Roms won´t start - strange problem

mediamogul

Also, go ahead and fill out the required information detailed at https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

Dlay

I am expecting to see the screen where you can configure the emulator with this rom.

What also doesnt work is the Retropie-Setup screen.
Normally this is also a text based screen.

But i cannot see it on the tv.

Then also the screen goes black and the retropie menu appears again.
So everything in graphics mode works well but the fallback to the textscreen not.

Please forgive me when i dont post all the info.
The pi works perfect. Also emulationstation when starting via SSH.

So there is something going wrong which the runcommand.log doesnt cover.
Therefore i think it is strange to post an empty file.

mediamogul

@Dlay

Please forgive me when i dont post all the info.

Posting that information helps save a lot of time and guesswork on our end. You never know what might be important. It may be a pain and it might even end up being irrelevant, but it's the process you agreed to when you signed up here.

Also, has your RetroPie setup ever worked? Is it a new install? What method did you use for installation?

Dlay

I understand what you mean.

The setup works total normal via ssh. I told already a few times. I can play all games, with sound, xbox pad, everything fine.
The installation is about 2 weeks old via apt-get install retropie.

Dlay

ah ok i followed this page

[https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Manual-Installation](link url)

Dlay

also i think that the problem startet when i did an "Update all installed packages" via the setup-script.

Actual version is 4.27 here

Dlay

Meanwhile i found an error message in some other place:

/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh: Zeile 965: /dev/tty: Kein passendes Gerät bzw. keine passende Adresse gefunden
Unable to open /dev/tty

It is like i thought before, i will investigate further

mediamogul

@Dlay

Meanwhile i found an error message in some other place

What other place would that be? I can only guess why you're being so vague on the details, but you should be able to solve this whole mess by downloading a fresh premade image , then install it using these instructions. From there, you will then be able to update all packages without issue.

Dlay

Isnt there a way to avoid the text screen after starting a rom ?

Thats the only problem i have.

mediamogul

@Dlay

You can disable the runcommad menu, but I have a feeling that won't solve anything. What OS have you installed RetroPie onto?

Dlay

Simply, raspbian os

I dont like the idea of a fresh install. Also my homeautomation server and an instance of omv is runnig on it. And there has gotten many hours of configuration into these..

pjft

Ok, so a few things:

The runcommand window and anything terminal based will be launched on the "console" tied to the main process that launches emulationstation.

If it's launched from SSH, you'll see them in your SSH window.
If it's launched "normally" from the raspbian boot, it would show on the TV.

The message you're getting on runcommand seems to suggest the same: it can't find or use the console for whatever it's trying to (that's /dev/tty).

I don't know enough about autostart and such. If you're confident that this is a very recent change, it'd probably warrant a bit more investigation, but last time it was changed it was 3 months ago, so if you installed this 2 weeks ago, then no changes would have been made since.

That particular line (965) has been there for 7 months as well.

If you're keen on troubleshooting, you may want to try to revert to previous versions of runcommand.sh and see if it helps - if you manage to narrow down a version where it runs and one where it doesn't, I'm hopeful it can be fixed.

That's the best we can offer at this stage.

If you want to clarify a bit more what you mean by launching with autostart, that may help. Are you running X? Is this launched on boot?

mediamogul

A summary so far:

Pi Model or other hardware: Pi3
RetroPie Version Used: 4.27
Built From: On top of existing undisclosed version of Raspbian
Error messages received:
Log found in /dev/shm/runcommand.log (if relevant): Log found in undisclosed location:

/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh: Zeile 965: /dev/tty: Kein passendes Gerät bzw. keine passende Adresse gefunden
Unable to open /dev/tty

Guide used: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Manual-Installation
How to replicate the problem: Launching a file locally fails, resulting in a return to Emulation Station.

Dlay

Thank you for your effort in this.
I should have said this earlier :-(

There is no X environment running on the pi.

I mean when i enable the option that ES/RP starts directly at boot time.
Then there are no tty screens displayed.

As you have written correctly, in ssh all is fine.

Even if i disable the runcommand options its still the same.
I am near to give up..

pjft

@Dlay I wouldn't say it's time to give up yet.

Where do you set the option to launch it at boot? As I said I don't know enough about auto start. Is there a set of other services or commands you're running there? Maybe one is taking hold of the console.

Can you share the list of services/commands you're running and then testing removing them one by one to see if we narrow it down?

Then maybe it's easier to search for how to mitigate that.

Dlay

You can set it in Retropie-Setup

Under C - Configuration / tools
then 802 - autostart
then 1 - Start Emulation Station at boot

mediamogul

@Dlay

~~If you would, post the contents of /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg.~~

Edit: Nevermind. I had a idea, but your error makes it unlikely.

Edit 2: A listing of your services and commands would indeed be helpful.

Dlay

what do you mean with services and commands ?

cyperghost

@Dlay
service --status-all

mediamogul

@Dlay

Since you've installed RetroPie over an existing system that was originally tasked with other purposes, a list of running services or commands launched at startup might shed some light on the issue and any conflicts that may exist.

Running services can be discovered with:

service --status-all

As noted above. Also, an alternative is:

systemctl list-unit-files | grep enabled

And you should check /etc/rc.local for launch commands.