emulationstation fails to launch

mr_retro_gamer

Hi there,
I'm running Linux Mint 20 and have also tried Ubuntu 20.1
I have an nvidia 9400 graphics card using the proprietary driver

When using the retropie script to install all the basic packages emulationstation always fails to load

es_log.txt is always blank even with --debug

I ran the update retorpiescript before trying to run the installer

the error is

emulationstation: /home/home/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/emulationstation/es-core/src/resources/Font.cpp:410: void Font::renderTextCache(TextCache): Assertion `it->textureIdPtr != 0' failed.
Aborted (core dumped)

Any ideas?

I have searched and seen similar issues but no answers yet.

Thanks for the help!

After some head scratching i reverted my graphics driver back from the nvidia one to the nouveau driver and emulationstation loading straightaway

Johnston

@mr_retro_gamer

Same here with the AMD Drivers. Stock install it runs. Install the AMD drivers and Emulationstation stops finding GL info.

Seems to be Emulationstation isn't finding the necessary GL info when it starts if you are using certain drivers.

Jan 15 22:43:10 lvl2: 	Created window successfully.
Jan 15 22:43:10 lvl2: 	GL vendor:   
Jan 15 22:43:10 lvl2: 	GL renderer: 
Jan 15 22:43:10 lvl2: 	GL version:  
Jan 15 22:43:10 lvl2: 	Checking available OpenGL extensions...
Jan 15 22:43:10 lvl2: 	 ARB_texture_non_power_of_two: MISSING

mitu

@johnston Can you try re-installing EmulationStation after you updated the drivers ? Do other HW accelerated GL applications work after the update (e.g. glxgears) ?

Johnston

@mitu The first time I installed it was after the drivers were installed. When I do a fresh install I tend to do all the housekeeping stuff first then run the Retropie script last.

I uninstalled using the amdgpu-uninstall, reinstalled the Kernel to be sure. ES worked fine. But some other things just weren't working as well. Noticed last night AMD had newer drivers on their site so downloaded them to give them a try but back to the same thing with ES.

glxgears --info spits out

glxgears -info
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
GL_RENDERER   = Radeon RX 580 Series (POLARIS10, DRM 3.38.0, 5.8.0-7630-generic, LLVM 10.0.1)
GL_VERSION    = 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 20.1.6
GL_VENDOR     = X.Org

EDIT: Just to be sure to be sure I reinstalled there now. Same issue.

mitu

@johnston Looks to me that not only EmulationStation has issues. Is accelerated GL supported with the new drivers ?

Johnston

@mitu said in emulationstation fails to launch:

Looks to me that not only EmulationStation has issues.

What makes you say that? glxgears works fine, Phoronix test suite ran the unigine-heaven test no problems. The GLmark2 test also shows up nothing untoward. Kodi plays HEVC better. Retroarch runs no bother. Basically everything I have tested works except emulationstation.

mitu

@johnston said in emulationstation fails to launch:

What makes you say that?

What you said in your post:

.. But some other things just weren't working as well.

Johnston

@mitu said in emulationstation fails to launch:

.. But some other things just weren't working as well.

That was without the drivers. Thats why I reinstalled the drivers, there were a few things that were annoying.

Basically without installing the AMD drivers from their site, just relying on the standard Kernel stuff only. ES works but other things are just sub-par. Like MPV opens with Graphical glitches for a few seconds.

With the amd drivers installed everything else runs smoother but ES doesn't start.

mitu

No idea why it's not working - ES uses libSDL as provided by Ubuntu or the Linux distro where it's installed, which in turn relies on the OpenGL support provided by X.org (GLX).

Johnston

@mitu Do you know if there is a commandline to call the output of libsdl the same way ES does?

Maybe compare the AMD, Nvidia, Nouvea, Standard outputs?

mitu

Usually glxinfo should show if accelerated OpenGL is supported. For SDL, you could download the library and compile the tests folder - there are specific OpenGL tests that can be run to test libSDL.

Johnston

@mitu

Heres the output from glxinfo AMD driver ES not working
https://pastebin.com/FQqDbjmC

EDIT: From a fresh install & updated no AMD drivers ES working. https://pastebin.com/xjcZ52Fd

mitu

@johnston Can you try installing the emulationstation-dev package from the experimental section and see if it works with the proprietary drivers ?

Johnston

@mitu Unless it has had an attempt at a fix in the mean time, the Dev version did the exact same thing.

But ATM I'm back on the standard drivers.

If there's been an attempt at a fix I'll give it a go and reinstall but I don't want to do that if there hasn't because I've found to get back to 100% stock it takes a fresh install.

mitu

@johnston said in emulationstation fails to launch:

@mitu Unless it has had an attempt at a fix in the mean time, the Dev version did the exact same thing.

There was, that's why I asked. There was a modification on the master branch, not the stable, hence the emulationstation-dev installation.

Johnston

@mitu I shall give that a go then

EDIT: We have a fix for the AMD side at least

Jan 29 14:14:08 lvl3: 	fireEvent: game-end  
Jan 29 14:14:08 lvl2: 	Creating window...
Jan 29 14:14:08 lvl2: 	Created window successfully.
Jan 29 14:14:08 lvl2: 	GL vendor:   X.Org
Jan 29 14:14:08 lvl2: 	GL renderer: Radeon RX 580 Series (POLARIS10, DRM 3.38.0, 5.8.0-7630-generic, LLVM 10.0.1)
Jan 29 14:14:08 lvl2: 	GL version:  4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 20.1.6
Jan 29 14:14:08 lvl2: 	Checking available OpenGL extensions...
Jan 29 14:14:08 lvl2: 	 ARB_texture_non_power_of_two: ok

mitu

@johnston Thanks for the follow-up, let's hope this will fix similar issues in the future.

darkblaster77

@mitu

I am having this similar issue. Wondering if there is way to run EmulationStation with Nvidia proprietary driver.

mitu

@darkblaster77 Have you tried the solution from this topic ?

darkblaster77

@mitu

I am not mistaken, the solution is for AMD graphic card.

My setup is as follows
Processor: Intel Core2Duo T6600
RAM: 4GB
Graphic: Nvidia GeForce G105M
O/S: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
RetroPie Version: 4.7.11

My current workaround is to use the Nouveau display driver.