Can't exit out of games to main menu or save games

sirdevin

So this my be related to the same issue of not having the controller mapped properly in RetroArch, which is why I have them together. Apologies in advance for the long post, but wanted to explain everything I've done so far and show you all if I've missed a step somewhere.

My Issue
When I'm in a game, pressing the Start + Select combo doesn't do anything and I can't exit back out to the RetroPie menu that lists all of my games. I also can't save any of my games with the Right Shoulder + Select trick.

I can boot the Raspberry Pi, load RetroPie and Emulation Station, and navigate through the menus just fine, even if it is slightly slow. When I load a game (say Super Mario World for this example), I can navigate through the menus just fine, have movement controls plus A/B/X/Y button controls, and I can pause the game. However, when I try to exit out of the game or try to save, the game just pauses like you just hit the start button normally.

What I've done so far
I hunted around on YouTube for awhile but as far as I can tell, there is no updated video for RetroPie 4.2.7 that walks you through the process of setting up a controller in RetroArch. I saw one here (

) that said to "hold Select and tap X" to open the RetroArch GUI, but when pressed does nothing.

If I go into RetroPie > RetroArch settings, I can see the same menu as shown in the video, except there is no "Quick Menu" option at the top, and "No Core" shown on the bottom. This may be because I'm not in a game, but as previously mentioned I can't get to that menu from the game at this time.

Currently, the only way to exit out of the game is to pull the power supply out and reboot the whole thing, which sometimes causes it not to boot properly.

I believe my issue is that the saved button configuration in RetroPie isn't translating fully to RetroArch and thus doesn't include the shoulder buttons. Or, there is some setting in RetroArch that's not recognizing the command to save/load. I read through some of the help posts on here, but it didn't seem like there is one for this issue. I also looked through the RetroPie Setup page on this site but didn't see anything there either.

My setup information
Pi Model or other hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
Power Supply used: 5V 2.5A plug in supply that I bought off of Newegg that as listed as a Raspberry Pi 3 power supply.
RetroPie Version Used: 4.2.7
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website - retropie-4.2-rpi2_rpi3
USB Devices connected: 1x Logitech G510 keyboard, and 1x Logitech G400 (M-U0028) Gaming mouse
Controller used: 1x Xbox 360 controller (wired) currently, but would like to add more Xbox 360 controllers later on
Error messages received: none
Log found in /dev/shm/runcommand.log (if relevant): not sure where this is. I connected to the pi through WinSCP but there's no file path with this name that I could see.
Guide used: none outside of YouTube videos
File: (File with issue - with FULL path) - not sure if this is relevant but can provide if someone needs it
Emulator: Base SNES emulator that comes with RetroPie
Attachment of config files: ES Log: https://pastebin.com/NLA3DHLm ; ES Config Log: https://pastebin.com/yFyvYaa7 ; RetroArch Config Log: https://pastebin.com/qpFnGVd9
How to replicate the problem: Boot RetroPie > select Super Mario World from list > start new game > try to exit back to menu or save using Start + Select or Select + X, respectively.

Hopefully that is all the info you guys need, but like I said, let me know if you need any more. Thank you all so much for the help.

pjft

@sirdevin when configuring the controls on EmulationStation, have you defined "select" as the hotkey?

And had you updated the RetroPie Setup script?

Those are the only two things that come to mind.

CodeDrawer

@sirdevin You could also plug in a USB keyboard and press f4 to drop out to the terminal then reboot. Then after you can setup the keyboard to use as a controller and reset with that?

sirdevin

@pjft If the "Emulation Station" controls are these ones (http://www.emulationstation.org/assets/featurettes/full/controllers_cropped.png), then yes that is fully set up.

I've selected the "Update Retro Pie Setup Script" option from the Retro Pie Setup menu and am still having the issue. Do I need to select "Basic Install" again or something further?

sirdevin

@CodeDrawer is there a certain terminal command to reboot?

I have the keyboard plugged in and pressing F4 doesn't do anything. I have the same movement and button controls like I did with the controller but nothing else.

pjft

@sirdevin yeah. At the end there's a new option for setting a hotkey. Make sure you reconfigure them and explicitly press select on that entry. See if it helps.

CodeDrawer

@sirdevin Yes the command is sudo reboot
then hit enter

sirdevin

@pjft That was it! I think that was user error as I assumed that the "Hotkey Button" in the mapping was for the silver Xbox button or something as I thought that every one of those entries had to be a different button.

SOLUTION for future people with the same issue: When you are mapping your buttons on the Emulation Station controls (which I posted a link to a picture above if you are unsure which controls menu I may be talking about), you have to make sure that the "Hotkey Button" in that menu is mapped to Select on the Xbox controller.

Thank you @pjft and @codedrawer for your help!

sirdevin

Ok, going to reopen this.

I fired up Donkey Kong 64 and despite running really choppy and slow, the same Right Shoulder + Select combo doesn't save the game. I can Select + Start back to the main menu, but can't save. Is there a different thing I have to map for the N64?

CodeDrawer

The problem is that you might not have over-clocked your pi.

sirdevin

@CodeDrawer Yea I havent touched anything with the over clocking. So I'm guessing that's necessary for N64 games to run properly? Even on the Pi 3 with the Quad core processor? Although it may not be utilizing all of the cores.

CodeDrawer

The pi 3 not overclocked is the bare minimum. Overclocking helps make it less choppy. You get that with every game really.

CodeDrawer

Normally you can type sudo raspi-config to change the overclock. BUUUUUUUUUUUUUT the raspi 3 won't allow it. But there are still ways to overclock the pi 3. I'll find it just one sec.

CodeDrawer

http://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/ @sirdevin The biggest thing is, is that you need heat sinks.

sirdevin

Ok, good to know. I have an i7-5930K gaming rig that I've wanted to play around with the overclock settings. It's liquid-cooled so I believe that will allow me more room to overclock safely. I know overclocking for Windows computers can be a bit tricky and so far I haven't found a good resource for information about properly overclocking and what to look for. Do you or anyone else know where I could find more solid info about PC overclocking?

And yea any info that you have about Raspberry Pi overclocking would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

CodeDrawer

Don't worry about windows. I'll help you through to get the pi 3 overclocked.

CodeDrawer

Here is a better reasourse. https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Overclocking

CodeDrawer

Right from the github page :

Manual Overclocking

All Raspberry Pi models can be manually overclocked by editing /boot/config.txt and rebooting. Read the SSH page if you are not familiar with editing text files in Linux.

Parameters are set like:

parameter=value

For example, to set the ARM to 1000MHz:

arm_freq=1000

Useful Parameters

The following speed parameters can be set:

arm_freq - speed of the ARM core
core_freq - speed of GPU processor core, keep it the same as gpu_freq
gpu_freq - speed of all GPU components, keep it the same as core_freq
sdram_freq - speed of SDRAM
sdram_schmoo - a set of SDRAM timings

The following voltage parameters can be set:

over_voltage - voltage of ARM and GPU
over_voltage_sdram - voltage of all SDRAM parts (c, i, and p)

The voltage starts at 1.2V and adjusts up or down in 0.025V steps. 0 is equal to 1.2V, the minimum -16 is 0.8V, and the maximum 8 is 1.4V. Voltage starts to help when running core/GPU/SDRAM at or over 500MHz.

To set voltage greater than 6 you must set force_turbo=1 which voids the warranty.

CodeDrawer

But @sirdevin I can get you editing that text file. Just know what you're doing! :-)

sirdevin

@CodeDrawer Awesome thanks for those links. I could just use my Cooler Master V8 and throw some thermal paste on there and call it good haha XD

I don't think I have any heat sinks laying around that would fit that. That may be a project for a later date once I've gotten some of the other parts working as I def do not want to burn out my Raspberry Pi.

I'm assuming I can just edit the text file with Notepad++ or something right?