Black screen on ES

SuperMazut · 14 Jul 2024, 09:16

Hello, I'm having some problems recently with a Retropie install. Here are the specs:

Raspberry pi 5
Official power supply specifically for Raspberry Pi 5, off the official website
64gigs SD card
Screen: 7 inch touch screen, official one off the official website
Controller: 8bitdo G classic, wired
Image used: Retripie v4.8 on top of Raspberry OS lite, manual install and flashed via the Raspberry flasher tool

Description of the problem: I have manually installed Retropie, exactly following instructions off https://github.com/danielfreer/raspberrypi5-retropie-setup . It's not an unofficial image but rather mere simple to follow instructions on how to do a manual install on Raspberry pi 5.

I installed everything as described, testing it while having only a keyboard connected, which then gave me a "Emulationstation Crashed!" error message. This is apparently normal, as ES tends to do this when it does not detect a controller - and it does not recognize my keyboard as a keyboard. Having that said, I tried again with my 8bitdo conttoller, which does NOT give me an error screen, but it ends up with some sort of black screen. The screen is still backlit and, interestingly enough, when I plug in my keyboard I can type and letters show up on the screen. It will not, however, let me use any commands, all I can do is type.

I have made sure the screen is working properly, Raspi-config also works as it should, the SD card is not faulty, nor is the controller. I can still access raspi config when I let ES crash on purpose, plugging my keyboard in.

There are no roms or saves on it yet.

SuperMazut · 15 Jul 2024, 06:39

Hello???

mitu · 15 Jul 2024, 07:32

Please don't bump your topic on such short notice.

SuperMazut · 17 Jul 2024, 13:50

@mitu It's been two days and frankly, seeing how other posts posted after got replies and this one didn't is really aggravating.

mitu · 18 Jul 2024, 06:49

@SuperMazut said in Black screen on ES:

Screen: 7 inch touch screen, official one off the official website

Did it work before attaching the touch screen (i,e, mHDMI to monitor/TV) ? Does the touch screen works automatically or you have configured it - if yes, which configuration file you modified ?

installed everything as described, testing it while having only a keyboard connected, which then gave me a "Emulationstation Crashed!" error message. This is apparently normal, as ES tends to do this when it does not detect a controller - ...

No, it's not normal. Even without a controller/keyboard attached, EmulationStation should start without crashing. Start EmulationStation from the terminal with the following command line:

emulationstation --debug

and post the resulting log messages or log file (from $HOME/.emulationstation/es_log.txt).

Also post the output of the following command:

kmsprint -p

SuperMazut · 19 Jul 2024, 13:56

@mitu Thank you! I'll try those solutions and post logs when I get home from work. As far as the touchscreen's concerned, I have not tried to hook the pi up on anything else, however I can vouch for the touch screen that it does work, I can access the black command screen and raspi config no problem. Also if I let ES crash on purpose amd press okay, the retropie ascii art does show up... Which I guess just proves that it's installed.

Anyway, I'll report back when I get home and try some of tje suggestions. Will post logs aswell. Appreciate the help very much.

SuperMazut · 19 Jul 2024, 19:16

@mitu Alright.

kmsprint -p gives me this:
i.ibb .co/cyHG02L/greska1.png (without the space between ibb and .co because apparently my reputation's too low to post links?)
(the cut off part after BG24 says RG16, sorry about that)

While emuationstation --debug gives me this:
ibb .co/VMGt6hW
and then crashes again. Is that the log you asked for? ($HOME/.emulationstation/es_log.txt)

SuperMazut · 19 Jul 2024, 19:20

Also, maybe I should add that "$HOME/.emulationstation/es_log.txt" gives me "Access denied".

Also forgot to add that the touch screen works automatically. Nothing has been modified.

mitu · 20 Jul 2024, 03:27

@SuperMazut said in Black screen on ES:

i.ibb .co/cyHG02L/greska1.png (without the space between ibb and .co because apparently my reputation's too low to post links?)

There's no link posting restriction, I don't understand why you think so. You can also drag-n-drop the picture into the post to include it directlu, without resorting to a 3rd party hosting site (with a reasonable image size).

I can see that the DSI connector is printed and the resolution (800x480) is detected.

While emuationstation --debug gives me this:
ibb .co/VMGt6hW

I don't see any error here but also there's no video output - if the picture your posted is what you see on the screen. For text files, enable SSH and copy the file with WinSCP, then post the contents directly intot he post. The end of the log file is missing.

Also, maybe I should add that "$HOME/.emulationstation/es_log.txt" gives me "Access denied".

Yes, you can't execute a text file, which is what your command tries to do. You need to view the file with less or more if you're looking at it from the terminal. Or just copy it with WinSCP like I mentioned it earlier.

If you run kmstest from the command line (or via SSH), do you get a colour pattern on the screen ?

SuperMazut · 21 Jul 2024, 06:26

@mitu If I try to post links or images, forum gives me a message that my reputation needs to be at least 0 to do that.

Anyway, this is the beggining of es_log.txt
ibb .co/sqhNLbg

kmstest does give me a color pattern.

Also for some reason I get access denied if I try to SSH into pi@(my IP address) via powershell or WinSCP.

mitu · 21 Jul 2024, 06:33

@SuperMazut said in Black screen on ES:

@mitu If I try to post links or images, forum gives me a message that my reputation needs to be at least 0 to do that.

Ah, yes, your reputation is less than 0 at the moment.

Anyway, this is the beggining of es_log.txt
ibb .co/sqhNLbg

It doesn't really help, since the error crashing ES is at the end of the file - as I said before. You posted the same log previously, so nothing new here.

kmstest does give me a color pattern.

That's good.

Also for some reason I get access denied if I try to SSH into pi@(my IP address) via powershell or WinSCP.

If you're sure you have enabled SSH, double-check you're entering the password correctly (it's raspberry).

SuperMazut · 21 Jul 2024, 19:06

@mitu Yeah, low reputation is probably due to me being an impatient bitch at the start... I'm really sorry about that. I've been stressed out lately.

Here's the thing:
I got SSH running, works. SCPing into it also works but:

In Powershell, when I do what you told me (more or less in combination with $HOME/.emulationstation/es_log.txt - Tried with and wthout doing emulationstation --debug) it basically gives me the exact same log that I posted already.
In WinSCP, I can't seem to find that text file anywhere. (I searched in both folders at - home -> pi. Namely RetroPie and RetroPieSetup) nothing relevant shows up.

SuperMazut · 21 Jul 2024, 19:24

TERM environment variable not set.
tput: No value for $TERM and no -T specified
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: EmulationStation - v2.11.2rp, built Jul 13 2024 - 22:05:36
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: Parsing XML file "/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/resources/mamenames.xml"...
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: Parsing XML file "/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/resources/mamebioses.xml"...
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: Parsing XML file "/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/resources/mamedevices.xml"...
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: Creating window...
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: Created window successfully.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: GL vendor: Broadcom
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: GL renderer: V3D 7.1
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: GL version: 3.1 Mesa 23.2.1-1~bpo12+rpt3
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: Checking available OpenGL extensions...
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: ARB_texture_non_power_of_two: ok
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl2: Loading system config file /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg...
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "amstradcpc" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "arcade" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "atari2600" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "atari5200" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "atari7800" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "atari800" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "atarilynx" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "channelf" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "coleco" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "fba" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "fds" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "gamegear" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "gb" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "gba" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "gbc" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "mame-libretro" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "mastersystem" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "megadrive" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "msx" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "n64" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:45 lvl1: System "neogeo" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "nes" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "ngp" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "ngpc" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "pcengine" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "psx" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl2: Parsing XML file "/home/pi/.emulationstation/gamelists/retropie/gamelist.xml"...
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "sega32x" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "segacd" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "sg-1000" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "snes" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "vectrex" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl1: System "zxspectrum" has no games! Ignoring it.
Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl3: SystemView::getViewElements()
Segmentation fault
/usr/bin/emulationstation: line 22: /dev/tty: No such device or address
tput: No value for $TERM and no -T specified

Is this of value?

mitu · 22 Jul 2024, 03:10

The crash is the segmentation fault message at the end:

Jul 21 21:22:46 lvl3: SystemView::getViewElements()
Segmentation fault

The reason it crashes is not printed though, you can usually get that by running the program through a source code debugger like gdb, but that's a bit more complicated. Just to rule out any issues with the resources used by EmulationStation, can you try and update/reinstall theemulationstation package ? Or install the emulationstation-dev package from the experimental packag section and try starting the frontend (emulationstation) again.

SuperMazut · 22 Jul 2024, 06:30

@mitu will do tonight after work.

Just to be sure, how would I reinstall and/or update the packages? Any specific commands? Just a few pointers? :)

mitu · 22 Jul 2024, 08:13

@SuperMazut said in Black screen on ES:

Just to be sure, how would I reinstall and/or update the packages? Any specific commands? Just a few pointers? :)

You did this during the installation, right ? See https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/#updatinginstalling-individual-packages.

SuperMazut · 22 Jul 2024, 10:52

@mitu updating individual packages? Except for retropie, I have not, infact. I'll report back tonight. Thank you for your help and time.

SuperMazut · 22 Jul 2024, 20:02

@mitu My attempts were not successful.

I reinstalled ES (from source), then I tried it again after updating ES, same thing. I then got the experimental dev package for ES which also crashes and gives the same error in the logs. Unless I was supposed to uninstall ES first, then get the dev package?

Am I in a big mess here?

mitu · 23 Jul 2024, 01:43

@SuperMazut said in Black screen on ES:

Unless I was supposed to uninstall ES first, then get the dev package?

No, that's not needed, installing one of them will uninstall the other, so there's no need to run the uninstall first.

I then got the experimental dev package for ES which also crashes and gives the same error in the logs.

Ok, so the crash is not caused by a missing/malformed resource. At this point the only way to find out what's causing the crash is to run it through gdb.

Form a SSH session:

install the gdb package with
sudo apt install -y gdb
run EmulationStation through gdb:
gdb -q -ex run /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/emulationstation

NB: if you haveemulationstation-dev installed, then run instead:
gdb -q -ex run /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation-dev/emulationstation

after the 'Segmentation fault' error appears, just type bt and press enter at the gdb prompt that appears. Post the output of the command.
type q to exit gdb and confirm with y if prompted to kill/stop the running process.

SuperMazut · 23 Jul 2024, 19:04

@mitu Today Emulationstation worked... briefly, it crashed again after restart. I then proceeded to do what you told me and it doesn't give me the desired results. It throws me a bunch of "undefined commands":

pi@retropie:~ $ sudo apt install -y gdb
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
gdb is already the newest version (13.1-3).
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
libcamera0.2
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
pi@retropie:~ $ gdb -q -ex /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation-dev/emulationstation
Undefined command: "". Try "help".
(gdb)