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    Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1

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    • ClydeC
      Clyde @johnodon
      last edited by

      @johnodon Thanks for the update and for sharing the link. 👍

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • johnodonJ
        johnodon
        last edited by johnodon

        Can someone else run MisterB's script on a test device with server/mini 18.04? I'm not sure what changed but a lot of packages are failing to install (openbox, dialog, xmlstart, etc.). I had to add the universe repo (as per my original instructions above) for things to start working again.

        Honestly, I'm not sure how the script ever worked without that repo included but I can't see anything in the history where it was removed. Did a recent update to the 18.04 ISO do something?

        ClydeC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • ClydeC
          Clyde @johnodon
          last edited by

          @johnodon said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

          I'm not sure what changed but a lot of packages are failing to install (openbox, dialog, xmlstart, etc.). I had to add the universe repo (as per my original instructions above) for things to start working again.

          All of those packages are in the universe repo since at least Ubuntu 16.04 (see openbox, dialog, and xmlstarlet on https://packages.ubuntu.com/). So, that repo was needed for them as early as April 2016.

          I don't know if universe is enabled on Ubuntu (Server) 18.04 by standard. Did you encounter this problem on a new installation or an old one?

          johnodonJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • johnodonJ
            johnodon @Clyde
            last edited by

            @Clyde said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

            I don't know if universe is enabled on Ubuntu (Server) 18.04 by standard. Did you encounter this problem on a new installation or an old one?

            I'm just fiddling around today as I am almost finished my 4-play cab and know I will have a need to completely reinstall (all new hardware). I swear that I have used his script in the past to install on 18.04 and don't recall having these issues and don't remember enabling Universe prior to running it. The again, I could just be having a senior moment. :)

            Universe is enabled by default on 20.04 so no issue there but I am facing some other challenges with that version that I am trying to work through.

            John

            M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • M
              MisterB @johnodon
              last edited by

              @johnodon Just remember to use the LTS-20.04 branch of my script if you use that version of the OS. If you have issues, please report back. I recent did a test run that appeared to work OK for me.

              johnodonJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • johnodonJ
                johnodon @MisterB
                last edited by johnodon

                @MisterB said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

                @johnodon Just remember to use the LTS-20.04 branch of my script if you use that version of the OS. If you have issues, please report back. I recent did a test run that appeared to work OK for me.

                I installed 20.04 on a Lenovo T430 laptop (my sandbox device) and I get a screen like this after the first reboot when the script is finished:

                https://imgur.com/a/qdrDJRA

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • M
                  MisterB
                  last edited by

                  Yikes! No idea what is going on there...

                  ethelingE johnodonJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • ethelingE
                    etheling @MisterB
                    last edited by etheling

                    @MisterB Not sure if this is what's causing @johnodon s troubles but I had the install fail few times because unattended upgrades kicked in, got lock for apt and thus made the install script fail in odd ways as apt gets from script started failing.

                    I added this to the very beginning of the script to disable unattended upgrades:

                    echo "Disable unattended upgrades for now. Re-enabled at the end of main install script"
                    systemctl stop unattended-upgrades
                    systemctl status unattended-upgrades
                    systemctl disable unattended-upgrades
                    # dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades 
                    # dpkg --configure -a 
                    # cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades
                    

                    And then just before reboot:

                    function enable_unattended_upgrades () {
                            echo " "
                            echo "+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
                            echo "| Re-enable unattended upgrades"
                            echo "+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
                            echo " "
                            sleep 5
                            systemctl start unattended-upgrades
                            systemctl status unattended-upgrades
                            systemctl enable unattended-upgrades
                            ## dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades
                            cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades
                            dpkg --configure -a ; # make sure everything is in synch; unnessary..yes?
                    }
                    

                    Edit #1: indicative of above problem are lines such as below in 'retropie_setup_ubuntu.log' or on terminal:

                    Waiiting for cache lock: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend. It is held by process 220203 (apt-get)... 1
                    

                    Edit #2: I also ran to another possibly IPv6 name resolution related issue with apt where it randomly failed trying to resolve archive.ubuntu.com resulting as following error (see retropie_setup_ubuntu.log):

                    ....
                    Get:2 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/updates/ubuntu focal/main i386 Packages [5,912 B]
                    Err:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
                      Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'
                    Err:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
                    ....
                    

                    I'm not sure if I'm addressing the root cause here or not, but forcing apt to stick to IPv4 appears to make this problem go away:

                    echo "Prevent apt to use IPv6"
                    ## https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/9940/convince-apt-get-not-to-use-ipv6-method
                    echo 'Acquire::ForceIPv4 "true";' | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99force-ipv4
                    
                    johnodonJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • johnodonJ
                      johnodon @MisterB
                      last edited by johnodon

                      @MisterB said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

                      Yikes! No idea what is going on there...

                      OK...updating the Mainline kernel (I chose 5.8.9) per @etheling 's advice solved the issue: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/233967

                      Basically, X wasn't starting but I still can't explain the craziness on the screen.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • johnodonJ
                        johnodon @etheling
                        last edited by

                        @etheling said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

                        @MisterB Not sure if this is what's causing @johnodon s troubles but I had the install fail few times because unattended upgrades kicked in, got lock for apt and thus made the install script fail in odd ways as apt gets from script started failing.

                        I added this to the very beginning of the script to disable unattended upgrades:

                        echo "Disable unattended upgrades for now. Re-enabled at the end of main install script"
                        systemctl stop unattended-upgrades
                        systemctl status unattended-upgrades
                        systemctl disable unattended-upgrades
                        # dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades 
                        # dpkg --configure -a 
                        # cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades
                        

                        And then just before reboot:

                        function enable_unattended_upgrades () {
                                echo " "
                                echo "+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
                                echo "| Re-enable unattended upgrades"
                                echo "+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
                                echo " "
                                sleep 5
                                systemctl start unattended-upgrades
                                systemctl status unattended-upgrades
                                systemctl enable unattended-upgrades
                                ## dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades
                                cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades
                                dpkg --configure -a ; # make sure everything is in synch; unnessary..yes?
                        }
                        

                        this has fixed my package failure issues! Thanks @etheling . :)

                        ethelingE 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • johnodonJ
                          johnodon
                          last edited by johnodon

                          @MisterB FYA...

                          Can someone who has used MisterB's 20.04 script on either mini or server try to install mame (not lr-mame) from the experimental packages. I get the below error and had to reinstall python to get past it.

                          FYI...I do not have this issue when I use the 'master' branch to install on top of 18.04.

                          = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
                          Building 'mame' : MAME emulator
                          = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
                          
                          Removing additional swap
                          Adding 5075 MB of additional swap
                          Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 5 GiB (5321519104 bytes)
                          no label, UUID=a9d782a2-e629-4f3d-927e-4d78db137903
                          swapon: /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/swap: swapon failed: Invalid argument
                          GCC 9 detected
                          makefile:1032: *** Python is not available in path.  Stop.
                          strip: 'mame64': No such file
                          Removing additional swap
                          /home/pi
                          Could not successfully build mame - MAME emulator (/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/mame/mame64 not found).
                          
                          ClydeC mituM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • ClydeC
                            Clyde @johnodon
                            last edited by

                            @johnodon said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

                            makefile:1032: *** Python is not available in path. Stop.

                            Maybe that's because Ubuntu switched to Python 3 ex factory with 20.04. You could try to change the system's standard alternative for python, see here for instructions.

                            johnodonJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • johnodonJ
                              johnodon @Clyde
                              last edited by

                              @Clyde said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

                              @johnodon said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

                              makefile:1032: *** Python is not available in path. Stop.

                              Maybe that's because Ubuntu switched to Python 3 ex factory with 20.04. You could try to change the system's standard alternative for python, see here for instructions.

                              Thanks @Clyde.

                              I guess the question is if this is something that needs to be accounted for in @MisterB's script or in the RP scriptmodule.

                              ClydeC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • ClydeC
                                Clyde @johnodon
                                last edited by

                                @johnodon Absolutely. Alas, I don't know anything about scripting or Python. It's just that a friend told me about his problems (with GIMP plugins that still require P2) because of the change in Ubuntu yesterday.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • johnodonJ
                                  johnodon
                                  last edited by

                                  I opened an issue on @MisterB's github and he is already engaged. I'm going to perform some more testing.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • ethelingE
                                    etheling @johnodon
                                    last edited by etheling

                                    @johnodon Great to hear that you got it working. Btw - after installing newer mainline kernel, I am always getting this message/error during boot up:

                                    initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed
                                    

                                    It appears it's caused by this bug, and I can make the message go away by following proposed temp workaround (tl;dr; change LZ4->GZIP in /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.confand run update-initramfs -c).

                                    edit #1: mentioning this as it introduces a visual distraction by 'breaking' the clean Plymouth themed boot up into ES as the error message is shown.

                                    ClydeC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • ClydeC
                                      Clyde @etheling
                                      last edited by Clyde

                                      @etheling said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

                                      It appears it's caused by this bug

                                      Reported over a year ago, importance "high", but still unassigned. 😒

                                      edit: However, one of Canonical's staff engineers commented in April:

                                      We currently believe that the decoding error reported in dmesg is actually harmless and has no impact on usability on the system.

                                      Switching from lz4 to gzip compression, simply papers over the warning, without any benefits, and slows down boot.

                                      Kernel should be fixed to correctly parse lz4 compressed initrds, or at least lower the warning, to not be user visible as an error.

                                      So, it may be that that error doesn't cause any actual problems.

                                      Sorry for the research spree, back to topic.

                                      ethelingE 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • mituM
                                        mitu Global Moderator @johnodon
                                        last edited by

                                        @johnodon said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

                                        ...
                                        Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 5 GiB (5321519104 bytes)
                                        no label, UUID=a9d782a2-e629-4f3d-927e-4d78db137903
                                        swapon: /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/swap: swapon failed: Invalid argument
                                        GCC 9 detected
                                        makefile:1032: *** Python is not available in path.  Stop.
                                        strip: 'mame64': No such file
                                        Removing additional swap
                                        ```
                                        

                                        The should be fixed in the RetroPie module.

                                        johnodonJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • johnodonJ
                                          johnodon @mitu
                                          last edited by johnodon

                                          @mitu said in Retropie Installation on Ubuntu Server x64 18.04.1:

                                          The should be fixed in the RetroPie module.

                                          EDIT: Are you saying it is fixed or it will be fixed? I don't see any commits or PRs that are recent enough.

                                          Thanks @mitu . I'll give it another go.

                                          John

                                          mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • mituM
                                            mitu Global Moderator @johnodon
                                            last edited by

                                            @johnodon Uh, I said should, as in we should probably fix this. Thus far, nothing changed.

                                            johnodonJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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