OSX Catalina - Attract mode does not Not Work - HELP!!!!!

[OSXAM]

Attract mode Does not work in OSX Catalina - Anybody know what's causing this and can help?

I believe its to do with the new security updates, but I'm at a loss for what to do

[keilmillerjr]

Whats your terminal output/log? Show app contents and run the bin from the terminal.

Apple deprecated opengl last year. This is bad news for attractmode, and lots of other apps and games. I will be using linux full time when my mac is done. Not happy with apple’s decisions lately. I can try to help, but because of this - I have a very expensive and high spec computer that cant install the latest operating systems.

[iOtero]

Sorry... There is no OSX Catalina, it is macOS Catalina. 

And i plan to continue using Mojave for a long time ... until they remove the exclusivity of 64-bit applications. 

And this drift to make macOS more and more similar to IOS will not help me to change macOS version. 

My macbook has been running Mountain Lion for many years and i haven't needed anything more modern. 

And my Toshiba Libretto U100 has been running Windows XP for many years and i have not needed to change to windows 10. 

[keilmillerjr]

Sorry... There is no OSX Catalina, it is macOS Catalina. 

And i plan to continue using Mojave for a long time ... until they remove the exclusivity of 64-bit applications. 

And this drift to make macOS more and more similar to IOS will not help me to change macOS version. 

My macbook has been running Mountain Lion for many years and i haven't needed anything more modern. 

And my Toshiba Libretto U100 has been running Windows XP for many years and i have not needed to change to windows 10. 

You do know that the “X” in “OSX” is Roman numeral for “10”, and we are at mac version 10.15. While Apple might have dropped the term, calling it “osx” is not incorrect.

[iOtero]

Sorry... There is no OSX Catalina, it is macOS Catalina. 

And i plan to continue using Mojave for a long time ... until they remove the exclusivity of 64-bit applications. 

And this drift to make macOS more and more similar to IOS will not help me to change macOS version. 

My macbook has been running Mountain Lion for many years and i haven't needed anything more modern. 

And my Toshiba Libretto U100 has been running Windows XP for many years and i have not needed to change to windows 10. 

You do know that the “X” in “OSX” is Roman numeral for “10”, and we are at mac version 10.15. While Apple might have dropped the term, calling it “osx” is not incorrect.

I don't agree with you, Keil, nor Apple either:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS   

https://www.apple.com/macos/catalina/

The denomination you say and the reasons you give are obsolete, have long since changed. I also like the name OSX, but Apple does not. And they are the owners of the creature. 

[keilmillerjr]

Sorry... There is no OSX Catalina, it is macOS Catalina. 

And i plan to continue using Mojave for a long time ... until they remove the exclusivity of 64-bit applications. 

And this drift to make macOS more and more similar to IOS will not help me to change macOS version. 

My macbook has been running Mountain Lion for many years and i haven't needed anything more modern. 

And my Toshiba Libretto U100 has been running Windows XP for many years and i have not needed to change to windows 10. 

You do know that the “X” in “OSX” is Roman numeral for “10”, and we are at mac version 10.15. While Apple might have dropped the term, calling it “osx” is not incorrect.

I don't agree with you, Keil, nor Apple either:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS   

https://www.apple.com/macos/catalina/

The denomination you say and the reasons you give are obsolete, have long since changed. I also like the name OSX, but Apple does not. And they are the owners of the creature. 

Lmao

[zpaolo11x]

I'm delaying the upgrade to Catalina for two reasons: first my iPhone 5s is on iOS 12 so if I update to Catalina I'll loose reminder sync with my Macbook (thanks Apple, I already lost reminder sync with my wife's iPhone 8 with iOS 13 ), and second I'm scared that Attract Mode will not work fine with the new gatekeeper settings.

I don't think the issue is with 32 bit applications (Attract Mode is not on the list, unlike Paragon NTFS software updater, which is weird since Paragon NTFS itself is 64 bit lol), I think the issue is with OpenGL (I hope not) or with Gatekeeper. AFAIK you have to tell gatekeeper that the app is fine, try launching the app with right-click open instead of double clicking.

Do you get any error message from macOS when launching Attract Mode from the UI?

[OSXAM]

Keil etc here is what I have done so far to try and get Attract Mode Working - firstly I did  everything I could think off including reinstalling Catalina from scratch and trying again and these are the results of my attempts since that happened:
1. Downloaded Attract mode and tried to install - you can't drag it to the documentation folder - so I dragged and dropped it into the Apps folder.
2. Tried running Atrract Mode it starts but it cannot see the rams, wheels, Videos even though the paths are 100% correct and when I copied the paths from the config file into terminal the files are all there.
3. Assuming this to be a gatekeeper issue I Added Full Disk Access to the Attract App - result no change
4. I then opened the Attract mode package and added the contents folder - No change
5. I then added Contents/macOS/attract - No change
6. I then ran Contents/macOS/attract from the terminal - no layouts, no wheels, Videos but it did see the Roms and allowed me to create a romlist. However the emulators won't run.
I then added .Attract in the user directory to Gatekeeper and gave that Full disk access as well - No change.

I honestly believe this is gatekeeper related but maybe not I am no expert.

Keil asked for the log file here is the one from when I ran the app/Contents/Macos /Attract direct

Warning: Attract-Mode was compiled to look for its default configuration files in: ../config/, which is not available.
Config: /Users/leebendall/.attract/attract.cfg
Error loading language resource file: en

*** Initializing display: 'Atari 5200'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Atari 5200' in 0 ms (40 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (80 comparisons)
 ! Error opening layout: Attrac-Man
 - Layout is empty, initializing with the default layout settings
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: Unknown
 - Working directory: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems
*** Running: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems/mame64 a5200 -cart "/Volumes/Rom Drive/Emulators/MAME-Systems/roms/a5200/Centipede (USA).a52" -nowindow -skip_gameinfo
Warning, chdir(/Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems) failed.
Error executing: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems/mame64 a5200 -cart "/Volumes/Rom Drive/Emulators/MAME-Systems/roms/a5200/Centipede (USA).a52" -nowindow -skip_gameinfo
 - Working directory: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems
*** Running: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems/mame64 a5200 -cart "/Volumes/Rom Drive/Emulators/MAME-Systems/roms/a5200/Centipede (USA).a52" -nowindow -skip_gameinfo
Warning, chdir(/Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems) failed.
Error executing: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems/mame64 a5200 -cart "/Volumes/Rom Drive/Emulators/MAME-Systems/roms/a5200/Centipede (USA).a52" -nowindow -skip_gameinfo
logout
Saving session...
...copying shared history...
...saving history..

All help will be greatly appreciated

[OSXAM]

Log File Contents

Warning: Attract-Mode was compiled to look for its default configuration files in: ../config/, which is not available.
Config: /Users/leebendall/.attract/attract.cfg
Error loading language resource file: en

*** Initializing display: 'Atari 5200'
 - Loaded master romlist 'Atari 5200' in 0 ms (40 entries kept, 0 discarded)
 - Constructed 2 filters in 0 ms (80 comparisons)
 ! Error opening layout: Attrac-Man
 - Layout is empty, initializing with the default layout settings
 ! Unexpectedly lost focus to: Unknown
 - Working directory: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems
*** Running: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems/mame64 a5200 -cart "/Volumes/Rom Drive/Emulators/MAME-Systems/roms/a5200/Centipede (USA).a52" -nowindow -skip_gameinfo
Warning, chdir(/Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems) failed.
Error executing: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems/mame64 a5200 -cart "/Volumes/Rom Drive/Emulators/MAME-Systems/roms/a5200/Centipede (USA).a52" -nowindow -skip_gameinfo
 - Working directory: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems
*** Running: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems/mame64 a5200 -cart "/Volumes/Rom Drive/Emulators/MAME-Systems/roms/a5200/Centipede (USA).a52" -nowindow -skip_gameinfo
Warning, chdir(/Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems) failed.
Error executing: /Volumes/"Rom Drive"/Emulators/MAME-Systems/mame64 a5200 -cart "/Volumes/Rom Drive/Emulators/MAME-Systems/roms/a5200/Centipede (USA).a52" -nowindow -skip_gameinfo
logout
Saving session...
...copying shared history...
...saving history..

[zpaolo11x]

Warning: Attract-Mode was compiled to look for its default configuration files in: ../config/, which is not available.

Well this is strange, it seems Attract Mode can't find the config folder which is usually inside the Attract Mode package itself. If you "show package content" on the attract mode app can you see the files inside?

[OSXAM]

In anger to the latest question - Yes it can see everything in the package

I have now moved the package into the documents directory and repeated everything with the same results.

I hope someone wiser than me can fix this - I love Attract mode and will be devastated if I have to dump it - not least because there is no real alternative on the Mac and I absolutely will never return to Windows.

[keilmillerjr]

In anger to the latest question - Yes it can see everything in the package

I have now moved the package into the documents directory and repeated everything with the same results.

I hope someone wiser than me can fix this - I love Attract mode and will be devastated if I have to dump it - not least because there is no real alternative on the Mac and I absolutely will never return to Windows.

Don’t forget about Linux!

I have had a few issues with directories using attract app package and osx in the past. Try this from the terminal, but substitute paths appropriately.

Code: [Select]

$ cd /Applications/Attract.app/Contents/MacOS
$ /Applications/Attract.app/Contents/MacOS/attract --config /Users/keiljr/.attract/


[OSXAM]

Keil Miller Jr you are a genius that fixed 90% of the problem but some of my files were still not accessible from Attract Mode so reading up on the Catalina docs I realised that personal directories such as Documents might be protected in order to stop third party apps accessing them. Of course that's where some of my files were so I moved them to another volume and now everything looks good - I have only had time to test one machine and will have to test a lot more before I can guarantee your fix works but its looking very good.

For those thinking of going to Catalina may I suggest you wait a few days, I will checkout quite a few machines in Attract mode and then update this forum on progress.

I will also post details of what I have done in order to avoid typing the code Keil provided into terminal every time you want to start Attract Mode, as I had no idea what to do until I started looking today and a summary of what I have done, including Keil's script - so that others might follow.

Once Again KEIL you are a genius

[OSXAM]

What I did to avoid typing Keill Miller Jr's (Genius) everytime I want to start Attract Mode.

Open Text Edit from  the Applications menu and then click on Format in the top bar and select Make Plain Text. In the window type:

#!/bin/bash
#this is a comment-the first line sets bash as the shell script
cd /Applications/attract.app/contents/MacOS;
/Applications/Attract.app/Contents/MacOS/attract --config /Users/”YOUR ACCOUNT NAME”/.attract/
exit;

Now click on File in the top bar and select Save, call it whatever you want and save it to the desktop.
Now reopen Terminal and type:

chmod +x Desktop/”WHATEVER THE FILE WAS CALLED”

Next we have to make that file clickable so rename it to /”WHATEVER THE FILE WAS CALLED”.command – Test it and confirm it works , then we can add a more appropriate icon – download any picture you wish to use as an icon and copy it to your desktop.

Now click on the file to open it in preview then click on Edit in the top bar and select Select All, then click on Edit in the top bar and select Copy.

You are now ready to make that image the icon for the file you created, so on the desktop right click the file you created and select Get Info. At the very top of the window which appears click on the tiny icon your file currently uses and then click on Edit in the top bar and select Paste.

All done - A desktop icon and no need to keep typing Keil's script into terminal.

[OSXAM]

Getting Attract Mode to Work in Catalina

First please note Some of the things I have done may not be necessary, I have put them into chronological order and marked the items that may not need to be done with an * - I don't think it will cause any issues if you do them but you may be better off trying just those that need to be done first and if they do not work go back and perform the actions with an *

1. Download Attract Mode
2. Open the package and when it opens a windows suggesting you copy Attract to Documents, Don't, instead copy it to Applications instead.
3. * Now open  System Preferences and click on Security and Privacy, click on the lock in the bottom left the window, insert your password then scroll down to Full Disk Access. Leaving that window open in Finder navigate your way to the Attract App in the applications folder and drag it into the right hand panel of the Privacy and settings windows.
4. * repeat the above but this time navigate to the hidden .attract folder in your users directory - note if when you get here you can't see the folder, its because its hidden, so click Shift, Command and Period (full stop) and the hidden files will appear - and drag that to the same place as before.
5. Make sure none of your Videos, Wheels, Roms, etc, etc are in your user folders i.e.Documents, Attract Mode won't be able to access them so move them somewhere else outside of your users areas or like I did moved them to another volume. repoint your CFG files in attract to correspond to any changes you had to make and hopefully like me it will all work.

NOTE - I WILL PERFORM MUCH MORE TESTING ON THIS OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS AND IPDATE THE FORUM WITH ANY NEWS GOOD OR BAD.