Attract-Mode Support Forum

Attract-Mode Support => General => Topic started by: toothlessgrinn on September 04, 2018, 10:43:00 AM

Title: help switching to linux
Post by: toothlessgrinn on September 04, 2018, 10:43:00 AM
ok... im done with windows. im tired of all the errors and its reconfigurings of my stuff!!
whats the  best linux distro  ???
ive used puppy so im not totally ignorant to linux but i could really use some pointers.

thanks guys / gals in advanced


Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: lefty420 on September 05, 2018, 04:56:18 AM
Hi there i just re-did my linux box and updated to ubuntu 18.04 attract works great. As far as I know there are 2 option you can install retropie and have that deal with everything. Or do as I did and go the solo route. This means installing the emulators such as retroarch manually and configuring attract to suit.  I'd be more than happy to post my attract cfg's so you can see the arguments ect. You can even install wine and load windows games. I have games like cuphead running perfect in linux.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: jedione on September 05, 2018, 07:19:05 AM
would love it if you could put the configs in a zip, and share :D
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: iOtero on September 05, 2018, 07:23:45 AM
It works perfectly for me on lubuntu 16.04 on a samsung laptop with intel atom n270 and 2gb ram.

I use Attract-Mode + Retroarch.

I do not usually like that kind of distros (puppy, etc.) because they are not persistent.

Wikipedia definition: "Persistence – in computer science refers to the characteristic of data that outlives the execution of the program that created it. Without this capability, data only exists in RAM, and will be lost when the memory loses power, such as on computer shutdown."
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: lefty420 on September 05, 2018, 07:31:49 AM
Here are my configs note they are not 100 finished and dependent to my system. You'll need to edit them to suit yours. But I guess its a good reference. Very much a W.I.P
https://www28.zippyshare.com/v/hOQ27Cd4/file.html (https://www28.zippyshare.com/v/hOQ27Cd4/file.html)
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: toothlessgrinn on September 05, 2018, 07:58:25 AM
It works perfectly for me on lubuntu 16.04 on a samsung laptop with intel atom n270 and 2gb ram.

I use Attract-Mode + Retroarch.

I do not usually like that kind of distros (puppy, etc.) because they are not persistent.

Wikipedia definition: "Persistence – in computer science refers to the characteristic of data that outlives the execution of the program that created it. Without this capability, data only exists in RAM, and will be lost when the memory loses power, such as on computer shutdown."

actually puppy can be installed on a hdd . ive played with puppy alot but it takes alot to work it properly on a hdd. ( i mean i get that it was made to use to get your data from a broken down old pc.)
 actually i wanna use groovy arcade but its very confusing. and im very familiar with ubuntu. there is a puppy arcade distro out but hasnt been updated in like many years and i cant get it to run but...... lol

thanks guys for the input!!

atleast i know if i have questions or issues i can come here and find answers!! :D

one more question... can you hide ubuntu like you can windows and boot directly into attract?? cuz i think i am gonna go ubuntu for now till i get some more linux under my belt.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: toothlessgrinn on September 05, 2018, 08:05:06 AM
Here are my configs note they are not 100 finished and dependent to my system. You'll need to edit them to suit yours. But I guess its a good reference. Very much a W.I.P
https://www28.zippyshare.com/v/hOQ27Cd4/file.html (https://www28.zippyshare.com/v/hOQ27Cd4/file.html)

holy crap dude! you are the bomdiggity!! wip??? lmao!! howmany more emulators are there? lol
nice work thank you!
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: lefty420 on September 05, 2018, 10:45:02 AM
Haha I want to get everything that works in windows working in linux. Well thats the goal anyway. I had a way to use wine to load emulators but it only worked on a older version of wine. Loading games is fine its just when the executable needs a command to load the rom.

I use an openbox script which boots directly into kodi without any environment and load attract via kodi through advance program launcher. But the scipt can be edited so start anything. There are loads of way to get it to boot directly into an app.
 
I wrote a little shell that can be used to launch games via wine in attract here if anyone wants a play. You just point to wine point to the prefix you want to use set your games dir and exe and boom. Theres a example of the windows games.cfg I use to load the .sh's 
https://pastebin.com/jgVRsZVJ (https://pastebin.com/jgVRsZVJ)
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: toothlessgrinn on September 05, 2018, 12:58:11 PM
 guess ill be learning a new language ...  :P

ok so i can do it awsome!
thanks alot!! really appreciate the help!

 
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: jedione on September 05, 2018, 07:14:29 PM
thanks for the configs.....amazing. ;D
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: lefty420 on September 06, 2018, 02:52:07 AM
Does anyone have a config set for use with retropie handy ? I discovered you can install individual packages in retropie without installing the whole package. Dont know why I didnt think of that before. I wanna try a combination of native and retropie emulators.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: RetroMacGamer on September 09, 2018, 10:23:32 AM
Just thought I would provide another alternative, Attract + Retroarch + several standalone emulators works excellent on Mac OSX, been building a few setups for a few years with nobugs or crashes that I can recall.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: Luke_Nukem on September 13, 2018, 10:02:22 PM
You might be interested in my work-in-progress arcade setup (https://gitlab.com/Luke-Nukem/attractmode-arcade) based on Arch Linux.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: toothlessgrinn on September 14, 2018, 02:35:10 PM
You might be interested in my work-in-progress arcade setup (https://gitlab.com/Luke-Nukem/attractmode-arcade) based on Arch Linux.

yes VERY!!!
1  thing though... how do i use it... im not very good with command line jargon. i dont suppose it has an instructions readme does it??  :D 
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: Luke_Nukem on September 14, 2018, 06:35:38 PM
You might be interested in my work-in-progress arcade setup (https://gitlab.com/Luke-Nukem/attractmode-arcade) based on Arch Linux.

yes VERY!!!
1  thing though... how do i use it... im not very good with command line jargon. i dont suppose it has an instructions readme does it??  :D

Working on it. It assumes at least some knowledge of Linux though.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: toothlessgrinn on September 14, 2018, 11:40:52 PM
Working on it. It assumes at least some knowledge of Linux though.
[/quote]

lol ya i do get the gist. ive played with ubuntu mint and puppy. but again my cmd line sucks.... i mean i know how to cut and paste... lmao!! ;)

thank you
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: Luke_Nukem on September 16, 2018, 01:39:49 AM
lol ya i do get the gist. ive played with ubuntu mint and puppy. but again my cmd line sucks.... i mean i know how to cut and paste... lmao!! ;)

thank you

I'm in the process of making this work as a live usb that then looks for another usb drive with a particular label, then mounts it and starts attract mode - should make it dead easy to use so long as you have the right hardware.
Plug in two USB drives, one with live iso, one with attractmode + roms and art, and boot up.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: Luke_Nukem on September 16, 2018, 07:53:54 PM
lol ya i do get the gist. ive played with ubuntu mint and puppy. but again my cmd line sucks.... i mean i know how to cut and paste... lmao!! ;)

thank you

What hardware do you use? I'll build an iso that you can use directly. Currently have it booting the USB, and then loading AttractMode and mame settings + roms from a second USB drive. It's working a treat.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: Luke_Nukem on September 16, 2018, 11:11:44 PM
ISO's available here (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TPROBowaEjeheA3KOkBmAB6bCtNpNjJJ)
Readme.md is here (https://gitlab.com/Luke-Nukem/attractmode-arcade/blob/master/README.md).

For a quick start, write the ISO to a USB drive, then get another USB drive to format with a new partition scheme and partition using either FAT, NTFS, or EXT4 - this partition must be labeled as arcade_usb. On this arcade_usb drive, copy the contents of this directory (https://gitlab.com/Luke-Nukem/attractmode-arcade/tree/master/example_setups/arcade_usb).

Plug both drives in and boot from the first one (it will be older bios boot only for now).

Be warned though, that quick start is set up for my machine - but is a good example.

You can unplug that arcade_usb at any time when the machine is running and the machine will stop attractmode only, plug it back in and it will start attractmode again - good for making changes using another machine. All configuration done on the arcade machine is saved to this drive too.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: toothlessgrinn on September 17, 2018, 04:59:33 PM
amd 3core 3.5 i think lol
amd ghost 7770 1g grafix 12 gigs ddr3
asus mobo
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: toothlessgrinn on September 17, 2018, 05:08:19 PM
well i thank you for the work!!! ill be busy working this out after kids go to bed.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: Luke_Nukem on September 17, 2018, 05:53:46 PM
amd 3core 3.5 i think lol
amd ghost 7770 1g grafix 12 gigs ddr3
asus mobo

Great! It should run pretty well on that hardware.

The machine I have in my arcade cab is:
And it runs amazingly well for most games - I've not tried anything above mid-90's or 3D.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: akafox on October 15, 2018, 01:58:51 PM
Sorry I have not been around guys. REALLY busy.

As for linux yes so for it is the best. Well sort of. There are some emulators that are made for windows and windows only. Ticks me off but hey that is life right. I have been using linux for all my gaming. The last windows I ever used was XP I have been running linux for quite a while now. Compiled AM and many emulators for it many times over. Runs everything I could want and with Retro Arch for linux well not much you can not run..old school anyway.

I would stick with Ubuntu if you are just starting out. I used Lubuntu actually because I was able to configure it with open box so you do not see any gui aspects behind AM at all. (There is a program for windows xp that will make AM the shell itself instead of running am over the shell. IF Ry would like to make AM a "desktop" of linux that would be awesome! ..get to it Ray!  :P) And I found Lubuntu was very light..I want as little resources taken as possible on my system so it can be used to run the games. Tried making an Attract mode linux distro like groovy arcade..but gave up because that PC died.

I noticed one of you mentioned Puppy linux. I have not used puppy in quite a while. I found ubuntu (and variants) have almost everything you need to make AM run "out of the box" other I found were missing many packages..and I try to stay out of dependency hell when I can ;) The other that was mentioned was groovy arcade..again been awhile but if i recall i had a hard time getting it to find my roms. As I love AdvanceMenu (the gui in groovy arcade) it lacks some things, mostly video support. I have tried making videos for the console side of advance menu but with only a little success. It is much easier to render a .mng than a .mp4 on any system..but even a "low end pc" is high end now compared to what it used to be. Archlinux is okay as well..but it was a pain in the ass to get things to run on it..after getting it to run however it was solid.

Honestly though I might either take a break or quit emulation all together I am not sure yet. Twenty years is a good run! With the way life is going and the Nintendo getting involved getting a MAME update pack has been a pain for me..but that is for the future not now. For now still tweaking and having a good time with my hobby (although others are not  :-\

IF anyone has any questions let me know I am happy to help and will make a point to get in here more often for now..game on! :)
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: toothlessgrinn on December 30, 2018, 06:39:24 PM
ok so i got this to boot to attract mode but i dont know how to set up mame ... is thier a precompiled version with nonag for linux?? once i have that done ill be golden.....

thanx
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: stevereaver on February 22, 2019, 09:01:54 PM
Got for KDENEON mate. You get a nice solid 18.04 base system and the latest desktop crack from KDE. The Plasma desktop is fast and rarely has any problems, you will not be disappointed.
Title: Re: help switching to linux
Post by: pecosdave on February 23, 2019, 05:52:29 PM
When building a dedicated system I usually use Lubuntu because it's light-weight, I'm sure not to install much more than I need to keep it thin.  The first time I built I I simply set TinyWM as the Window manager and it worked fine.  Something has changed in the code since then however, it loses focus when you do that and it doesn't recover.  I use OpenBox - after stripping out all the gestures/shortcuts that are called up by using the joystick that's really a keyboard while playing.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-desktop-74/x-server-issues-focus-loss-4175618240/