Saving Fast Forward/Achievements in retroarch.cfg

Used2BeRX

@backstander I tried that, but it didn't work.

I think I might know what happened, but until I can get back to my notes I don't know what file I messed with before I really knew what I was doing at all here. I was trying to give myself access to ftp and I altered a file with the "nano" command. That was weeks ago though and without my notes I have no idea what file tinkered with.

Sadly, my laptop with the notes died. I won't be able to pull off that data for a while.

You wouldn't happen to have any idea what file that would have been, would you?

backstander

@Used2BeRX

You wouldn't happen to have any idea what file that would have been, would you?

Not really sure. Do you remember what you were hoping to accomplish by editing this file? Maybe that could give me an idea of what files would need to be edited for that situation.

Used2BeRX

@backstander I think I was trying to get permissions to enter the root folder through FTP, but I can't be sure without those notes. I might have to spend some time this weekend researching it if I can't get to those notes.

backstander

@Used2BeRX

I think I was trying to get permissions to enter the root folder through FTP

Sometimes when you edit a file as the root user, when you save that file will take on the root ownership so depending on the file's attributes, the pi user might not be able to read, write and/or execute that file anymore.

So you probably only want to login as root when you're going to be working in directories that the pi user can't read or write in.

Here's the directions to enable the root account over SSH:

Enable root account/password for SSH (USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!)

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

PermitRootLogin yes

sudo passwd root

meleu

@Used2BeRX said in Saving Fast Forward/Achievements in retroarch.cfg:

I've got an old 720p resolution projection screen TV and anything in the Linux console basically unreadable.

Try this (yes, in the first time you'll type it blindly):

setfont /usr/share/consolefonts/Lat15-TerminusBold20x10.psf.gz

To see a list of available fonts:

ls /usr/share/consolefonts/

I usually put that setfont command line on ~/.bashrc.

For cheevos, I recommend a reading on the RetroPie docs:
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/RetroAchievements/

backstander

@meleu
Is there any way to make the RetroPie-Setup Script, raspi-config and even your Nice MAME2003 overlays repository script look better/bigger on a large (50 inch+) 1080p or 720p TVs?

This is what it looks like at 1080p and it's hard to read that small little box from the couch:

meleu

@backstander same setfont trick I said above. Try it and see! ;-)

backstander

@meleu
I had to put sudo before setfont before it would work but it is forgotten on each reboot. Can this be put in /etc/rc.localor something so it is set on each boot?

Used2BeRX

@backstander I was able to get to my notes. I don't think anything I did before had anything to do with this. All I had done was edit a few lines in /etc/ssh/sshd_config and I don't think that is related at all.

Strangely, if I enter the retroarch through the emulationstation menu, I can make changes and save them there. They don't effect any of the individual system retroarch.cfg files though. I still can't save any information to any of them.

I'll try re-sizing the font tonight or tomorrow and see if I can figure out any more about this.

Used2BeRX

@backstander Font resize works. Thanks for that, meleu!

Still can't do anything about saving bindings for fast forward.

I found this video. I understand this video. I think it's very old information. Please tell me that we don't have to do all of that and remember what we've changed to get retroarch to save settings.

Used2BeRX

@Used2BeRX Well.... that seems to be the only fix that works for me.

In Retroarch I have to go to "Configurations" then "Save New Configuration".

Then I have to edit /opt/retropie/configs/nes/emulators.cfg as follows:

lr-quicknes = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-quicknes/quicknes_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"

TO:

lr-quicknes = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-quicknes/quicknes_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/config/quicknes_libretro.cfg %ROM%"

This ensures the changes I made launch every time. Unfortunately, if I make any further changes I am still unable to save them directly to that file either. I have to save a new configuration that gets named "quicknes_libretro-1.cfg". I can then FTP to the folder, delete the original one and remove the "-1" at the end of the new one for those changes.

What a pain.

I'm sure there has to be a better way.

EDIT: Nice.... I just borked the sudoers file and gave permission to pi.

Looks like I get to start everything over from scratch. Wonder how much work I'm going to lose by having to do this.

meleu

@Used2BeRX man, I'm used to add those configs in the joystick config file directly. Manually editing the file. It's pretty simple.

The file is /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads/YOUR_JOYSTICK_NAME.cfg.

meleu

@backstander said in Saving Fast Forward/Achievements in retroarch.cfg:

@meleu
Can this be put in /etc/rc.localor something so it is set on each boot?

I added the command to my ~/.bashrc, but I'm sure there's a more elegant way to set it. I was used to set it on my slackware when I was a teenager :-) but I can't remember. And I'm on a trip now (away from my computers)...

Used2BeRX

@meleu Thanks again for the text size fix. I was able to read it after doing that.

I'll try editing that file when I get a new Pi image set up. I was trying to change the user for everything to "Pi" last night because I'm unable to save 5200 games either. Don't mess with sudoers is the lesson here. I probably screwed up a lot more than that too.

I'm going to use a different SD card just in case I didn't back up everything that I needed to.

Used2BeRX

@backstander Well I've got everything set up again from scratch with the 4.2 SD image for the Pi Zero.

Wouldn't ya know it? I still can't set "Save Configuration on Exit" to ON and make that stay. Everytime I go back into retroarch that is set to off. I was able to save the retroarch.cfg without an error this time though. Really confusing to me since it's not actually saving the one change I'm trying to make right now.

meleu

@Used2BeRX said in Saving Fast Forward/Achievements in retroarch.cfg:

Wouldn't ya know it? I still can't set "Save Configuration on Exit" to ON and make that stay.

It was intentionally made to act this way. Using config_save_on_exit enabled brings a lot of confusion. If you're really really sure you want to enable it you have to set it manually in the /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg.

Edit
I talked about why it's confusing in this post:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/8075

Used2BeRX

@meleu lol. I actually read that post about a month ago. I don't understand it any more today than I did back when I first read it.

Not your fault. Your english is just fine. It's just that the entire RetroPie setup is very linux heavy and not very easy for end users who know nothing about linux. Trying to work with this is like actually learning how to code things. Hopefully the devs realize this and come up with ways to make it more user-friendly as time passes.

In our system we have a "Dummy / Lockdown" mode that you can enable in the emulators. There are about 100 things that you can lockdown with a single click or you can individually choose what you do not want users to have access to change. It's really cool. You can also lock it with a password so that somebody using it cannot ever get into these things and screw stuff up unless they know the code to get in.

All of this is done with a controller without any knowledge of coding or linux being needed by the end user.

meleu

@Used2BeRX said in Saving Fast Forward/Achievements in retroarch.cfg:

Hopefully the devs realize this and come up with ways to make it more user-friendly as time passes.

Or users realize that recalbox is an option for those who don't want to learn "how stuff works". :-)

Used2BeRX

@meleu I understand the need to not let just anybody go into configurations and mess things up so your kids don't screw the retropie up while you're at work. It's important to have safeguards against things like this. All I'm saying is that having an option to "Save Configuration On Exit" that doesn't save and doesn't allow you to actually "Save Configuration On Exit" without having to FTP and alter a file manually or having to "nano" it is not very intuitive at all.

I'm not going to get into a flame war with a "Linux Guy"... especially one who is hopefully going to be helping me and UDb23 on a program. I'm a "DOS Guy" myself. I'm sure Linux is great. I'm almost 40 years old though and I don't really want to learn a new language this late in life.

meleu

@Used2BeRX Hey man, don't take the recalbox recomendation as a negative thing, it was a sincere comment. There's no flame war starting here. :-)

I prefer RetroPie over recalbox because I like the flexibility and I love this community, but I recommend recalbox to many of my friends.

Cheers!