Asus Tinker Board

knuxyliblis

@hydroxide specs mean nothing if there is no software support. Any development is done as there is free time and as such there is no eta for support.

There isn't as much of a need for software support since the software so stable since launch, and there appears to be active development from ASUS on both Android and Debian.

I tried multiple things to get Retropie to work.

I managed to get it installed with these two commands

sudo __platform=armv7-mali ./retropie_setup.sh
and
sudo __platform-generic-x11 ./retropie_setup.sh

I would prefer the armv7-mali (since RK3288 is using Mali-T764) but Retropie keeps asking for mali-fbdev package from apt-get and it is not available. Booting into command line and starting emulationstation ends up with Unable to initialize video (SDL2) (something like that). I'm assuming it's the mali-fbdev missing package that caused this.

If someone could explain what mali-fbdev is, where I can find the source for it, and how to go about compiling it for my system, I could probably get Retropie working.

For generic-x11 install, everything works excluding some emulator builds. Mupen64plus gives error about not being to find stubs-soft.h therefore the core library file isn't created, and some arcade emulators or something (i don't know the errors on those). I looked into the stubs-soft.h and read some documentation on Mupen64plus and it seems I need to set some flags for using hard floats instead (since stubs-hard.h is present) but I have no idea what file to add these flags to in Retropie.

Also generic-x11 isn't ideal since it has to be ran inside an already running X11 environment. It probably wouldn't be a problem since the specs of the Tinker Board are so good, but still not ideal.

Retroarch build from source and install from repo both give a Segmentation Fault on launch. I don't know what that's about. It built fine. Kodi has problems with videos (top and bottom of video are transparent where black should be, might've just been my system). Mupen64plus won't compile without Retropie too, I don't remember why, there were a lot of errors.

So seeing this generic-x11 and armv7-mali platforms as choices in Retropie, support for the Tinker Board would not be too difficult. There's two ways to go about it (I prefer the first)

Regardless, there needs to be better platform identification.

But they could either figure out what video device files the tinker board uses outside of x11 (I saw some packages that had mali in the name, just no mali-fbdev)
or
Fix the flags for compiling emulators on generic-x11.

Also, on generic-x11, when trying to launch the Retropie Setup within emulationstation, it will just say Can't recognize platform, please manually set __platform, but I have no idea where to do that. It works for running the script from a git clone, but not within emulationstation.

And to herb, specs should mean everything, that's where the support should go to. Not support should go to where support is. This board is incredibly faster than the Pi 3. I have both and I'm switching permanently because of the much faster hardware. When I had Debian installed, I got Netflix and Hulu working too so much better than Pi 3. I have Android running on this thing already and it took forever for the RPi to do that. ASUS is keeping up with the software on it, now we just need the community to jump on board as well.

So technically, official support is there. The 3rd party communities just need to branch away from the RPi 3 until they come out with something faster. Since everything already works on Retropie (for the most part), considering how much effort was put into it, I would assume they have plenty of time to add support for this device. It wouldn't take much effort, especially considering they got this thing to run with crap videocore gpus.

EDIT

I forgot to mention that generic-x11 also does not show any of the emulators in emulationstation, only the retropie setup section. A lot of emulators built successfully, but did not show up. I don't know what would cause that.

jamesbeat

@knuxyliblis
Please don't be offended if this is obvious to you, but sometimes it's easy to forget something simple.
Do you have roms in the folders?
The emulators don't show up unless there are roms available for them.

Also, brace yourself for some negativity.
I use a PC for my Retropie console in order to get decent N64 performance.
I posted a thread about this hoping to help other people who were disappointed with N64 performance on the Pi, and was quite surprised about the extremely negative reactions I received for using hardware that wasn't a Raspberry Pi.

Charononus

@knuxyliblis said in Asus Tinker Board:

If someone could explain what mali-fbdev is, where I can find the source for it, and how to go about compiling it for my system, I could probably get Retropie working.

It's for the frame buffer. Not sure where to get it. Probably an ASUS repo if they've made it available. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_framebuffer

knuxyliblis

@jamesbeat
yeah damnit i didnt have roms in them.

and yeah im aware of the crap n64 emulation that mupen does. running project64 in wine on linux runs better than mupen. but this board is crazy fast, i think i can expect full speed on conker, super mario, just all the non troublesome games.

so do u know how to edit the actual config in emulationstation to boot retropiesetup script with the __platform variable set?

and does anyone know how to compile mupen64plus with hard floats, no soft floats? that's where i was stuck with generic-x11.

knuxyliblis

Ok so I got Retropie to install but none of the emulators would launch. I also finally got Retroarch to install and run but even GBA is running at like 2-3 fps. I wish I knew more about this stuff, I would help development on this platform.

Do the mali drivers need to have some type of hardware acceleration for the entire platform or something? I can run 4k videos at 60fps on Youtube without a problem.

I have these 2 packages in Debian repos
libmali-rk-dev
libmali-rk-midgard-r9p0-r0p0

I know for a fact the first one is installed. I also have some source files for ARM development for this gpu (mali t764).

The firefly uses this same gpu (or at least the t760).

But as far as emulation goes, there needs to be some gpu driver tuning to get any sort of emulation working on the Tinker Board on Linux. They are just too slow atm and I know VBA-M runs at like 1000% speed when toggled, so it's not the emulators themselves.

Android is probably different, but I can't use it because it glitches so bad with my wireless keyboard/mouse combo. The android seems to work a hell of a lot better than the Android for RPi 3.

Edit
If you would liek to try and mess around with RetroPie, launch the setup script like this

sudo __platform=generic-x11 __platform_flags=""-02 -march=IDONTREMEMBERTHEREST" ./retropie_setup.h

Sorry the command wasn't in my history because I whiped. This won't compile mupen or mame or fbi omxplayer (which i think is rpi specific anyways).

Find in the retropie github a file that has the __platform_flags and choose the second one that has -02 (under armv7-mali). The generic-x11 will force x11 environment even though mali is presented in the platform_flags.

fleebinflobbin

It looks like retroarch/mupen already works for this SBC (not with TinkerOS though). It was previously released as MiQi in 2016, maybe you could try using the MiQi android OS? Looks like mupen standalone runs pretty great on this. Sorry if this isn't helpful.

moonston333

@MWGemini n64 and dreamcast run perfect on my pi 3 no slowdown or glitches at all.

Darksavior

@moonston333 I stopped using reicast because it ran like crap on my pi3 @ 1.3ghz. Those two emulators are glitchy because they're a constant wip. It'd be lovely if the libretro core would be ported so we can try that one instead.

moonston333

@Darksavior not sure why it not running properly for you. ive got it on mine and works perfect every game ive loaded on it

pjft

@moonston333 surely you don't have crazy taxi or virtua striker running without stuttering and sound issues?

What settings do you have?

sirhenrythe5th

I own a real Dreamcast and there are some games that even stutter on the original hardware.
It's always playable and not really annoying but...it does.
So when someone tells me "EVERY DC-Game runs like a charm with 120FPS all the time" - then i cannot believe hin.
Same Situation concerning N64.
Maybe we are talking about 2 games that he tested on each system, probably those everyone knows that they run good (MarioKart 64, Mario 64,...).
But if someone tells me that all the games run superb, i would guess he is a troll.

pjft

@sirhenrythe5th calling someone a troll may be something of a stretch - I assume the best intention from anyone around here.

That being said, it may be a mix of expectations, perception, the games someone is playing, or a better configuration. I do agree that my experience isn't reflective of such a claim of "no issues using reicast" though I'm always keen on learning what can be done to improve things on my end.

I certainly have struggled to get those two working as intended - crazy taxi has audio issues throughout most of the gameplay, and virtua striker just has extremely sluggish and unresponsive controls - though that may have also been the case on the original hardware. That's why I'm curious as I'd love to play those two games.

moonston333

@sirhenrythe5th mariokart 64 and mario 64 do actually run abit sow on mine crazy taxi audio drops a beat now and then but the games i have tried from my roms that ive been using for a long time now seem to work without a hitch thats why im saying the DC emulator does work good for me i havnt changed any settings at all just installed the emulator and running roms from my 2tb external hard drive and they work

stereodark

If you install on the Tinker Board the latest version of the Android build released by ASUS you can instal Retroarch with like 2 clicks. Download the apk from the libretro site and you are ready to run it.
PS4 controller (not the pro) and X1 controller seem to work fine. The main annoyance is from the emulators the shortcuts to jump out of the game don't really work well so if you remove mouse and keyboard you won't manage to navigate the system easily. Some config tweaking might solve the issue. Still having a retropie build would be awesome.

hannibal

@stereodark i got retroarch on my tinkerboard. how were you able to launch it. When i open it up it freezes on me everytime.

hannibal

@BuZz hey bro any updates on getting retropie ported over?

hannibal

@hannibal after several tries finally got it to work... the default overlay is kinda dumb and i couldnt (didnt really try that hard) to change the controller around. Tinkerboard seemed to run the roms fine... i couldnt really tell about the sound my 4k monitor sound is almost inaudible. I enjoyed kodi a lot more on the tinkerboard compared to the pi3. however if a port never happens for retropie i feel i have bought a 60 dollar paper weight and i will wait for the udoo board.

BuZz

I have a WIP branch. Will do a PR against the main development when more complete. Unfortunately the performance and video sync seems poor running under the X environment.

Asus sent me details about a framebuffer driver, but it required a kernel patch and it's a bit outside of the RetroPie mandate.

Perhaps if they include that in new images it could be used. I need to do more testing with gles/SDL retroarch backends. I will update the thread when I have something to report. Cheers

Charononus

@BuZz said in Asus Tinker Board:

I have a WIP branch. Will do a PR against the main development when more complete. Unfortunately the performance and video sync seems poor running under the X environment.

Asus sent me details about a framebuffer driver, but it required a kernel patch and it's a bit outside of the RetroPie mandate.

Perhaps if they include that in new images it could be used. I need to do more testing with gles/SDL retroarch backends. I will update the thread when I have something to report. Cheers

Cool to hear about some progress. Hopefully ASUS works on their image some more. I really would like something a little more powerful than a pi in that price range to run retropie on. This seems like the best one I've seen if it can all be worked out.

enderandrew

@jamesbeat RetroPie looks like a great software stack, but I'm worried about performance on the Pi 3 specifically for the N64 and Dreamcast emulators.

A Pi 4 seems a ways off so I've been considering running it on a PC or another SBC. I'm curious to hear about your PC setup. The Tinker Board seems promising, but a decent Linux GPU driver seems to be holding this up. I'm curious what they're using for the GPU under Android then.

Does anyone know of another SBC that does work with RetroPie that is slightly beefier than the Pi 3?