Roms won't load

tiberiuskirk

I have an smb share setup for my roms. I can see them in the game list for each respective emulator. When I try to launch a rom, it goes to the screen that indicates it is attempting to load the rom and press any button to configure.. after a couple seconds, it returns to the game list. I've tried checking the /tmp/runcommand.log, but it is blank. The extension on the games is .zip, and I have confirmed in the es_systems.cfg that the emulators do support the .zip extension. The only emulator that appears to load roms is the N64 emulator, but even then, when the game launches, if I press a button, it exits back to the rom list. I think these are two separate issues, so I guess I'll tackle these one at a time. Any help with troubleshooting why the roms won't load is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

rbaker

@tiberiuskirk I would try the roms that you are using locally first to establish that you have compatible roms for the emulators that you are using. You do not provide enough information to suggest anything else.....
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

Now I am hoping that you have at least read:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2859/how-to-use-mame-with-retropie-help-guide
and
https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Managing-ROMs

to ensure that you don't become the 17001th person to ask why roms don't load :)

Good luck.

dankcushions

@tiberiuskirk can you please fill out https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first ? use an example of a specific rom that doesn't work.

rbaker

@dankcushions I guess we were typing at the very same moment! :)

tiberiuskirk

@rbaker @dankcushions , thanks for your responses/recommendations. @rbaker, I haven't tried mame yet, so I'm not certain why I would review those mame links specifically. Right now I'm focusing on SNES, NES, Atari, Sega Genesis.. Mame looks like an entirely different beast with rom versions/conversions etc.. Regarding the form to fill out:

Pi Model: 2B
RetroPie Version Used: I updated the script/binaries yesterday so the version is https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/commit/0d8634f83ea1a0770a4dc71234895f7e322bf149

Built From: I followed the manual install guide and installed ontop of Raspbian via https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

USB Devices connected: wifi dongle, keyboard, wireless mouse dongle
Controller used: wireless xbox360 controller

Error messages received:none

Guide used: manual install guide: https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/manual-installation

network share howto: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-Network-Share

File: N/A
Emulator: All emulators except for N64.. I've tried the Atari 2600/7800, SNES, NES, Sega Genesis

How to replicate the problem:
I created a share on my Windows server and followed the instructions on the link above to mount it on the pi. I added the path to /etc/fstab and it mounts fine. I then load emulationstation and select rom from game list in emulationstation.. rom attempts to launch, shows message indicating launching and press any button to configure.. after a couple of seconds, returns to game list.. No errors noted in /tmp/runcommand.log

I tried running a rom locally and it works. Seems to be an issue in accessing the roms via smb share even though it does list the roms and I confirmed the share is mounted..

I did indeed search the forums as well as Reddit, and anything I could find via Google related to Roms not loading.

es_system.cfg: http://pastebin.com/4UNAezVZ (you'll note the NES path is different than the rest because I was testing a local rom, the smb path references the mount for the smb share.)

Shakz

@tiberiuskirk
I just posted this a little while ago but with my samba share...actually just running off of a drive plugged into my router...I had to chmod the directory in Linux before it would let me write save games...based on what you are saying though is that you are not able to even read the games from the share drive. Have you tried setting everything to 777?
sudo chmod 777 <path to roms on share>

dankcushions

@tiberiuskirk I specifically asked for a specific example rather than "all Roms fail" because it gives us something to focus the tests on. going to ask that again :)

we need a romname and the full path.

what I would then do is navigate to that path via the command line, and give us the output of ls -l - I guess it could be a permissions issue

rbaker

@tiberiuskirk said in Roms won't load:

I haven't tried mame yet, so I'm not certain why I would review those mame links specifically.

In your original post, you said "When I try to launch a rom, it goes to the screen that indicates it is attempting to load the rom and press any button to configure.. after a couple seconds, it returns to the game list" - this is indicative of mame roms used with the wrong emulator. I was suggesting it because I had to guess in order to help you.

You then went on to say "The only emulator that appears to load roms is the N64 emulator, but even then, when the game launches, if I press a button, it exits back to the rom list". This suggested to me that you had tried them all and this would naturally include MAME.

My natural conclusion was therefore to suggest that you try running locally which now appears to work for you and then a suggestion that you read the MAME stuff.

JFamily

@tiberiuskirk
Get on your windows server, right click the folder that you're mounting on the Pi. Select Properties -> Uncheck and totally clear the box for "Read Only" -> Hit Apply -> Tell it to Apply to all files and subfolders -> wait for it to finish -> Restart your Pi.

I've already added this to the troubleshooting section of the guide. Maybe I should add it directly into the steps for people using a Windows system as opposed to a NAS:
Running ROMs from a Network Share -> ROMs Won't Load

tiberiuskirk

I really appreciate all the input. @rbaker, you're right.. I did not specify. My apologies. @dankcushions, I missed that last bit.I am testing Mario Bros. on the NES emulator. The path to the rom is /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes. @Shakz , I tried your suggestion, but after applying chmod 777 to the samba share, there was no change. @JFamily , I cleared the read only attribute from the folder on my Windows server and rebooted, still no change in the behavior when attempting to launch the rom. :/

JFamily

@tiberiuskirk
Hmm. That's what fixed it for me when I had that problem. What is your GPU/CPU memory split? It's a little excessive (perhaps) but I set mine to 512.
Just to be certain, you did tell it to apply to "This Folder, All Files and Subfolders" right? Verbiage might be a little off but that's the gist of it.

tiberiuskirk

@JFamily , I have not configured/modified that setting. I am new to this, and am just following the guides I mentioned above. Where would I configure the GPU/CPU memory split?

JFamily

@tiberiuskirk
sudo raspi-config

I sent you there in my guide to tell the Pi to wait for network at boot. I'm at work but I believe the memory split is under "Advanced". ~~Additionally, are you mounting with fstab or autostart.sh?~~ Can you post the line you added to fstab? Please redact your username/password before posting it here.

Btw, 256 is probably plenty for the split.

tiberiuskirk

@JFamily , right now the GPU is set to 256. I did indeed tell it to apply to This folder, all files, and subfolders. The fstab line is "//192.168.1.4/RetroPie/roms /home/pi/RetroPie/smb cifs domain=domain,username=username,password=password 0 0 " without quotes. It doesn't mount on it's own. I have to run sudo mount -a once the pi boots up for the share to be visible in the /smb folder. Once I do that, I load emulationstation and I see all the NES roms just fine, just can't launch them. It does work locally though.. but I'd prefer to have it work over the network.

JFamily

@tiberiuskirk If it isn't mounting at boot but works with "sudo mount -a", make sure you turned on "Wait for Network at Boot".

I'm not sure what your Windows system looks like (Win 7, 8, 8.1, 10, Server 2012, w/e) but I'm running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit and I had to add a few more flags than I did with earlier versions of Windows:

//192.168.1.4/RetroPie/roms /home/pi/RetroPie/smb cifs domain=domain,username=Username,password=Password,nounix,noserverino,defaults,users,auto 0 0

Try that line. Not sure if the domain flag is necessary? I may need you to elaborate on your setup beyond the Pi. Are you on a domain or workgroup, what version of windows are you running, etc?

JFamily

@tiberiuskirk
Also, seeing your fstab line, it looks like you followed an older version of the guide. I've since omitted any suggestion of making an smb folder and instead recommend moving the entire RetroPie folder to your server. I don't think that specific step has anything to do with it and it should be just fine they way you're doing it. But, I've made a lot of improvements to the guide in the past couple of days. You may want to read over it again

tiberiuskirk

@JFamily , I just turned on "Wait for Network at Boot", I can see it fail to load the share during the post process. It succeeds after boot after running sudo mount -a. I'm running Windows 8.1 Pro. It's in the default workgroup "WORKGROUP". I added domain because initially, after following your guide, I was receiving an error when attempting to mount. After tweaking the fstab line, it finally started mounting albeit manually. I initially tried option one from your guide, but it didn't work for me. I just tried it again.. I commented out my fstab line, edited the autostart.sh file located in the /opt/retropie/configs/all directory. Rebooted, and now I don't see any roms at all.. So for some reason option one doesn't work for me. I do have the entire RetroPie contents on the server, but when I add the fstab line instead of through autostart, at the very least it mounts manually...

JFamily

@tiberiuskirk
Strange that adding the domain flag helped, I've never had to use that before...

I was replying from work yesterday and now. It was hectic at home last night so I didn't get a chance to tinker. Are you still having problems loading ROMs or have you made some progress?

BuZz

@tiberiuskirk What line did you add to autostart.sh ?

kloz

Seems I had a problem with permissions, when following the github wiki I was using the mount command with SUDO, and ofcourse the owner/group was root so the user pi couldn't read the mounted dir, the fix was to include the UID and GID for PI in the options during the mount command

sudo mount -t cifs -o domain=workgroup,username=<USERNAME>,password=<PASSWORD>,nounix,noserverino,defaults,users,uid=<LINUX_USERID>,gid=<LINUX_GROUPID> //<HOSTNAME>/ROMSSHARE /home/pi/RetroPie/roms

both LINUX_USERID and LINUX_GROUPID were 1000 in my case.

Hope this helps someone from wasting as much time as I have on this problem.