Asus Tinker Board

knuxyliblis

Ok so I got Retropie to install but none of the emulators would launch. I also finally got Retroarch to install and run but even GBA is running at like 2-3 fps. I wish I knew more about this stuff, I would help development on this platform.

Do the mali drivers need to have some type of hardware acceleration for the entire platform or something? I can run 4k videos at 60fps on Youtube without a problem.

I have these 2 packages in Debian repos
libmali-rk-dev
libmali-rk-midgard-r9p0-r0p0

I know for a fact the first one is installed. I also have some source files for ARM development for this gpu (mali t764).

The firefly uses this same gpu (or at least the t760).

But as far as emulation goes, there needs to be some gpu driver tuning to get any sort of emulation working on the Tinker Board on Linux. They are just too slow atm and I know VBA-M runs at like 1000% speed when toggled, so it's not the emulators themselves.

Android is probably different, but I can't use it because it glitches so bad with my wireless keyboard/mouse combo. The android seems to work a hell of a lot better than the Android for RPi 3.

Edit
If you would liek to try and mess around with RetroPie, launch the setup script like this

sudo __platform=generic-x11 __platform_flags=""-02 -march=IDONTREMEMBERTHEREST" ./retropie_setup.h

Sorry the command wasn't in my history because I whiped. This won't compile mupen or mame or fbi omxplayer (which i think is rpi specific anyways).

Find in the retropie github a file that has the __platform_flags and choose the second one that has -02 (under armv7-mali). The generic-x11 will force x11 environment even though mali is presented in the platform_flags.

fleebinflobbin

It looks like retroarch/mupen already works for this SBC (not with TinkerOS though). It was previously released as MiQi in 2016, maybe you could try using the MiQi android OS? Looks like mupen standalone runs pretty great on this. Sorry if this isn't helpful.

moonston333

@MWGemini n64 and dreamcast run perfect on my pi 3 no slowdown or glitches at all.

Darksavior

@moonston333 I stopped using reicast because it ran like crap on my pi3 @ 1.3ghz. Those two emulators are glitchy because they're a constant wip. It'd be lovely if the libretro core would be ported so we can try that one instead.

moonston333

@Darksavior not sure why it not running properly for you. ive got it on mine and works perfect every game ive loaded on it

pjft

@moonston333 surely you don't have crazy taxi or virtua striker running without stuttering and sound issues?

What settings do you have?

sirhenrythe5th

I own a real Dreamcast and there are some games that even stutter on the original hardware.
It's always playable and not really annoying but...it does.
So when someone tells me "EVERY DC-Game runs like a charm with 120FPS all the time" - then i cannot believe hin.
Same Situation concerning N64.
Maybe we are talking about 2 games that he tested on each system, probably those everyone knows that they run good (MarioKart 64, Mario 64,...).
But if someone tells me that all the games run superb, i would guess he is a troll.

pjft

@sirhenrythe5th calling someone a troll may be something of a stretch - I assume the best intention from anyone around here.

That being said, it may be a mix of expectations, perception, the games someone is playing, or a better configuration. I do agree that my experience isn't reflective of such a claim of "no issues using reicast" though I'm always keen on learning what can be done to improve things on my end.

I certainly have struggled to get those two working as intended - crazy taxi has audio issues throughout most of the gameplay, and virtua striker just has extremely sluggish and unresponsive controls - though that may have also been the case on the original hardware. That's why I'm curious as I'd love to play those two games.

moonston333

@sirhenrythe5th mariokart 64 and mario 64 do actually run abit sow on mine crazy taxi audio drops a beat now and then but the games i have tried from my roms that ive been using for a long time now seem to work without a hitch thats why im saying the DC emulator does work good for me i havnt changed any settings at all just installed the emulator and running roms from my 2tb external hard drive and they work

stereodark

If you install on the Tinker Board the latest version of the Android build released by ASUS you can instal Retroarch with like 2 clicks. Download the apk from the libretro site and you are ready to run it.
PS4 controller (not the pro) and X1 controller seem to work fine. The main annoyance is from the emulators the shortcuts to jump out of the game don't really work well so if you remove mouse and keyboard you won't manage to navigate the system easily. Some config tweaking might solve the issue. Still having a retropie build would be awesome.

hannibal

@stereodark i got retroarch on my tinkerboard. how were you able to launch it. When i open it up it freezes on me everytime.

hannibal

@BuZz hey bro any updates on getting retropie ported over?

hannibal

@hannibal after several tries finally got it to work... the default overlay is kinda dumb and i couldnt (didnt really try that hard) to change the controller around. Tinkerboard seemed to run the roms fine... i couldnt really tell about the sound my 4k monitor sound is almost inaudible. I enjoyed kodi a lot more on the tinkerboard compared to the pi3. however if a port never happens for retropie i feel i have bought a 60 dollar paper weight and i will wait for the udoo board.

BuZz

I have a WIP branch. Will do a PR against the main development when more complete. Unfortunately the performance and video sync seems poor running under the X environment.

Asus sent me details about a framebuffer driver, but it required a kernel patch and it's a bit outside of the RetroPie mandate.

Perhaps if they include that in new images it could be used. I need to do more testing with gles/SDL retroarch backends. I will update the thread when I have something to report. Cheers

Charononus

@BuZz said in Asus Tinker Board:

I have a WIP branch. Will do a PR against the main development when more complete. Unfortunately the performance and video sync seems poor running under the X environment.

Asus sent me details about a framebuffer driver, but it required a kernel patch and it's a bit outside of the RetroPie mandate.

Perhaps if they include that in new images it could be used. I need to do more testing with gles/SDL retroarch backends. I will update the thread when I have something to report. Cheers

Cool to hear about some progress. Hopefully ASUS works on their image some more. I really would like something a little more powerful than a pi in that price range to run retropie on. This seems like the best one I've seen if it can all be worked out.

enderandrew

@jamesbeat RetroPie looks like a great software stack, but I'm worried about performance on the Pi 3 specifically for the N64 and Dreamcast emulators.

A Pi 4 seems a ways off so I've been considering running it on a PC or another SBC. I'm curious to hear about your PC setup. The Tinker Board seems promising, but a decent Linux GPU driver seems to be holding this up. I'm curious what they're using for the GPU under Android then.

Does anyone know of another SBC that does work with RetroPie that is slightly beefier than the Pi 3?

PhoenixJedi

Wondering if any progress has been made on this yet... There's a lot of local places that have tinker boards across the US (like Micro Center). This would allow us to make a much more powerful retropie.

ADAMSITE

I recently acquired a Tinker Board to play with RetroPie. While this is still an ongoing process, I did run into the same SDL2 and mali-fbdev problems mentioned above. When I contacted Asus, they provided source code modifications to compile fbdev support into the Debian kernel. Even after I recompiled my kernel and forced the core components of RetroPie to compile, I still end up with the error message about being unable to initialize SDL2.
I'm not really surprised by my results thus far. The Tinker Board is relatively new to the market (the oldest post in this thread is six months ago). I'll just have to keep trying different options and with the help of the internet, everything will eventually work correctly on the Tinker Board.

DannyBeatz

Launchbox says that it can launch through Kodi.

I just bought a tinker board in hopes to make an emulator. I have seen a lot of people being able to install and run Kodi on the tinker board.

On PC I have used a launchbox as it makes your library of roms look a little nicer then other emulators and adds box art to the roms etc all that crap. They have wrote that there is a plugin called big box that you can download for Kodi on the Launchbox website.

I dont know if this helps anyone. I will give this a shot when the board arrives on wednesday and tell you guys what happened. If anyone wants to give this a go and report back what happened that would be really helpful.

PhoenixJedi

Any luck on this? I'm waiting on a success to grab a tinker board myself.