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    Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

    Launch Menu entirely missing; nothing at all starts

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    ubuntu 20.04launch menuall systemsall gamesmissing assets
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    • N
      nemo
      last edited by

      I used reropie for a while and everything worked more or less fine.
      Today, whatever ROM I start, I get a short black screen, than I'm back to emulationstation. There is no Launch Menu showing up. This happens with every emu and every port. So I think there's something fundamentally - and probably easy to fix - wrong between emulationstation and the launch. I just don't know how to debug that further.

      The emulators and ports themselves are fine. When I run the command from /dev/shm/runcommand.log manually in a console, all emus, cores and ports run like before.
      When I run Basilisk II, even the config must be evaluated, since the resolution changes like configured and back, just the emulator doesn't show up. Again, using the command line from the runcommand.log works (albeit without changing the resolution).

      I think the solution - or a method to debug this, like attempting to start the Launch Menu on its own - should be recognizable for someone in the know already, but I'll add further info, just in case and for the sake of completeness.

      I'll give more details further below, but for the moment it should be sufficient to know this is a Ubuntu 20 LTS driven netbook with a manual retropie install.

      Here's what I did inbetween and I checked as a possible reason:

      • I installed additional cores and emus. I haven't tried removing these yet, would that be an option?

      • I changed the sound from oss-compat to osspd. I changed that back again, which didn't solve the issue. Again, emus run fine in both cases.

      • I had changed the keyboard config for one GameBoy ROM with the RGUI. I looked for the configuration files that creates, in case something went wrong there, but haven't found them yet. I tend to think that wouldn't mess with the ports, so I'm not thinking this could be it, but I could be wrong.

      • I had created /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh and /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onend.sh, but removed them again when the ROMs didn't start anymore. Didn't help.

      Further info, example runcommand.log:

      Parameters: 
      Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-gambatte/gambatte_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/gb/retroarch.cfg "/home/jo/RetroPie/roms/gb/Tetris (World).zip" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg
      

      relevant (I hope) part of es_log.txt:

      Mar 15 12:34:06 lvl2: 	EmulationStation - v2.10.2rp, built Mar 11 2022 - 19:03:49
      Mar 15 12:34:06 lvl2: 	Parsing XML file "/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/resources/mamenames.xml"...
      Mar 15 12:34:07 lvl2: 	Parsing XML file "/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/resources/mamebioses.xml"...
      Mar 15 12:34:07 lvl2: 	Parsing XML file "/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/resources/mamedevices.xml"...
      Mar 15 12:34:07 lvl2: 	Creating window...
      Mar 15 12:34:07 lvl2: 	Created window successfully.
      Mar 15 12:34:07 lvl2: 	GL vendor:   Intel Open Source Technology Center
      Mar 15 12:34:07 lvl2: 	GL renderer: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Pineview M 
      Mar 15 12:34:07 lvl2: 	GL version:  1.4 Mesa 21.2.6
      Mar 15 12:34:07 lvl2: 	Checking available OpenGL extensions...
      Mar 15 12:34:07 lvl2: 	 ARB_texture_non_power_of_two: ok
      Mar 15 12:34:07 lvl2: 	Loading system config file /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg...
      ...
      Mar 15 12:35:00 lvl2: 	  Mapping [Key 1] -> LeftTrigger
      Mar 15 12:35:01 lvl2: 	  Mapping [Key 2] -> RightTrigger
      Mar 15 12:35:32 lvl2: 	  Mapping [Key Right Alt] -> HotKeyEnable
      Mar 15 12:36:07 lvl2: 	 req sound [detailed.launch]
      Mar 15 12:36:07 lvl2: 	   (missing)
      Mar 15 12:36:08 lvl2: 	Attempting to launch game...
      Mar 15 12:36:08 lvl2: 		/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ gb /home/jo/RetroPie/roms/gb/Tetris\ \(World\).zip
      Mar 15 12:36:12 lvl2: 	Creating window...
      Mar 15 12:36:12 lvl2: 	Created window successfully.
      Mar 15 12:36:12 lvl2: 	GL vendor:   Intel Open Source Technology Center
      Mar 15 12:36:12 lvl2: 	GL renderer: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Pineview M 
      Mar 15 12:36:12 lvl2: 	GL version:  1.4 Mesa 21.2.6
      Mar 15 12:36:12 lvl2: 	Checking available OpenGL extensions...
      Mar 15 12:36:12 lvl2: 	 ARB_texture_non_power_of_two: ok
      

      The only thing I find peculiar there is the part:

      Mar 15 12:36:07 lvl2: 	 req sound [detailed.launch]
      Mar 15 12:36:07 lvl2: 	   (missing)
      

      git version of RetroPie-Setup:

      commit 5255c5be1f73e98dd8156ab6b4545cc0fdbbf6e0
      Merge: c39ad05 682c929
      Author: Jools Wills <buzz@exotica.org.uk>
      Date:   Thu Mar 10 05:17:36 2022 +0000
      
          Merge pull request #3492 from joolswills/ppsspp_armv6_fix
          
          ppsspp - Fix linking on rpi1 / armv6
      

      I have found posts where people were in a similar situation, but no solution popped up there, and the information given was too little to be sure if it was the same. I believe this should be very easy to find out once I find a log of the shim between emulationstation and the Launch Menu - or a way to test the Launch Menu on it's own. But I just don't know how.

      Thanks in advance for any hint you can give me.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • mituM
        mitu Global Moderator
        last edited by

        How are you starting EmulationStation ?

        N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • N
          nemo @mitu
          last edited by nemo

          @mitu :

          Uh. You came down on that one like a hawk!

          In fact, I used to start via command line or menu entry. Yesterday, I mapped the start on a Multimedia button and used that ever since. I didn't even start to think this could be the issue, therefore sorry for not mentioning it. But reading your inconspicuous question, I tried and... it works via menu entry! I'm so relieved.

          But why is that? And how could I know? And how did you know? And can I configure a hotkey?

          So many questions. I may find out on my own. But ifyou find the time and can enlighten me, I'd appreciate it. Anyhow, many thanks so far! That was so small and so helpful.

          Edit: Ah, is it because there is no terminal associated with the hotkey action?

          BuZzB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • BuZzB
            BuZz administrators @nemo
            last edited by

            @nemo yes. It needs to be run from a terminal.

            To help us help you - please make sure you read the sticky topics before posting - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • mituM
              mitu Global Moderator
              last edited by

              @nemo what @BuZz said. The runcommand launch menu needs a terminal/tty to work, if you're launching EmulationStation directly (i.e. not from a terminal) then runcommand cannot display the menu.

              Look at the retropie.deskop entry and copy its command to the button mapping in order to get the same behavior as launching from the menu entry.

              N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • N
                nemo @mitu
                last edited by

                @mitu Yeah, that's what I did, essentially. Thanks a bunch!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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