Just remembered the c64 had different colors between pal and ntsc changed the default to ntsc on vice now it matches my memory.

still not sure why the letter s acts up on a physical keyboard in lr-vice

Yes. Thanks for nothing.

@dwarfboysim any update?

Vic 20 added in 2020 is better than all other things in 2020. It's a can't miss really.

@UDb23 Thanks anyway. I relayed the tip to my tech savvy friends and a hackerspace I'm member of. 👍

For those interested, here's how I fixed it:

When you map keys with "m" on the virtual keyboard, they get stored with the "keymap", not hotkeys or joystick map. You have to "save current keymap to" to save it to a file. Then you have to change the "Active Keymap" to "Positional (user)".

I actually did another step by manually loading the keymap before I quit vice, but I don't think you need to do that. The next time you load up vice, the user keymap you saved should be loaded.

yes, actually i removed the dot and notice that subfolders characters color is tan, so enulationstation do regnize these, ok the case is closed! :)

@mitu I just tried and caps lock key seems not to work

The setting you're looking for is:

Settings -> Video Settings -> VICII border mode: None.

@RedNifre It depends on how it's compiled on Ubuntu. On Retropie, it uses SDL2 for the UI (as Emulationstation), on Ubuntu I assume it uses GTK3.
If you want to dig more and submit a bug report to the Vice project, you can try enabling only the SDL2 UI when compiling Vice and see if you can reproduce the problem also on Ubuntu.

@deodekabokat If you're on the command line, you can use mc (maybe you're familiar with the Norton Commander/Dos Navigator/etc. interface) and navigate around the filesystem.
Otherwise, you can copy the file on the ROMs folder and look at it over file shares

cp /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg $HOME/RetroPie/roms

I'd advise to use the full image - and not the Berryboot variant - if you can spare a SD card for a few days while you tinker with RetroPie.

@Dwarfboysim It's not essential to know what the numbers mean as I would suggest that the sdl-joymap-C64.vjm file is never edited manually. (except for one possible exception, see below). It is better to make the joystick mappings using the VICE menu as shown in the Sir Randall's Gaming C64 configuration video

I would recommend that, once you have the VICE joystick configuration as you would like, the sdl-joymap-C64.vjm file is backed up, to your PC say, as it can easily be overwritten using the VICE menu, something I found out from experience.

You can find my sdl-joymap-C64.vjm file for a PS3 controller at: https://pastebin.com/93iVpBUT.

The explanations of the array of digits are given in lines 13 to 27 but, I have to agree, they are not the most intuitive. I shall try to explain what the numbers allude to.

Digit 1 is the controller number, 0 being the first controller , 1 the second and so on. Digit 2 is the input type, axis (0), button (1), hat axis (2) or ball (3). Digit 3 is the axis or button number, the button numbers as given by jstest.

The meaning subsequent digits, the action parameters, will depend whether it is an axis or button. Let's look at some examples.

Axis mapping

Digit 4 is whether an axis/button is mapped to C64 joystick (0= No, 1=Yes); Digit 5 is the joystick port; Digit 6 is joystick pin, ie axis direction mapped - 1 is up, 2 is down, 4 is left, 8 is right.
(Note: not 100% certain about this)

Let's take a look at line 33 of sdl-joymap-C64.vjm:
0 0 0 1 1 8
Controller 1 | 0 (Axis Input) | Axis No. 0 | 1 (mapped to joystick) | Joystick Port 1 | pin 8 (Right)
Action: Left analog move to the right

If an axis is not mapped, then the fourth digit would be 0, for example 1 0 4 0.

Button mapping

Digit 4 is the type of mapping
2 mapped to keyboard press;
3mapped to the joystick map function in the VICE menu;
4 brings up the VICE menu (UI),;
5 mapped to a VICE menu (UI) function with the menu path description.

(see lines 24 to 27 of the config file for more info).

Let's take a look at some examples.

Line 43
0 1 1 5 Speed settings&Warp mode
Controller 1 | 1 (Button Input) | Button 1 (L3) | 5 (UI Function) | Speed Settings > Warp mode
Action: L3 toggles Warp mode

Line 44
0 1 2 3
Controller 1 | 1 (Button Input) | Button 2 (R3) | 3 (Joystick Map Function)
Action: R3 maps VICE menu item or key press to joystick button

Line 45
0 1 3 2 7 7
Controller 1 | 1 (Button Input) | Button 3 (START) | Keyboard press (2) | row 7, column 7
Action: START button is mapped to Run/Stop

The key row and column position is given in /opt/retropie/emulators/vice/lib/vice/C64/sdl_pos.vkm, not as seen on the virtual keyboard.

Line 47
0 1 5 4
Controller 1 | 1 (Button Input) | Button 5 (D-pad Left) | 4 (UI Activate)
Action: D-Pad Left button brings up VICE menu

Line 56
0 1 14 1 1 16
Controller 1 | 1 (Button Input) | Button 14 (CROSS) | 1 (mapped to joystick) | Joystick Port 1 | pin 16 (Fire)
Action: CROSS is joystick fire button

If there are multiple mappings, then it is possible to disable buttons. For example, in my config, the Joystick Map function is mapped to button 2 (R3), button 6 (D-pad down) and button 12 (Triangle). If I wished to disable the function for button 6, then I could edit the entry (line 48) to 0 1 6 0. This is the only manual edit I would be comfortable in making.

Note: some of this information may be inaccurate as I'm not 100% familiar with the C64 hardware.

TL;DR
Do not manually edit the joystick mapping file sdl-joymap-C64.vjm. Use the VICE menu as described in Sir Randall's Gaming video.

Back up the joystick mapping file.

Unless it explicitly says otherwise C64 roms (and Amiga, Spectrum, CPC ... all the classic 'mostly' European home computer systems) are PAL and run at the correct speed and music pitch on an emulated PAL C64. The problem then becomes running a 50hz system against a fixed 60hz refresh rate LCD, causing jerky scrolling, which you solved by switching TV mode. 'Mostly' NTSC systems with NTSC romsets like SNES and Genesis need to run at 60hz though (otherwise it's jerky scrolling and wrong speed again, this time too slow), so there should be a way to dynamically switch refresh rate for each system. I'm working on it, but my bash scripting skills are low to non-existent :)

And yes, once you cross into 3D systems it's another ballgame completely.

Solved:
The reason was because somehow "Warp Mode" under Speed settings got activated.
After disabling it, the sound came back.

@Dwarfboysim hi all anyone got any ideas?

Awesome! Thanks @mitu and @BuZz !

- George