Old machine, looking for direction

jamesnj

Hello all!
Not really a problem per-se, looking for some direction ... I've used retropie on RPi for years. I found an old intel mini laptop that I'd like to build out for some fun. Successfully loaded Debian 12 x86 with LXDE, seems to run well. I've never played with retropi on any other hardware or laptop.

For the way retropie works, is it possible to invoke it from an X window desktop? Or is there a conflict with who controls the graphic hardware?

I'd like to boot to standard X desktop and run things like Retropie .. but if it's not really able to do that, I can run retropie first and then invoke anything else from the Ports menu. If I do this, I suppose I would need to disable systemd boot to graphical mode and then use the console for the retropie install/etc.?

Thanks

mitu

Yes, RetroPie on a PC (x86/x86_64) runs from the desktop, unlike the PI, where it doesn't. Just install Debian with LXDE and then follow the instructions from the Debian install page.

jamesnj

Awesome! It seemed to work (but took forever to compile). I have an old intel atom N270 Dell Mini 9, ubuntu 12. Just installed, having some trouble. I'm just trying some simple tests with atari2600 roms.

I made the mistake of doing the whole install procedure as root and now trying to run emulationstation as non-root user. I think I just need to direction as to what I messed up. I think it's probably permissions issues on the filesystem.

I updated /etc/emulationstation//es_systems.cfg to point to the right place for moms. I copied the default /root/.emulationstation dir into my home directory.

I ended up updating the permissions /opt/retropie/configs to 777 for dirs and 666 for all files, that helped some. I tried to sudo ./retropie_setup.sh and do the reset permissions (222), still no luck.

Emulationstation seems to work with my buffalo classic USB gamepad to navigate menus, pick games, etc. Once I pick a game I see the text launcher, then the game launches in full screen mode. I tried to hit any key to enter configuration, but it seems to ignore everything. Once I’m in the game, I have no gamepad control -- only way to exit is hitting ESC 2x.

So I think it might be permissions issue and/or retroarch can’t find any settings for the joypad.

Any advice?

Thanks

mitu

@jamesnj said in Old machine, looking for direction:

Any advice?

Yes, redo the installation as a regular user.

jamesnj

I spent ~8h today recompiling under my ID ... same result.

When I start a game the screen indicates "USB, 2-axis 5-button gamepad (1411/8288) not configured".

Through some old on-line references I found settings for input drivers, changed my system from UDEV to SDL2. Now it looks it recognizes that a controller is there: at least 1 button works, but nothing else sensible.

I'm suspecting this is a very old computer and maybe there's some issue with retroarch recognizing my inputs. Emulationstation seems to navigate with D pad and recognize A and B buttons. But the games do not recognize the controller setup.

Where else should I look for retroarch to correctly recognize the controller?

mitu

@jamesnj said in Old machine, looking for direction:

When I start a game the screen indicates "USB, 2-axis 5-button gamepad (1411/8288) not configured".

Can you post the controller's configuration file from /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads ? It should be a .cfg file, generated by EmulationStation when you configured the input. The issue is that RetroArch cannot find the gamepad's configuration profile (the .cfg file I requested) or that profile is not correct.

jamesnj

For this old machine, should the driver be udev or sdl2 (or something else)? I seem to have gotten past the error by changing to sdl2, but the gamepad doesn't work in games.

The path is a link:
retroarch-joypads -> /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig

the autoconfig dir contains:
# ls -l
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 jfarrell jfarrell 602 Jul 6 17:10 'USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad.cfg'
-rw-r--r-- 1 jfarrell jfarrell 602 Jul 6 17:05 'USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad.cfg.bak'

And the contents of gamepad.cfg:
input_device = "USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad"
input_driver = "sdl2"
input_vendor_id = "1411"
input_product_id = "8288"
input_left_axis = "-0"
input_state_slot_decrease_axis = "-0"
input_right_axis = "+0"
input_state_slot_increase_axis = "+0"
input_r_btn = "5"
input_save_state_btn = "5"
input_down_axis = "+1"
input_l_btn = "4"
input_load_state_btn = "4"
input_y_btn = "3"
input_x_btn = "2"
input_menu_toggle_btn = "2"
input_b_btn = "1"
input_reset_btn = "1"
input_a_btn = "0"
input_up_axis = "-1"
input_select_btn = "6"
input_start_btn = "7"
input_exit_emulator_btn = "7"
input_enable_hotkey_btn = "6"

As an aside, the autoconfig directory and all child directories are owned by my user id and permissions 750

Let me know if anything else is needed, thanks for the help

mitu

The configuration file seems ok, the driver should always be udev, not sdl2. Can you run with verbose logging enabled and post the log file (/dev/shm/runcommand.log) on pastebin.com ?

jamesnj

Thanks .. so some additional info.
First, here is a verbose logging I created: https://pastebin.com/GLviKrsS

With my original buffalo game pad, when I invoke a 2600/stella game, only the fire button B works. I tried to configure another similar iNNEXT gamepad. Very similar behavior, except this time the X button is mapped to fire, and nothing else works.

I don't know if it matters, but the logging seems to suggest that the sdl2 driver is being used. I did try to edit the configs in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads joybap cfg files to use input_driver = "udev", but that didn't seem to chage what the error logging produced.

Odd thing is, both controllers seem to set up fine in emulationstation, and can be used for navigation, etc. around the various menus.

Thanks

jamesnj

I'm not sure what exactly I touched, but it seems to be working better now.

I found that my /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg had sdl2 driver set as default ... I changed that to udev. Now, both my controllers seem to work.

I had originally thought that my old PC had a legacy BIOS/usb option that was doing something ... but didn't prove out to be anything useful. I think the change from sdl2 to udev in the default config was what did it. I don't have a verbose logging or capture of files to prove that, but my verbose logging now shows that udev device being used. Spot check of a few other games seems to have good results. I have a feeling that my install for some reason defaulted to sdl2 driver and what was my issue.

Thanks for the help