Some games load, some don't (NES/FCEUmm Core)

[bmn001]

Tried compiling lr-fceumm from source, ended up with the same version (1.3.6) and it unsurprisingly still did not work.

Does anyone have any ideas of why we might be seeing this behavior?

Based on our logs posted here it looks like runcommand is the culprit, but I'm not 100% sure.

[BuZz]

@bmn001 I doubt it is the fault of runcommand. If you unzip /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/10-Yard Fight (USA, Europe).zip and from a commandline type file /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/unpacked file name what do you get ?

The no-intro nes rom set doesn't have headers does it ? Headerless nes roms will not work.

[hansolo77]

I just thought I'd post an update. I didn't do anything, but now SMB1 works. I mean, I started from scratch with a brand new SD image of RetroPie, updated the kernel (for my raphnet adapter), updated from source RetroArch and lr-fceumm. I'm still troubleshooting my controller issue, but just for a test I went ahead and tried to load SMB1, and it loaded up fine. The ROM is still zipped, and I'm using a No-Intro set. I also have the ROMs stored on a permanently attached hard drive. Those files have not changed in the switchover to a new install. So I think what caused the original issue must have been something we ALL had done at one point. I wonder if this was a problem with maybe RetroArch, that was fixed since the last time it was updated? I have the latest source installed from yesterday (although they update the GIT all the time, with multiple pushes throughout the day). So maybe something is fixed? If not RetroArch, maybe the updated source to FCEUmm had a fix? All I know is that I didn't do anything to the ROM drive or the files, they're all still zipped and it worked.

[bmn001]

@BuZz Well keep in mind this same zipped rom worked with 4.0.1 with the same version of lr-fceumm.

I've unzipped the ROM, and the file command gives me this:

10-Yard Fight (USA, Europe).nes: iNES ROM dump, 2x16k PRG, 1x8k CHR, [Horiz.]

[BuZz]

@bmn001 that should work at least. Maybe try updated retroarch and lr-fceumm (from binary first - i use the last retroarch/lr-fceumm binaries on my system and I have not noticed any issues with nes).

[bmn001]

Just tried updating both of those. First from binary, then from source. Same behavior in every scenario.
To rule out SD corruption or other file systemweirdness I'm in the process of downloading the latest SD image and will give that a go.

[bmn001]

Well it's definitely not SD corruption.

I downloaded 4.1 and put it on the SD. Rom worked. Updated w/setup script to 4.1.3, and...the rom still worked!

So then I tried putting backup image of 4.0.1 that I'd saved from a few months ago on the SD. The rom worked. I then updated w/setup script to 4.1.3. Rom did NOT work.

So somewhere in the update process from 4.0.1 to 4.1.3 , something breaks. I have no idea what or how to track it down, but if worse comes to worse I guess I could always just start over from scratch with 4.1.

[hansolo77]

Good find. I don't know what version I'm using. But as I said, using the latest SD image on the site, and updating RetroArch and the Core from source seemed to keep my system running those "bad" roms. Maybe it IS something to do with the 4.1.3 update. Was there something else going on that might have broke, like RunCommand, or EmulationStation?

[bmn001]

Well I gave up on trying to make this work. In the end, the only thing I could do was install the latest image (4.1) upgrade to 4.1.3 using the setup script, and reinstall roms, re-scrape data, re-config raspi system settings, re-add controllers...basically completely start over.

I've got things working now, but it was a ton of work and I'll have to think long and hard about ever upgrading RetroPie again.

[bmn001]

Ok, after getting everything set up all over again, the problem has returned. I'm pulling my hair out in frustration and I'm more determined than ever to find the cause.

This affects several roms on my system, and the problem only shows up when the roms are zipped.

The verbose logs continue to show the runcommand "line 925/aborted" error.

If I launch into the emulator with a working zipped rom, I'm then able to load a non-working zipped rom inside of the libretro GUI, and it works there! It's only when attempting to launch from emulationstation that I have problems.

Could this libretro bug be to blame? https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/3783
How can I check if "cache_directory" is set to a valid dir?

[BuZz]

check your configs/all/retroarch.cfg - note that runcommand creates the /tmp/retroarch directory when it launches and removes it afterwards.

[bmn001]

Thanks for that. The cache directory is definitely set in the cfg. I even tried changing it temporarily to a persistent dir, and no change.

So next I tried manually entering the same command that runcommand is running on the command line, based on the error log:

/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-fceumm/fceumm_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/Ice Climber (USA, Europe).zip" --verbose --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg

This is the output:
http://pastebin.com/C36xN96W

Compare that with the output of a zipped rom that does work properly:

/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-fceumm/fceumm_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/Tetris (USA).zip" --verbose --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg

http://pastebin.com/7hwpgJxC

The error I'm seeing is "*** Error in `/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch': free(): invalid pointer: 0x01ff8979 ***"

Is this definitive proof that it's a Retroarch bug? If so, I can file a report with them.

[hansolo77]

When you compare the two.. the one that works continues right after checking for Environ GET_VARIABLE fceumm_overclocking:. The next step that is failing on the one that doesn't work is Environ GET_VARIABLE fceumm_overscan:. So maybe it's an overscan setting?

[bmn001]

Good eyes, thank you.

Ok, I just enabled overscan in /boot/config.txt and rebooted.

Didn't do much. Same error, slightly different pointer address:
*** Error in `/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch': free(): invalid pointer: 0x01cb89e9 ***

I'm not sure if this is a retroarch bug or a fceumm core bug.

[hansolo77]

At least the invalid pointer error is now pointing to a different address..

0x01cb89e9
vs
0x01ff8979

The 2nd to last digit changed :)

[bmn001]

I submitted this as a Retroarch bug. Hopefully I don't get laughed out of their bug tracker for not knowing what I'm doing.

https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/4063

[synack]

I experienced the same bug with lr-fceumm using a no-intro set. I can confirm it's specific to lr-fceumm (lr-nestopia works fine).

One foolproof workaround is use an unzipped rom, or to store (zero compression) the rom in the zip. The commands below will re-zip the files at zero compression (so no extra scraping needs to be done, gamelist tweaking, etc).

As always, make a backup first.

sudo apt-get install zip
cd ~/RetroPie/roms/nes
mkdir old
for f in *.zip; do unzip "$f"; mv "$f" old; zip -0 "${f%.*}".zip "${f%.*}".nes; mv "${f%.*}".nes old; done

The old zip files will be placed in the "old" folder. They can be removed when you're satisfied with the new set.

[chromium]

Is there a fix for this yet? I just spent ages setting up retropie only to find that most of my nes roms are failing to load with a "failed to extract content" error followed by an "invalid pointer" error. Nothing wrong with the zips as they unzip fine and they worked in my other retropie setups

I'm sure starting again from scratch will fix, but I really don't want to do that. I've spent days on this setup :(

[BuZz]

@chromium there is a retroarch ticket link above - doesn't look resolved yet.

Unpack your ROMs or use another emulator?

[chromium]

@BuZz said in Some games load, some don't (NES/FCEUmm Core):

@chromium there is a retroarch ticket link above - doesn't look resolved yet.

Unpack your ROMs or use another emulator?

I'm stubborn and am trying to fix it properly :)

I had this issue with a new Retropie install a couple of days ago and then I updated everything and the problem went away. Updating isn't helping in this one though. I tried updating from binaries and sources for both retroarch and lr-fceumm with no joy.

I actually only get the invalid pointer error from command line. If I run from emulationstation I don't get that, I just get "Aborted."

Eg.

RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: Loading /tmp/retroarch/1942 (Japan, USA).nes...

RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: PRG ROM: 2 x 16KiB
RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: CHR ROM: 1 x 8KiB
RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: ROM CRC32: 0x171251e3
RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: ROM MD5: 0x0b66fdf88964235c434daff62837af60
RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: Mapper #: 0
RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: Mapper name: NROM
RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: Mirroring: Horizontal
RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: Battery-backed: No
RetroArch [libretro INFO] :: Trained: No
RetroArch [libretro INFO] ::
RetroArch [INFO] :: Environ GET_VARIABLE fceumm_palette:
RetroArch [INFO] :: asqrealc
RetroArch [INFO] :: Environ GET_VARIABLE fceumm_nospritelimit:
RetroArch [INFO] :: disabled
RetroArch [INFO] :: Environ GET_VARIABLE fceumm_overclocking:
RetroArch [INFO] :: disabled
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh: line 947: 8304 Aborted /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch --verbose -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-fceumm/fceumm_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/1942 (Japan, USA).zip" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg

So it looks like it's unzipping the rom ok because it's reading information from the rom. Pretty weird. Not sure why zipping with no compression works. Everything works ok in nestopia.