GPi Zero 2 v1.52 & GPi Zero v1.15(Retropie Images for Pi Zero/Zero2 + GPi Case 1 & GPi Case 2W)

Sliver X

You're welcome: I'm glad others are getting some use of it.

I've updated the image to v1.18: This should fix the issue you encountered among other things.

ParadoxGBB

@sliver-x A few updates from me:

The OSK just got merged yesterday into the master branch. You don't need a version bump to grab it, just update and you should be good to go. It's pretty spiffy and the only real minor complaint I have is that there's no CAPS. I can deal with that no problem compared to the hoops you needed to go through before.

As for SafeShutdown, I reinstalled the scripts and I'm happy to report that on my image I was able to copy almost 15GB of movies over WiFi at one shot, averaging about 1.5 Mbps, with no reboots required. I'm not sure what was going on before. To uninstall it before I removed the python3-gpiozero package referenced in the install script.

As for our discussion on GPIO, I wrote a basic py script (using https://tutorials-raspberrypi.com/raspberry-pi-gpio-explanation-for-beginners-programming-part-2/) to query each port status but it's too invasive and I'm not sure if that pin is queryable yet. The original scripts look at pins 26 and 27, however think one is the led and one is that actual switch, not the switch in the back. However, I kind of missed that that point of the safe shutdown switch in the back isn't just to install the script but to toggle between safe shutdown mode and regular hard shutdown mode (I know, I've been really slow on this...). If you switch it to off and switch off power, no safe shutdown. That means in therory you could keep it on in the back and if you wanted to hook it up to the switch you could turn it off and back on to get a desired effect, but I'm thinking at this point that outside of it being interesting it may not be as useful as I thought. Current python code I got in case you're interested:

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setwarnings(True)

for i in range(26):
	if i == 0 or i == 1 or i == 2 or i == 4 or  or i==14 or i==17 or i==18 or i==19 or i==22:
		continue
	status = None
	#print(str(i))
	GPIO.setup(i, GPIO.IN)
	status = GPIO.input(i)
	print(str(i) + ' [' + str(status) + ']')

 GPIO.cleanup()

Finally, the RetroFlag site mentions that the USB port in the back is for firmware updates, presumably for the case hardware, but so far I really haven't confirmed that if you wanted to plug hardware that's picked up by the broader OS that it'd work. You said you did? It's acting as if it's completely partitioned off.

Finally, starting a few days ago I'm getting really annoying random latency in my SSH sessions --- anyone hit this? Anyone know if there's something I can check to see if I screwed something up?

Sliver X

@paradoxgbb

The OSK is really nice, thanks for letting me know about it. Now if I can figure out why putting ssh on the boot partition doesn't enable SSH after doing it once and why the sound "card" the GPi case emulates over the gpio pins vanishes after doing an OS update I think I'll be close to having this image completely to the point where I'm happy with it.

mitu

@sliver-x said in GPi Zero 2 v1.18 (Retroflag GPi Image for Pi Zero 2 W):

Now if I can figure out why putting ssh on the boot partition doesn't enable SSH after doing it once.

That is handled by the sshswitch service. If you disabled/removed the service, then SSH won't be enabled.

Sliver X

@mitu

Thank you, yeah, I didn't realize I'd disabled that near the beginning of working on this: Enabling it makes it work (So now I can strip the SSH host keys/etc out of the image before distributing it).

Also, excellent work on the OSK you made recently : It makes using a device with no keyboard infinitely nicer to deal with.

ParadoxGBB

Yes, thanks so much @mitu! I've been hoping for this one for a while.

@Sliver-X here has some great scripts that further help with toggling control of Bluetooth, Samba, Wifi, cores, and logging. I took the lead and stole them and placed them into the RetroPie-Setup folder directly and they are picked up nicely by the UI.

As for the updates as I'm sure you know it's just the dpi24 file that you have to noermally replace and it might be hard for setup scripts to understand that it's customized and it doesn't even know the user has a RetroFlag Gpi case. It's super annoying but I'm not sure what can be done to streamline.

mitu

@paradoxgbb said in GPi Zero 2 v1.18 (Retroflag GPi Image for Pi Zero 2 W):

As for the updates as I'm sure you know it's just the dpi24 file that you have to noermally replace and it might be hard for setup scripts to understand that it's customized and it doesn't even know the user has a RetroFlag Gpi case. It's super annoying but I'm not sure what can be done to streamline.

The issue - I think - is that the .dtbo file used is using a filename already shipped with the Raspberry Pi OS kernel, so it's normal that's overwritten on upgrade. Rename the .dtbo file and update the config.txt accordingly, IF the overlays are not compatible.

Sliver X

<edit>
This post had dead links to obsolete files and has been removed.

alwaysotg

@Sliver-X I just installed this and wanted to say Thank You!
I do have a question. You did have the safe shutdown script preinstalled on the image correct?
I just installed it today from your drop box link. I have the switch turned on under the battery, but it seems like its not doing the safe shutdown. Is there a way for me to verify it is? Also if its not working, can I just install the script from the retroflag gpi site? or do you have any recommendations ?

Sliver X

@alwaysotg

You're welcome, I'm glad others are finding it useful.

Safe Shutdown is installed, and tied to a shell script in /opt/Retroflag that is a minimal, stripped down version of a script written by crcerror:
https://github.com/crcerror/ES-generic-shutdown/blob/master/multi_switch.sh

It's silent VS the original, and also gracefully shuts down EmulationStation and any running emulators so you don't lose metadata/save data. You can tell it's working if, when you flip the power switch, there is about a 2 second delay before the unit turns off. If it's not working, shutdown is instantaneous or doesn't happen at all, depending on why it wouldn't be working.

Installing the original Retroflag script would revert it back to the original behavior of simply initiating a reboot when the power switch is thrown (It does this instead of an actual shutdown: Since the power switch is off rebooting has the same effect, though I'm not really sure why they chose to do it that way?).

If it isn't working, the only thing I can think of is the one time I corrupted the filesystem testing CPU overclocks and it stopped working. A reflash would fix that if it's the case.

stsp

Thank you for sharing your work on this! This has saved me a lot of time.

Sliver X

@stsp

You're welcome. Please let me know if you find any bugs/etc.

I've actually gotten to the point of actually using it to play games instead of just test them, lol, and about 40 hours of use in I've not run into any issues, but I don't use a lot of stuff like scrapers others do so there may be things I'm missing.

AdamBeGood

@sliver-x Is the link in the top message up to date? I am going to look to install your setup on my RetroFlag, it seems very polished. Thank you!

Sliver X

@adambegood

v1.2 is the current version, yes.

AdamBeGood

@sliver-x Superb. Thank you!

Edit: I seem to just be getting a blank screen when I boot up. The image seems to have written okay, the drive is named "boot". I can't see what I could have messed up at this stage!

Sliver X

@adambegood

The image is set up to pipe the display through the GPIO pins out of the box, so it should be working. Have you tried reseating the Pi in the cartridge? Have you checked the connection between the pogo board and the Pi via the micro USB cable on the board?

AdamBeGood

@sliver-x It is really strange. I don't think it's anything to do with connection, as I've got my existing SD Card and I tried that and it works without problem. I've tried a few times now.

The screen lights up but it is just blank. I thought it may be something to do with the way the card is formatted or something like that, but I can't see any difference with my existing SD Card.

Sliver X

@adambegood

Have you tried reflashing the image? How big is the card? Do you have the Safe Shutdown switch set to "On" in the battery compartment/have you been shutting it down with the power switch?

AdamBeGood

@sliver-x said in GPi Zero 2 v1.2 (Retroflag GPi Image for Pi Zero 2 W):

@adambegood

Have you tried reflashing the image? How big is the card? Do you have the Safe Shutdown switch set to "On" in the battery compartment/have you been shutting it down with the power switch?

I haven't tried flashing yet, but I did think I might try again. It looks okay to me though, so it wasn't my first thought.

The card is 32gb but now shows as 256mb I think (I'd need to check). I've been using the safe shutdown script, again I'll have to check on the switch. I do use the Power switch to turn the GPi off.

Crazycat36

@sliver-x How are we able to get sound back?