Question on Ubuntu laptop with two user accounts

directandrew

Hi,

I have built a RetroPie on a Raspberry pi 3 and love it. It was fun learning about configurations files, roms location and basic setups. No expert in Linux, but ok with computers.

To my question. I have a Ubuntu 22.04 laptop that has RetroPie and can game without issues under my log in at the PC user screen. I have sudo and admin. User name "dad" and I launch RetroPie from the launcher. Works perfectly.

My son also uses this laptop under his Ubuntu account. User name "son" and he is basic user. No sudo. When we launch under his account, emulations stations gives and error and it can't find the emulator or consoles. Probably normal as it's looking outside his home directory.

So I know RetroPie works out of folders in and out side of the "home", and the (.)hidden but my basic ask is will I need to log in under "son" and reinstall RetroPie with his account via terminal using sudo on my name?.

Assumption is I'll need to maintain two locations of RetroPie and two locations of roms in his and my home directory? Is this correct?

Thanks in advance! Can send screenshots or whatever if needed.

AG

mitu

Unfortunately that won't work, RetroPie is not meant to be used by multiple accounts at the same time, the installation will always use a single account for configurations (and that includes the frontend - EmulationStation - and emulators).

directandrew

@mitu Thank you. One last question?

If i just install on one account, does Retropie require Admin to run correctly on Ubuntu? If so, i would need to elevate my "son" account from standard to Admin on the laptop.

During use, Retropie may look to modify folders below:
*ROMs (/home/Son/RetroPie/roms) -> no admin needed, home is r/w but...
*Configurations (/opt/retropie/configs/all/) --> this would need Admin to w/r correct? so an admin account?

Im sure there are a lot more folders, but you get the idea.

thx

mitu

@directandrew said in Question on Ubuntu laptop with two user accounts:

If i just install on one account, does Retropie require Admin to run correctly on Ubuntu?

Yes, but that's needed just for installing packages by the RetroPie-Setup script, not for running the games.

If so, i would need to elevate my "son" account from standard to Admin on the laptop.
During use, Retropie may look to modify folders below:
...

Those folders are always owned by the non-admin user that was used for installation, you don't require any special/admin rights to access or write to them. They're used mainly by the emulators for saving configs / game progress, so there's no need for extra rights to work with them.