Start Retropie at boot in Ubuntu 20.04

Daragon

Hello,

I've got a problem with starting Retropie at boot in Ubuntu 20.04. In my Ubuntu start-up apps I added my own script that looks like this:

#!/bin/bash
#moves mouse to bottom right corner
xdotool mousemove 2000 2000
#opens terminal that hides the menubar and desktop
gnome-terminal --full-screen --hide-menubar
#plays video in VLC
vlc --play-and-exit --fullscreen '/home/retropie/RetroPie-StartUp/splash_screen.mp4'
#starts Retropie
emulationstation

After boot, the splashscreen is played and then the ES starts. That's OK. The problem is that some emulators do not work - they are not loaded or something like that. When I start ROM within ES a black screen appears and then goes back to ES. This happens only with some of the emulators, not all. Restaring ES does not solve the problem, I have to quit it and then start it again from desktop.

I do not have any problem when I open Retropie from desktop, nor from terminal with command "emulationstation". Also my script works well, when I run it within terminal, it does not work only at boot from start-up apps. I found out that when I open ES it opens a terminal also. If I quit that terminal also the ES quits. With my script there's not any opened terminal I do not know why, so ES is working without it and that's the problem in my opinion.

I was looking for the answer but found nothing. Maybe there's someone who faced the same problem. Thank you for your help.

mitu

@daragon said in Start Retropie at boot in Ubuntu 20.04:

I was looking for the answer but found nothing. Maybe there's someone who faced the same problem.

I think there have been a few similar inquiries, the answer is to start EmulationStation from a terminal because it needs it for runcommand. Use

gnome-terminal --full-screen --hide-menubar -e emulationstation

to start the terminal and ES with it.

Daragon

@mitu

Thank you! That was exactly what I was missing. It is funny, because in my first Retropie copy I've got exactly that command but forgot about it now.

Sorry for little bit stupid question. Thanks again.