Please test: Random Game selection/launch via Video Screensaver

pjft

Added a small video to the first post:

I start the screensaver using select, and then skip a few games using "right" until I launch a random one. It has no sound, as the kids are asleep. On the regular screensaver will rotate every 30 secs.

The captions disappear after 7-8 seconds.

**Scannigan**

Still not working for me, very strange!

pjft

@__Scannigan__ Hm. And you still don't have the "Random Video" option in the UI Settings menu?

Ok, let's try again, then. You clearly have been able to download the right file. We might as well download the most recent version of it as well.

Can you do the following commands in order, and send me the results?

Step 1:

cd /home/pi/tmp-es
wget https://github.com/pjft/EmulationStation/releases/download/v0.3/emulationstation
openssl md5 emulationstation
ls -l emulationstation

You should get the following:
MD5 (emulationstation) = d40fae299cc9197285acd4754e7239e6

and the file should have 4373592 bytes (give or take filesystem specifics).

Get those two values.

Step 2:

Now, do

cd /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation
ls -l emulationstation
openssl md5 emulationstation

and get the values for the length, and the MD5 hash. They will be different to step 1's values.

Step 3:

sudo cp /home/pi/tmp-es/emulationstation /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation
ls -l emulationstation
openssl md5 emulationstation

Now they should hopefully be the same as Step 2's values, and matching what I pasted:

MD5 (emulationstation) = d40fae299cc9197285acd4754e7239e6

and the file should have 4373592 bytes (give or take filesystem specifics). It should be the same, at least, as in Step 2.

If that's the case, if you start ES by rebooting the Pi, or running it from the command line, in the options menu you should now see the Random Video option as a screensaver, in the UI Settings.

You may also want to turn on "Use Experimental Video Player". You may need to scroll down to see some or all of these options there.

Let's tackle this today. :)

**Scannigan**

Step one:
MD5(emulationstation)= 891b3b4327a130f31dce82962235cabd

-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 4332016 Mar 7 12:44

Step Two:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4331160 Mar 12 09:49 emulationstation

MD5(emulationstation)= 577ffbc8171d5909992dd842f9538900

Step Three: values appear to be the same and I now have the options however WSOD has kicked in with a vengeance

pjft

@__Scannigan__ ah, of course. Sorry about that. This does not have the wsod fixes yet, it's a different branch. :/

What theme are you using?

I am using carbon, with video support.

I can look into the wsod fixes from @fieldofcows and see if it's something easy to merge here.

Let me get back to you on this, but even if I take it on it might take a handful of days.

Do you know how to reinstall your old version with the fixes? Were you on the main branch or were you using one of the development builds?

Thanks for trying it out, though.

pjft

@Scannigan Actually, it might not be a big deal (famous last words).

Let me get back to you with a new binary later today or perhaps tomorrow.

It seems most of the changes from the wsod fix are in different files, so fingers crossed it won't be drastically hard to merge. Just need to test it a bit afterwards.

I do not have a lot of time, though, but I'll look into this and get back to you.

**Scannigan**

That's great, yeah I've reverted back to pixel video for the meantime

pjft

@__Scannigan__ I see. What theme were you using? And does the screensaver and stuff work as expected or is there still something not writing?

And just confirming, you're using the development builds from @fieldofcows for the wsod fix, correct? Could you confirm the right thread or link you got it from, just so I make sure to merge the right code?

Best.

**Scannigan**

Yeah it was fieldofcows thingy

pjft

@__Scannigan__

Hm. I'm sorry, but can you try setting the theme back to the one you wanted?

If I'm reading the GitHub history correctly, the wsod fix should be in it already. I'm puzzled.

EDIT: Yes, it should be there. In the "Other Settings" menu you should have a Max VRam option, I believe.

Still, I believe the binary might benefit from being recompiled with a specific option for threaded applications on the Pi. Will upload a new binary shortly.

**Scannigan**

@pjft VRAM option is definitely not there but your screen saver options are

pjft

@__Scannigan__ The VRAM option should be in "Other Settings", not UI settings. Can you double check and get back to me?

It might be the case, but want to confirm.

**Scannigan**

Definitely not there only save metadata on exit and the option for parsing

pjft

@__Scannigan__ Ok. Can you try getting the latest binary I just uploaded, then?

cd /home/pi/tmp-es
wget https://github.com/pjft/EmulationStation/releases/download/v0.3/emulationstation
openssl md5 emulationstation
chmod +x emulationstation
cd /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation
sudo cp /home/pi/tmp-es/emulationstation /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation
openssl md5 emulationstation

MD5 should be, in both instances:

MD5 (emulationstation) = 0779436c961bfcb9f18c0c03a737f129

The option should definitely be there in this build.

**Scannigan**

Still nothing, have all the options for the screensaver but no options for VRAM so still WSOD, I have noticed that it was saving to a file called emulationstation.3 would that make a difference I've also noticed a number of similar files emulationstation.1, emulationstation.2, emulationstation.3 and emulationstation.4

pjft

@__Scannigan__ It needs to replace the file called emulationstation (not .1 or .x), as that's the one RetroPie launches. I wasn't aware that wget didn't overwrite the original file. That explains the .1 etc.

Perform this, then. It will first remove the file before downloading. Hope it works now.

Confirm that the MD5 hashes match in the end, and that they are the same of my last post:

MD5 (emulationstation) = 0779436c961bfcb9f18c0c03a737f129

cd /home/pi/tmp-es
rm emulationstation
wget https://github.com/pjft/EmulationStation/releases/download/v0.3/emulationstation
openssl md5 emulationstation
chmod +x emulationstation
cd /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation
sudo cp /home/pi/tmp-es/emulationstation /opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation
openssl md5 emulationstation

incunabula

Just wanted to say that i've got it working albeit with occasional screen blanking (as if the display is losing sync and reacquiring it). I'm using the binary you just uploaded today and have tested on both a 2 and a 3 running the Motion Blue theme. Not sure if this helps, but figured i would let you know since i've been lurking in this thread and have been looking forward to this feature. Let me know if there's anything i can help test and thanks for your hard work on this.

pjft

@incunabula hi, and thanks for the reply! I'm happy to know it works and that it's useful:)

Thanks for the report as well. That's extremely interesting.

I'd love to learn more about the flicker. I had that when I ran into several OMX Player processes competing for the same layer. That usually happened when I killed the ES but the screensaver was on. Does it happen to you on a fresh reboot?

Can you pinpoint some of the circumstances where it happens? And what options do you have turned on?

Specifically:

is it in the screensaver only?
in the middle of the movies vs changing movie?
frequency?
are you using the experimental player for the theme?
what if you turn off the game caption on screensaver? Does it still happen?
does it happen with the previous build at

https://github.com/pjft/EmulationStation/releases/download/v0.2/emulationstation

?

I may suggest updating OMX Player just in case.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install omxplayer

Let me know more!

Thanks.

incunabula

It's definitely related to the captions - i disabled them and it ran for 10 minutes with no problems. Re-enabled them and the screen blanking returned. I tried it on my lcd tv and it looks like it was trying to set the resolution to 1920x1078 (according to the tv's overlay that displays when there is a resolution change) when the captions were on screen, but the blanking/sync loss would keep occurring after they had faded out. This occurs with both players, but i'll try updating omx and see how that goes.

incunabula

Updating omxplayer didn't seem to help and I've also tried 2 other themes but the blanking continues. I may try with a fresh image soon; the one I'm testing with is a few months old and somewhat cluttered.