[ERROR] [Content]: Could not read content file..

Bagarn

I just finished setting up my retropie with network share. Downloaded some games and was finally ready to do some old-school gaming! But what's this, the game does not start.. So naturally I checked the log, and I cannot figure out what to do.

Log:

[INFO] Capabilities:  NEON VFPv3 VFPv4
[INFO] Built: Dec  5 2022
[INFO] Version: 1.12.0
[INFO] Git: d6deee4
[INFO] =================================================
[INFO] [Input]: Found input driver: "udev".
[INFO] [Core]: Loading dynamic libretro core from: "/opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-nestopia/nestopia_libretro.so"
[INFO] [Config]: Loading config: "/opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg".
[INFO] [Config]: Appending config: "/dev/shm/retroarch.cfg".
[INFO] [Environ]: GET_CORE_OPTIONS_VERSION.
[INFO] [Environ]: GET_LANGUAGE: "25".
[INFO] [Environ]: RETRO_ENVIRONMENT_SET_CORE_OPTIONS_V2_INTL.
[INFO] [Environ]: SET_CONTROLLER_INFO.
[INFO] [Overrides]: Redirecting save file to "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/Adventure Island 3 (USA).srm".
[INFO] [Overrides]: Redirecting save state to "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/Adventure Island 3 (USA).state".
[INFO] [Environ]: GET_LOG_INTERFACE.
[INFO] [Environ]: PERFORMANCE_LEVEL: 6.
[INFO] [Content]: Loading content file: "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/Adventure Island 3 (USA).zip".
[ERROR] [Content]: Could not read content file "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/Adventure Island 3 (USA).zip"

Google did not really help me out here, that's why I again ask for your favours.

/B

mitu

Is file in question readable by the pi user, which runs the emulator ? Run

ls -l "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/Adventure Island 3 (USA).zip"

and post the output.

Bagarn

@mitu

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 141891 Jan 16 17:59 '/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/Adventure Island 3 (USA).zip'

edit: Getting the same error for n64 games.

psx, neogeo, sega genesis and snes works fine.

mitu

Your ROM file is not accessible by the pi user - the permissions are wrong and only the root user is able to read and write to the file. If your roms folder is mounted via the network, make sure the pi user is able to read and write to the file share.

EDIT: how did you set-up your roms folder via file shares ?

Bagarn

@mitu

My samba setup looks like this. (server)

[RetroPie]
comment=RetroPie folder
path=/home/pi/RetroPie
browseable=yes
guest ok=yes
read only=no
create mask=0777
force create mode=0777
directory mask=0777
force directory mode=02777
force user=pi

the 0777 should be that it has all the rights, rite?

fstab (client)

//piserver.local/RetroPie/roms /home/pi/RetroPie/roms cifs username=pi,password=**,,nounix,noserverino,defaults,users,auto 0 0

mitu

@Bagarn said in [ERROR] [Content]: Could not read content file..:

the 0777 should be that it has all the rights, rite?

That's the create mask, if the files on the server are owned also by the root user, they're not going to be correctly read on the client.
Try adding uid=pi option for the mount command.

Bagarn

@mitu

Tried with uid=pi,uid=1000 and uid=1000,gid=1000 in the fstab.
Also tried sudo chmod 777 RetroPie/ on the server,

I tried different games ofc, so it's not an corrupt game.. Or maybe all of my games are for nes. :D

Nothing changed, same error.

The weird part is that this only seem to affect nes and n64, the rest is working just fine.

mitu

@Bagarn said in [ERROR] [Content]: Could not read content file..:

Also tried sudo chmod 777 RetroPie/ on the server,

Don't do that.

What are the permissions of the file(s) on the server ?

Bagarn

@mitu

pi@piserver:~ $ ls -l RetroPie/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 35 pi pi 4096 Jan 15 13:23 roms

edit:

-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 141891 Jan 16 17:59 'Adventure Island 3 (USA).zip'

mitu

I would double check then the mount command on the client that it has the right options so the pi user can read/write the shares
There's no other configuration that's needed.

Bagarn

@mitu

I don't think it's a permission issue here. Since I can run other games from the same drive. I tested touch test and test got created without any issue in the drive.

Not sure how to double check the mount command, it's all there, it reads perfectly and it can run other emulators/games without any hickups.

edit:
Changed emulator and got a new message
Failed to extract content from compressed file which might be due to permissions?

mitu

@Bagarn said in [ERROR] [Content]: Could not read content file..:

Failed to extract content from compressed file which might be due to permissions?

Yes, it's the same problem as before - because of the permissions.

Bagarn

@mitu

I figured it out!

Turns out, the zip contained .unh files, which is not supported. I've got some new files and it's up and running. As of n64, I had to unzip each file to get them to run.

Bonus question: is there something I can do to get n64 to run more smooth (rpi 3 B+)?

Again, thanks for taking your time. And for future googlers, hope this help you out.