How can I add custom games made on gdevelop onto retropie

Plantor07

I've been working on a project for Engineering where I'm trying to port Gdevelop games that other kids have made in computer programming to a raspberry pi inside of an arcade machine so that other people could play the games that they make. I've already figured out how to compile it for Linux and the correct CPU architecture and I have gotten it to run as an AppImage inside Raspbian and I've been racking my head the last few days on a way that I can add the game to Retropie. we want to be able to run it on retropie so that we can have a nice menu and also have it so no one can mess with the desktop/other files on the pi. I have already installed Retropie on top of Raspbian and I have made the proper .sh files so that the game shows up on the menu but whenever I try to play it it doesn't work and it has one error or another. basically I'm just asking is there a way to take the AppImage of the compiled Gdevelop game and run it off Retropie or have I spent a week going down a rabbit hole that will never work. I'm running this all off of a Raspberry pi 5 with 4GB, thank you.

sleve_mcdichael

@Plantor07 does it run from command-line, or only desktop? What's the content of your .sh file? Of the errors?

I have already installed Retropie on top of Raspbian and I have made the proper .sh files so that the game shows up on the menu but whenever I try to play it it doesn't work and it has one error or another.

Plantor07

@sleve_mcdichael I have to run emulationstation through the command line accessed from pressing Ctrl + Alt + F1, it doesn't work if I try to run it through the desktop(no idea why because when I installed retropie on top of raspbian to a different sd card for another pi I could open it just from the normal terminal), in my .sh files and emulator files I just got the normal stuff
Emulator config file

test = "/opt/retropie/ports/test/test.AppImage"
default = "test"

.sh file

!/bin/bash
"/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh" 0 _PORT_"test" ""

and then I have my appimage in the proper file too
then the errors I'm getting are these ones

Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/ports/test/test.AppImage
[1741:0227/225913.703704:ERROR:ozone_platform_x11.cc(248)] Missing X server or $Display
[1741:0227/225913.703785:ERROR:env.cc(255)] The platform failed to initialize. Exiting.
The futex facility returned an unexpected error code.
/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommmand.sh: line 1328: 1714 Aborted           /opt/retropie/ports/test/test.AppImage

sleve_mcdichael

@Plantor07 yeah ES has to be run from a command-line, rather I meant the app that you've built. Do you run the app from command-line, outside of ES and it works? Or the app, in testing, it works only from the desktop?

[1741:0227/225913.703704:ERROR:ozone_platform_x11.cc(248)] Missing X server or $Display

It looks like it's wanting an X (desktop) environment. Try adding XINIT: prepended to your launch command:

test = "XINIT:/opt/retropie/ports/test/test.AppImage"

Plantor07

@sleve_mcdichael I can run the app perfectly fine from the desktop but when I try it in the command-line I get the same error that I got when I tried it in emulationstaton.

But when I try it with the XINIT: I get a completely new error.

Parameters:
Executing: xinit /dev/shm/retropie_xinitrc -- vt1 -keeptty

(EE)
Fatal server error:
(EE) Server is already active for display 0
         If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
         and start again.
(EE)
(EE)
Please consult the The X.org Foundation Support
         at http://wiki.x.org
  for help
(EE)
X connection to :0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown)

sleve_mcdichael

But when I try it with the XINIT: I get a completely new error.

Fatal server error:
(EE) Server is already active for display 0
         If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
         and start again.

@Plantor07 said in How can I add custom games made on gdevelop onto retropie:

@sleve_mcdichael I have to run emulationstation through the command line accessed from pressing Ctrl + Alt + F1,

I run the base Pi4 image without any desktop, so I don't really know much about it -- does this ctrl + alt + f1 actually quit the desktop, or just open a new console/terminal with the command-line interface, while desktop still open in background?

That might be why it thinks a X server is already running. Try quit all the way out of desktop before open EmulationStation?

Plantor07

@sleve_mcdichael when I use Ctrl + Alt + F1 it exits out of the desktop environment completely but, the desktop environment is still running in the background somewhat because after I go to the virtual console I can use Ctrl + Alt + F7(I think, it might be F6 I would need to check again) to go back to the desktop environment as if nothing had changed. although I will try fully exiting the desktop first and trying that way

Plantor07

@sleve_mcdichael NEVERMIND IT WORKED, THANK YOU, I booted the pi up into emulation station first and then I tried playing the game and it immediately worked, thank you(don't know if I still need the XINIT but we'll see