Acorn BBC Micro Emulator (current?)

Folly

@smartgenes said in Acorn BBC Micro Emulator (current?):

BBC Micro emu aren't opening in a full-screen which fills the page but in a window, any idea why?

If you are talking about b-em-allegro4 then that is correct.
You have to go to the menu and select fullscreen each time.
There is no way around that, only if the emulator is patched somehow to open in fullscreen at start.
But that is something we only managed with elkulator, sadly not b-em.
The xbeeb and xmaster work in a matchbox and should start fullscreen if you do not run it in the Desktop environment.

Folly

@smartgenes said in Acorn BBC Micro Emulator (current?):

xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default

Try to do the same command like this :

sam@trinity: xrandr
xrandr: failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
  1024x768     76.00*

If you have somewhat the same output, with only one resolution, then your video driver doesn't work properly or your monitor/TV can't do many resolutions.
Are you using a regular PC, not an RPI ?

xrandr is used in X11/Desktop environment or when using XINIT.
So when a program tries to get supported resolution through xrandr it will fail with : xrandr: failed to get size of gamma for output default

A good output should be something like this :

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1600 x 900, maximum 7680 x 7680
HDMI-1 connected primary 1600x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 440mm x 250mm
   1600x900      60.00*+
   1920x1080     60.00    59.94  
   1440x900      59.90  
   1280x800      59.91  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94  
   1024x768      75.03    60.00  
   832x624       74.55  
   800x600       75.00    60.32    56.25  
   720x480       60.00    59.94  
   640x480       75.00    60.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08

smartgenes

@Folly When I type xrandr I get
Failed to get size of gamma for output default Screen 0: minimum 592x448 maximum 592x448 etc,
just one measurement.

I have LXDE - Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment, this was a pre-made image which was useful to me as it has the desktop environment on top of Retropie, which is great for building gamelists. I'm not sure how exactly it was built. (It's Pi not PC)

I've had the xrandr error message a while, what can I do to get rid of it?

The ZX Spectrum emulators changed from full screen to an inset box with a large black border after update and also some other emus seemed to open differently to before. So I thought it might be a similar issue with the BBC emulator (b-em-allegro4) but I guess in this case it's just a limitation.

Any idea what could cause the change in the Spectrum emus? I've been hunting about but don't know where this type of setting would be amended.

smartgenes

@smartgenes Actually the Valerino scriptmodules messages still appeared when I was in a music app. I went to home/pi/retropie-setup/ext and deleted the Valerino folder, hopefully that takes care of that.

Folly

@smartgenes

The questions you are asking are a bit off topic.
For you I think it better to re-start creating your own image.
I suggest you start with a fresh Buster with Desktop and install RetroPie-Setup on top of it.
Would be good to open a whole new thread regarding using RetroPie on a distribution with Desktop environment.

Btw.
I will go on vacation tomorrow so I will probably not reply for 2 or 3 weeks.

Lord Vek

@Folly said in Acorn BBC Micro Emulator (current?):

So add add-ext-repos.sh it with these commands :

cd
mkdir -p RetroPie-Setup/ext/RetroPie-Share/scriptmodules/supplementary
cd RetroPie-Setup/ext/RetroPie-Share/scriptmodules/supplementary
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/main/00-scriptmodules-00/supplementary/add-ext-repos.sh
cd
Then start Retropie-Setup and goto config/tools and find add-ext-repos.
Select the repo you want and it will download the files to the RetroPie-Setup/ext/<repository>/ directory.
For adding my scripts choose FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share .
When you go back, you will go to manage packages and select experimental packages.
Here you will find the b-em packages that you can install.

@Folly
Hello,

I found this answer you gave to Retro-Arcade-Fan. I did all the above, but I don't see B-Em (or anything new for that matter) inside the experimental packages. Please help.
I have a Raspberry Pi 400 running version 4.8.4 of setup script.

Folly

@Lord-Vek

Do you have this folder now ? :
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/ext/RetroPie-Share/scriptmodules

Check if you can find, for example, these files :

/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/ext/RetroPie-Share/scriptmodules/emulators/b-em-allegro4.sh
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/ext/RetroPie-Share/scriptmodules/emulators/b-em-pico-pi.sh
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/ext/RetroPie-Share/scriptmodules/supplementary/add-mamedev-systems.sh
/home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/ext/RetroPie-Share/scriptmodules/supplementary/mamedev.sh

Check if above files have contain something.

Lord Vek

@Folly
Thanks for the answer.
The folder \home\pi\RetroPie-Setup\ext\RetroPie-Share\scriptmodules\emulators,contains only one path file.
The folder \home\pi\RetroPie-Setup\ext\RetroPie-Share\scriptmodules\supplementary, doesn't contain the files you mention above.

Folly

@Lord-Vek

Try to select my repository again from add-ext-repos in configs/tools and see if it will download the scripts (make sure you have a good connection).
Then check the folders again for files.
If this doesn't work then you can just download my repository and copy and paste the the ones you want in the appropriate directories.
You can see how it's done over here with this module-script :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-lr-mame-and-mame-standalone

Lord Vek

@Folly

I manually copied the files for which you asked me in your previous answer. Now, I can see the two instances of b-em: b-em_allegro and b-em-pico-pi. The question now is, which one should I install? What are their differences?

Folly

@Lord-Vek said in Acorn BBC Micro Emulator (current?):

@Folly

I manually copied the files for which you asked me in your previous answer. Now, I can see the two instances of b-em: b-em_allegro and b-em-pico-pi. The question now is, which one should I install? What are their differences?

I must say it's already a long time ago since I made these module-scripts and I am not really sure on which linux version they still work.
I did not implement flags for linux distributions that don't work.
So it can be that bullseye/debian 11 doesn't work.
I think however Buster/debain 10 should work.

As far as I can look up and can remember the info is as follows :

b-em-pico-pi is based on the b-em fork of kilograham :
https://github.com/kilograham/b-em
A b-em version adjusted to work on the rpi-pico.
In the readme you can read that the version can also work on a regular rpi or pc.
So my module-script is created for installing it like that.
The advantage is that this version works with the correct speed whereas the latest b-em, from that time, had issues running with the correct speed. It also has a different menu than the normal b-em.
It's basically a rpi-pico build running it on a normal rpi.
A loader script is also added which uses matchbox to get fullscreen and quit option and xdotool for autoloading software (disk only).

The other b-em-allegro one is a normal version but we picked it out of the b-em repository on very old commit which worked the best on the rpi.
Basically this means that it also works with the correct speed.
The advantage or disadvantage is (how you look at it) it has a normal menu like the normal b-em version.
A loader script is also added which uses matchbox to get fullscreen and quit and xdotool for autoloading software (tape or disk(.uef or .ssd)).

As far as I can remember :
The pico-pi version runs demos and games with advanced graphics pretty good, not really sure if the the allegro version does the same. However the allegro version can run tapes and more disk formats.

The basic difficulty is that when source code gets older it sometimes will not compile anymore when gcc upgrades to a newer version.
Tried to implement some fixes in the past but not sure anymore if this is still enough.
So we have to try.
I must say my knowledge, for adapting the source code, will probably not be enough to fix future problems if they occur.

If you are looking for the most robust way up till now then you can have a look at mame/lr-mess using my mamedev.sh or add-mamedev-systems.sh scripts. Mame/lr-mess will work but demos and games with advanced graphics will not correctly work and mame/lr-mess has steep a learning curve.
Sadly developing speed of mame/lr-mame/lr-mess has also it's disadvantages.
Compiling on rpi and on older linux distributions becomes more troublesome :

Also installing it from source on an rpi is not recommended as it takes too much time or will fail.
The proper way is to install it from a binary and accept the binary version that is the best way for now.

Btw.
You should read this topic also :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29402/bbc-micro-acorn-electron-emu

Lord Vek

@Folly Thanks for the answers Folly. I will try them both then tomorrow. I will also read the topic you suggested.

Folly

@Lord-Vek

I checked if I they where installed on my rpi4 with RaspberryPiOS(Debian11/Bullseye 32 bit)* and they were installed and both are working.
So basically it should work on both Buster 32 bit and Bulleye 32 bit on a RPI.

*my /boot/config.txt contains :
arm_64bit=0
To force the kernel in 32 mode.
More info in this topic :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/34301/cross-compile-packages-for-rpi1/17
(not doing so can get you into trouble on Bullseye)

ps. if you peek into kilograhams fork you will find demo disc in the scr/pico folder.
Tested twiser and bs-party and they both work on both emulators but xmaster from b-em-pico-pi does the best job. The allegro version has some difficulty with the sound.

Lord Vek

@Folly Hello,

This is what I did. I installed b-em-pico-pi. It works fullscreen OK, but it doesn't recognize half the keyboard. It loads .ssd files without problem.
Then I installed b-em_allegro. This is works OK, loads .ssd files also, recognizes keyboard, but it is not running in fullscreen. I couldn't find any shortcuts to enter the menu (does it have a menu?), or make it run in fullscreen. I only discovered that with Ctrl + C it exits the emulator.
From what I could tell, both emulators seem to run at the correct speed. I run Chuckie Egg, Repton and Elite.
Any further help would be appreciated. Thanks for your support.

Lord Vek

@Folly
I discovered also that with Alt + Enter, b-em_allegro goes fullscreen but you have to switch it back in order to exit with Ctrl + C.

Folly

@Lord-Vek said in Acorn BBC Micro Emulator (current?):

I couldn't find any shortcuts to enter the menu (does it have a menu?)

You can use F11 for both emulators.

I discovered also that with Alt + Enter, b-em_allegro goes fullscreen but you have to switch it back in order to exit with Ctrl + C

Looks like you are running from the desktop environment, right ?
Then indeed Alt+enter will work with the allegro version.
Though running it like that, both will start in windowed mode because matchbox-window-manager will not work in the desktop environment.
You have to log-out to the CLI environment and run emulationstation.
Starting something like that will run these emulators within matchbox-window-manager in fullscreen.
It looks like that the pico-pi version doesn't have fullscreen mode.
This is why I implemented matchbox-window-manager into the loading scripts.
From there ctrl+c should also work.

Lord Vek

@Folly

Thanks for the answers.
I don't know, Retropie (Emulation Station) is a desktop environment?
I tested the function keys until F10, because then on 400 you have to press the "function" key with the F1 and F2, so I didn't thought to try F11 and F12. The pico-pi run on fullscreen by itself.
The thing is, I wanted to have a BBC emulator and thanks to you, I now have one. Thanks again and be well!

Folly

@Lord-Vek

Ok, seems you run just a normal RetroPie image.
Nice to hear that you have it running quite good.
Quitting b-em-allegro version can also be done from the menu if ctrl+c is not an option.

Enjoy and be well !

pgamble

@Folly Hi Folly. Just joined the forum having got my self a RP4 and installed Retropie. I had a BBC B as a teenager and really keen to get the latest emulation working. I've tried to follow the thread - but it's very very long. Has anyone put together a complete list of steps? I think if I tried to put together steps for the two instruction sets, I'd get things very wrong :-( Many thanks in advance. Paul

Folly

@pgamble said in Acorn BBC Micro Emulator (current?):

@Folly Hi Folly. Just joined the forum having got my self a RP4 and installed Retropie.

Welcome ;-)

I had a BBC B as a teenager and really keen to get the latest emulation working.

That is great !
BBC B / or other types aren't working out of the box in RetroPie.
Simply because there aren't emulators that really fit well into RetroPie and so no module-scripts have been made for it.

A module-script is a bash script that is part of the retropie-setup script and enables the steps to install and configure an emulator within RetroPie.

Therefor I did an attempt to find some emulators that would work and make a module-script for it.
We call these 3rd-party module-scripts.
The emulators I used are not the latest except for mame but with mame the driver is ok but not extremely good.
If you really want the latest then the best way is to find and use one of the latest BBC emulators and use it on a regular PC without RetroPie.

I've tried to follow the thread - but it's very very long. Has anyone put together a complete list of steps? I think if I tried to put together steps for the two instruction sets, I'd get things very wrong :-( Many thanks in advance. Paul

What you need to do is add my module-scripts to your RetroPie-Setup folder.
There are many ways of doing this.
I assume you have a original RetroPie image then you need to copy the selected module-scripts to your image just like you do with bios roms or game roms.
The basic folder for emulators is :
~/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/emulators
That will work but then you put 3rd party module-script between the original ones.
A better way is to use the ext folder and create the subfolders like this :
~/RetroPie-Setup/ext/RetroPie-Share/scriptmodules/emulators
Now they are separated from the originals.
RetroPie-Share is my repository name but basically this can be anything so you can use more names.
When you look for them from the experimental packages in the retropie-setup you will also notice that it is separated and you will see the name.
Then check the posts of @Lord-Vek and me from here :
Acorn BBC Micro Emulator (current?)
You can try to use my ~~add-ext-repos.sh~~ (don't use this anymore) but if that doesn't work then just copy b-em_allegro and b-em-pico-pi.
Then you start retropie-setup and you can install these ones.
Look also at the HELP for the special keys though they are also discussed in the last posts I mentioned.

If you want to use mame or lr-mess then you can go this route :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-lr-mame-and-mame-standalone
Be aware that the latest version mame0256 and mostly lr-mess0256 have issues that are discussed lately.