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    Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.

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    • lesk
      lesk last edited by

      Hi!
      Raspberry pi3
      Retropie 4.4
      Installed from scratch
      No usb harddrive.

      I searched this forum for this and found this thread:
      https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11161/i-can-t-change-emulator

      On the last post there is a link to another thread with a command that I first tried:
      sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/retropie/configs

      It made it so I could change the default emulators, but not the specific emulator for a rom.

      Then I tried this command:
      sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/retropie/configs/all

      I still can´t change the specific emulator for a rom. And now, whenever I start a game or quit a game I see a bunch of text that was not there before.

      Also when I start a game, like a nes game. It says couldn't write nes config something retroarch. And the resolution is really bad =/

      mitu 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • mitu
        mitu Global Moderator @lesk last edited by mitu

        @lesk Since you're just beginning, I'd say you start over again, you may have messed up your folder permissions and who knows where/how they're broken.
        To change emulators, use the Runcommand launch menu - https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Runcommand/#runcommand-launch-menu - there's no need to edit any file.

        lesk 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • lesk
          lesk @mitu last edited by lesk

          @mitu
          Thanks for the reply!

          I have used the Runcommand launch menu. It was when I was trying to change emulators for arcade games that I discovered that, whenever I choose an emulator for the rom it gave me that permission denied message in the bottom.

          That's when I searched this forum for a solution. Found the thread I linked to. It gave a list of commands to try, and I tried them.
          Now it's all messed up.

          Unfortunately, I've spent a lot of hours setting up Retropie the way I want it. Fortunately, I made a backup yesterday before this happen.

          But. If I go use my backup, I will still not be able to change emulators. Any idéa why?

          mitu 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • mitu
            mitu Global Moderator @lesk last edited by

            @lesk said in Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.:

            But. If I go use my backup, I will still not be able to change emulators. Any idéa why?

            Post the error you get when changing the emulators and it's not working and we'll try to figure it out.

            lesk 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • lesk
              lesk @mitu last edited by

              @mitu
              I get this error:
              /opt/retropie/configs/all/<bunch of letters that seems random> permission denied

              It appears for like a half second on the bottom left screen when I try changing emulators.

              To make things even weirder... It stopped when I used this command: sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/retropie/configs. But only when I choose default emulator for all roms. Changing video setting for emulator, or changing specific emulator for rom still gives me that message.

              mitu 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • mitu
                mitu Global Moderator @lesk last edited by mitu

                @lesk There's no such thing as default emulator for all ROMs, you can only set a default emulator for a system or a ROM since there is no single emulator to run every type of ROMs. What exactly are you trying to accomplish ? Be specific - which ROM, which system, etc. ?

                lesk 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • lesk
                  lesk @mitu last edited by

                  @mitu said in Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.:

                  @lesk There's no such thing as default emulator for all ROMs, you can only set a default emulator for a system or a ROM since there is no single emulator to run every type of ROMs. What exactly are you trying to accomplish ? Be specific - which ROM, which system, etc. ?

                  Well in the Runcommand launch window it says - Default emulator for all roms.

                  Above I wrote:
                  " It was when I was trying to change emulators for arcade games that I discovered that, whenever I choose an emulator for the rom it gave me that permission denied message in the bottom."

                  But it applies to all systems. Nes, Snes, GBA and Arcade. Those are the ones I've checked.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • mitu
                    mitu Global Moderator last edited by mitu

                    I can't reproduce this on a stock 4.4 system. Runcommand will modify the file /opt/retropie/configs/<system>/emulators.cfg, were <system> is the system where you want to change the emulator. The files are owned by the user pi, so if you fiddled with the permissions, check the user has write access to them. As an example, here is my /opt/retropie/configs/emulators.cfg

                    lr-fbalpha = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-fbalpha/fbalpha_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
                    lr-mame2003 = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame2003/mame2003_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
                    advmame = "/opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/bin/advmame %BASENAME%"
                    default = "lr-fbalpha"
                    
                    lesk 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • lesk
                      lesk @mitu last edited by

                      @mitu
                      Don't think I´ve fiddled with any permissions. I have followed guides to change themes, add background music and to hide boot text, emulationstation, and the raspberries to show at boot.

                      How can I check that the user has write access? I´m a total noob when it comes to linux commands etc.

                      mitu dankcushions 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • mitu
                        mitu Global Moderator @lesk last edited by

                        @lesk You can list the permissions from the command line with ls

                        # show the permissions for the NES system
                        ls -l /opt/retropie/configs/nes/emulators.cfg
                        
                        lesk 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • lesk
                          lesk @mitu last edited by

                          @mitu
                          Ah okay.
                          So I press F4 on the keyboard to open up the terminal.
                          Type in ls -l /opt/retropie/configs/nes/emulators.cfg to see what permission the NES system has?

                          Would I see all permissions if I just do ls -l /opt/retropie/configs

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • dankcushions
                            dankcushions Global Moderator @lesk last edited by

                            @lesk said in Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.:

                            @mitu
                            Don't think I´ve fiddled with any permissions.

                            but then

                            On the last post there is a link to another thread with a command that I first tried:

                            sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/retropie/configs

                            that's "fiddling with permissions" :)

                            anyway, one thing you can try: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/FAQ#reset-ownershippermissions-of-homepiretropie-roms

                            lesk 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • lesk
                              lesk @dankcushions last edited by

                              @dankcushions said in Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.:

                              @lesk said in Can´t change emulators - Tried a command and now its weird.:

                              @mitu
                              Don't think I´ve fiddled with any permissions.

                              but then

                              On the last post there is a link to another thread with a command that I first tried:

                              sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/retropie/configs

                              that's "fiddling with permissions" :)

                              anyway, one thing you can try: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/FAQ#reset-ownershippermissions-of-homepiretropie-roms

                              Hahaha, that just shows how much of a noob I am ^^
                              Thanks, I will try this when I'm back home.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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