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    Running ROMs from a Network Share

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    • W
      Waffles
      last edited by

      So I am an absolute noob with Linux and the raspberry pi, so I apologize for my ignorance.

      My first question is, what do I put as my username and password? My computers or network share user and pass?

      When I copied over all the folders from the retropie installation to my desired share destination, (RETROPIE) is after every folder name, do I leave that?

      When I'm adding the line of code to autostart.sh, there is one line of text already there, should I put the line of code above or below that? I assumed above that, as that would be the top.

      When I enter ls RetroPie, what exactly should I be seeing? It looks like 4 folders in blue.

      Once again I apologize for the probably stupid questions.

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      • P
        peer1979
        last edited by

        @Waffles

        username, password: network shares user and password.
        leave folders: If you mean, can i leave the old folders in the original location: yes. Consider it a backup :)
        where to put line: I put it above, it worked fine.
        what do you see: To test the network share, copy some unique files to the network share (f.e. some new roms) and see if they appear. If so, you're good. I don't know the colorscheme by memory, sorry.

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        • ?
          A Former User
          last edited by

          Can I buffer the current game on the SD card? I am facing loading issues on big ROMS.

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          • G
            gavster2002
            last edited by

            New to forum so would like to say hi to everyone!

            I am trying to get my RetroPie to boot noms from network. I have created a share on my NAS \nas\retropie. First question do i put roms folders in here or do I create folder called roms and drop the various folders in there?

            I have tried doing using this:

            sudo raspi-config
            In there, select the 4th option and tell it Yes.

            Option 1: Add to autostart.sh (Preferred if using v4.0+)

            sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh
            Add the following line to the top of that file, being sure to adjust it for your personal settings, paths and options.

            sudo mount -t cifs -o username=retropie,password=retropie //192.168.0.10/retropie /home/pi/RetroPie

            after reboot emotion station errors that it can't find system and clicking ok returns me to a command prompt.

            If I use the guest setting:
            sudo mount -t cifs -o guest,uid=pi //192.168.0.10/retropie /home/pi/RetroPie

            the system boots but there are no games?

            Any help would be appreciated

            Thanks
            Gav

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            • G
              gavster2002 @doncastermems
              last edited by

              @doncastermems

              Did you fix this? I also get my roms loaded but retropie menu has gone. Any ideas?

              I am using the stab option as I could not get the autostart.sh method to load the roms.

              Thanks

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              • H
                HoustoneD
                last edited by

                This post is deleted!
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                • H
                  HoustoneD @vxjester
                  last edited by HoustoneD

                  @vxjester said in Running ROMs from a Network Share:

                  Step 10: sudo chown RetroPie: /home/pi/RetroPie

                  Everything worked out great- thanks! But, can you give any insight on this issue? Rigorously searched around and couldnt find any mention of "invalid spec", but found several mentions of "invalid user"

                  pi@retropie:~/RetroPie $ sudo chown RetroPie: /home/pi/RetroPie

                  chown: invalid spec: ‘RetroPie:’

                  pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /home/pi/RetroPie
                  total 0
                  drwxr-xr-x 2 pi root 0 Oct 19 11:30 BIOS
                  drwxr-xr-x 2 pi root 0 Oct 19 11:30 retropiemenu
                  drwxr-xr-x 2 pi root 0 Oct 19 11:31 roms
                  drwxr-xr-x 2 pi root 0 Oct 19 11:31 splashscreens

                  I would assume user pi already has root access here. is this the cause, and i am worried over nothing? Sorry, i am trying to figure out how to properly conform to Markdown- does the above warrant codeblock or inline code? Forgive my ignorance .

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                  • J
                    Jeero @gavster2002
                    last edited by

                    @gavster2002
                    i Would say for your following boot issues:

                    after reboot emotion station errors that it can't find system and clicking ok returns me to a command prompt.
                    or
                    sudo mount -t cifs -o guest,uid=pi //192.168.0.10/retropie /home/pi/RetroPie
                    the system boots but there are no games?

                    that you should first experiment your mount command line directly in the Raspberry shell, in order to detect an potential mount command issue.

                    By the way, i have the same issue as you when i'm using the network folder:
                    sometimes the "retropie" item disappear from the emulationStation menu

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                    • J
                      Jeero
                      last edited by Jeero

                      Hi,

                      Pi Model: 3B
                      RetroPie Version Used: v4.0.2
                      Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
                      USB Devices connected: wireless keyboard dongle, Logitech rumblepad
                      Guide used: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-Network-Share

                      i tried the option1, with Autostart.sh, But it does not work.

                      my mount command is working well, i executed it through the pi SSH shell, then i rebooted emulationStation, and then i succeed in getting files from my network share.
                      (but i noticed an issue as stated on the message above, the "retropie" item disappear from the emulationStation menu )

                      but if i boot with this command line included in Autostart.sh, it is not taken into account.

                      i will try the option 2 tonight, but i wanted to know if someone succeeded with option1 and what would be the issue on my side in that case?
                      sudo mount -t cifs -o username=xxxx,password='xxxx' //192.168.1.12/raspberry/retropie /home/pi/RetroPie

                      Thanks a lot !

                      Regards,
                      Jeero.

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                      • S
                        Solex
                        last edited by

                        Hello i'm very new at this. Is it possible to have both so it loads some Roms from sd card and some Roms from Network drive? And when i i'm out of range it only loads from sd card.

                        I have the same question regarding having some Roms on sd card and some on USB drive is that also possible. Så when i have Network drive online it runs on sd card and Network drive and when i connect USB driv it uses all 3 drives all this automatic no change everytime i connect and diaconnect a drive? Maybe a restart but nothing more 🙄🙄🤔

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                        • Z
                          zehjrack
                          last edited by

                          Hi All,

                          I gave option 1 a shot, folders appear to mount correctly and everything looks good in ES but MAME (/Mame-Libretro) games wont load (FBA games run fine!), when attempting to play a game it looks like it is going to load (black screen for 5-10 seconds) then it reverts back to the MAME menu. Running the game locally from the SD card runs fine so I know it isn't an issue with the ROM file (testing with 1944.zip).

                          Initially I suspected it was a permission issue; I double checked that all files were not set to read-only, I played around with mount command and eventually added uid=1000,gid=1000, pi user now has ownership of ~/RetroPie (screenshot attached), I can create folders/files etc via console and I see them populate on my network share but MAME games still fail to load...unfortunately I have run out of thing to try, any suggestions?

                          Share: NTFS (Server 2012R2)
                          Pi Model: 3B
                          Image: 4.0.2 (ran update script after 4.1 was released)
                          Mount Command: sudo mount -t cifs -o username=xxx,password=xxx,uid=1000,gid=1000 //10.0.0.100/arcade /home/pi/RetroPie

                          Thanks for your help!

                          0_1479102747993_lsl.png

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                          • J
                            Jeero @zehjrack
                            last edited by

                            @zehjrack
                            Hi,
                            i have finally succeeded to use the option 1 too (in switching on/off the option which permits to have emulationstarted automatically run at startup, it seems that it "activate" the use of Autostart.sh file)

                            i personally had no similar issue with Mame roms, but i remarks you were putting them in /Mame-Libretro folder, and i'm putting them in Arcarde folder.
                            Maybe you can try this way ?

                            Regards,
                            Jeero.

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                            • J
                              jrhessey
                              last edited by

                              Has anyone figured out why the retropie menu option in emulation station goes missing when you have load the roms over the network? I've seen a couple of posts in this topic pointing that out and when I mount mine, the retropie menu in emulation station goes missing as well.

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                              • J
                                jpxdude
                                last edited by

                                I haven't looked into this for ages, but I remember this happening to me too. Sounds silly, but it is worth checking that the 'retropiemenu' directory has also been copied to your share, as this didn't transfer over for me when I first tried it. It would be because either that directory is missing in the shared area of your network, or a permissions issue at a guess.

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                                • Z
                                  zehjrack @Jeero
                                  last edited by

                                  @Jeero
                                  Unfortunately no success using the arcade folder either, but, it did lead me to the runcommand log file (/dev/shm/runcommand.log), output below, it seems as though it isn't able to extract/view the contents of the zip file for some reason, which is weird because my FBA roms are in .zip format and they work fine, no difference in permissions between the two folders.

                                  I did some additional testing and Master System and SNES games have the exact same issue too so it isn't just limited to MAME, but at least they output the error "Failed to extract content from compressed file" in yellow text at the bottom left of the screen when attempting to load the game which I don't get with MAME.

                                  Also I think @jpxdude answered your question re the retropie menu, but just in case, ftp into retropie and copy the retropiemenu folder to your network share and reboot, should resolve your issue.

                                  Parameters:
                                  Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame2003/mame2003_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/a$
                                  nffu.03 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.04 NOT FOUND
                                  nffu.05 NOT FOUND
                                  nffux.03 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.13 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.15 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.17 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.19 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.14 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.16 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.18 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.20 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.01 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.11 NOT FOUND
                                  nff.12 NOT FOUND
                                  ERROR: required files are missing, the game cannot be run.

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                                  • Z
                                    zehjrack
                                    last edited by

                                    @Jeero
                                    So just for kicks I decided to give option 2 a shot, my games work fine now lol.

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                                    • G
                                      gavster2002
                                      last edited by

                                      All, I did manage to fix the retropie menu missing bug by slightly modifying the mount command to add 'roms' to the path. It is now all working perfectly :)

                                      sudo mount -t cifs -o username=something,password=something //hostname/retropie/roms /home/pi/RetroPie/roms

                                      Gav

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                                      • J
                                        Jeero @zehjrack
                                        last edited by Jeero

                                        @zehjrack Ok we have both no more issues, even if it's different configurations, everybody is happy, that's the most important :p

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                                        • T
                                          tsull360
                                          last edited by

                                          Hello,
                                          Thanks everyone for putting this info together. I'm close to getting things working, but whenever I mount my share and do an ls ~/RetroPie I receive a message that says 'Access Denied'. Without mounting my share, I can see the contents of RetroPie, but of course its not loading my ROMS from the network.

                                          I've granted the account I'm using on my network 'Full Control' of the folder holding my ROMS. Its folder structure is:

                                          \server\Software\RetroPie\ROMS

                                          My fstab has the following line:
                                          //natssp02/software/RetroPie/ROMS /home/pi/RetroPie cifs credentials=/home/pi/.smbcredentials,uid=pi 0 0

                                          Based on turning on auditing on my server, I can see the connection being made to my file server, so I'm not sure why access is being denied. Any pointers?

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                                          • S
                                            sabelstrom
                                            last edited by

                                            I have been trying this, but cant get it to work.

                                            My shared folder is this ftp://192.168.2.1/FTP/Konsolspel/
                                            In this folder roms, bios, splashscreens and configs folder exists.

                                            I am using a PI3 with the latest RetroPie.

                                            How do i know that the /home/pi/RetroPie/ is the right path?

                                            The ip to the PI is 192.168.2.176

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