[Guide] Getting EmulationStation to work with FS-UAE

Clyde

@silver Forget what I wrote, I just mistook the creation date for the editing date. The latter shows when you hover the mouse pointer over the little edited sign behind the creation date.

Your instructions are already well structured, I think, and some things can't be shortened much more without becoming unintelligible.

One thing I noticed that won't concern many common users in my opinion is the system-wide placement you describe. I usually advise less experienced users to put scripts into ~/bin for global access, because most of them only have one user account. Experienced users don't require that information anyway.

silver

Added a bunch of updates just to make things clearer, plus added some commentary to the code so people understand what it's actually doing.

werpu

Thanks for the guide it was really helpful to move my collection over to fs-uae, there are several small issues
a) The db already must exist, so fire up fs-uae-launcher first and import/scan your games
b) There is a small bug in the regexp file=echo $name | sed -e 's/[^a-z0-9\._\-&]/ /gi' | tr -s ' ' the & should be escaped aka \&
c) Third on localized machines, Documents will become something else, aka on german machines Documents now is Dokumente, they localized the paths after user home. Not sure if there is a generic way to query them.
I just wanted to drop the info.

noise

@silver said in [Guide] Getting EmulationStation to work with FS-UAE:

@youxia said in Guide: Getting EmulationStation to work with FS-UAE:

I thought Amiberry solution is presently the best one regarding Amiga?

I've never tried it. If it works better for you, then great.

that's right but Amiberry is only ARM, not possible at this time with x64.

the guide is fine, except running with my adf files.. (i need to do it manually) thanks for it. (y)

silver

@noise said in [Guide] Getting EmulationStation to work with FS-UAE:

the guide is fine, except running with my adf files.. (i need to do it manually)

Glad to hear you found the guide helpful!

Regarding the issue you have with ADF files, can you explain a little more?

If I can solve your problem by improving the script then I'm more than happy to do so.

noise

@silver
if that does not too much circumstances to you, with pleasure

i try to start a fs-uae file, but no work it starts only the launcher itself.
(here i give all other right, Amiberry is much better with starting from uae files)

it is not posible to start a fs-uae file like this, only with uuids ?
open internal with fs-uae starts the game

[fs-uae]
accelerator_memory = 262144
bsdsocket_library = 0
chip_memory = 8192
cpu = 68000
floppy_drive_0 = GAME.ADF
floppy_drive_speed = 0
floppy_drive_volume_empty = 5
graphics_memory = 262144
network_card = a2065
slow_memory = 1536
sound_card = toccata

also have a few lha files that not working with fs-uae, however on rasperry with amiberry worked fine.

Edit: the only way i got to start a adf from emulationstation are with a .sh script with the command

fs-uae --floppy-drive-0=GAME.ADF --fullscreen

but this needs to replace the runcommand to default.
is there a simple terminal command to run a .lha file ?
i try:

fs-uae --amiga_model=A1200 --accelerator_memory=262144 --bsdsocket_library=0 --fast_memory=8192 --floppy_drive_speed=0 --floppy_drive_volume=3 --floppy_drive_volume_empty=0 graphics_memory=262144 --slow_memory=1536 --fullscreen --fullscreen=1 --fullscreen_mode=desktop --hard_drive_0=game.lha --x_whdload_args=game.slave PRELOAD

but no success

the fs-uae config file from launcher start the game with:

[fs-uae]
accelerator_memory = 262144
amiga_model = A1200/3.0
bsdsocket_library = 0
chip_memory = 8192
cpu = 68000
fast_memory = 8192
floppy_drive_speed = 0
floppy_drive_volume_empty = 5
graphics_memory = 262144
hard_drive_0 = game.lha
network_card = a2065
platform = amiga
slow_memory = 1536
sound_card = toccata
x_whdload_args = game.Slave PRELOAD

silver

@noise Sorry, I'm probably not going to be much help. lha is an Amiga archive format and it's not something I've seen used before to compress disk images for running via emulation.

My instructions will stop EmulationStation from displaying any Amiga games which don't end in fs-uae and then cause runcommand to launch my script which itself launches fs-uae-launcher with the correct UUID.

If you need to run a different command line for certain image formats, then you'll need to modify the create-fs-uae-uuids script to examine the database for the correct filetype and then write out a custom script as the name of the game.

In the coming weeks I'll have a play and see if I can recreate the issue you're having. Sorry I can't be much more help.

silver

Following on from this, a couple of people have asked me if it's possible to separate out the Amiga, CD32 and CDTV games.

It is possible and you only need to make a simple one line change in create-fs-uae-uuids.

Look for the following line:

sqlite3 "$database" "select name,year,uuid from 'game' where have=4" | while read line ;

If you want only Amiga games change it to:

sqlite3 "$database" "select name,year,uuid from 'game' where have=4 and platform='Amiga'" | while read line ;

If you want only CD32 games change it to:

sqlite3 "$database" "select name,year,uuid from 'game' where have=4 and platform='CD32'" | while read line ;

And if you want only CDTV games change it to:

sqlite3 "$database" "select name,year,uuid from 'game' where have=4 and platform='CDTV'" | while read line ;

Save the file, re-run and enjoy.

If you're feeling particularly adventurous, then you could always update the SQL to include the platform, save that as a variable and then write out the UUIDs to a different location depending on the platform - but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader :)

xxalfalfaxx

Hi all,
i successfully followed all steps above but i can't see any amiga game listed in EmulationStation.
Does the guide still worth?

Thank you

xxalfalfaxx

@xxalfalfaxx said in [Guide] Getting EmulationStation to work with FS-UAE:

Hi all,
i successfully followed all steps above but i can't see any amiga game listed in EmulationStation.
Does the guide still worth?

Thank you

Helped by the kind author. Just a tag mistake in es_systems.cfg

SierraFOOL

Is it possible to integrate the fs-uae in the Retropie Setup to Support this exellent Emulator Out of the Box?

mitu

@sierrafool fs-uae is already part of RetroPie, it's available on a PC though, since it's not working (yet) on ARM.

silver

@mitu said in [Guide] Getting EmulationStation to work with FS-UAE:

@sierrafool fs-uae is already part of RetroPie, it's available on a PC though, since it's not working (yet) on ARM.

To be honest, I'm not so sure that fs-uae not working on ARM is true anymore.

This issue raised on github back in 2016 regarding fs-uae on ARM suggests that it does compile. In addition, this post in June provides builds for OS X running on the M1, which is also ARM.

There is also a Youtube video which purports to show you step-by-step how to get fs-use running on a Pi. I've not examined it long enough to determine how truthful it is but it seems to make use of this installation script hosted on github.

Full disclaimer: I've not attempted to install fs-uae on a Pi at all - so YMMV 😀

mitu

@silver said in [Guide] Getting EmulationStation to work with FS-UAE:

To be honest, I'm not so sure that fs-uae not working on ARM is true anymore.

I was referring to the RetroPie module. I know the author has been adding some ARM related improvements recently and at some point, if performance permits, it may be added also for ARM targets in RetroPie.

zombiefly

hi, thanks for this guide, I have set up retropie with fs-uae on ubuntu server and all is going well.

I have mapped buttons in the fs-uae-launcher for my xbox 360 joypad to operate the f1 and return amiga keys for the game Flashback, using the following mappings in the global config of the launcher.

joystick_0_left_shoulder = action_key_f1
joystick_0_right_shoulder = action_key_return

I can apply these manually to the flashback game entry in the launcher using the cog (top right) however these settings are lost after saving.

So i came up with the idea of adding a 2nd line to the generated flashback (1993).fs-uae file which currently contains the UUID. for example

now all i need to do is parse the 2nd line in the launch script but i'm struggling to get the head command to do what i need.
e.g.
#!/bin/bash

Get the UUID from the first line of the file

uuid=head -n 1 "$1"
params=<something here>

Launch FS-UAE Launcher passing it this UUID

fs-uae-launcher "$uuid $params"

This should then pass the params via command line and map the buttons for this game only.
any help is appreciated, it seems there is no other way to do this as the per-game modifications are not stored in the launcher config (as they are not stored in the db profile)

silver

@zombiefly Hello! So, assuming I've read this correctly, you basically want to update the launcher so that it can read a two line .fs-uae file with both the UUID and some optional additional arguments?

Assuming I'm right, then change launch-fs-uae to be the following:

#!/bin/bash

# Get the UUID from the first line of the file
uuid=`sed '1!d' "$1"`

# Get (optional) additional arguments from the second line of the file
args=`sed '2!d' "$1"`

# Launch FS-UAE Launcher passing it this UUID and any further arguments
fs-uae-launcher "$uuid" $args

The only downside to this approach is that if you run create-fs-uae-uuids again then it'll overwrite the file and your additional command line arguments.

Hope that helps!

silver

@zombiefly Apologies for the followup, but I think I've found a better solution. This solution stores your additional arguments in a separate text file against a UUID - which means that it doesn't matter if the .fs-uae file gets deleted.

For this solution, change launch-fs-uae to be the following:

#!/bin/bash

# Get the UUID from the first line of the file
uuid=`sed '1!d' "$1"`

# Get (optional) additional arguments from the args.cfg file
args=`grep "$uuid" args.cfg | cut -d$'\t' -f2`

# Launch FS-UAE Launcher passing it this UUID and any further arguments
fs-uae-launcher "$uuid" $args

Now all you have to do is create a file called args.cfg with the UUID followed by a tab and then your arguments:

uuid[tab]--additional-arguments = values --more-args = values -x

for example:

7798d12b-8e3f-5c7d-ae1f-dce95fed2b4f    --joystick_0_left_shoulder = action_key_f1 --joystick_0_right_shoulder = action_key_return
b6ea35bf-598f-4eed-8ac1-1c0d092b0d6e    --accuracy = -1

Now when fs-uae-launcher is run, it'll load the UUID from the .fs-uae file, look up the UUID in args.cfg to see if there are any additional arguments and then launch fs-uae-launcher.

Hope that helps!

zombiefly

@silver thanks for the reply. yes, the first option would have meant recreating the files. i will have a try with this today, thanks :)

zombiefly

@silver made the changes, it now picks up the values from the args file, which i placed into the rom folder. However, now the launcher starts and opens but fails to start the game... (just opens the launcher)

On this topic, the last posts indicate this should work (passing --amiga_model)
https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=76631

pi@retropie-ub:~/RetroPie/roms/amiga$ pi@retropie-ub:~/RetroPie/roms/amiga$ launch-fs-uae 'Flashback (1993).fs-uae'
fs-uae-launcher 7798d12b-8e3f-5c7d-ae1f-dce95fed2b4f --joystick_0_left_shoulder = action_key_f1 --joystick_0_right_shoulder = action_key_return
[LOGGING] Logging to /home/pi/Documents/FS-UAE/Cache/Logs/fs-uae-launcher.log.txt
FS-UAE Launcher 3.0.5u2
['/usr/bin/fs-uae-launcher', '7798d12b-8e3f-5c7d-ae1f-dce95fed2b4f', '--joystick_0_left_shoulder', '=', 'action_key_f1', '--joystick_0_right_shoulder', '=', 'action_key_return']
uname_result(system='Linux', node='retropie-ub', release='5.4.0-42-generic', version='#46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 10 00:24:02 UTC 2020', machine='x86_64', processor='x86_64')
[SETTINGS] No settings path specified
[SETTINGS] Using default /home/pi/Documents/FS-UAE/Data/Settings.ini
[SETTINGS] Loading from /home/pi/Documents/FS-UAE/Data/Settings.ini
[SETTINGS] Set config_name = Flashback (Amiga, WHDLoad, v3.4, 1163)
[SETTINGS] Set config_search = zool
[SETTINGS] Set configurations_dir_mtime = 1697024739+40
[SETTINGS] Set database_auth = *CENSORED*
[SETTINGS] Set database_email = *CENSORED*
[SETTINGS] Set database_show_adult = 1
[SETTINGS] Set database_show_games = 0
[SETTINGS] Set database_username = *CENSORED*
[SETTINGS] Set device_id = 1903b111-f233-47da-8185-0e4a99fa75f3
[SETTINGS] Set fullscreen = 1
[SETTINGS] Set kickstarts_dir_mtime = 1697062197
[SETTINGS] Set last_floppy_dir = /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/amiga/zool-aga
[SETTINGS] Set last_hd_dir = /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/amiga
[SETTINGS] Set last_scan = 1697208316.7523682
[SETTINGS] Set last_settings_page = Advanced
[SETTINGS] Set launcher_close_buttons = 1
[SETTINGS] Set launcher_theme = fusion-dark
[SETTINGS] Set maximized = 0
[SETTINGS] Set search_path = /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/amiga;/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/Amiga;/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/amiga1200;/opt/retropie/emulators/fs-uae/bin;/home/pi/Documents/FS-UAE/Floppies
[I18N] Initialize_locale language =
[I18N] Locale is en_GB
[I18N] Checking /usr/bin/share/fs-uae-launcher/share-dir
[I18N] Checking /usr/bin/../share/fs-uae-launcher/share-dir
[I18N] bindtextdomain fs-uae-launcher: /usr/bin/../share/locale
[I18N] find translations for en_GB in local directory /usr/bin/../share/locale
[I18N] Path to mo file: None```


edit: tried a few variations including putting the uuid as the last parameter:
fs-uae-launcher <args> <uuid> 
which does start the game, then the launcher is switching to a different variant (different uuid) and launching that via whdload. Still not mapping the controls though. i feel like i'm really close here :)

silver

@zombiefly I'll admit that my Retropie installation is currently offline (microSD card failure), so I've been testing on a Windows machine.

Has passing those command line variables to fs-uae-launcher ever worked?

The reason being that I've tried playing around with the Windows version of fs-uae-launcher and it doesn't seem to accept anything bar a small number of parameters in the command line. If you cannot get it working either then the only other way will be to call fs-uae directly with all the correct command line arguments - which is a little more complicated to implement.