Raspberry Pi F.A.Q.

[progets]

1. 90% of your issues will be resolved by making sure that you running the latest Raspbian, RetroPie and Attract-Mode. Please update these aspects of your Pi before asking questions.

Warning to upgraders: If you are upgrading from a version of Attract-Mode that was originally installed from the RetroPie Setup menu do not use these steps, instead upgrade using the RetroPie Setup menu like your original install. Failure to do so will result in two desperate Attract-Mode installations. This specific step is meant for people that have manually installed Attract-Mode from the command line or are installing Attract-Mode for the first time.

Upgrading Raspbian. (Raspbian wiki - https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/raspbian/updating.md)

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade


Upgrading RetroPie (skip this step if you aren't using RetroPie). (RetroPie wiki - https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/)

Code: [Select]

sudo bash ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh
Choose option "U Update all installed packages"

Upgrading all aspects of Attract-Mode. (Attract-Mode wiki - https://github.com/mickelson/attract/wiki/Compiling-on-the-Raspberry-Pi-(Raspbian-Jessie))

Code: [Select]

cd ~; mkdir develop

sudo apt-get install cmake libflac-dev libogg-dev libvorbis-dev libopenal-dev libfreetype6-dev libudev-dev libjpeg-dev libudev-dev libfontconfig1-dev

cd ~/develop
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mickelson/sfml-pi sfml-pi
mkdir sfml-pi/build; cd sfml-pi/build
cmake .. -DSFML_RPI=1 -DEGL_INCLUDE_DIR=/opt/vc/include -DEGL_LIBRARY=/opt/vc/lib/libbrcmEGL.so -DGLES_INCLUDE_DIR=/opt/vc/include -DGLES_LIBRARY=/opt/vc/lib/libbrcmGLESv2.so
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

cd ~/develop
git clone --depth 1 git://source.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.git
cd ffmpeg
./configure --enable-mmal --disable-debug --enable-shared
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

cd ~/develop
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mickelson/attract attract
cd attract
make USE_GLES=1
sudo make install USE_GLES=1

cd ~; rm -r -f ./develop


2. If you started with anything other than the latest RetroPie image directly from the RetroPie website, ask the creator of the image for solutions to your problems. They will be better suited to answer them since Attract-Mode can be built and configured many different ways.

3. Videos don't play, stutter, turn grey, etc.. Enable hardware video decoding or use lower resolution videos.
 
To enable hardware video decoding: Configure-->General-->Video Decoder = mmal (if you can't select "mmal" run the steps for Attract-Mode upgrade in F.A.Q. #1)

4. I have random weird things happen when I exit a game or use a RetroPie configuration menu. This is an old known bug, run the steps for Attract-Mode upgrade in F.A.Q. #1 to fix it.

5. Some emulators like Daphne and Advance MAME run behind AM (a.k.a. in the background), my RetroPie runcommand dialog doesn't show in AM, or my RetroPie Setup Menu doesn't work properly in AM. Configure-->General-->Window Mode = FullScreen Mode

6. How can I access the /home/pi/.attract/ folder from Windows without using 3rd party software? You can use the RetroPie GUI that is described here http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=821.msg8138#msg8138.

You can do it from the command line like this:

Code: [Select]

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
Add these lines to the end of the file

Code: [Select]

[attractmode]
comment = attractmode
path = "/home/pi/.attract"
writeable = yes
guest ok = yes
create mask = 0644
directory mask = 0755
force user = pi
restart the samba service

Code: [Select]

sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

7. How can I easily create custom wheels across mutiple emulators using the AM GUI? See this thread http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1165.msg8455#msg8455 .

8. I have a lot of roms, how can I skip a page or a letter at a time?

Set these controls:
Configure-->Controls-->Previous Page
Configure-->Controls-->Next Page
Configure-->Controls-->Previous Letter
Configure-->Controls-->Next Letter

9. How can I add menus to switch booting from Attract-Mode to EmulationStation and vice versa? How can I run RetroPie Setup options from Attract-Mode? This post has a script to setup it up http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1311.msg9542#msg9542

If you want to manually create a menu for the RetroPie Setup options in Attract-Mode see this post http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=869.msg6679#msg6679 . (Make sure you set Configure-->General-->Window Mode = FullScreen Mode)

10. In MAME emulators I see the romnames and not the friendly/nice looking game names. See these posts http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1764.msg12450#msg12450 and http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1665.msg11810#msg11810

11. I misconfigured my controls and now I can't make changes to correct them.

Reset your inputs to the default input mapping.

Code: [Select]

nano ~/.attract/attract.cfg
Replace the entire "input_map" section with the defaults listed below

Code: [Select]

input_map
configure            Tab
prev_letter          Up+LControl
next_letter          Down+LControl
filters_menu         Left+LControl
next_filter          Right+LControl
configure            Escape+Up
edit_game            Escape+Down
add_favourite        Escape+LControl
prev_letter          Joy0 Up+Joy0 Button0
next_letter          Joy0 Down+Joy0 Button0
filters_menu         Joy0 Left+Joy0 Button0
next_filter          Joy0 Right+Joy0 Button0
configure            Joy0 Up+Joy0 Button1
edit_game            Joy0 Down+Joy0 Button1
add_favourite        Joy0 Button0+Joy0 Button1
back                 Escape
back                 Joy0 Button1
up                   Up
up                   Joy0 Up
down                 Down
down                 Joy0 Down
left                 Left
left                 Joy0 Left
right                Right
right                Joy0 Right
select               Return
select               LControl
select               Joy0 Button0
default             back exit
default             up prev_game
default             down next_game
default             left prev_display
default             right next_display
Restart Attract-Mode

12. How can I get rid of the boot text and images? Checkout this https://retropie.org.uk/docs/FAQ/#how-do-i-hide-the-boot-text

13. How can I get rid of the terminal/console text I see when I launch a game or exit a game? Check out this post http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1642.0.

14. How can I have Attract-Mode default to my "Favorites" romlist instead of the "All" romlist? See this post http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1613.0.

(moderator edit: updated retropie URLs since the github wiki content has been moved to the main site)

[hi-ban]

Hi!

I'm building this in a pi3. Started from a freshly installed (latest) retropie image from retropie website, and followed all the steps.
However, when building ffmpeg with mmal, in the step when you do:

./configure --enable-mmal --disable-debug --enable-memalign-hack --enable-shared

it does not recognize the  --enable-memalign-hack option (it says unknown option), so i had to omit that option and do:

./configure --enable-mmal --disable-debug --enable-shared

to be able to continue. Is that something to be concerned about? i'm getting some warnings when compiling (no errors, though) and i dont know if those warnings are supposed to happen...

[progets]

Hi!

I'm building this in a pi3. Started from a freshly installed (latest) retropie image from retropie website, and followed all the steps.
However, when building ffmpeg with mmal, in the step when you do:

./configure --enable-mmal --disable-debug --enable-memalign-hack --enable-shared

it does not recognize the  --enable-memalign-hack option (it says unknown option), so i had to omit that option and do:

./configure --enable-mmal --disable-debug --enable-shared

to be able to continue. Is that something to be concerned about? i'm getting some warnings when compiling (no errors, though) and i dont know if those warnings are supposed to happen...

I can confirm that the new ffmeg no longer supports the --enable-memalign-hack switch and it does seem to compile ok. I have adjusted the steps above to reflect the change.

[hi-ban]

I finished to compile it and i have the option to select mmal. However, my menus are a lot slower when using mmal, so i'm using software right now...

[progets]

I'm glad you got it working. If mmal decoding is slower than software decoding your videos might not be using codecs supported by mmal. If this is the case, mmal tries to load them and fails so it resorts to using software decoding anyways. This could be the reason that mmal is slower on your build.

[estefan3112]

Hi I am using the experimental package of AttractMode from within RetroPie. No mmal hardware acceleration is available under the Video option. I understand that this seems to be the current overall status? Many thanks for your thoughts, Stefan

[progets]

Hi I am using the experimental package of AttractMode from within RetroPie. No mmal hardware acceleration is available under the Video option. I understand that this seems to be the current overall status? Many thanks for your thoughts, Stefan

That is correct, if you install Attract-Mode from the RetroPie script it does not install ffmpeg which is needed to use the mmal hardware decoding. If you want hardware decoding you must install ffmpeg before you install Attract-Mode.

You can install ffmpeg and then reinstall/update Attract-Mode from the RetroPie script if you want to add it after the fact.

[estefan3112]

Confirmed. Procedure worked out very well. Having mmal hardware decoding enabled now. Many thanks!

[janfribogar]

Not working mmal with the retropie 4.2.8.

I just follow the steps and no mmal support in attract mode.

"ffmpeg -decoders | grep h264" returns that mmal is enabed

Somebody can help? Im not really good with Linux.

Thanks in advance.

[progets]

Not working mmal with the retropie 4.2.8.

I just follow the steps and no mmal support in attract mode.

"ffmpeg -decoders | grep h264" returns that mmal is enabed

Somebody can help? Im not really good with Linux.

Thanks in advance.

Since the change with the ffmpeg options mention above, the "mmal" option doesn't show up on the Pi. Mmal appears to be used anyway (even if it shows "software").

You can manually change the attract.cfg to set mmal if you'd like.

attract.cfg

Code: [Select]

video_decoder        mmal


[bobble]

Hi, somebody knows what is wrong?
I did all the part 1, after a reboot, ssh keyboard and controllers don't work. And a bluetooth error on the boot screen.

[progets]

Hi, somebody knows what is wrong?
I did all the part 1, after a reboot, ssh keyboard and controllers don't work. And a bluetooth error on the boot screen.

The logging shows that your ffmpeg compile and your attract-mode compile both failed with errors.

Some more information would be helpful. What Raspberry Pi are you using? What OS are you using? Is this an Attract-Mode upgrade or new install? Why don't I see the "sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade" command in your logging? This is needed to get the latest Pi firmware. You have a bluetooth error... are you using a bluetooth keyboard or controllers? If you are using a stock (not someone elses) RetroPie image why don't I see the "sudo bash ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh" command in your logging?

[bobble]

Hi, My raspberry is a 3 model B, It was i new AM install, i started from the last retropie image 4.3 for raspberry pi 2/3 took on the retropie.org.uk website yesterday , Just after activating the ssh, wifi and resizing the root partition of the sd card I did the sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get upgrade, sudo bash ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh and U update all installed packages and a reboot, that why this is not in the text file but i did it and everything was ok.
After, i did what's in the text file and and a sudo reboot.
During the boot screen, i had the bluetooth error. It appear that the bluetooth message is looking for a bluetooth device during 3min but i didn't activated the bluetooth, my keyboard and my 360 controller are wired and were plugged. After the 3min boot screen i had the configure input screen but my keyboard and my 360 controller was not detected. Ssh was not working too.

[progets]

Everything you describe seems to be correct. Are you using a good 2+ amp power adapter? I have seen ffmpeg fail when compiling for no apparent reason. Since it's a new build I would try it again, it might have been a fluke. I'll also mention you can use a "-j4" flag after the "make" commands when you're compiling. This will use all 4 cores of the Pi3 and speed things along.

[bobble]

Yes i tried with different adaptators (2.4a, 3a, short cable with good copper quality...), the next time i'll try with the j4 flag.
The command is "make -j4" (with a space between)?
I've had some problems with my personal ES themes and some updates since the last retropie 4.3.8, however eveything was ok with the 4.3.6. Maybe it come from here...
Thanks for your reply.