unofficial Retroarch 1.8.1

tobas

I was given a compiled 1.8.1 binary with these instructions:

"Okay, these are what you'll need. I'm assuming you already know how to get these files on to your rpi, after all, you have already got roms onto it and this isn't any different (not really). Both of these files go in /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/ and overwrite the two existing files. You might want to back up the two files in there already just in case but I've been using this build without problems."

everyone using this build with these instructions seems to be just fine. my retroarch immediately breaks when I do this. what am I missing here?

any help would be appreciated. thank you so much.

dankcushions

so, let me get this straight: on your quest for the latest version of retroarch, you've got some guy on reddit to send you the binary, and you've installed this, and it's broken? if you want to use the version of retroarch we DO support, use the previous version you backed up, and then please wait until we officially support it.

Darksavior

@dankcushions He was in the conv where I helped someone else on reddit install 1.8.1 successfully with cmitu's script. He refused to use those directions.
No idea who he got the binary from to troubleshoot.

tobas

@Darksavior I don't understand the instructions. if I did I would happily use that solution.

tobas

@dankcushions all I'm trying to understand is why it works for others but not when I do it. I don't care that it doesn't work, that's fine I'll wait, I would just like to know why it doesn't work. I want to learn.

there's a lot of stuff I don't understand and I'm trying to learn as much as I can, I figured this would be the best place to do that.

mitu

@tobas said in unofficial Retroarch 1.8.1:

@dankcushions all I'm trying to understand is why it works for others but not when I do it. I don't care that it doesn't work, that's fine I'll wait, I would just like to know why it doesn't work. I want to learn.

That question cannot be answered here, maybe by the author of the binary - you didn't show any error message, we don't know how it was compiled (system, compilation options, etc.) and how it's running on the author's system. Just knowing that 'it doesn't work' it's not enough to understand and explain why it's not working.

tobas

@mitu oh, well I don't get any error message. it just kicks me back to the menu when I try to boot anything. if i swap the older binary back in it works again. no installation needed.

retroarch working vs not working is just a simple matter of dragging and dropping. that seems odd to me since I keep hearing that it doesn't work that way.

mitu

oh, well I don't get any error message

Try looking in /dev/shm/runcommand.log to see if any startup errors are logged.

retroarch working vs not working is just a simple matter of dragging and dropping. that seems odd to me since I keep hearing that it doesn't work that way.

Your experience shows otherwise - it doesn't seem to be a simple matter of drag'n'drop.

Darksavior

@mitu Watch it be a permission issue:D

mitu

@Darksavior Could be, that would show up in /dev/shm/runcommand.log.

tobas

@Darksavior I did have to log in as root to copy over the old bin file.

I will post the contents of my log tonight. it would be nice if it were something solvable like a permission issue.

tobas

@mitu

Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-beetle-pce-fast/mednafen_pce_fast_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/tg16/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/tg16/Vigilante (USA).zip" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg
/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

mitu

@tobas said in unofficial Retroarch 1.8.1:

/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

The RetroArch binary seems it was compiled on a newer (?) system, with different OpenSSL libraries than what you have currently installed. My guess is that the binary was compiled on Raspbian Buster, while you're running on a Stretch or maybe Jessie based Raspbian system. It will not work on your system.

ledow

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why supporting external, unofficial software is just wasting people's valuable time.

It's like expecting Microsoft to tell you why your Mac isn't working.

tobas

@mitu yes, I am on 4.5.3 jessie, is that horribly out of date?

edit: can I upgrade jessie to stretch/buster?

Thorr69

@tobas said in unofficial Retroarch 1.8.1:

@mitu yes, I am on 4.5.3 jessie, is that horribly out of date?

edit: can I upgrade jessie to stretch/buster?

I think we have a winner...

If your system is still on Jessie, then the latest Retroarch probably wouldn't be drop & go. I believe the recent Rpi RA requires Stretch, and the the very latest would require Buster. Am I right, @mitu ?

tobas

@Thorr69 I believe this is correct the more I look into it. I will upgrade to stretch later and update on the results. I hope maybe this thread can help someone in the future with this issue.

mitu

@Thorr69 said in unofficial Retroarch 1.8.1:

. I believe the recent Rpi RA requires Stretch, and the the very latest would require Buster. Am I right, @mitu ?

If you install from source, it might work on Jessie also, but using an already made binary, that won't work. Of course, RetroPie doesn't support Raspbian Jessie anymore, so it's not tested on that version and it's not 100% guaranteed it would work.

tobas

@mitu even more reason to upgrade to stretch then.

Darksavior

@tobas So why aren't you making a backup image, extracting your games/configs from it and start fresh on stretch or try a buster image from the weekly page? This all seems like a waste of time. You'll have to repeat this again when stretch support dies. I've briefly tried the pi3 buster image and had no issues.