PSX Emulation not workin

Zach1812

@mitu Here is a working .cue/.bin image Verbose Log (from Crash Bandicoot)

@rejesterd I updated the OS (sudo apt-get update/sudo apt-get upgrade) then I updated Retropie through the Retropie_Setup Script. Finally I updated all of the cores through the Retropie_Setup Script.

I have obtained other copies of THPS2 and added them to the roms folder to try and the same fault happens. I've also noticed that all my .ccd/.img files don't work and only some of my .cue/.bin files do. Crash Bandicoot is basically my go to for troubleshooting.

@dankcushions Sadly I've noticed. I was really hoping to continue rocking the THPS2, now with RetroAchievements active, but sadly, this machine isn't liking it. Wierdly enough, my other Retropie players (RpiZero on MintyPi and Rpi3B+ in a case) have no issues with lr-pcsx or pcsx. And both of the those machines are fully updated. (no access to RetroAchievements however)

dankcushions

@Zach1812 said in PSX Emulation not workin:

@dankcushions Sadly I've noticed. I was really hoping to continue rocking the THPS2, now with RetroAchievements active, but sadly, this machine isn't liking it. Wierdly enough, my other Retropie players (RpiZero on MintyPi and Rpi3B+ in a case) have no issues with lr-pcsx or pcsx. And both of the those machines are fully updated. (no access to RetroAchievements howe

yes, that's to be expected. your Pis have ARM32 CPUs, for which I made a change in retropie to make sure they use the previous (working and faster on ARM32) dynarec. your x86 machine will default to the newer one. I'm not sure what it was using before but in any case in the usual scenario you'd want to use beetle on x86, as pcsx_rearmed is really for ARM devices. so... hopefully someone can figure out your issue with beetle!

rejesterd

@Zach1812 Can you try running the THPS2 *.img on your pi3 with beetle and collecting the verbose log? Diffing it against the non-working log might reveal something that we're not seeing. But I think it will come back to what @mitu noted earlier..

[libretro INFO] PC=0x00080000
SP=0x00000000
TextStart=0x00000000
TextSize=0x00000000
[libretro ERROR] Text section recorded size is smaller than data available in file.  Header=0x00000000, Available=0x2c961c10
[ERROR] Failed to load content

Those values, I assume, should not be zero.

And I think @dankcushions is right: on the x86 machine, the focus should be on beetle for now. But since it previously worked with both emulators and now it fails on both, to me, that means a lower-level update (like the firmware) is related to this. You can try aptitude (https://wiki.debian.org/SystemDowngrade), but I can tell you from experience that it rarely gets you to a more stable place. Probably best to just report it.

rejesterd

..and for reference, I can reproduce this with beetle on my ubuntu machine (installed ubuntu and retropie about 2 weeks ago). I get the same error in the verbose log. However the rom launches with my version of rearmed no problem. I'll see what I can find out. This helps me, as I've been wanting to get this machine up and running (and this is one game I really want to work on the psx specifically).

Do you remember when you originally installed/updated beetle (or I guess the main rpi packages) before it broke? Would be good to get an idea of when exactly it was working.

rejesterd

Another detail that might help narrow this down..

I originally installed ubuntu and retropie (latest stable versions) around Feb 14th. The THPS2 *.img doesn't load with beetle but it loads with rearmed.

I re-built beetle against an older commit number (from July 2019), and it still couldn't load the game (same error as you're seeing).

Then I updated the retropie setup script, and updated beetle and rearmed from source. Same behavior.. rearmed works, beetle doesn't.

I suspect if I also do an apt upgrade on ubuntu or a retropie update on all the cores (particularly retroarch itself), rearmed will fail as it does for you. I just need to make a backup image before I do that. If it turns out that rearmed breaks after the apt upgrade, at least we'll have an idea of when things broke (i.e. sometime within the last 2 weeks). If it doesn't break, I'll make another backup image at that point, then update the retroarch cores. Hopefully at that point, I'll get the same behavior as you (then we would know that the issue is most likely related to a change made in retroarch/retropie within the last 2 weeks).

mitu

@Zach1812 said in PSX Emulation not workin:

@mitu Here is a working .cue/.bin image Verbose Log (from Crash Bandicoot)

There doesn't seem to be any error and the new LightRec dynamic recompiler doesn't seem to be enabled. The image is loaded (no errors loading content this time) and it's validated - I see cheevos are loading also based on the game recognized.

Can't think of why it's not working - try checking the Options and see if switching between the options for 'CPU Dynarec' makes any difference.

dankcushions

@Zach1812 do you have run-ahead enabled in beetle? if so, try turning it off: https://github.com/libretro/beetle-psx-libretro/issues/443

Zach1812

@rejesterd I was unable to run my RpiB+ with Beetle as it is not a core I can download with the updater. However, I was able to run it on my lr-pcsx core. Here's the Verbose Log for that. (unsure if that helps or not)

As for your install question, I only just installed Beetle a couple of days ago. Previously all of my interations with PSX emulators have been filtered through the lr-pcsx. (That includes my x86 machine)

@mitu If I think I understand you right, you want me to open up the options for the Beetle core (/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg) and switch the options there for the CPU Dynarec. But...I don't see that kind of option. How would I go about doing that?

You'll have to forgive me. I may be Computer Competent but I'm definitly not Computer Smart.

@dankcushions I read that entire thread and probably understood .... 10% of it? I recognize that Vulkan and OpenGL were trying to work together but somehow it was creating a second version of itself and causing issues. Despite trying to understand how @treymerkley got to the point of fixing it (running a debug in gdb with bt?) I still don't understand how to get there. I'm not traditionally a linux person.

BTW Thank you all for your help with this and expanding my knowledge just that little bit more!

mitu

@Zach1812 said in PSX Emulation not workin:

@mitu If I think I understand you right, you want me to open up the options for the Beetle core (/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-core-options.cfg) and switch the options there for the CPU Dynarec. But...I don't see that kind of option. How would I go about doing that?

Open the RGUI (Select + X) and go to Options. I'd say update from souce first, just so you get the latest version, but you said you've updated recently.

rejesterd

@Zach1812 Ah ok. So after the update, you tried beetle for the first time (since rearmed was no longer working). For reference, I did a full update (RetroPie Setup > Update) and also did an apt-get upgrade, but I'm still not able to reproduce your issue in rearmed. Here's my verbose log from a successful launch.

Do you have any cheats or achievements enabled for the game? Maybe look under ~/.config/retroarch/ for any references to THPS2. Happy to try your configs if you want to send them.

Zach1812

Last update before work. (It'll be a few hours)

@mitu I opened the RGUI and was unable to find the CPU Dynarec but was able to find hardware rendering (OpenGL and VUlkan) and it was set to Auto. I set it for OpenGl for the moment.

Weird thing happened though, when I was in the RetroArch context within Crash Bandicoot I tried to Load Content with the THPS2 image and it worked perfectly on Beetle. I tried to save a config file for it to open under the correct game in RetroPie but it didn't work.

So at least I have a workaround to play my games.

dankcushions

@Zach1812 said in PSX Emulation not workin:

@dankcushions I read that entire thread and probably understood .... 10% of it? I recognize that Vulkan and OpenGL were trying to work together but somehow it was creating a second version of itself and causing issues. Despite trying to understand how @treymerkley got to the point of fixing it (running a debug in gdb with bt?) I still don't understand how to get there. I'm not traditionally a linux person.

you don't really have to understand the thread - it was just for reference. the pertinent part of my comment was:

do you have run-ahead enabled in beetle? if so, try turning it off