Help! EmulationStation wont show any emulators

ChristopherLeo

Hi everybody,

I'm new to RaspberryPi/RetroPi and this is my first post here.
I've got a major problem. Based on a video tutorial, I installed the experimental package 'EmulationStation-Kids'. (Link at the end)

After it had installed I performed a reboot, but it just took me back to terminal.
I couldn't type in the word 'Emulationstation' to boot it, nothing worked.
I had to SSH into it and uninstall the EmulationStation-Kids, but it made no difference.

So I ran sudo apt-get update and I ran sudo apt-get upgrade but it didn't help, I was still stuck in terminal.
Then I used SSH to get into RetroPie Setup and made my way to 'Updated all my core packages from source'. I hoped it would make RetroPie forget the experimental package, so I could get back into EmulationStation.

Now I can get into ES, but it's all the way back to the basic look, just like when you boot it up for the first time. And no emulators are showing.
Then I used \RETROPIE to check my folders on the SD card, and all the Roms and Bios files are still there, but EmulationStation aren't showing the emulators.

Tl;dr All my Roms and Bios files are in the correct place, with the correct file name extension. It all worked perfectly, but now EmulationStation doesn't show me the emulators. My custom made splashscreen PNG still shows when I start the Retropie, so it reads the folders of the SD card.

Please help, thanks :-)

Pi Model: RP3
RetroPie Version Used: 4.0.3
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: Mac keyboard
Controller used: PS4 controller
Error messages received:
Log found in /dev/shm/runcommand.log (if relevant):
File:
Emulator: All of them, Nes, Snes, FBA Next, GBA, N64, PSX, etc.
Attachment of config files:
Guide used:

edmaul69

@ChristopherLeo ok you need to look at the es_systems.cfg. First look in /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg If it is not there then use the one in /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg Is the file empty? If so thats your problem. Otherwise look at the rom links in that file and see if they point to /root/RetroPie/roms/"NameOfRomFolder" if so change them to /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/"NameOfRomFolder"
If you have a backup of the file then copy it to /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/
If you dont have anything in the file and you dont have a backup then you need to reinstall the emulators you use. I had the same hell when i uninstalled esKids as well. Luckily i have backups of all the /opt/ folder and the /home/pi/ folder plus random stuff in other folders. And everytime i add or update something i update my backups. Plus randomly i make a backup image.

ChristopherLeo

@edmaul69 Thanks a lot for this answer, I'm pretty sure you're right, the es_systems.cfg file is more or less empty... This is all the text inside of it:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<bool name="BackgroundJoystickInput" value="false" />
<bool name="DrawFramerate" value="false" />
<bool name="EnableSounds" value="true" />
<bool name="ParseGamelistOnly" value="false" />
<bool name="QuickSystemSelect" value="true" />
<bool name="SaveGamelistsOnExit" value="true" />
<bool name="ScrapeRatings" value="true" />
<bool name="ShowHelpPrompts" value="true" />
<int name="ScraperResizeHeight" value="0" />
<int name="ScraperResizeWidth" value="400" />
<int name="ScreenSaverTime" value="300000" />
<string name="Scraper" value="TheGamesDB" />
<string name="ScreenSaverBehavior" value="dim" />
<string name="ThemeSet" value="carbon" />
<string name="TransitionStyle" value="fade" />

So I'm missing text that looks like the following, right?

<system>
<name>atari2600</name>
<fullname>Atari 2600</fullname>
<path>~/RetroPie/roms/atari2600</path>
<extension>.a26 .bin .rom .zip .gz .A26 .BIN .ROM .ZIP .GZ</extension>
<command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 SYS atari2600 %ROM%</command>
<platform>atari2600</platform>
<theme>atari2600</theme>
</system>

I'm very new to this, but I'm pretty sure I understand what's going on :-)

edmaul69

@ChristopherLeo you opened the wrong file. that is the es_settings.cfg DO NOT EDIT THAT FILE!!!

ChristopherLeo

You're right! Like I told you, I'm a beginner at this :-)

But I found an easy fix for my the problem.
In EmulationStation I went into the 'RetroPie Setup' --> 'Manage Packages' --> 'Manage Main Packages'
Here I chose 'Install/Update all main packages from source'
It took a looooong time, as in more than an hour.
But in the process, it must have restored the structure of the RetroPie/EmulationStation.

Now all of the emulators are back in the menu, all my scraped cover art is there, and it even remembers my saved games.

The first thing I'll do now is to use Win32DiskImager to make an image of the SD card that I have in my Raspberry Pi. As far as I know, I can always go back to that image file, if anything should happen again :) At least, that's what I've read here:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-clone-your-raspberry-pi-sd-card-for-super-easy-r-1261113524

herb_fargus

@ChristopherLeo installing from source is a waste of time. Always use binaries. Very rarely will you ever need to build from source