Installing Pixel

rsimmy

Vilros RP3 kit with 16gb SanDisk card.

I originally installed the NOOBS Raspian with Pixel that came on the card, but I started having problems with RetroPie after I manually installed it. I formatted, and then installed the RetroPie 4.1 image.

I decided to install Pixel through the RetroPie settings, and everything went well until I launched it.

Various things are broken. Trashcan doesn't work, it won't show up on the desktop. In the file explorer, Go>Wastebasket gives me a "operation not supported" error.

Flash drives won't automatically mount either.

Several applications wont start gives me an error also.

Is this because the RetroPie image is on top of Raspbian Lite, or did my Pixel install mess up? When I originally had the NOOBS Raspbian image installed, all this worked fine.

Should I wipe and try again?

herb_fargus

@rsimmy you didn't update your setup script

rsimmy

@herb_fargus
That may be it. I had forgot and did it right after, and tried to reinstall Pixel, but nothing really happened.

I will wipe and try this again. Shouldn't take too long.

Should I also update packages before I install?

rsimmy

No dice. Formatted, new image of RetroPie, updated setup script. Installed Pixel and it's still broken.

I'm at a loss. I'm gonna reformat and install RetroPie again and leave it alone. Maybe get another SD card and put Raspbian on it.

herb_fargus

@rsimmy Its possible there are some dependencies that aren't being installed. I haven't installed pixel in a while.

rsimmy

Just an update, I haven't gotten these things to work, but I think I figured something out.

RetroPie has a proprietary method for mounting the USB for itself to transfer roms and saves.

While in Pixel, typing "tail -f /var/log/messages" into the terminal and plugging in a USB device, I can see in real time that it's getting automounted, and trying to transfer roms to RetroPie.

Although, it's not mounted in the usual way, so nothing pops up in Pixel, and it acts as if there's no USB drive and I have to type extra commands (sudo mount, sudo umount, etc) to get it to mount to /media/usb as it should if I had regular full Raspbian with Pixel.

This just seems to be a RetroPie thing, and I'm surprised I can't find any documentation or anybody else having the same problem.

As far as the Trashcan not working, I'm unsure, but I can only assume it's also has something to to do with how Raspbian is built and configured for RetroPie. Like I said, I've flashed fresh images of RetroPie, updated the setup script, and installed Pixel normally, and these "problems" persist.

Basically what I've understood is if you want to use the official RetroPie image, installing Pixel will give you very basic functionality like web browsing and that's pretty much it unless you install additional programs.

If this is the case, I feel that these things should be addressed in the github FAQ where it says "where did the desktop go?" as newer users such as myself think they're getting a desktop with normal functionality.

herb_fargus

@rsimmy most people don't use the desktop environment and even less people do the rest of the community a favour by posting relevant information on the wiki which is why what is there is basically what I wrote when I tested it.

I'll test it again when I get some time to see if I can reproduce it- I'd rather not post workarounds on the wiki, rather Id prefer we just solve the issue so people in the future don't have to.

rsimmy

@herb_fargus
Completely understandable. I realize that RetroPie is a gaming platform first, and that's what most people are using it for, Pixel is just an added option that may or may have not been tested thoroughly. It's easy enough to swap out an SD card with full Raspbian on it until this is figured out.

If I can download games using Chromium and place them in the roms directory, then all is good. And that works. I was originally just scared something was corrupt and was a bit apprehensive about continuing on, especially after using Pixel on my original NOOBS install and having a different experience with it.

herb_fargus

@rsimmy in theory installing pixel on retropie should function exactly like it does standalone so I'm glad you caught the differences so we can fix them. I'll keep you posted as I test

herb_fargus

@rsimmy

Alright gave it a test:

My steps:

Update Setup Script

Configure/tools>Raspbian Tools>Update Raspbian Packages (took a while)

Install pixel desktop environment

Restart emulationstation and run desktop from ports:

result: no wastebasket

Find what the filemanager is (pacmanfm) go to google: find this:

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/8790/where-is-the-trash-directory-for-pcmanfm-and-xfe

sudo apt-get install gvfs

sudo reboot

wastebasket is there, usb drives automount. Magic!

rsimmy

@herb_fargus
I can't thank you enough for taking the time. I googled everything I could and just didn't run across that haha.

I'll give this a try when I get home form work. Thanks again!

Williquah

@herb_fargus
Thanks a lot for providing those instructions. Personally, I did not need to grab gvfs to get my wastebasket and usb automounting to work, using dpkg I see that gvfs is installed, assuming through the Pixel installation.

I'm on RPi3, RetroPie 4.2, so I'm thinking it's the most recent update that did it.
Thanks again for your instructions, following the rest worked perfectly for me.

herb_fargus

@Williquah yep I've added it as a dependency so it's installed automatically with the installer now

Vodkanakas

Hi i followed the procedure to install pixel and it wont boot via ports or command line. just boots back into ports menu like it couldnt load the desktop. any ideas?

Williquah

@herb_fargus Superb, thanks a lot for that!

Williquah

@Vodkanakas I could be going overkill, but if it's not too much trouble for you, I'd backup your roms and configs and what not manually, format the sd, fresh install latest version of RetroPie, than follow the procedure again for Pixel, at least that's what I'd try.. again, might be a little dramatic though I'm not sure.

herb_fargus

@Vodkanakas you need to update your setup script before you try and install it.

Vodkanakas

that worked thanks.

felleg

@herb_fargus Hello, sorry for the bump!

I tried installing the Pixel desktop. It worked the first time right away after installing it (when doing sudo startx from the terminal), but after a reboot, the desktop stopped working. I tried launching it both from the Pi directly and from ssh, and both with and without an HDMI monitor connected. Same result (though through ssh it says "no screen found", which is understandable). I'm pretty sure I changed nothing in my config files (then again, I could be wrong). I tried launching it from the ports by launching "Desktop" in ES, and no dice.

Here's the full log I get from startx (.local/share/org/Xorg.log.0):
https://pastebin.com/scCXnstK

It seems the error is linked to fbdev , a module that failed to load. I have installed a PiTFT in my retropie setup a week before attempting to install the Pixel desktop and I know it uses fbcp (framebuffer copy), but I have no idea if it has something to do with fbdev. Sorry if that's not enough info, but let me know if I can provide any config.

I'm running RetroPie 4.2 from a RPi3, I updated the retropie setup script and tried installing the pixel desktop as described in the wiki (even installed the dependencies that apt-get told me to install).

EDIT (9 months later): Just wanted to say I managed to solve the problem by installing something, but I fail to remember what it was. Sorry. Will update if I come across the problem and solve it once more.

felleg

@herb_fargus bump