Idea for experimental: Install Arbitrary ES-branch

BuZz

@lilbud Our attorney has filed for a US trademark. The old one was supposedly cancelled by former owner, but they filed it wrong afaik. With our new application this has been addressed/referenced. Will do a blog post when things are properly sorted.

mediamogul

@AlexMurphy

I'm just clumsy sometimes and forget to turn my filter on.

If you only knew how many posts I've canceled at the last minute because of that same filter. I love a good joke and you've gotten a laugh out of me on many occasions. No one wants to see that sense of humor disappear. Just try to be a little more considerate of others. This place is definitely more interesting with you in it.

@BuZz, @herb_fargus

Thank you both for the compliment and more importantly, thanks for all the fish. The logistics of this project must be a living nightmare, but you guys always seem to handle it with style.

meleu

Excuse me, gentlemen. I'm sorry to interrupt this friendly conversation, but can we get back on topic?

I've wrote the script @Zigurana requested. It's not a RetroPie-Setup scriptmodule but thanks to the BuZz code snippet it was really simple. It's almost just a frontend for that for loop :-) I just added a warning and a form to get the repo URL and the branch.

The warning is:

The script is here: https://github.com/meleu/share/blob/master/es-tests.sh

ES testers can get the script this way:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meleu/share/master/es-tests.sh

TMNTturtlguy

@meleu thanks for doing this, i haven't had a chance to load this up and test, but i read the code. From what i see it looks like the script will prompt the user to enter the github adress for the test/developmental ES build every time the script is run? Am i reading the code correctly?

Is there away to revise the script to allow me (the user) to go into the editor and enter the github link directly into the .sh file? This way I only need to enter the github link 1 time, i can load up 4 or 5 different build links and then when i run the script, i can select which link to run the code to install from the menu instead of entering the github link everytime.

Thanks again

meleu

@TMNTturtlguy

From what i see it looks like the script will prompt the user to enter the github adress for the test/developmental ES build every time the script is run? Am i reading the code correctly?

Yes, you are.

Is there away to revise the script to allow me (the user) to go into the editor and enter the github link directly into the .sh file?

sure, will add this feature as soon as I get home.

TMNTturtlguy

@meleu Great! Thank you so much

meleu

@TMNTturtlguy Done.

If you want to create a list of repositories and branches to choose in the script just create a file named es-repos.txt with the repository URL followed by space followed by branchName. Example:

https://github.com/RetroPie/EmulationStation master
https://github.com/zigurana/EmulationStation UI_modes_Kiosk_Kid_Full

TMNTturtlguy

@meleu THANKS! I will try this out after my work day is over. This is cool and a great idea by @Zigurana. I hope this works as he was thinking? Thanks for quickly creating a solution for us.

cafarellidigital

@Zigurana @meleu @TMNTturtlguy awesome, thanks all!

TMNTturtlguy

@meleu - I got the script installed and running, it is pretty cool! I created a new directory in /home/pi/.emlationstation/scripts

I just run a bash command, select the build from the list and watch it install! Now if only there was a way to speed up the installation process :)

Great work. If testers install this, all they have to do is copy and paste the github link for a test build into the text file and they can easily switch back and forth!

meleu

@TMNTturtlguy thanks for the compiments. ;-)

Now if only there was a way to speed up the installation process :)

Yeah, it would be handy. Compile everything from source everytime is a bit time demanding... I'll try to find a smarter solution during this week and update the script.

meleu

@TMNTturtlguy I think we were hijacking that topic... :) Let's get back here.
I've fixed the "dash-bug", can you update and test the script again?

Just to remember:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meleu/share/master/es-tests.sh

TMNTturtlguy

@meleu Thanks, i just downloaded and started the udpate for @pjft build. It is running properly! Give it about 15 minutes and it should compete and i will confirm success. Thanks for the quick turn around.

I think this tool is very helpful and a lot of other builders/testers would like this. You should think about starting a new thread with a title that lets everyone know about this script. You could also think about asking a few different builders if they would like their github builds included in a text file, you could put in a few just so everyone understands how the .txt file works. I know a lot of people like kids mode, and there is always great interest in the OMX-Screensaver build. Just a few thoughts to spread the word!

EDIT: Successfully installed! Thanks for the update.

meleu

@TMNTturtlguy I'm thinking about it, but first I wanna "trim some edges". :-)
Maybe I'll do what you're suggesting next week.

Cheers!

pjft

For anyone who wants to use this to help test the OMX integration into the main ES branch (as the more testers, the merrier), do use my RetroPie-OMX-Player branch (with https://github.com/pjft/EmulationStationas repository) and leave feedback in the PR:

https://github.com/RetroPie/EmulationStation/pull/135

Thanks in advance for your time, and thanks for putting this together @meleu !

meleu

@pjft I'm compiling your branch right now on my raspi1. The videopreview with vlc is unbearable on a raspi1, I'm curious to see what will happen with omx... I started the compilation about 2 hours ago and it's now in 36%. :D But it's OK, I'll continue my Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap gaming while ES is compiling.

pjft

@meleu You do well :)

You'll need to enable it in the Video Settings menu (it's the "Experimental Player"). Then, similarly to loading a new theme, you may need to go back to the system view and then to the gamelist for the videos to actually start playing the first time after changing to OMX Player, as all views are re-created with the new video player.

Other than that you should be good.

The Pi 1 is fairly low on memory - I don't know what theme you're using, but given that OMX Player runs on the GPU, you'll need a bit of free memory on the GPU end (which is the same that's used by the theme's textures) - so you may want to reduce VRAM by 20MB-30MB or so if you run into problems with the theme or videos not starting at all (so that those extra 20MB can be used by OMX Player).

You shouldn't need to, but I'm curious about it as well since I don't know anyone who has tested it on the Pi 1! :)

TMNTturtlguy

@meleu I am sure you this, but did you exit emulationstation prior to compliling and run this from the command line? I always have to exit emulationstation to install these builds from source. It installs about 2-3 times faster and I never have any failures.

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft said in Idea for experimental: Install Arbitrary ES-branch:

For anyone who wants to use this to help test the OMX integration into the main ES branch (as the more testers, the merrier)

I can test and leave feedback. Looks like this is just a standalone OMX player update, no screensaver?

pjft

@TMNTturtlguy correct. That will be stage 2, after this gets approved.