Attempted to change MegaDrive to Genesis, now my system is unresponsive on boot

[hshosch]

I'm a complete noob at this, so I apologize in advance for any poor terminology or general lack of knowledge.

As an American, I wanted Mega Drive to display as Genesis. I had seemingly gotten it to work, but then I made the mistake of rebooting my system. It freezes at the screen pictured below. There is an error message which reads:

"Too many levels of symbolic links: '/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/genesis/megadrive'"

I guess I accidentally added a file called "megadrive" within my Genesis folder, but I don't know how to fix it. At the boot screen, the keyboard does not seem to do anything. When I try to delete the erroneous MegaDrive file from the Genesis folder via SSH, I get an error saying I do not have sufficient privileges to make that change.

Any idea on what I can do to fix this? Thanks in advance.

[mediamogul]

@hshosch

Just to be completely safe, exactly what did you do to attempt this. The official method is detailed here. Did you follow any other guide?

[hshosch]

@mediamogul

I am learning on the fly. I used the guide you linked and this YouTube tutorial:

[removed]

Basically, I uploaded the config file via SSH and then went into sudo nano /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg to change every instance of "megadrive" to "genesis." I believe the latter step is where the error originated. I am guessing I added a "/genesis" somewhere but left a "/megadrive" right after it.

[mediamogul]

@hshosch

As ETAPRIME notes at the beginning there, information is constantly changing, which ironically makes his videos obsolete on many occasions. Going forward, you should always consult the official documentation to avoid these types of scenarios.

I am guessing I added a "/genesis" somewhere but left a "/megadrive" right after it.

That's very likely and you should examine that first over SSH. Setting that straight might be all that's required, but you might need to reverse the whole process and use the recommended method instead.

[herb_fargus]

yeah I wouldn't recommend his videos. I wouldn't even recommend mine! (most of mine are obsolete too) I found it was too hard to keep up so I just focused on writing the docs. those should always be the first resource as they are the most up to date.

[mediamogul]

@herb_fargus

While we're on the subject, there are many times that linking to sub-sections of a documentation page is handy. Can this be done with the newer, prettier, great tasting and less filling docs or is that only an option on the older github pages?

[herb_fargus]

@mediamogul yes if you click on the any of the headings on the TOC on the right on a pc it will give you a link to that subheading.

You can also get them from the menu on a smartphone:

click on the list icon with the 3 red dots and lines:

then you can select the equivalent heading in the TOC as well:

[mediamogul]

@herb_fargus

Ah, good to know. I'd prefer sending people in that direction, as it's much more user friendly.

[hshosch]

@mediamogul said in Attempted to change MegaDrive to Genesis, now my system is unresponsive on boot:

That's very likely and you should examine that first over SSH. Setting that straight might be all that's required, but you might need to reverse the whole process and use the recommended method instead.

I can see the "megadrive" file in my Genesis folder on SSH, but it won't let me delete it. Any suggestions other than a hard reset?

[hshosch]

Bump.

Anybody know why I don't have permissions to delete the Mega Drive file via SSH?

[BuZz]

@hshosch I have removed the video link. The author of the video promotes piracy/retropie images loaded with copyrighted roms - his videos are not welcome here sorry.

[mediamogul]

@hshosch

I can see the "megadrive" file in my Genesis folder on SSH, but it won't let me delete it.

It looks like it's a symbolic link. sudo rm /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/genesis/megadrive should remove it. Also, I would still recommend reversing the whole process and using the official method. How you have it set up now could potentially break several other features that you may want to explore in the future.

[hshosch]

@mediamogul said in Attempted to change MegaDrive to Genesis, now my system is unresponsive on boot:

@hshosch

I can see the "megadrive" file in my Genesis folder on SSH, but it won't let me delete it.

It looks like it's a symbolic link. sudo rm /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/genesis/megadrive should remove it. Also, I would still recommend reversing the whole process and using the official method. How you have it set up now could potentially break several other features that you may want to explore in the future.

My system does not respond to any keystrokes though. It's essentially frozen on the screen I provided. Is there a way to delete the file that does not involve keystrokes on the pi itself?

[mediamogul]

@hshosch

Are you familiar with using SSH?

[hshosch]

@mediamogul said in Attempted to change MegaDrive to Genesis, now my system is unresponsive on boot:

@hshosch

Are you familiar with using SSH?

Somewhat. I tried to delete the file using SSH by selecting the file and clicking delete, but I'm getting an error message that I lack permissions.

[mediamogul]

@hshosch

You'll have to pass the command I noted above through SSH, as you won't have the proper permissions without it. There should be a function for this in your software.

[hshosch]

@mediamogul

Thanks. I'll give it a try tonight. I don't have my computer in front of me right now, but I assume there's an obvious way to get to the command prompt screen?

[mediamogul]

@hshosch

There should be, yes.

[hshosch]

@mediamogul

Great. I appreciate the assistance!

[gabrielmm2]

@mediamogul This did the trick for me thank you!
sudo rm /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/genesis/megadrive
I got the issue when I launch the setup update script from retropie, now is all working again!