[Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread

moreginger

Hmmm... I did a fresh RetroPie install a couple of weeks ago, and amiberry seemed to work fine. I turned it on today and I can't get things to start. I get the startup dialog saying "Launching... Press a button to configure Errors are logged to /dev/shm/runcommand.log", after a while a cursor appears in the top left and that's it, it's not possible to quit or do anything through the UI.
(ssh still works though)
I can't see anything interesting in that log file. I configured amiberry to write to a log (at /opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/amiberry.log as per default) but there is nothing there... ah it's not writable.

OK now I get:

...
mapped_malloc(): 0x00000000 - 0x00200000 (0x20000000 - 0x20200000) -> Chip memory (chip)
ROM loader.. (<none>)
Failed to open '/opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry'

Does that mean it failed to scan my kickstarts? It seems to have copied them from /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/amiga/ into /opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/kickstarts though. I don't have symlinks in /opt/retropie/emulators/amiberry/whdboot/save-data/Kickstarts, there seem to be some "RTB" files in there corresponding to my kickstarts. There is a symlink to my rom.key though.

Any ideas what is going wrong here?

P.S. I tried a clean reinstall of RetroPie just now and got the same result, and also with a source build of amiberry.

nemo93

@moreginger thanks for reporting. I'll need further details about your exact setup and environment please. Like your RPi version, your exact Retropie and Amiberry release number, your OS, etc. The more details the better as it's very unlikely to get such issue on a standard RPi + Retropie installation. Given it has been quite heavily tested I suspect something weird on your setup.

Couple of advices (if I may): delete/remove any Amiberry you have on your system. Use Retropie-Setup for that. Then delete also every KickStart from /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/amiga/. Feel free to backup those KickStart as well as your amiberry.conf and any other files you see fit. Last reinstall Amiberry from Source again from Retropie-Setup. Store the 3 KickStart roms noted on that page with the little checkmark and in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/amiga/. That's all. Any game (assuming you're relying on the .lha format) should now run fine.

Hope this helps.

moreginger

@nemo93 Thanks for looking in to this. This is what I did last night.

Raspberry Pi 3B
Burned retropie-buster-4.8-rpi2_3_zero2w.img
Enable ssh
Update all packages with retropie-setup
Install amiberry from optional (initially compiled, later from source)
Copied kickstarts and rom key to /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/amiga/
Launch amiberry
Change System ROMs path to /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/amiga/ (left other config paths as defaults) (I see this is unnecessary now as it defaults to a symlink to the same path)
Enable logging
Rescan paths
Copy some lha files to /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/amiga/
Try to launch any file - amiberry locks up as described

I tried delete + kickstarts and reinstall from source as you suggested, and got the same issue. I notice my kickstarts have different CRCs to the page you linked. I'm guessing that's because they are Amiga Forever kickstarts requiring decryption? I'll look into that a bit more next.

moreginger

@nemo93 OK so I acquired a couple of kickstarts that match the crc32s. They seem to work, thanks. I'm pretty sure my Amiga Forever ones were working in the past though?

sirhenrythe5th

@moreginger i never had "Amiga Forever", but as long as i am into Amiga-Emulation these kickstarts with a rom.key were only usable in Amiga Forever.
So, yeah, it may have caused the issues.

moreginger

@sirhenrythe5th As I say, I'm 90% sure it used to work. See e.g. https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/167494

nemo93

@moreginger nothing has changed in Amiberry about the Amiga Forever area, on purpose. Amiberry's author still use those + the newer 3.2.1 ones without issues. I do not have any experience hence I can't assist you further I'm afraid. Just be sure the files are "readable" by your OS (file permission) and that they are valid.

nemo93

Amiberry 5.5.1 is there and is a recommended update for all users. Many bugfixes and improvements as usual (full changelog here).

The most important change is the new 'default' for CPU. Prior to 5.5 any games either AGA or non-AGA were defaulting to the Amiga 1200 configuration. From now on every non-AGA games (majority) will rely on the classic Amiga 600 configuration (68000/7Mhz) whereas anything AGA/CD32 will stick to Amiga 1200 (68020/14Mhz). This simplifies code on Amiberry's side while improving compatibility as well as accuracy. For the few outliers the external 'xml' file will set appropriate defaults whenever needed to ensure a smooth user experience.

As a bonus plenty of 'custom controls' have been added to allow more and more games to play with only a controller (no more keyboard required).

Thanks to the authors and contributors of this great emulator as well as the many packagers ensuring Amiga still lives on in 2023!

ecto

@nemo93 This new release really makes a difference! This new A600 default for non-AGA/ECS games is great.
I always use "Hostages" as a test for new Amiberry versions, and now it runs perfectly.
Thanks for all your work!

nemo93

HI! I'm calling for help given a weird issue appeared recently which is quite hard to track down. If you can compile latest Amiberry master and report back that would be helpful.

The issue:
On some controller(s) it's possible to trigger reset once by pressing a button. Reset will occur once at the first press of a button, subsequent presses do nothing (button does work as it should).

Affected controllers:

Xbox One controller (bluetooth). Pressing any face button at any time during a game will trigger a reset. Pressing the same button again will not trigger another reset. Please note that a single press of a single button will do. I'm not talking about the Retroarch combo (hotkey+<button>). In fact any buttons on that controller will reset emulation except D-Pad, L2 and R2 triggers and the hotkey which is mapped to select/back here.

Check-list:
This can be reproduced 100% of the time on the above controller(s) with any games. Default Retropie installation and environment. OS packages up-to-date. The Xbox One controller relies on the xpadneo driver also provided by Retropie. Make sure to have default_retroarch_reset=yes set in amiberry.conf.

Thanks in advance.

mitu

@nemo93 said in [Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread:

HI! I'm calling for help given a weird issue appeared recently which is quite hard to track down. If you can compile latest Amiberry master and report back that would be helpful.
[...]

Unfortunately I don't have such a gamepad, though I have one masquerading as an Xbox controller (and it's handled by xpadneo). Can't reproduce the issue though; reset does work with the hotkey combo (just like opening the menu or exit combos work). No issue also with a PS3 gamepad.

I can borrow an Xbox One (wired though, it's one of the earlier models without BT) and test again.

nemo93

@mitu thanks for the help. Apparently I'm the only facing that issue ;-( Looks like something in my environment but can't figure out exactly what's wrong.

If you can test with more controllers that would help for sure. Also if you can share your amiberry.conf file as well as anything in your amiberry/conf dir (I'm interested by your <controller>.cfg too!).

Thanks again for your assistance.

mitu

@nemo93 My amiberry.conf is here. The other file from the conf folder is default.uae.

The X-Input controller I used to test is an 8Bitdo M30 (config here).

nemo93

@mitu thank you very much for taking time to share. Very helpful. Still no luck on my end despite the very similar setup and environment. We're still puzzled by that issue. It's like my hotkey is being automatically pressed on emulator's launch :( I stop asking you for stuff, you've helped a lot already. Thanks again!

nemo93

Amiberry 5.6.0 is there! Along with the usual bugfixes, this version aimed at improving compatibility with a few games known for not working or having gfx glitches (eg. Zool 2).

Those games will now work fine yet it comes with a slight performance hit especially on low-spec devices (ie. RPi3) and with heavy copperlist games like Jim Power or Risky Woods. I haven't noticed any performance hit on RPi4 though with the many games tested (albeit the CPU load is slightly higher with that release). The main developper has done everything possible to enhance performance but at some point no more tricks or optimizations could be made.

Feedback always welcome.

ecto

@nemo93 I just updated to Amiberry 5.6.1 and WHDload.xml to the lastest (26.6.23) version, and once again I have the old problem with Hostages(see below). Should I report this to the official Github page, or do you have any ideas?

@ecto said in [Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread:

@nemo93 Hi,
I just tried Hostages and it didn't work as expected: Right at the beginning whenever I left my hiding spot, I was shot. This should only happen, when standing in a spotlight. According to this thread I found, this is caused by some timing error and can be resolved by enabling a cycle exact emulation.

Is that possible to implement in Amiberry? My Amiberry was built from source 3 days ago and the whdload_db.xml was up to date.

Thanks for this great emulator btw!

nemo93

@ecto nice catch! Hostages/Rescue Mission/Operation Jupiter is a bit tricky. Not sure why I did remove it from the Cycle Exact list of packages. Anyhow I confirm that game does require cycle exact parameter otherwise you get killed almost instantly.

I'll modify the XML accordingly soon which will be updated by next Monday the latest. You'll then have to download the updated XML (GUI > Paths > Update WHDLoad XML). Meanwhile you can check the Cycle Exact box in the GUI to get things working as expected.

Anything else please let me know. Thanks again for watching.

ecto

@nemo93 Thanks a lot for the fix! Hostages is always the first game I try with a new Amiberry version ;)

ecto

@nemo93 I might have found another problem: I tried the game Uninvited and it crashes as soon as I enter the mansion at the start of the game (open car door; exit car; open mansion door; go inside -> crash).
I don't think I witnessed that "before". I can't say when this was, I haven't played the game in a long time...

nemo93

@ecto I'm afraid I can't reproduce here on my setup (stock RPi4/stock Retropie/Amiberry 5.6.1/Uninvited_v1.1.lha). Game is playing just fine. I've tried several times each try being successful. I've followed exactly your process > open car door; exit car; open mansion door; get inside. Yet no crash on my side. Not sure what's going on. Perhaps a wrong KickStart?