lr-bluemsx doesn't work at all.

[godgd]

Pi Model or other hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 B+
Power Supply used: 2.5A Power Supply from canakit
RetroPie Version Used: 4.4
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: keyboard, controller(when I want to play 2 players game)
Controller used: PS3 controller
Error messages received: no error message
Log found in /dev/shm/runcommand.log (if relevant):
Guide used: Followed basic starting guide from official website, and MSX section of RetroPie-Setup from Github
File: all msx files
Emulator: lr-bluemsx
Attachment of config files:
How to replicate the problem:

I just bought a new Raspberry Pi 3 B+, and installed latest version (4.4) of RetroPie as instructed. Everything looked ok, except msx emulator. It was not pre-installed, so I had to manually installed the lr-bluemsx emulator from optional package.

I copied all msx bios in /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/Machines/Shared Roms/ and game roms in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/msx as instructed. But it does not work. The game lists show up without problem, but it just go back to the game list screen if I lauch the game from the list. no error message, nothing happen. Lauch, become black screen for 1-2 seconds, go back to the game list. Not a single game work with bluemsx. I launched with verbose logging, nothing shows up. There must be something wrong.

I tried to install lr-fmsx emulator, and most of games work in fmsx without problem, so I can tell there is no problem on my game roms or bios, but bluemsx emulator itself for some reason.

I researched many articles and forums, and tried everything I can. I checked retroarch.cfg and see if there is problem on system directory setting, but it looks normal. I updated, deleted, reinstalled bluemsx, and updated retroarch, but nothing works.

Here is my runcommand.log. (I just typed them all, since I don't know how to copy the log from retropie to the PC. Sorry.)

parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-bluemsx/bluemsx_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/msx/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/msx/Galaga (set 1).rom" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh: line 1006: 25490 Illegal instruction /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-bluemsx/bluemsx_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/msx/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/msx/Galaga (set 1).rom" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg

Is the "illegal instruction" normally appears on runcommand.log like that?

Because someone mentioned that bluemsx core should be msx2 in core config, I checked the retroarch-core-options.cfg, but there is not a single line about bluemsx in the core option config file. I can see all other emulator setting in the core config including fmsx, but no bluemsx config in the file. Is this normal? or do I have a missing config?

Please help me to fix the problem. Thank you.

[mitu]

Looks like some bad ROMs - can you confirm the ROMs are ok, by running them on another system (a PC maybe) ?
The log file - when you enable verbose logging - should be accessible via SSH, you'll need to use WinSCP to copy it to your PC.

[godgd]

Unfortunately, my Roms and Bios are fine. All roms worked great with my PC, snes mini system, and even fmsx emulator in retropie. Only bluemsx doesn't make it work for some reason. :(

And what log file are you talking about? Nothing really shows when I launch the games with enabled verbose logging.

I feel like there is something wrong with bluemsx configuration or something, because it looks like the bluemsx emulator is not starting at all. I don't know which part I should try to fix.

Thank you for the answer.

[mitu]

@godgd said in lr-bluemsx doesn't work at all.:

And what log file are you talking about? Nothing really shows when I launch the games with enabled verbose logging.

Verbose logging will add additional information in the /dev/shm/runcommand.log file, that you can copy via WinSCP.

[Blerkotron]

I've had the same issue - installed BlueMSX from binaries, BIOS files copied from the PC version of BlueMSX into the shared folder but no MSX games will launch - just the same error message as reported here.

However, I can successfully launch and play Colecovision games using BlueMSX so I'm surmising this is still a config issue of some kind rather than a problem with the emulator itself.

Haven't had time to go back and mess around with it some more, but would be interested to hear any ideas of things to change.

[mitu]

@blerkotron Can you provide a detailed log file from the game launch ? Use the Runcommand options to enable verbose logging (see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Runcommand/#runcommand-launch-menu), launch the game, then get the /dev/shm/runcommand.log file and upload it to pastebin.com so we could take a look.
Do you use the same RP version ?

[Blerkotron]

Sure, no problem - the file should be visible here:
https://pastebin.com/sVTfUC6m

Everything is the original post's config is identical to my setup apart from I'm using a regular Pi 3 rather than a Pi 3B+ and a wired DualShock 4 rather than a DS3.

One tiny error in my original post- I said I was getting the same error message as the original report, but when I came to retry this it appears either I was wrong (very possible) or it's changed since last time I tried. My error seems to consistently be 'bus error', regardless of which game I'm trying to play. As mentioned before, Colecovision emulation is working just fine via BlueMSX.

[Blerkotron]

I also just tried copying the BIOS files to the 'proper' folders instead of in the shared one, but that makes no difference.

If I unzip one of the game ROMs and run it that way the error changes to 'line 1006: 2240 Segmentation fault".

[Blerkotron]

Okay, I solved my own problem - although I'm not quite sure how.

Looking at the config files in the bios/machines folders I noticed they were all pointing to 'shared roms' so I went back to the original plan of having all the BIOS ROMs in there. But this time I just grabbed ALL of the BIOS ROMs rather than just the ones for the machines I was actually interested in (i.e. every variant, every regional variation) and dumped the whole lot in there. Voila - games working fine.

Did I mess up there? Is it not possible to just pick and choose the BIOS configs I want? I'd copied over everything for MSX, MSX2 and MSX2+ from the docs/config files, but it seems that wasn't enough.

[mitu]

@blerkotron OK, so I tried the same ROM (Arkanoid) immediately after installing the lr-bluemsx emulator and got the same sefgault error.
But after I copied the BIOS files to the proper folder, game started and there were no errors. What I did was follow the doc from Libretro site and unzipped the BlueMSX full distro, then copied the Machines/Shared Roms contents (the .rom BIOS files) to /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/Machines/Shared Roms (or \\retropie\BIOS\Machines\Shared Roms via file shares).
Make sure the files are properly named, ending in .rom and not .ROM. The config.ini files for each machine type references them with BIOSNAME.rom, so if you copy the files as BIOSNAMEM.ROM, they might not work.
@godgd Can you try and copy the BIOS files as I tried above and re-launch the game to see if it works ?

[darknior]

@mitu Thanks a lot :D
It solve my problem for MSX and Colecovision ... so excellent to use this emulator on my pi <3

I try many MSX2 games and they works fine, BUT i have a video problem on some of them.
It is strange because on PC with the same emu, i test and all my set without any problem, all is working fine.
Is some one has an idée why i have problems on PI ?

For exemple with Vampire Killer Akumajo Dracula.

Thanks

[edmaul69]

@darknior i have my bios all directly in the bios folder. (Never used other folders) and i dont appear to have any glitches in vampire killer. Can you explain in more detail how and where you have video glitches?

[edmaul69]

@darknior when in game did you go into the retroarch gui, quick menu, options and change your system from msx1 to msx2+ Then exit the game and go back in?

[darknior]

@edmaul69 said in lr-bluemsx doesn't work at all.:

@darknior when in game did you go into the retroarch gui, quick menu, options and change your system from msx1 to msx2+ Then exit the game and go back in?

I have try it, and it works better than with reset emulator. I see a difference.

But it not fix my problems with some games :(
Games that working fine on PC and on xBox (first one black)

Options :

• MSX Mode : MSX2+
• MSX Video Mode : NTSC
• MSX Mapper Type mode : Type A
• MSX Main memory : Auto
• MSX Video memory : Auto

I don't found any option to choose a specific BIOS file ?

• Vampire Killer - Akumajo Dracula (Cart) (Japan) [Dynamic vsync patch 1.0].zip

• Vampire Killer - Castlevania (Cart) (Japan) [Upgrade Patch].zip
  I try MSX 1 2 2+ and it stop at the blue first MSX screen with MSX BASIC ... OK

• Valis 2, The Fantasm Soldier 2 (Disc) (Japan)
  Impossible to use with a ZIP file because i can't swap Disc A to B :(
  I don't found any menu to make swap and with zip file i think the emu don't see the multi files ?

• Twinkle Star (Disc) (Japan) [Homebrew]
  Stop after the title screen whith vertical black and white lines ... In the read me it's write it works fine on MSX2 with 64ko of RAM or MSXTurbo.

• R-Type (Cart) (Japan)
  Crash before MSX BASIC screen with a multicolor screen and after un dark screen with vertical blue lines.

• Lupin the 3rd - Legend of the Gold of Babylon (Cart) (Japan) : screen flickering

• Lupin the 3rd - The Castle of Cagliostro (Cart) (Japan) : black screen

• Lupin the 3rd - The Golden Legend of Babylon (Cart) (Japan) [T-En 1.0 by Django 100%] : screen flickering

• Lupin the 3rd - The Golden Legend of Babylon (Cart) (Japan) [T-Fre 1.0 by Django 100%] : screen flickering

• Ikari (Cart) (Japan) : freeze a first blue screen

• Gradius 3 - Legend (Disc) (Europe) [Homebrew] : Freeze or i can't move at Power Selector Screen

• Gradius 3 - The Eve of Destruction (Cart) (Japan) : Working fine

• Duck Tales (Disc) (Europe) [Homebrew] : Black Screen

• Bubble Bobble (Cart) (Japan) : Black screen

• Bombaman - Extra Ammo (Disc) (Europe) (En,Fr,Ge,It,Sp,Po,Jp) [Homebrew] : Launching fine, i can see the team logo, and after i have a black screen because i think the emulator launch the bad disc file in my zip file, i have this problem with many games, so bad if we can't fix it.

• Aleste (MSX 2) (Cart) (Japan) [T-En 1.0 by Tsunami 100%] : Black Screen

Many other working fine : 1942, Dragon Quest, Kikikaikai, Metal Gear, Out Run, Puyo Puyo, King Kong 2, Goonies, etc ...

[darknior]

Nobody to explain me why all these games are not working ?
Maybe it's an option i don't know ?
thanks

[edmaul69]

@darknior i dont have discs but i can confirm aleste and bubble bobble work fine. Are your roms zipped? I had to unzip mine because there was other junk in the zips i had.

[darknior]

Yes all my games are zipped. And works fine like this on PC.
But i will try them unzipped, maybe it can fix some problems.

But how to try to change the BIOS file the emulator use ? i can't found any options ?

So bad if you don't have these games, there are really excellent and come from my personal MSX best of.

[edmaul69]

@darknior in the retroarch gui, quick menu, options when you change your system between msx, msx2 and msx2+ it changes the bios.

[darknior]

@edmaul69 Ok i understand, if it's enough.
Because there is 3 choices, and i have 30 Bios lol

[edmaul69]

@darknior i think the language bios’ have to be loaded as carts on an msx. There has been discussions on doing this on the pi