Updating custom collections doesn't take effect anymore

Yobiwan

I'm trying to add some GBA games in my custom collections but modifications doesn't take effect in ES. I've already done this operation with no problem with other systems.
I changed the roms format from zip to 7z in order to save some space and I want to update collections. I know that editing cfg files in windows is a mistake I've already done, but even editing directly in ssh doesn't work anymore... Any clue is welcome !

Retropie 4.6.8
Pi4 4GB
SD 256GB Sandisk Ultra
Argon One case + Argon power supply
Windows 10

mitu

Did you restart ES after modifying the collection file(s) ? Make sure the paths in the collection's cfg file are correct and it doesn't have any extra empty spaces or lines.

Yobiwan

@mitu everything is correct. I've edited the files in windows, but I made a backup before updating. It didn't work, so I replaced the initial files but editing these files didn't take effect.
So I'm trying to run dos2unix command in raspiOS in order to get back all my work. I changed cgf extension into txt and ran "dos2unix custom-xxx.txt custom-xxx.cfg" but i've got this message : "custom -xxx.cfg : no such file or directory" and "ignore custom -xxx.cfg , not regular file"

Yobiwan

I'm so upset... Hours and hours of work !! :-(

mitu

What does file custom-xyz.txt says ? Does it detect the file as text file, with CR/LF line terminators ? Because if it doesn't, you don't need to run dos2unix.

Yobiwan

@mitu It doesn't seem to be a line terminator issue. I just copied an existant cfg file in SSH that hasn't been modified, replaced the lines and gba games still don't display. I even typed manually an entire valid path to a gba "rom.7z" into a fresh copied cfg file, then renamed it, reboot and... "no entries found". Weird.
BUT !! if I add a gamegear "rom.7z" in it for example, no problem. It seems to be related to this specific gba system.
There was a time when gba roms in zip format were displaying fine. Maybe 7z format is causing this issue? But why ? I will test a zip gba rom later.

Yobiwan

@mitu I think I've just solved this issue. To understand what happened, I have to relate what I did with GBA system.
First I had a 1000+ scrapped romset. I wanted to refine a little bit so I downloaded an other romset with 667 roms. I scrapped, replaced everything, including the gamelist.xml. But for some reasons some paths in the new gamelist were still pointing to the last 1000+ romset. ES had modified it quietly... I don't really understand how it is possible, but it seems that emulationstation is messing up with gamelists in this particular case. There was a strange mix of my new romset and the last one...
I'm now scrapping again, and I hope this xml won't be corrupted again...
Maybe you could explain how ES is really interacting with xml, it could help users to avoid this phenomenon in the future.
Thanks for your support.

mitu

@Yobiwan said in Updating custom collections doesn't take effect anymore:

Maybe you could explain how ES is really interacting with xml, it could help users to avoid this phenomenon in the future.

What phenomenon ? I don't understand how ES 'messed' something . By default, if you delete a ROM file, ES will not delete its entry from the gamelist.xml, which is not an issue since the ROM will simply not be shown in the gamelist. I also don't understand what does this have to do with the custom collection ?

pjft

I think that the real way to help users avoid this in the future is to actually create the collection they way it was designed to be created, which is straight in ES. Is there a reason for that not being your approach and for you choosing to resort to a text editor?

The collections will only load any games that exist in the gamelists that are loaded in ES. The XML will not be "corrupted" as such - ES only saves and knows whatever you load into it.

Yobiwan

@mitu Actually I manually paste roms names that weren't in the gamelist in cfg collections files. What I can't figure out is how these paths in the gamelist are pointing to the precedent romset. I had scrapped everything in the rules.

Yobiwan

@pjft I'm using custom collections from a Wolfanoz image. I included some of his romsets in my own retropie image and I kept his collections. I added some new roms in it, so I had to edit manually the cfg files.

mitu

Actually I manually paste roms names that weren't in the gamelist in cfg collections files

So this is the reason why the .cfg file is incorrect.

What I can't figure out is how these paths in the gamelist are pointing to the precedent romset. I had scrapped everything in the rules.

What are you using for scraping ? The built-in scraper doesn't prune any non-existing entries and I think scraper also has an option to only add missing entries. If unsure, you can always delete the gamelist and re-scrape to generate a fresh gamelist file.

I'm using custom collections from a Wolfanoz image.

We don't support 3rd party images.

Yobiwan

@mitu Yes, I was afraid I did something wrong with my collections but finally no worry about that. The culprit was a bad gamelist. I don't know what exactly happened and I am very stubborn to understand how things happen !
I'm using Scraper. Maybe I forgot to remove the last gamelist when I scrapped the new romset, it is the most plausible explanation.
Waiting now... I hope it will be fine.

Yobiwan

What would be awesome is to provide the possibility to add a rom to any custom collection through options menu. I'm regularly updating my romsets and I'm updating custom collections too, but I found anything to do it in ES.

mitu

@Yobiwan said in Updating custom collections doesn't take effect anymore:

I'm regularly updating my romsets and I'm updating custom collections too, but I found anything to do it in ES.

Isn't this explained already in the Docs ?

pjft

@mitu Just saying, whoever wrote those is a hero. My thanks for that endeavor, whoever it was. I am a terrible procrastinator at documenting these things :(

Yobiwan

OMG I like to complicate my life ! Sorry for the inconvenience. I will read more the docs from now on. When I think about it... I learned a lot from my negligence. It can be enjoyable to look outside the box.