cubieboard5 (aka as cubietruck plus or allwinner h8)

Jaapdaniels1984

@backstander i forgot... the script for reading my pltform is just not working for my OS... it'll respond with emptyness... i think that my OS missing some txt and cfg files, had this problem before with setting up audio... there was just no default alsa mixer set, nor was the file there with the info... if someone could tell me where lubuntu/ubuntu stores this information i can make a patch for the cubieboard5... like i said for some reason it is as if the software for this board is stopped developping when it worked for the basics...it's missing quite some stuff i thought to be standard with ubuntu... then again, i knew that it would need some polishing...

vbs

@Jaapdaniels1984
I mentioned it already but the code you are looking for is in the function get_platform in RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/system.sh. It invokes uname --machine and parses its output to fill __platform.

Jaapdaniels1984

@vbs then my __platform is " " that would make it pretty impossible to add to the list.

vbs

@Jaapdaniels1984
This is probably the point where you have to dig into the code and make it work for your platform :) What is the output of uname --machine?

BuZz

To adapt RetroPie to work on a new platform requires a good understanding of the retropie-setup code and knowledge of the underlying hardware. EG When I posted it to the ODroid-C1 it required

a custom sdl2 library with mali driver.
lots of logic changes to modules - eg building retroarch with the mali backend.

Unless the platform has the same hardware as existing supported targets, it is not going to be trivial and I don't think you will be able to do this via a Q/A thread here. EG if you hardware has hardware opengl support under X, you could use the X11 target which would work - however I think your hardware has gles only, which means you will at least need changes to the retroarch module for it and additional platform code in system.sh

Jaapdaniels1984

@vbs since the installation is still running... i'll report another day. but it's at least something that is working now, and thanks to you guys i at least got to understand a bit of it all.

Jaapdaniels1984

@BuZz https://imgtec.com/blog/the-powervr-sgx544mp-a-modern-gpu-for-todays-leading-platforms/ might have the info you were thinking about... seems pretty complete to me. SDL2 should already work, at least i thought i used it in my video-player and in scummvm before...
but i see a really big log turning up, so i imagine there must be something not going as planned... but hey i didn't expect it to turn out this simple... i already made a backup of the official cubietech sourcecode for all my drivers... i don't think i'l make a fully working system anytime soon since i'm working alone and i am a OOB at this... but then again... when i was a kid coding was something i really enjoyed... so i wanna learn something.. i know it'll be a long run to walk alone... but hey i'm learning on my way a lot already... thanks for getting me as far as i am now!

BuZz

If the underlying os has software support and drivers are available/working. PowerVR support for Linux has been horrible in the past due to buggy closed source drivers etc.

Jaapdaniels1984

@BuZz my system is opensource, and so are my drivers... there are 3 versions for desktop enviroment, HDMI linaro (this is the one i use...only HDMI output works here not the PD), PD linaro (only the PD output works here not the HDMI) and there is an android version. the android version works at a lower resolution, and my keyboard didn't work with it. the linux i use is the first they made, seems incomplete but working... all is opensource witch i am allowed to share when there's a need... but i'm still a noob so it takes a lot of time to get through all the codes to undersand the part of the puzzle i need to understand...

Jaapdaniels1984

@vbs uname --machine says armv7l.

Jaapdaniels1984

@vbs @BuZz @backstander not tested yet, but i think my latest should work allright... as i see it everything should just function since these cards are allready used in other products... where can i post the modded system.sh?

mod 1 is:

case "$__os_id" in
Raspbian|Debian)
if compareVersions "$__os_release" lt 8; then
__has_binaries=0
fi

        # set a platform flag for osmc
        if grep -q "ID=osmc" /etc/os-release; then
            __platform_flags+=" osmc"
        fi

        ;;
    Ubuntu|LinuxMint|Linaro)
        __has_binaries=0
        ;;
    *)
        fatalError "Unsupported OS\n\n$(lsb_release -idrc)"
        ;;
esac

and mod 2 is:
function get_platform() {
local architecture=$(uname --machine)
if [[ -z "$__platform" ]]; then
case $(sed -n '/^Hardware/s/^.: (.)/\1/p' < /proc/cpuinfo) in
armv7l)
__platform="CB5"
BCM2708)
_platform="rpi1"
;;
mod3 is:
platform${__platform}
}

function platform_CB5() {
__default_cflags="-O2 -march=armv7-a -mtune=cortex-a7 -mcpu=cortex-a7 -mfpu=vfpv4-d32 -mfloat-abi=hard"
__default_asflags=""
__default_makeflags="-j$(nproc)"
__platform_flags="x11"
__qemu_cpu=cortex-a15
__has_binaries=0
}
function platform_rpi1() {

okay figured most of it out now, setup runs with an eroor before the gui starts now, but setup seems to work like a charm no errors yet and it's already installing for quite some minutes.

vbs

@Jaapdaniels1984 said in cubieboard5 (aka as cubietruck plus or allwinner h8):

@vbs @BuZz @backstander not tested yet, but i think my latest should work allright... as i see it everything should just function since these cards are allready used in other products... where can i post the modded system.sh?

The usual way is to clone the RetroPie repository on github and create a branch with your changes in your clone. Then open a PR (pull request) so your changes can be merged upstream by the maintainers.

Jaapdaniels1984

@vbs i'm not sure if i used the best available gcc settings for my board, since it's also capable for neon, 64 bits, and i'm not sure it needs qemu architecture. could maybe better, but at least this should get it to run... just wished i could get it to understand arm7 is a 64 bits processor, but i already know this would be impossible since python only accepts arm8 and up to be 64 bits designed. i'm not sure about the x11 by the way but it seems to run fine. (it's still installing)...

the -mfpu=vfpv4-d32 seems to be legit but causing problems since -d32 add isn't implemented yet in the sub projects, darn... i can however make it -mfpu=neon-vfpv4 if too much failed during install... just too bad, cause this should get it partly running at full 64 bits...

vbs

@Jaapdaniels1984
I don't know much about the ARM details which gcc settings are best but I think if you just use the same settings they used to compile your Ubuntu then it cannot be that wrong?

Also if your distro is not 64bit then you won't be able to run 64bit anyway.

BuZz

Building is one thing. Running is another. Your changes are the same as building with the generic x11 platform. Don't build everything. First start with emulation station.

Can you run that? If not, it's going to require more than just changing some platform args etc.

Jaapdaniels1984

@BuZz don't worry, i'm not posting it untill i tested it to completely work with at least a snes game. there are still some bugs... i think those are all related to libSDL 1.2, i se 2 gui failed to build, and 2x libsdl not installed correct... but the list isn't a lot shorter than it was so i'm most definetly on the right track... since this is my first tyme using python, i'm happy to undrstand it this far... i understand there's much to do from that point on, but that's okay, as long as you guys don't mind it'll take such a time, i don't mind... i thought getting it to install would take me months, tweaking is no problem... since i'm noob and do this in my spare time, it'll take time...
it's installing now... don't know why retropie-setup can't get the SDL sinse just apt-get did the trick. had no time to test the result yet though...

Jaapdaniels1984

okay, now it fails 128 times not installing much rpi-lib or something is not installed...strange since the installatin earlier gave only 4 faillures... only gui was corrupted it said and libsdl-dev1.2.. now i added the sdl-lib abd it fails a lot more... it has a lot of not could not find file in github... but that can't really be... is there a list of dependecies, or is there a way i could make the program show this? i mean what libaries does it need?

Jaapdaniels1984

@Jaapdaniels1984 nevermind, found out i missed some symbols wichs when retrned the system is again not detected... darn i don't understand why it fails to see my machine's name...