Amiberry 4.0 released

[BuZz]

@george-spiggott It is. I will be looking into updating it soon.

[Stuffu]

Amiberry 4.2.0 is just released. A lot of fixes and have my fingers crossed this will be available as a binary :)

[vaccinemedia]

@buzz please do! I have just updated my RetroPie setup and it reverted my Amiberry to 3.3 which basically removed most of the new functionality I was using....

[vaccinemedia]

@george-spiggott have you managed to get Amiberry 4.x installed from source on RetroPie? I keep getting an error about a missing file after it has finished compiling

[vretro]

Looking forward to running the latest Amiberry in RetroPie, the new features really add to the experience.

[George Spiggott]

@vaccinemedia No, I've been busy with other projects. I'll probably wait until Retropie updates to update Amiberry.

[Lolonois]

For the fans of the "system that refuses to die", I will share here my how-to install 4.1.6. Make sure you have a exit stragegy beforehand, if you get lost on this limb. Tested on a RPI4 with RetroPie-Setup commit 9569e17 started from a Amiberry 3.3 install and using WHDLoad ROMs only.

The steps are also outlined here [1] but I will provide you a step-by-step guide:

1. Make backup of /opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry and /opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/conf

2. Change version in ~/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/emulators/amiberry.sh scriptmodule from v3.3 to v4.1.6

3. Move current Kickstart roms from ~/RetroPie/BIOS to ~/RetroPie/BIOS/amiga

4. Remove any *.uae file from /opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/conf

5. cd ~/RetroPie-Setup (corrected, thanks @ecto )

6. Run these commands:

   sudo ./retropie_packages.sh amiberry sources
   sudo ./retropie_packages.sh amiberry build
   sudo ./retropie_packages.sh amiberry install
   sudo ./retropie_packages.sh amiberry configure
   

7. Copy AROS ROMs from ~/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/amiberry/kickstarts/*.bin to ~/RetroPie/BIOS/amiga

8. Copy abr/ folder and content from ~/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/amiberry/ to /opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/

9. Copy ~/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/amiberry/conf/amiberry.conf to /opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/conf

10. Verify/set these settings in the copied amiberry.conf:

    default_horizontal_centering=yes
    default_vertical_centering=yes
    default_fullscreen_mode=1
    rom_path=/opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/kickstarts/amiga/
    

Then you should be able run/use your new installation.

HTH

[1] https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/issues/3313#issuecomment-932320038

[ecto]

@lolonois Thanks for there instructions! I was able to get Amiberry to work this way.
There is just one litte typo in your instructions: cd ~/RetroPie should be cd ~/RetroPie-Setup.

Here is a little question that I have, though: Is it possible to use the autoheight function? I only get a black screen, when I enable it. If I start amiberry with XINIT:in the /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/emulators.cfgit works but the joystick input doesn't work anymore. I probably have to mention that I'm using the KMS driver with my raspberry pi 4 so I guess Amiberry is compiled with SDL2 support.

If autoheight does in fact not work, do you have a hint what the best resolution settings for Amiberry would be?

EDIT ok, according to the Amiberry Github page you have to set use_drawing_thread=no with KMSDRM if you want to use autoheight.
I'll try this out later... :)

EDIT2
Nope, didn't work. Hmm.

[George Spiggott]

@ecto It depends, most games are a little over 200p (216p?) but some use the full PAL screen and are approximately 256p.

[Lolonois]

@ecto I have pasted my amiberry.conf as a reference: http://ix.io/3QMt

I am using kernel Linux rpi4 4.19.97-v7l+ and the fake KMS (dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d in /boot/config.txt and I stick to this eeprom and firmware:

pi@rpi4:~$ sudo rpi-eeprom-update 
BCM2711 detected
BOOTLOADER: up-to-date
CURRENT: Thu 16 Apr 17:11:26 UTC 2020 (1587057086)
 LATEST: Thu 16 Apr 17:11:26 UTC 2020 (1587057086)
 FW DIR: /lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader/stable
VL805: up-to-date
CURRENT: 000137ad
 LATEST: 000137ad
pi@rpi4:~$ sudo vcgencmd version
Feb 12 2020 12:36:21 
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version c3c8dbdf147686fb0c3f32aece709d0653368810 (clean) (release) (start)

With these parameters I can switch use_drawing_thread to yes or no. With no I have no glitches, the games I tested are working as with Amiberry 3.3. With yes I have e.g. on game Pang a glitch in the intro, but still the screen does not get/stay black completely and the gameplay shows no further glitches.

I have not touched the emulators.cfg it still reads:

amiberry = "/opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/amiberry.sh auto %ROM%"
default = "amiberry"

If you align your amiberry.conf with the provided one above, does it make a difference?

PS: And thanks for spotting and reporting my mistypo in my previous post. Corrected it.

[A Former User]

Hi,

thanks for the tutorial, worked for me.

Please note that on some old Pi3B hardware one will see a black screen with the dmx-32 versions when switching from emulation to Amiberry config panel with F12. Could track down the error with help of Midwan (author of Amiberry) to two code lines removed in v4.1.5-RC2. If you want to get any version above v4.1.4 working on some old Pi3b hardware, you may need to re-add the removed codelines first and recompile from source.
https://github.com/midwan/amiberry/commit/9432242dac32414c8526a303e3f85b05cd99632c

Reported issue: https://github.com/midwan/amiberry/issues/904

Workaround: If you don‘t want to mess up with C yourself, you can still use later versions. If you see a black screen when switching via F12, just move the mouse or hold down SHIFT key on your keyboard to fire up some events. This way the config panel would show up. Bug is reported and hopefully gets implemented with v4.2.0 final release.

Cheers

[ecto]

@lolonois Thanks for your effort to help me! So far I was not able to get it to work as intended.
I've looked at your setup and there are quite some differences to mine. Mainly I'm using the KMSDRM backend any I try running amiberry with the auto_height option on.
These are my results:

When I turn on auto_height I have two possibilities:

• running amiberry without x11 leads to a blackscreen. I have to enter the gui (F12) and exit it again to see the game.
• running amiberry in an x11 window displays everything correctly, but I can't use my (Xbox 360) pad. I don't know yet why, but it has something to do with the amiberry startup script and the auto option that is used by /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/emulators.cfg.

[Lolonois]

@ecto Thanks for reporting back precisely. Some general questions: What is the rationale for using auto_height and using full KMS?

Note that, if you use the amiberry.sh scriptmodule without modification it will most likely pick rpi4 as platform, and not the plain SDL2 stanza [1]. You may want to override the $platform in this line [2] with rpi4-sdl2 with full KMS (as full KMS do not use/rely on dispmanx).

If the build produced like that has not the desired result: Can you pls post your kernel (uname -a), the retropie image (you started from), the Retropie-Setup version/commit and the /boot/config.txt and amiberry.conf (the latter two via pastebin or similar).

I currently do not have a spare rpi4 to try by myself, but maybe we find the culprit from the distance.

[1] https://github.com/midwan/amiberry/wiki/Available-Platforms
[2] https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/blob/037b49e60edd26169227ec8f480b280b8e009dff/scriptmodules/emulators/amiberry.sh#L60

[ecto]

@Lolonois Thanks for helping me with this! Im using KMSDRM for other emulators, where it successfully removed screen tearing. The auto-heightis a nice bonus as it can fill the whole screen while maintaining the aspect ratio for many games.

I just found out, that the auto-height option in also set in the whdload_db.xml. Maybe there is a incompatibility when I force it through amiberry.conf?

Changing the $platformto rpi4-sdl2 hasn't changed the behaviour. :(
Here is my kernel version: Linux retropie 5.10.31-v7l+ #1412 SMP Wed Apr 21 15:45:18 BST 2021 armv7l GNU/Linux, my /boot/config.txt and my amiberry.conf.

I started from Retropie 4.7.1 (iirc) and I'm now on 4.7.21 (9569e179).

An here is some more info:

pi@retropie:~/RetroPie-Setup $ sudo rpi-eeprom-update
BOOTLOADER: up-to-date
   CURRENT: Do 3. Sep 12:11:43 UTC 2020 (1599135103)
    LATEST: Do 3. Sep 12:11:43 UTC 2020 (1599135103)
   RELEASE: default (/lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader/default)
            Use raspi-config to change the release.

  VL805_FW: Dedicated VL805 EEPROM
     VL805: up-to-date
   CURRENT: 000138a1
    LATEST: 000138a1
pi@retropie:~/RetroPie-Setup $ sudo vcgencmd version
Apr 21 2021 15:47:51
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version a48d332c35ee1c1c1ab433228e23317f62dcc5fb (clean) (release) (start)
pi@retropie:~/RetroPie-Setup $

[Lolonois]

@ecto Thanks for the configs, I did some analysis. First: I should have mentioned that after the change of this line to make -j4 PLATFORM="rpi4-sdl2" the amiberry must be rebuilded and installed (sudo ./retropie_packages.sh amiberry), please also make sure you use v4.1.6 of Amiberry and not the current master, just in case you missed it.

From the configs I found these differences to mine:

In amiberry.conf:
Diffs mine (which are also the default amiberry.conf settings) starting with - (red), yours starting with + (green)

$ diff -bB -u --color amiberry.conf amiberry.conf_usr_ecto
--- amiberry.conf	2022-03-04 18:10:15.818541075 +0100
+++ amiberry.conf_usr_ecto	2022-03-04 17:57:08.000000000 +0100
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 rctrl_as_ramiga=no
 gui_joystick_control=yes
 use_sdl2_render_thread=no
-default_multithreaded_drawing=yes
+use_drawing_thread=no
 input_default_mouse_speed=100
 input_keyboard_as_joystick_stop_keypresses=no
 default_open_gui_key=F12
@@ -15,11 +15,11 @@
 rotation_angle=0
 default_horizontal_centering=yes
 default_vertical_centering=yes
-default_scaling_method=-1
+default_scaling_method=0
 default_frameskip=no
 default_correct_aspect_ratio=yes
 default_auto_height=no
-default_width=640
+default_width=720
 default_height=512
 default_fullscreen_mode=2
 default_stereo_separation=7
@@ -38,49 +38,3 @@
 default_whd_buttonwait=no
 default_whd_showsplash=yes
 default_whd_configdelay=0

You may change them one by one to my settings and retest after each change.

In config.txt:
I have seen you run a high overclocking. Maybe you can disable it for the tests on amiberry. I had different downside effects on Amiberry (3.3 and 4.1.6 when OC over 1950Mhz) (on my 4.19 kernel with fake KMS).
I assume you are using a (4k?) TV for the Raspberry. Can you try with a full HD computer monitor?
E.g., set hdmi_group=2, hdmi_mode=82 or set only hdmi_group=0, I guess you know the switches. --> https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/config_txt.html#hdmi_group

And I did not review/change the WHDLoad file. I just let it sit there. You should however update it from time to time (within the Amiberry UI menu), if you haven't done it recently.

HTH