SSD doesnt always mount

comet424

@Clyde my bad it was late lol

@YFZdude
i used the command tail -f /var/log/syslog for constant running no idea what the fstab is

i have this issue when you boot the raspberry it wont always mount the SSD a reboot of emulation doesnt work either... a reboot inside raspberry pi doesnt always work you gott shut off and turn back on then usually 2nd time it mounts... as it boots up and all you get is the raspberry menu option no roms
also mentioned if it idles a long time if you select any NES game it will load the config pop up screen before the game loads then back to the main menu .. what i did was click on atari game load or it was just flipping through games that the NES then worked again.

also sometimes if i do a reboot of the emulation when i copied games over windows explorer... it doesnt always reboot properly it shows then no games back to retropie configartion option...

also i find access roms through windows explorer is very slow takes a while to spin etc.. and im not using WIFI deadicated cable

this is the mounting method i used

@retropie:~ $ tail -f /var/log/syslog
Sep 13 16:17:42 retropie systemd[648]: Reached target Basic System.
Sep 13 16:17:42 retropie systemd[648]: Reached target Default.
Sep 13 16:17:42 retropie systemd[648]: Startup finished in 160ms.
Sep 13 16:17:42 retropie systemd[1]: Started User Manager for UID 1000.
Sep 13 16:17:42 retropie systemd[1]: Started Session c1 of user pi.

and then i added to the cmdline.txt
usb-storage.quirks=152d:0562:u

but if you need pics of the unit ill post them later if your not sure what im doing as pics always help me

YFZdude

@comet424 Ah I see I missed the fact that your SSD share name is the same as the recommended path from the USB ROMs setup page here: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive/

So the reason I asked about fstab is because it isn't as easy to setup, but in theory it should be a reliable way to make sure your SSD is always mounted on startup. This is described in the page linked above in the "Manual Mount" section. The only requirement is that you have the SSD plugged in before you power up.

If you want to give the manual method a try, you can follow most of the guide steps, but you will need to change the filesystem info in fstab from vfat to ntfs in the file. Assuming you don't want to reformat the drive as FAT32.

comet424

@YFZdude

ill try later... i not sure if the ssd share name is same as usb rom names i dont know what you 100% mean.. and not sure what file system to use

i only had a 1TB SSD to try i moved my desktop games off my SSD to a spinner plus more reliable
to try to the this,, i also wasnt sure how big a SSD you need to get all the roms from all the machines on the the raspberry pi.. as i dunno if you dont need more then 120gb 250gb 500 gb as i will buy that and re claim my SSD... i new to this retro machine..
i do know some games dont like to work right like the C64 games and some NES

so i formated the 1tb to ntfs as online i read you want EX4 or FAT but i found raspberry pi was able to detect NTFS so i reformated to NTFS
i made a folder on there retropi-mount and when i formated the LABEL was set to the default

...but the same share name is that a conflict? i know on my Unraid file server i had a Share that was the same name as the LABEL of an unnasigned drive and that caused conflict would save to the array share not the unassigned drive.. is that the same thing your mentioning? if thats why i get slow speeds accessing from windows

so your last point you mentioned from vfat to ntfs file assuming i dont wanna format to fat32.. but i already in ntfs
or is the issue that it needs to be in fat32? and i thought fat32 could never go more then 100gb or something wasnt that a limit windows had?

ill try later when i get home.. i learning something new everyday

comet424

@YFZdude
so i tried the manual setup didnt really work

i did the disable usb thing
i moved and erased the Retropie folder on PI and movied the contents to the Root of the SSD not the retropie-mount folder as it said the root

i tried the fstab and edied the file i change teh FAT line to NTFS but didnt m ount the games guess ill have to retry again

and what format should it be NTFS EX4 FAT

and after doing the move etc the \192.168.0.15 to acces the raspberry pi the roms folder doesnt let me inside it now and its slow as molasses

YFZdude

@comet424 It should work in any of those formats but if you are going to start over I would try FAT32 like the guide mentions. Don't forget to re-enable the usbromservice.

comet424

@YFZdude
when do you re turn on the usbmservice i missed tat in the manual section i still have it turned off
so if i turn it back on
then really you dont us e "retropie-mount" only for a usb thumb drive
but for a SSD the main folders will be in the root of the SSD

why is fat32 the best but doesnt it have a limit how big reason we went to ntfs as fat32 couldnt handle things
ill try later today renable maybe thats why its not accessing rom folder...

also imy drives didnt show up like in the manual setup it said and showed i had 2 drives i thinking thats ntfs

and what size of HD should i get that all these retro games wont go past is there a size you guys know .. like if you had every single retro game and it wont be bigger then 250 gb so no need to use a 1TB is there a reference for that.

but ill try again later and try the fat32

YFZdude

@comet424 said in SSD doesnt always mount:

when do you re turn on the usbmservice i missed tat in the manual section i still have it turned off

If you are using the manual method then it doesn't get turned back on. usbromservice is used when you are following the automatic mount method in the guide.

so if i turn it back on
then really you dont us e "retropie-mount" only for a usb thumb drive
but for a SSD the main folders will be in the root of the SSD

The retropie-mount folder is only needed for the automatic mount method. The name is what the service looks for to know that is where your roms are located. For the manual method, it tells you to copy over the folder structure from the microSD card image. So the root of the drive would have a BIOS retropiemenu roms and splashscreen folders.

why is fat32 the best but doesnt it have a limit how big reason we went to ntfs as fat32 couldnt handle things

FAT32 is more compatible across operating systems. It is just easier to get it working if you stick to FAT32. As long as you don't have a ROM file that is over 4GB in size and your SSD is not more than 2TB total then you don't really need NTFS.

also imy drives didnt show up like in the manual setup it said and showed i had 2 drives i thinking thats ntfs

The output of df should show many things, but your SSD should stand out as /dev/sda1 or something similar. If you have more than one of those, it could be that the drive has more than one partition. They will all show up. So if you had 1 NTFS partition and 1 FAT32 partition you would likely see /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2both appear.

and what size of HD should i get that all these retro games wont go past is there a size you guys know .. like if you had every single retro game and it wont be bigger then 250 gb so no need to use a 1TB is there a reference for that.

That is a tough one. If you want to have a large collection of arcade games, it will take close to 30GB for only those ROMs. Older systems have smaller files. 1TB might be overkill but you likely won't ever have to worry about freeing up space.

If you wanted to store many games on the microSD card and skip the SSD, then I would recommend at least a 32GB or 64GB card.

Clyde

Hi, I just wanted to say that I've not abandoned this thread, but I don't have much free time at the moment, and @YFZdude doesn't leave me much more to say, actually. 😉

I'm still reading along, though. Ready to jump in if necessary.

comet424

@YFZdude
how do you get notifications to email as i didnt get notification you guys replied and i didnt have this page up... windows had crashed

ok i only did the manual mode as you mentioned it the easiest be just the automount.. i just find it doesnt mount everytime
but doing that cmdline.txt that makes it mount everytime? i did notice doesnt matter
if you slide the SSD out and slide it back in Retropie didnt even notice you unplugged it so hot swapping isnt detected

as i was copying files to the ssd to add and then shoved in.... and i still find accessing
\ip address\ROMS is still slow shouldnt it be instant as shouldnt it go directly to the ROM

so are there ROMS you know of bigger then 4GB in size?

and i not sure if i did manual mode correct anyways this is what i have from other day i just re ran it to post it.. i changed the FAT to NTFS and i also read you want EX4 whats difference between EX4 FAT and NTFS... is FAT also just read better still

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep 15 04:44 37d16b23-33ba-49e7-b882-571a58755020 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Sep 15 04:44 8988cf8f-d459-476f-9a4a-16c56702dc40 -> ../../mmcblk0p2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep 15 04:44 AEBA1391BA1354E5 -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Sep 15 04:44 C367-3F28 -> ../../mmcblk0p1

proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
PARTUUID=e22bcd10-01  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
PARTUUID=e22bcd10-02  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
# a swapfile is not a swap partition, no line here
#   use  dphys-swapfile swap[on|off]  for that
UUID=C367-3F28  /home/pi/RetroPie       ntfs    nofail,user,uid=pi,gid=pi 0     2

so would a 250GB ssd be better i just wanted to fugure proof as there is only so many retro games so figured maybe there was a list that says if you want all the games on record of the past you wont need any bigger then 500 gb hd or whatever

so does the manual mode fix that issue i have where it seems to unmount while using it or sometimes when boots up it doesnt boot the SSD it adds it the 2nd boot up...
or does hte cmdline.txt with Automatic mode be still ok

as i also cant figure out why so slow to access \ip\roms it should go directly to the SSD unless its going to the MicroSD then to the SSD?
always learning..

wish i stuck with linux 20 yrs ago not give up as i had enough of redhat back in 2000 id be smarter at these command lines.. was a DOS user windows user..

i appreciate all the help so far.. but ya if i can take out the 1TB i rather use it for other stuff.. i only used it as it was the only SSD i had and a Spinner wouldnt fit in the cartrige slow old 320gb 2.5 too thick... but ill get a smaller SSD i just never figure out.. as i couldnt find a list

YFZdude

@comet424 said in SSD doesnt always mount:

how do you get notifications to email as i didnt get notification you guys replied and i didnt have this page up... windows had crashed

In your profile settings, there is a spot for notifications. You can change any of these to email you instead of just notifying you when you are logged in to the forum.

so are there ROMS you know of bigger then 4GB in size?

I'm not specifically aware of any, but a 4GB file is a limitation of FAT32. NTFS and EXT4 don't have this limitation.

...and i also read you want EX4 whats difference between EX4 FAT and NTFS... is FAT also just read better still

This is a bit lengthy, you can use Wikipedia to learn many of the features of a filesystem. In short, FAT32 is old and well supported across multiple Operating Systems and does not include file permissions. Both NTFS and EXT4 do support file permissions.

With NTFS, you can read the drive on Windows and Linux systems easily. If you format EXT4, Windows will be unable to read it without installing extra software. Not ideal.

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep 15 04:44 37d16b23-33ba-49e7-b882-571a58755020 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Sep 15 04:44 8988cf8f-d459-476f-9a4a-16c56702dc40 -> ../../mmcblk0p2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep 15 04:44 AEBA1391BA1354E5 -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Sep 15 04:44 C367-3F28 -> ../../mmcblk0p1

proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
PARTUUID=e22bcd10-01  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
PARTUUID=e22bcd10-02  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
# a swapfile is not a swap partition, no line here
#   use  dphys-swapfile swap[on|off]  for that
UUID=C367-3F28  /home/pi/RetroPie       ntfs    nofail,user,uid=pi,gid=pi 0     2

So this seems like the line you added to fstab is pointing at the /mmcblk0p1 which is your microSD card. You need to change it to point at your SSD drive.

I see you have two other partitions that are of interest. /sda1 and /sda2. We need to identify which of those two is where your ROMs should be.
You should run df -h -T from the terminal and post the result. This will show the size, filesystem, and location of the two partitions.

so would a 250GB ssd be better i just wanted to fugure proof as there is only so many retro games so figured maybe there was a list that says if you want all the games on record of the past you wont need any bigger then 500 gb hd or whatever

I think your drive size is fine and I wouldn't go out and get a different drive just for this.

so does the manual mode fix that issue i have where it seems to unmount while using it or sometimes when boots up it doesnt boot the SSD it adds it the 2nd boot up...
or does hte cmdline.txt with Automatic mode be still ok

If it is set up correctly, the manual method should make the SSD drive and everything on it act as if it were on the microSD card and always be available. Access speed shouldn't really be slow, but it depends on the speed of the drive, the USB to SATA adapter, etc.

i appreciate all the help so far.. but ya if i can take out the 1TB i rather use it for other stuff..

If your microSD card has enough space on it to store your ROMs there, you could just do that. There may be some benefits to running ROMS from the SSD but it is not absolutely necessary. I run my setup all from the microSD card with no problems so far.

comet424

@YFZdude

ok fixed my notifications set them all to email and notifications

ah ok ill reformat to fat32 then and i think formating to NTFS you get 2 volumes??
and i added the commandline.txt to the mmcb1k... because from the docs it shows it was the last one.. but also 4 characters then a dash then 4 characters so i picked that one..

i figure to add more roms then i need the SSD but ok ill keep the 1TB in there for now

and the df results are

pi@retropie:~ $ df -h -T
Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root      ext4      117G  2.9G  110G   3% /
devtmpfs       devtmpfs  1.8G     0  1.8G   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G  9.4M  1.9G   1% /run
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1 vfat      256M   54M  202M  22% /boot
/dev/sda2      fuseblk   932G  2.3G  930G   1% /media/usb0
/dev/sda1      ext4      120M  1.6M  110M   2% /media/usb1
tmpfs          tmpfs     383M     0  383M   0% /run/user/1000
pi@retropie:~ $

YFZdude

@comet424 said in SSD doesnt always mount:

ah ok ill reformat to fat32 then and i think formating to NTFS you get 2 volumes??

Formatting doesn't add volumes. From the output of the df -h -T I can see that your SSD has two partitions. One of them is ext4 and only 120MB. The other is the NTFS volume where you are likely trying to keep your ROMs.

At this point, you only need to edit the fstab file and copy in the UUID from the /dev/sda2 partition.
UUID=AEBA1391BA1354E5 /home/pi/RetroPie ntfs etc.
That should make your Pi mount the SSD like you wanted.

comet424

@YFZdude said in SSD doesnt always mount:

UUID=AEBA1391BA1354E5 /home/pi/RetroPie ntfs

oh i figured maybe because i formated in windows i did 2 volumes then the ex4 and ntfs... i can always format later

so i retyped it


proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
PARTUUID=e22bcd10-01  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
PARTUUID=e22bcd10-02  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
# a swapfile is not a swap partition, no line here
#   use  dphys-swapfile swap[on|off]  for that
UUID=AEBA1391BA1354E5 /home/pi/RetroPie ntfs    nofail,user,uid=pi,gid=pi 0     2

what is the 0 and 2 in that line.. so hopefully it works faster and no disconnects.. so i guess there is no fix to get it to hotswap either right it cant detect hot swapping like windows does...

is there any tests now to test reliablity? that it doesnt disconnect or i need to just test it to see it work.. so this is the fix people need to do to get better performance.. also i havent re enabled the usb service in retrosetup do i need to go back to that again..

so in the end the difference between manual and auto... is auto supposed to mount everytime but it doesnt,.. so manual mode will always mount it no matter what right..

YFZdude

@comet424 said in SSD doesnt always mount:

so i guess there is no fix to get it to hotswap either right it cant detect hot swapping like windows does...

It should have been able to hotswap, but since you were having trouble the manual method was just supposed to be a more reliable way to make sure it gets mounted and keeps working.

is there any tests now to test reliablity? that it doesnt disconnect or i need to just test it to see it work..

I am not sure if there is a simple way to test it other than to just try using it and see if it works for you. As long as it is mounted when you boot the system, it should stay mounted. The speed of transfers is just something you will have to observe for yourself.

also i havent re enabled the usb service in retrosetup do i need to go back to that again..

No. The only reason to re-enable that would be if you want to go back to hot swapping. Which wasn't working well for you.

so in the end the difference between manual and auto... is auto supposed to mount everytime but it doesnt,.. so manual mode will always mount it no matter what right..

This is the right idea. Auto mount should work much better than you have experienced, but manual mount is much more reliable as long as you don't have a good reason compelling you to hot swap the drive.

Have you tested the changes to see if it is working correctly now?

Clyde

@comet424 said in SSD doesnt always mount:

what is the 0 and 2 in that line..

Its about dumping and checking the file system. See https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/38125/htg-explains-what-is-the-linux-fstab-and-how-does-it-work/ → Dumping and Fscking, or https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/mount/fstab.5.en.html → fifth and sixth field.

You can either leave that at 0 2, or change it to 0 0 for no auto-checking, since although Linux' fsck can also check NTFS volumes, foreign formats should rather be checked on their native system IMHO.

comet424

sorry for the delay.. had family issues

but so far seems to be working ok.. havent checked the link

also do you guys know i copied a bunch of MAME games but when you load it just kicks you back out to

also with the C64 games i load it and it you cant control the games.. you cant even get into them with the controller or do i need to make a new sub headng

also i noticed some games are choppy and slow playing but nothing perfect..

but i happy so far playing old games from the 80s i grew up to

YFZdude

@comet424 said in SSD doesnt always mount:

also do you guys know i copied a bunch of MAME games but when you load it just kicks you back out to

MAME is a whole fun thing to get into. The first thing you need to do is make sure that you have a romset that is meant for the exact version of MAME you are trying to use.
It is recommended to use MAME2003 or MAME2003+ for the Pi due to the lighter hardware requirements. So you would then need to make sure you have a romset for MAME2003 and not some other version.

also with the C64 games i load it and it you cant control the games.. you cant even get into them with the controller or do i need to make a new sub headng

I haven't messed with C64 but I think you have to use a keyboard to play the games instead of a controller.
See here for some more info:
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Commodore-64-VIC-20-PET/

Clyde

@comet424 said in SSD doesnt always mount:

also do you guys know i copied a bunch of MAME games but when you load it just kicks you back out to

As @YFZdude said, you'll need a romset for exactly the MAME version used. Because if you don't have that, other attempts to diagnose the problem are most likely pointless.

When you have a correct romset, you should run the problematic games with verbose logging via the Runcommand Launch Menu, and after being kicked back to Emulation Station, check the file /dev/shm/runcommand.log for any error messages.

@YFZdude said in SSD doesnt always mount:

It is recommended to use MAME2003 or MAME2003+ for the Pi due to the lighter hardware requirements. So you would then need to make sure you have a romset for MAME2003 and not some other version.

Note that the romsets for MAME2003 and MAME2003+ (let's call it Plus) grew to be very different from each other, and Plus is still being enhanced from time to time. So for Plus, you'll either have to find a recent Plus romset or build one yourself following the instructions in the LibRetro Docs.

It's also recommended to follow the mame2003-plus thread for any updates and discussions about it.

For further questions about MAME you (@comet424) should open a new thread since this one about your mount problems seems to be solved, right?

comet424

ah ok ill have to read all that stuff i figured it just be simple.. lol

and ya thats where i mentioned if should ask here or create a new sub heading

ill have to create a new sub heading for C64 i cant even get to the games even with the keyboard just this menus
and o thought mame was mame but then read other crap same as pcengine is really turbographics 16

as i tried to play games mame stuff from arcades as i was a kid..

but least the nintendo games are working couple have audio issues.. and 1 i forget when playing runs smooth then suddenly goes into choppy mode.. but majority work well.

one thing i figured even with an emulator games would run alot faster and smoother no issues since nes is from 1984 aand we 2020.. but cant complain all the games on a little thing and no blowing my cartridges lol

Clyde

@comet424 said in SSD doesnt always mount:

and o thought mame was mame but then read other crap same as pcengine is really turbographics 16

MAME is and always was an ongoing project to emulate classic arcade machines as perfect as possible. It isn't focused on maintaining a certain status quo or optimized emulation speed. It also tries to incorporate newer and better rom dumps from the original machines. Thus, older romsets may (and often do) become incompatible with newer MAME versions.

In other words, MAME is more an archaelogical endeavor than a cheap way to play arcade games at home.

PC Engine isn't "really" Turbografx-16, but the latter is the name of its USA version. Since there wasn't an official Europe release, aside from community hacks most of the Turbografx-16 roms are the only PC Engine games available in English.

Just some little background information I collected in my three years with RetroPie. 🤓