Retropie setup menu/Runcommand crashing in ES on Ubuntu

[rom11617]

@mitu For reference. I have setup retropie/emulationstation on ubuntu in the past, 18.04 version and runcommand always worked as intented. I have updated all the core apps through the retropie setup via terminal but no dice...

[mitu]

@rom11617 said in Retropie setup menu/Runcommand crashing in ES on Ubuntu:

Hey there. I am launching from the desktop icon.

OK, so this should start a gnome-terminal and from the terminal it will launch EmulationStation. When you start from the 'terminal' (and it works), which terminal do you actually launch ? Is it the same (gnome-termninal) or a different one ? Can you post the ES log file when things don't work ?

[rom11617]

@mitu Built in terminal app. And when I say it works, it's when I run the retropie setup command from terminal. I don't launch ES from a terminal.

How do I pull a ES log?

[mitu]

@rom11617 said in Retropie setup menu/Runcommand crashing in ES on Ubuntu:

@mitu Built in terminal app.

Which is ... ?

And when I say it works, it's when I run the retropie setup command from terminal. I don't launch ES from a terminal.

What if you're launching EmulationStation from a terminal ? Are runcommand/RetroPie-Setup working in this case ?

How do I pull a ES log?

You can find the log in $HOME/.emulationstaton/es_log.txt.

[rom11617]

@mitu I'm not sure how to further clarify the stock terminal app from ubuntu, sorry.

I launced ES via the terminal and got the same behavior when trying to open retropie setup from ES retropie menu.

Here's the last few lines from the ES Log.

Jul 25 01:04:02 lvl2: Added known joystick 'Xbox One S Controller' (instance ID: 0, device index: 0)
Jul 25 01:04:03 lvl2: Added known joystick 'Xbox One S Controller' (instance ID: 0, device index: 0)
Jul 25 01:04:18 lvl2: req sound [detailed.launch]
Jul 25 01:04:18 lvl2: (missing)
Jul 25 01:04:19 lvl2: Attempting to launch game...
Jul 25 01:04:19 lvl2: sudo /home/emulationstation/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_packages.sh retropiemenu launch /home/emulationstation/RetroPie/retropiemenu/rpsetup.rp </dev/tty >/dev/tty
Jul 25 01:04:33 lvl2: Creating window...
Jul 25 01:04:33 lvl2: Created window successfully.
Jul 25 01:04:33 lvl2: GL vendor: Intel
Jul 25 01:04:33 lvl2: GL renderer: Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2)
Jul 25 01:04:33 lvl2: GL version: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 24.0.9-0ubuntu0.1
Jul 25 01:04:33 lvl2: Checking available OpenGL extensions...
Jul 25 01:04:33 lvl2: ARB_texture_non_power_of_two: ok
Jul 25 01:04:33 lvl2: Added known joystick 'Xbox One S Controller' (instance ID: 1, device index: 0)
Jul 25 01:04:33 lvl2: Added known joystick 'Xbox One S Controller' (instance ID: 1, device index: 0)
Jul 25 01:04:49 lvl2: Added/Updated 1 entities in '/home/emulationstation/.emulationstation/gamelists/retropie/gamelist.xml'
Jul 25 01:04:49 lvl2: Saved gamelist.xml for system "retropie" in 0 ms
Jul 25 01:04:49 lvl2: EmulationStation cleanly shutting down.

[mitu]

@rom11617 said in Retropie setup menu/Runcommand crashing in ES on Ubuntu:

@mitu I'm not sure how to further clarify the stock terminal app from ubuntu, sorry.

It's most likely gnome-terminal if you have a standard Ubuntu desktop installation, which comes with Gnome. Is this a standard Ubuntu Desktop installation ? Is it a new installation or upgrade to an existing one ?

The log doesn't show any error, though it's strange that's taking 20 sec to just go back to EmulationStation from - unsuccesfully - trying to launch the setup script.

[rom11617]

@mitu Brand new install. I copied over some of the files from my 18.04 build of emulationstation so I wouldn't have to scrape all new media and stuff like that, I wonder if there is some config file somewhere creating conflict.

What would be the least dramatic way to reinstall everything retropie wize? I can always make backups of my gamelists to keep the image and video files and drop them back in where they go...

Would I just delete the /opt/retropie folder as well as the etc/emulationstation folder?

[mitu]

@rom11617 said in Retropie setup menu/Runcommand crashing in ES on Ubuntu:

I wonder if there is some config file somewhere creating conflict.

No, not for this part.

What would be the least dramatic way to reinstall everything retropie wize? I can always make backups of my gamelists to keep the image and video files and drop them back in where they go...

As a possible workaround, try using an Xorg session, instead of Wayland, just to see if you encounter the same issue. I'll try to reproduce the error, but it will take a bit of time until I do so.

[rom11617]

@mitu You assume I'm way more knowledgeable in Linux that I actually am...lol.
I'll try a google search to try and figure out what you're asking me to do. ha ha. Thank you for your help.

[rom11617]

Same behavior unfortunately. Here's the log file. There's something about a theme conflict but I can't imagine that could be the problem, could it?

Jul 25 07:48:37 lvl1: requested mismatched theme type for [video.md_lastplayed] - expected "datetime", got "text"
Jul 25 07:48:37 lvl1: requested mismatched theme type for [video.md_lastplayed] - expected "datetime", got "text"
Jul 25 07:48:37 lvl1: requested mismatched theme type for [video.md_lastplayed] - expected "datetime", got "text"
Jul 25 07:48:37 lvl2: Added known joystick 'Xbox One S Controller' (instance ID: 0, device index: 0)
Jul 25 07:48:37 lvl2: Added known joystick 'Xbox One S Controller' (instance ID: 0, device index: 0)
Jul 25 07:48:58 lvl2: req sound [detailed.launch]
Jul 25 07:48:58 lvl2: (missing)
Jul 25 07:48:58 lvl2: Attempting to launch game...
Jul 25 07:48:59 lvl2: sudo /home/emulationstation/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_packages.sh retropiemenu launch /home/emulationstation/RetroPie/retropiemenu/rpsetup.rp </dev/tty >/dev/tty
Jul 25 07:49:25 lvl2: Creating window...
Jul 25 07:49:26 lvl2: Created window successfully.
Jul 25 07:49:26 lvl2: GL vendor: Intel
Jul 25 07:49:26 lvl2: GL renderer: Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2)
Jul 25 07:49:26 lvl2: GL version: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 24.0.9-0ubuntu0.1
Jul 25 07:49:26 lvl2: Checking available OpenGL extensions...
Jul 25 07:49:26 lvl2: ARB_texture_non_power_of_two: ok
Jul 25 07:49:26 lvl2: Added known joystick 'Xbox One S Controller' (instance ID: 1, device index: 0)
Jul 25 07:49:26 lvl1: requested mismatched theme type for [detailed.md_lastplayed] - expected "datetime", got "text"
Jul 25 07:49:27 lvl2: Added known joystick 'Xbox One S Controller' (instance ID: 1, device index: 0)
Jul 25 07:49:36 lvl2: Added/Updated 1 entities in '/home/emulationstation/.emulationstation/gamelists/retropie/gamelist.xml'
Jul 25 07:49:36 lvl2: Saved gamelist.xml for system "retropie" in 0 ms
Jul 25 07:49:36 lvl2: EmulationStation cleanly shutting down.

[mitu]

I've updated by 22.04 install to 24.04, but I can't reproduce this issue. I'm using the default (Wayland session) Gnome session and EmulationStation is started from the RetroPie shortcut (rpie.desktop), so running under gnome-terminal, and there's no issue with runcommand or RetroPie-Setup being started/working.

Is sudo set-up for your user so as to not require a password ? That could explain why RetroPie-Setup doesn't work from EmulationStation.

[rom11617]

@mitu I believe so. That's where you change the ALL:ALL ALL NOPASSWD or something like that in terminal, correct?

[mitu]

@rom11617 said in Retropie setup menu/Runcommand crashing in ES on Ubuntu:

. That's where you change the ALL:ALL ALL NOPASSWD

Yes, that would be it.

[rom11617]

@mitu yeah, I've done that. Out of the gate. So weird.

[V0rt3x667]

@rom11617 Hi, I had the same issue and this fixed it for me. In the file scriptmodules/supplementary/retropiemenu.sh try changing the line:

From:

setESSystem "RetroPie" "retropie" "$rpdir" ".rp .sh" "sudo $scriptdir/retropie_packages.sh retropiemenu launch %ROM% </dev/tty >/dev/tty" "" "retropie"

To:

setESSystem "RetroPie" "retropie" "$rpdir" ".rp .sh" "sudo $scriptdir/retropie_packages.sh retropiemenu launch %ROM%" "" "retropie"

Then install the retropiemenu from the setup script.

[rom11617]

@V0rt3x667 Dude this worked! However, I still cannot get runcommand to function. I press the button 0 on the controller after the game launches but the game just loads.

I have joysticks enabled, menu art disabled, runcommand menu enabled. Any ideas?

[V0rt3x667]

@rom11617 I think it is an issue with pysdl2. Prior to Retropie switching over to it I never experienced the controller not working on the runcommand launch screen. It also seems to be an issue that only effects x11 or Wayland users. If you run in KMS (no display manager or compositor running) there is no issue. I will see what else I can find out to help.

[mitu]

@V0rt3x667 said in Retropie setup menu/Runcommand crashing in ES on Ubuntu:

I think it is an issue with pysdl2.

Sure, it migh be, but that doesn't explain why the setup script works fine outside of EmulationStation - pysdl2 is used in that case also for joy2key.

[V0rt3x667]

@mitu @rom11617 Sorry one thing I forgot to mention is to try using a different terminal emulator like alacritty, kitty and I think the Gnome project has a newer terminal out it is called gnome-console.

[rom11617]

@V0rt3x667 I installed kitty and set as the default terminal emulator. However when Emulationstation loads, I still get the purple colored terminal screen, it doesn't look like kitty. No change to being able to launch runcommand and change the emulators...