Running ROMs from a Network Share

peer1979

username, password: network shares user and password.
leave folders: If you mean, can i leave the old folders in the original location: yes. Consider it a backup :)
where to put line: I put it above, it worked fine.
what do you see: To test the network share, copy some unique files to the network share (f.e. some new roms) and see if they appear. If so, you're good. I don't know the colorscheme by memory, sorry.

A Former User

Can I buffer the current game on the SD card? I am facing loading issues on big ROMS.

gavster2002

New to forum so would like to say hi to everyone!

I am trying to get my RetroPie to boot noms from network. I have created a share on my NAS \nas\retropie. First question do i put roms folders in here or do I create folder called roms and drop the various folders in there?

I have tried doing using this:

sudo raspi-config
In there, select the 4th option and tell it Yes.

Option 1: Add to autostart.sh (Preferred if using v4.0+)

sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh
Add the following line to the top of that file, being sure to adjust it for your personal settings, paths and options.

sudo mount -t cifs -o username=retropie,password=retropie //192.168.0.10/retropie /home/pi/RetroPie

after reboot emotion station errors that it can't find system and clicking ok returns me to a command prompt.

If I use the guest setting:
sudo mount -t cifs -o guest,uid=pi //192.168.0.10/retropie /home/pi/RetroPie

the system boots but there are no games?

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks
Gav

gavster2002

@doncastermems

Did you fix this? I also get my roms loaded but retropie menu has gone. Any ideas?

I am using the stab option as I could not get the autostart.sh method to load the roms.

Thanks

HoustoneD

This post is deleted!

HoustoneD

@vxjester said in Running ROMs from a Network Share:

Step 10: sudo chown RetroPie: /home/pi/RetroPie

Everything worked out great- thanks! But, can you give any insight on this issue? Rigorously searched around and couldnt find any mention of "invalid spec", but found several mentions of "invalid user"

pi@retropie:~/RetroPie $ sudo chown RetroPie: /home/pi/RetroPie

chown: invalid spec: ‘RetroPie:’

pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /home/pi/RetroPie
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi root 0 Oct 19 11:30 BIOS
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi root 0 Oct 19 11:30 retropiemenu
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi root 0 Oct 19 11:31 roms
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi root 0 Oct 19 11:31 splashscreens

I would assume user pi already has root access here. is this the cause, and i am worried over nothing? Sorry, i am trying to figure out how to properly conform to Markdown- does the above warrant codeblock or inline code? Forgive my ignorance .

Jeero

@gavster2002
i Would say for your following boot issues:

after reboot emotion station errors that it can't find system and clicking ok returns me to a command prompt.
or
sudo mount -t cifs -o guest,uid=pi //192.168.0.10/retropie /home/pi/RetroPie
the system boots but there are no games?

that you should first experiment your mount command line directly in the Raspberry shell, in order to detect an potential mount command issue.

By the way, i have the same issue as you when i'm using the network folder:
sometimes the "retropie" item disappear from the emulationStation menu

Jeero

Hi,

Pi Model: 3B
RetroPie Version Used: v4.0.2
Built From: Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: wireless keyboard dongle, Logitech rumblepad
Guide used: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-Network-Share

i tried the option1, with Autostart.sh, But it does not work.

my mount command is working well, i executed it through the pi SSH shell, then i rebooted emulationStation, and then i succeed in getting files from my network share.
(but i noticed an issue as stated on the message above, the "retropie" item disappear from the emulationStation menu )

but if i boot with this command line included in Autostart.sh, it is not taken into account.

i will try the option 2 tonight, but i wanted to know if someone succeeded with option1 and what would be the issue on my side in that case?
sudo mount -t cifs -o username=xxxx,password='xxxx' //192.168.1.12/raspberry/retropie /home/pi/RetroPie

Thanks a lot !

Regards,
Jeero.

Solex

Hello i'm very new at this. Is it possible to have both so it loads some Roms from sd card and some Roms from Network drive? And when i i'm out of range it only loads from sd card.

I have the same question regarding having some Roms on sd card and some on USB drive is that also possible. Så when i have Network drive online it runs on sd card and Network drive and when i connect USB driv it uses all 3 drives all this automatic no change everytime i connect and diaconnect a drive? Maybe a restart but nothing more 🙄🙄🤔

zehjrack

Hi All,

I gave option 1 a shot, folders appear to mount correctly and everything looks good in ES but MAME (/Mame-Libretro) games wont load (FBA games run fine!), when attempting to play a game it looks like it is going to load (black screen for 5-10 seconds) then it reverts back to the MAME menu. Running the game locally from the SD card runs fine so I know it isn't an issue with the ROM file (testing with 1944.zip).

Initially I suspected it was a permission issue; I double checked that all files were not set to read-only, I played around with mount command and eventually added uid=1000,gid=1000, pi user now has ownership of ~/RetroPie (screenshot attached), I can create folders/files etc via console and I see them populate on my network share but MAME games still fail to load...unfortunately I have run out of thing to try, any suggestions?

Share: NTFS (Server 2012R2)
Pi Model: 3B
Image: 4.0.2 (ran update script after 4.1 was released)
Mount Command: sudo mount -t cifs -o username=xxx,password=xxx,uid=1000,gid=1000 //10.0.0.100/arcade /home/pi/RetroPie

Thanks for your help!

Jeero

@zehjrack
Hi,
i have finally succeeded to use the option 1 too (in switching on/off the option which permits to have emulationstarted automatically run at startup, it seems that it "activate" the use of Autostart.sh file)

i personally had no similar issue with Mame roms, but i remarks you were putting them in /Mame-Libretro folder, and i'm putting them in Arcarde folder.
Maybe you can try this way ?

Regards,
Jeero.

jrhessey

Has anyone figured out why the retropie menu option in emulation station goes missing when you have load the roms over the network? I've seen a couple of posts in this topic pointing that out and when I mount mine, the retropie menu in emulation station goes missing as well.

jpxdude

I haven't looked into this for ages, but I remember this happening to me too. Sounds silly, but it is worth checking that the 'retropiemenu' directory has also been copied to your share, as this didn't transfer over for me when I first tried it. It would be because either that directory is missing in the shared area of your network, or a permissions issue at a guess.

zehjrack

@Jeero
Unfortunately no success using the arcade folder either, but, it did lead me to the runcommand log file (/dev/shm/runcommand.log), output below, it seems as though it isn't able to extract/view the contents of the zip file for some reason, which is weird because my FBA roms are in .zip format and they work fine, no difference in permissions between the two folders.

I did some additional testing and Master System and SNES games have the exact same issue too so it isn't just limited to MAME, but at least they output the error "Failed to extract content from compressed file" in yellow text at the bottom left of the screen when attempting to load the game which I don't get with MAME.

Also I think @jpxdude answered your question re the retropie menu, but just in case, ftp into retropie and copy the retropiemenu folder to your network share and reboot, should resolve your issue.

Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame2003/mame2003_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/a$
nffu.03 NOT FOUND
nff.04 NOT FOUND
nffu.05 NOT FOUND
nffux.03 NOT FOUND
nff.13 NOT FOUND
nff.15 NOT FOUND
nff.17 NOT FOUND
nff.19 NOT FOUND
nff.14 NOT FOUND
nff.16 NOT FOUND
nff.18 NOT FOUND
nff.20 NOT FOUND
nff.01 NOT FOUND
nff.11 NOT FOUND
nff.12 NOT FOUND
ERROR: required files are missing, the game cannot be run.

zehjrack

@Jeero
So just for kicks I decided to give option 2 a shot, my games work fine now lol.

gavster2002

All, I did manage to fix the retropie menu missing bug by slightly modifying the mount command to add 'roms' to the path. It is now all working perfectly :)

sudo mount -t cifs -o username=something,password=something //hostname/retropie/roms /home/pi/RetroPie/roms

Gav

Jeero

@zehjrack Ok we have both no more issues, even if it's different configurations, everybody is happy, that's the most important :p

tsull360

Hello,
Thanks everyone for putting this info together. I'm close to getting things working, but whenever I mount my share and do an ls ~/RetroPie I receive a message that says 'Access Denied'. Without mounting my share, I can see the contents of RetroPie, but of course its not loading my ROMS from the network.

I've granted the account I'm using on my network 'Full Control' of the folder holding my ROMS. Its folder structure is:

\server\Software\RetroPie\ROMS

My fstab has the following line:
//natssp02/software/RetroPie/ROMS /home/pi/RetroPie cifs credentials=/home/pi/.smbcredentials,uid=pi 0 0

Based on turning on auditing on my server, I can see the connection being made to my file server, so I'm not sure why access is being denied. Any pointers?

sabelstrom

I have been trying this, but cant get it to work.

My shared folder is this ftp://192.168.2.1/FTP/Konsolspel/
In this folder roms, bios, splashscreens and configs folder exists.

I am using a PI3 with the latest RetroPie.

How do i know that the /home/pi/RetroPie/ is the right path?

The ip to the PI is 192.168.2.176

carpi

Hi RetroPie people,

I mounted my NAS server to my pi by modifying the autostart.sh file using the guide on github. Everything works fine except when the pi boots into emulation station the RetroPie menu is no longer there for me to adjust any settings. The only way I can get it to come up is to disable the command in autostart.sh that mounts the NAS server and reboot the pi. If anyone has any suggestions as to why the menu is disappearing and how to resolve it, they would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Carpi

Pi Model: 3 Model B
RetroPie Version Used: 4.1
Built From:(Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: Keyboard / Wireless Xbox 360 Receiver
Controller used: Xbox 360
Guide used: Running ROMs from a network share