How does a novice install a downloaded theme?

[MartinS]

I have found this, but it assumes I know how to access the themes folder (which I don't). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

"Once you have the theme on your USB stick, then place the es-theme-carbon-master folder in the /home/pi/.emulationstation/themes folder on your pi. When you restart EmulationStation, the theme should be available under UI settings in the ES menu."

[BuZz]

@MartinS Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

What system ? What version of RetroPie ? You can access that folder over sftp / ssh / samba etc.

Why are you trying to install a theme manually ?

[MartinS]

I was trying to install this theme. https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7022/new-theme-crt-with-support-for-video-preview/6

I was not able to find it within emulationstation. I am on windows 10. I have the latest version of RetroPie (4.1?). The only way I know how to connect to my Pi is typing \retropie in windows file explorer. But, I can not find the themes folder. I only see bios, configs, roms, and splashscreens. I can not find themes within any of those folders.

[BuZz]

@MartinS put the theme in configs/all/emulationstation/themes

[MartinS]

I copied the folder "es-theme-crt" to configs/all/emulationstation. I do not see it listed under the ES Themes section.

[BuZz]

@MartinS you need to put it in a themes folder in that path. I'll correct my post above.

[MartinS]

It worked. Thank you for your quick help.

[Thak]

Hi!

I tried to install a custom theme made trought the tutorial on the Retropie Wiki.
It work correctly with the portable version of ES but when i try to launch him in retropie it return to command line... with this error :
emulationstation: /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/tmp/build/emulationstation/es-core/src/ressources/Font.ccp:143: Font: :FontFace: :FontFace(RessourceData&&, int): Assertion '!err' failed.
did i miss something? Or doing something wrong?

Rapsberry pi 3
Retropie 4.1 or 4.0.1
2 player control via GPIO and adafruit retrogame
64gb sd card (with a lot of space available)
I install the theme trought ftp connection in the path you mention above ( configs/all/emulationstation/themes )

Thanks for your help.

[Thak]

I found this https://github.com/RetroPie/es-theme-nbba/issues/3 earlier this morning so i tried to change the path into my xml file from ./../spare to ./spare but no luck, and my theme still working with the portable version of emulationstation...
Any indication of what is wrong with it?

[mattrixk]

@Thak: It could be the Raspberry Pi doesn't like the font you are using in your theme. You could try grabbing the font from the default Carbon or Pixel theme and seeing if that makes a difference.

Another thing I just thought of; are you using <fontSize>0</fontSize> at all in your theme? That works in Portable ES, but not on the Pi.

[Thak]

Hi!

Thanks for your help, my problem was with the font as you suggested.
My file was CRIMFBB.TTF and inside the xml font name was CRIMFBB.ttf
That was my mistake -_- everything other than windows care about Caps and i didn't notice it right away...

Thanks again for your help now i can tweak my theme :)

[mattrixk]

@Thak no worries, I'm glad you figured it out.

[CodeDrawer]

Hey, just wondering, what did you use to learn in the first place @MartinS

[polygaryd]

@BuZz said in How does a novice install a downloaded theme?:

@MartinS put the theme in configs/all/emulationstation/themes

Raspberry pi 3b+
retropie 4.4.11
prebuilt image from retropie website

I downloaded a theme and my themes folder was /etc/emulationstation/themes (my stock carbon theme was located there also when I accessed the folder)

I copied my new theme in there and it showed up immediately in the ui settings menu in retropie I swapped over and it works fine.

I'm not sure if this a difference between retropie versions or what but I didn't have to make any paths or anything special for the theme to work from the folder i stated above.

[mitu]

@polygaryd both paths work fine, Emulationstation reafs both. The 1st path is preferred since it doesn't need root access.