👍

thnder

Thanks so much. Just done mine

rayvearn

@Dochartaigh I don't understand. Arent they all on a list? i need visual aid I think

sirhenrythe5th

This method seems not to work anymore.
I changed the system order as written above (and as i did it with success on my Pi3 using an old stretch-distro), but it does not have any effect on ES.

It does take effect when i update all installed data using the retropie-script, it then reminds me, that i have a custom es_systems.cfg.
It does that about 8 times (for every system i deleted from the configuration-file).
But it does not change the visible order in ES at all.

Is this somehow related to the "Favorite"-Section in ES? I use Favorites, but recognized that this folder is not part of the es_systems.cfg
I dont make requests to the developers!, i know they have enough to do! But would it be possible in general to add the feature "Change System Order (as the user likes it)" in the ES-Settings? Maybe an idea for the future ;)

sleve_mcdichael

@sirhenrythe5th said in Change Order that Systems are Displayed on Home Screen:

This method seems not to work anymore.

What exactly does not work? I've customized the system order as well as made other edits to my es_systems.cfg file, without problem.

sirhenrythe5th

@sleve_mcdichael The Changes i made in the es_system-configuration file do not show up in Emulationstation.

I am using retropie 4.7.12 on a Pi4 without any modifications.
I editet the es_system.cfg in ./emulationstation/ and when i open this file i see that my changes are saved (NES, SNES, GBA, MD, DC, ....).
When i load up ES it still shows the default order, sorted by alphabet.

As mentioned i did the same on my Pi3 and it worked from the start until now.
I dont know what the problem is, the only difference is, that i do not use "Favourites" on my Pi3-Image.

And as far as "Favourites" is concerned, how do you place this section in the place you want it to?
It does not show up in es_systems.cfg.

mitu

@sirhenrythe5th said in Change Order that Systems are Displayed on Home Screen:

And as far as "Favourites" is concerned, how do you place this section in the place you want it to?

You can't, since it's not a 'system', it's a collection. The same thing applies to any other collection (custom or built-in).

I'm not aware of any changes that would 'break' the ordering from es_systems.cfg for actual systems - can you give a specific example (or maybe post your es_systems.cfg on pastebin.com) ?

sirhenrythe5th

@mitu said in

You can't, since it's not a 'system', it's a collection. The same thing applies to any other collection (custom or built-in).

Ahhhh, i see, that makes sense, thank you for this clarification.
So that means that even if you get the sorting managed as you like it to be, "Favourites" will be displayed between "E" and "G".

I will try to use pastebin, but as i only have a smartphone and the Pi itself i have to tinker a little bit :)

What i did (on a Pi3 with success, on the Pi4 without) is the following:

enter Midnight Commander
sudo nano /.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg
delete all the systems installed by default that i dont use (stella, gambate,...)
change the order of the systems by their manufactor and release-date (NES->SNES->GBA i.e.) by cutting the entrys of these systems from <system> to /<system> and pasting them to the place i want them to.
save and exit, close MC, start Emulationstation.

What is quite odd...i also deleted the entry of the "Retropie Setup" System-Entry.
This one is gone!
All the other changes are ignored, the shown order in ES ist still by alphabet (Amiga -> Arcade -> ...)
:/

mitu

@sirhenrythe5th said in Change Order that Systems are Displayed on Home Screen:

So that means that even if you get the sorting managed as you like it to be, "Favourites" will be displayed between "E" and "G".

I think the collections are shown first, then the normal systems. So any collections will show up before any actual systems.

I will try to use pastebin, but as i only have a smartphone and the Pi itself i have to tinker a little bit :)

You can post from the command line:

curl -F 'f:1=<-' ix.io < $HOME/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg`