I cannot get Retropie to launch for first time on x86 PC

smnbldwn

I have an issue where Retropie won't start up after I follow the installation process.

Pi Model or other hardware: x86 PC (Advent 4211b)
Power Supply used: n/a
RetroPie Version Used 4.8.2
Built From: Retropie Setup Script on Ubuntu 18.04.6
USB Devices connected: None as yet
Controller used: None as yet
Error messages received: See below
Verbose log (if relevant):
Guide used: (Mention if you followed a guide)
File: (File with issue - with FULL path)
Emulator: (Name of emulator - if applicable)
Attachment of config files: (PLEASE USE PASTEBIN.COM FOR LARGE LOGS)
How to replicate the problem: Click on icon to start Retropie

I had already run the setup script which had completed successfully. I then rebooted and then clicked on the application menu entry for Retropie.

dbus[7051]: arguments to dbus_message_new_method_call() were incorrect, assertion "path != NULL" failed in file ../../../dbus/dbus-message.c line 1362.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.

  D-Bus not built with -rdynamic so unable to print a backtrace

Aborted (core dumped)

mitu

This looks like an error launching gnome-terminal - does that application work by itself if you launch it ? If you launch xterm, does that work ?

smnbldwn

@mitu If I launch gnome-terminal directly, it works although I do get an error message "Unable to open /home/user1/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/dconf/profile/user: Permission denied"

This is Ubuntu Mate 18.04 rather than vanilla Ubuntu 18.04 and so it defaults to Mate Terminal, could this be the problem?

smnbldwn

@mitu I can also confirm that launching emulationstation from both gnome-terminal and xterm leads to the same error message.

mitu

@smnbldwn said in I cannot get Retropie to launch for first time on x86 PC:

This is Ubuntu Mate 18.04 rather than vanilla Ubuntu 18.04 and so it defaults to Mate Terminal, could this be the problem?

No, any terminal emulator should be fine.

EmulationStation doesn't have any dbus direct dependencies - maybe the issue is from the PulseAudio audio backend, which depend on DBUS ?
If you run EmulationStation from a terminal with

SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa emulationstation

do you get the same error message ?

smnbldwn

@mitu Thanks, but that still gives me the same error.

mitu

No idea then, maybe some issue with 18.04. Try using a more recent version of (X|K)Ubuntu, which still runs on 32bit systems (which I presume is the reason you're using such an old release).

smnbldwn

@mitu Thanks, unfortunately 18.04 is the last Ubuntu release to run on 32 bit systems. Does Retropie work on Debian as they are still releasing for 32bit systems?

mitu

I always assumed that one of the lightweight Ubuntu spinoffs may still offer 32bit (like Xubuntu/Lubuntu). Seems it's no longer the case.

You can try Debian 11 (bullseye) and install on it, I see it still offers a 32bit PC image.

smnbldwn

@mitu Thank you so much, I'll give it a go...

smnbldwn

@mitu Awesome suggestion! I installed the latest 32bit LMDE and the install process has run successfully! Way cool on a 2008 Netbook!