RetroPie forum home
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Home
    • Docs
    • Register
    • Login

    Pi Zero 2 released

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General Discussion and Gaming
    zerozero2
    93 Posts 33 Posters 34.3k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • B
      Brunnis
      last edited by

      Started experimenting with RetroPie on my Zero 2. Installed the latest weekly image (from Oct 29) and then used the RetroPie-Setup script to update it (including operating system packages). Everything seems to work fine, including audio.

      By the way, there's no easy way of using FKMS or KMS video drivers with RetroPie on this hardware, right? It seems the old BRCM stack is still the default on pre-Pi 4 hardware and trying to use FKMS or KMS results in EmulationStation not starting (which isn't too surprising, of course).

      mituM T 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • mituM
        mitu Global Moderator @Brunnis
        last edited by

        @brunnis said in Pi Zero 2 released:

        By the way, there's no easy way of using FKMS or KMS video drivers with RetroPie on this hardware, right?

        You can do that, but you'll have to re-install from source every package, since we don't provide KMS enabled binaries. Of course, depending on the choice (fkms/kms driver), some packages will not be available (splashscreen, audio, emulators that depend on the BRCM stack, etc.). You might as well do that on a Pi3, since it has more RAM, and transfer back the image.

        B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • B
          Brunnis @mitu
          last edited by

          @mitu said in Pi Zero 2 released:

          You can do that, but you'll have to re-install from source every package, since we don't provide KMS enabled binaries. Of course, depending on the choice (fkms/kms driver), some packages will not be available (splashscreen, audio, emulators that depend on the BRCM stack, etc.). You might as well do that on a Pi3, since it has more RAM, and transfer back the image.

          Right, that was simple enough. Thanks! Just recompiled EmulationStation and it now starts up fine.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • T
            thomasca @mitu
            last edited by

            @mitu I utilized the config.txt from that thread, but still can't get audio over the headphone jack or speaker to work yet. I'm still get a no sound device error when starting games.

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

              @thomasca Not sure what topic you're referring to - may start a separate topic and add more info.

              T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • B
                Brunnis
                last edited by

                Got RetroArch working with KMS as well, by recompiling. Now, the more troublesome part will be to try to get the GPI Case display working under KMS. I don't know if anyone has done it. Found this recent thread on the Raspberry Pi forums, which offers some pointers, but no conclusion:

                https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=322556

                If anyone knows of any more useful resources (or anyone that has done this before), I'd be grateful if you'd let me know.

                retropieuser555R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • retropieuser555R
                  retropieuser555 @Brunnis
                  last edited by

                  @brunnis yeah I couldn't understand it. It's clearly possible I just can't figure out how to recompile that device tree files without getting errors. The good though is if one person figures it out is the gpi case is uniform and we can all just use the same dts file

                  Pi 5 4GB

                  Retroflag GPI with raspberry pi zero 2 w/ wifi

                  Retroachievements:- lovelessrapture

                  B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • B
                    Brunnis @retropieuser555
                    last edited by

                    @retropieuser555 Ahh, that was your thread! Bummer that you didn't get it working. I'll see if I can give it a shot, but my main enemy these days is that I often have too little time available to deep dive on stuff like this.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • T
                      thomasca @mitu
                      last edited by

                      @mitu Sorry, I was talking about the link you provided to the separate thread with a version of config.txt that fixed sound.

                      I forgot to copy over dpi24.dbto to the overlay folder though. After I did that, it started working.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • B
                        Brunnis
                        last edited by Brunnis

                        I've been testing my Zero 2 with a few SNES games and I am a bit suprised of the poor performance in Star Fox. I know it's a SuperFX game, but performance seems to be worse than I remember it from back around 2016-2017 when I was testing a lot with my Pi 3. Running RetroPie on a 1080p display using either FKMS or KMS, the Star Fox intro scene when the Arwing fly through the tunnel gives very noticeable audio crackling. Even overclocking the Zero 2 to the same clock frequency as the Pi 3, i.e. 1.2 GHz, does not fully solve the problem. Combining the overclock with lowering the resolution to 720p does seem to get it to run at 60 FPS without issues.

                        This makes me wonder though... Does anyone know if anything has changed in the past few years that affected performance in any significant way? In my old Pi 3 testing, I could run at 1080p and no overclocking and it would handle Star Fox perfectly fine. Even with threaded video disabled and using the KMS video driver. Do you have any ideas, @mitu or @dankcushions ?

                        All testing done on snes9x2010, by the way.

                        EDIT: It seems it will work without audio crackling at 1.2 GHz, 1080p with threaded video enabled. As I mentioned above, I believe threaded video could be disabled in this game a few years ago.

                        dankcushionsD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • dankcushionsD
                          dankcushions Global Moderator @Brunnis
                          last edited by

                          @brunnis i've no idea i'm afraid - haven't played it and don't have a pi3 anymore :( @Darksavior may know - I believe they mentioned this game before.

                          whilst the zero 2 is sort of a slightly downclocked pi3, i wonder if the cache/memory etc are clocked the same? would be curious to know all the various frequencies it reports. core/memory overclocks often gave good results with the pi3 so it could be crucial.

                          B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • B
                            Brunnis @dankcushions
                            last edited by

                            @dankcushions Thanks. I know at least the core clock is the same as the Pi 3 (400 MHz). Need to check the V3D default, but I did try setting it to 500 MHz and it did not improve the situation. The reviews I've read indicate memory performance is more or less the same as the Pi 3.

                            There could of course be lots of things affecting performance over the years. There's RetroArch itself, the emulator and even firmware/kernel/driver changes. Would be interesting to try some older builds on my Pi 3. Not sure I'm willing to really deep dive into this, though. Might just have to accept that things have changed. 😛

                            dankcushionsD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • dankcushionsD
                              dankcushions Global Moderator @Brunnis
                              last edited by

                              @brunnis one thing to confirm is if you're using audio_driver = alsathread - i'm not sure what setup you're running - it should always be alsathread by default for pi0-3, but I would double check in the RGUI. but yeah, as you say it could be down to all manner of updates since then...

                              B 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • B
                                Brunnis @dankcushions
                                last edited by Brunnis

                                @dankcushions Yep, using alsathread, so that's unfortunately not the issue.

                                EDIT: If I get some time over the next week or so, I might actually try a couple of old images to try to get a good understanding of exactly how much performance has deteriorated. Shouldn't be all that much work.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • S
                                  stuartiannaylor @dankcushions
                                  last edited by

                                  @dankcushions

                                  You need a magic shim as been playing with the OC and found used two 15mm x 2mm copper shims so I could get a bigger heatsink to fit over the HDMI (20mm not much bigger but a bit more chunkier)

                                  arm_freq=1400
                                  over_voltage=6
                                  sdram_freq=500
                                  core_freq=500
                                  v3d_freq=400
                                  h264_freq=400
                                  isp_freq=400
                                  

                                  Seems to be stable but maybe if cpu is not as effective as core_freq and v3d_freq then arm_freq=1300 over_voltage=4 might be OK.

                                  Typically after not finding a 3mm shim so it does have clearance soon as I ordered then found a 3mm copper shim.
                                  The copper does seem to be like magic as could not get much above 1300 before

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • B
                                    Brunnis
                                    last edited by Brunnis

                                    Interesting that Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian Bullseye was just released. Might give it a test run with a manual installation of RetroPie (though I'm guessing some things may be broken). I wonder what Mesa version they've included... (EDIT: It's Mesa 20.3.5) The KMS driver is apparently the default now.

                                    S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • S
                                      stuartiannaylor @Brunnis
                                      last edited by

                                      @brunnis Dunno but worth a try with the last image just got a GLmark2 onscreen score of 141 so see if it improves with new?

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • S
                                        stuartiannaylor @Brunnis
                                        last edited by stuartiannaylor

                                        @brunnis Confused as maybe because I did a raspi-config but glmark2 reporting the renderer is llvmpipe

                                        Try again I guess and leave raspi-config alone, nope llvmpipe is now default.

                                        I would go onto the forum and get some info but got thrown off yesterday for saying replying to obvious troll spam and comparing a Pi against a Shield Pro TV was stupid.
                                        They have even blocked my IP such a crock they reply to obvious troll spam and kick users who tell them so... !
                                        I have 2x Zero2 but sort of stuffed without simple support like the forum.

                                        https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=323130

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

                                          @stuartiannaylor You're getting offtopic here and bashing other forums - which try to provide support for all sorts of users - is not welcomed. If you registered here just because you've been blocked/banned in the RPI forums, I don't think is going to be much help - we're not a general RPI support forum.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • B
                                            Brunnis
                                            last edited by

                                            Just a heads-up for those experimenting with the new Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye release on the Zero 2: From what I can tell, the Zero 2 does not get any hardware accelerated graphics right now. The print-out below is from a fresh and fully updated Raspberry Pi OS desktop installation.

                                            pi@raspberrypi:~ $ glxinfo -B
                                            name of display: :0
                                            display: :0  screen: 0
                                            direct rendering: Yes
                                            Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
                                                Vendor: Mesa/X.org (0xffffffff)
                                                Device: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.1, 128 bits) (0xffffffff)
                                                Version: 20.3.5
                                                Accelerated: no
                                                Video memory: 427MB
                                                Unified memory: no
                                                Preferred profile: core (0x1)
                                                Max core profile version: 4.5
                                                Max compat profile version: 3.1
                                                Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1
                                                Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.2
                                            OpenGL vendor string: Mesa/X.org
                                            OpenGL renderer string: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.1, 128 bits)
                                            OpenGL core profile version string: 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 20.3.5
                                            OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.50
                                            OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
                                            OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
                                            
                                            OpenGL version string: 3.1 Mesa 20.3.5
                                            OpenGL shading language version string: 1.40
                                            OpenGL context flags: (none)
                                            
                                            OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 Mesa 20.3.5
                                            OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20
                                            
                                            S mituM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post

                                            Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.

                                            Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.