Libretro emulators crashing

unkkatkumiankka

Hi,

I just installed batocera and am running it on an old mini laptop (Acer Aspire One Happy 2). The system itself boots up nicely but the emulators seem to crash whenever I try to start a game.

I've tried running the games that come with batocera, and it seems like libretro is the common factor in the crashing. The only one that I got to work was C64 with vice. Libretro-vice however crashed.

What happens when I try to start a game is the system loads for a bit but then just returns to the main menu. I wasn't able to find any reports of this by searching these forums and googling. Any ideas what the issue could be or how to get more information about it?

As additional info, I've been testing Lakka (but wasn't really happy with some of their design decisions) the last couple of days and there libretro cores seem to be working fine.

nadenislamarre

what is inside ~/logs/es_*log files ?

unkkatkumiankka

Thanks for pointing me to the logs.

I found es_launch_stderr.log with this as its contents (the other es*log was empty):

Running system: c64
current video mode: 1024x768
wanted video mode: CEA 1 HDMI
invalid video mode CEA 1 HDMI
resolution: 1024x768
setVideoMode(1024x768): batocera-resolution setMode "1024x768"
configgen exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/configgen/emulatorlauncher.py", line 342, in <module>
exitcode = main(args)
File "usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/configgen/emulatorlauncher.py", line 92, in main
exitCode = runCommand(generators[system.config['emulator']].generate(system, args.rom, playersControllers, gameResolution))
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/configgen/generators/libretro/libretroGenerator.py", line 24, in generate
libretroControllers.writeControllersConfig(system, playersControllers)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/configgen/generators/libretro/libretroControllers.py", line 48, in writeControllersConfig
writeControllerConfig(controllers[controller], controller, system)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/configgen/generators/libretro/libretroControllers.py", line 72, in writeControllerConfig
generatedConfig = generateControllerConfig(controller, system.config['specials'])
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/configgen/generators/libretro/libretroControllers.py", line 115, in generateControllerConfig
input = controller.inputs['start']
KeyError: 'start'
Exiting configgen with status -1

papa_smurf73

First, thank you to whomever is building/supporting this awesome software stack. I'm in love with it...

That said, I'm having the same issue as the OP and thought I'd add some more bits to the convo...

I've installed x64 batocera linux on an HP T620 thin client. Initially, I had a sound issue, but resolved it with the link below... I'm now having issues with games crashing (see video)? I appreciate any feedback. This is a great interface. Would love to get this working.
Link to video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1coEPoa3gQM2rX7lS1m6PKbPcVuSOwWwd/view?usp=sharing
Link to fix sound:
https://batocera-linux.xorhub.com/forum/d/794-how-to-hdmi-sound-on-x86-builds
When I attempt to launch games, they start with sound, but after I press the start button a few times, the game seemingly bugs out. I took some video with my phone to demonstrate... Below is an error log I found.

Running system: snes
current video mode: 1920x1080
wanted video mode: 1920x1080
resolution: 1920x1080
command: LANG=en_US.UTF-8 TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/linux XAUTHORITY=/recalbox/share/system/.Xauthority SHLVL=4 PREVLEVEL=N label=BATOCERA PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin PWD=/ WINDOWPATH=2 RUNLEVEL=S DISPLAY=:0 CONSOLE=/dev/console HOME=/recalbox/share/system LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 =/usr/bin/python INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.90 /usr/bin/retroarch -L /usr/lib/libretro/snes9x_next_libretro.so --config /recalbox/share/system/configs/retroarch/retroarchcustom.cfg /recalbox/share/roms/snes/DonkeyKongClassic (Shiru).smc
command: ['/usr/bin/retroarch', '-L', '/usr/lib/libretro/snes9x_next_libretro.so', '--config', '/recalbox/share/system/configs/retroarch/retroarchcustom.cfg', '/recalbox/share/roms/snes/DonkeyKongClassic (Shiru).smc']
env: {'LANG': 'en_US.UTF-8', 'TERM': 'linux', 'SHELL': '/bin/sh', 'BOOT_IMAGE': '/boot/linux', 'XAUTHORITY': '/recalbox/share/system/.Xauthority', 'SHLVL': '4', 'PREVLEVEL': 'N', 'label': 'BATOCERA', 'PATH': '/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin', 'PWD': '/', 'WINDOWPATH': '2', 'RUNLEVEL': 'S', 'DISPLAY': ':0', 'CONSOLE': '/dev/console', 'HOME': '/recalbox/share/system', 'LC_ALL': 'en_US.UTF-8', '': '/usr/bin/python', 'INIT_VERSION': 'sysvinit-2.90'}

I've been playing with changing the video mode options as seen below. For the SNES, I changed the video mode; via gui, to align with what ever I have changed in the config file; as I was seeing something that eluded to a missmatch for video modes in the error log... This allowed the game to start, but as you saw in the video it still crashes.

------------ H - HERE IT IS - GLOBAL EMULATOR CONFIGURATION ------------

The global value will be used for all emulators, except if the value

is redefined in the emulator

Set game resolution for emulators

select your mode from the command : tvservice -m [MODE]

CEA 5 HDMI : 1920x1080 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz interlaced

CEA 4 HDMI : 1280x720 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz progressive

use 'default' for using the default resolution

(string)

##global.videomode=CEA 1 HDMI
##global.videomode=default
global.videomode=CEA 1 HDMI : 1920x1080 @ 60Hz 16:9, clock:74MHz interlaced

unkkatkumiankka

So looks like I figured out the issue based on the log and was able to start a libretro emulator.

The problem was that the start button wasn't configured on the controller I was using. I have a 6-button gamepad and I have to leave out a couple of buttons for e.g. SNES games. I configure A, B, X, Y, L and R, and leave out start and select. If I need those buttons, then I reach to the keyboard on the laptop. This works fine in the batocera menu but the emulators don't seem to like it. In Lakka, this setup worked in the menus and the emulators.

Would be nice if you could assign the missing keys from another controller like the keyboard. Maybe it's possible by editing the config files directly?

unkkatkumiankka

I looked at libretroControllers.py and just commented out these lines:

    specialvalue = retroarchspecials['start']
    input = controller.inputs['start']
    config['input_%s_%s' % (specialvalue, typetoname[input.type])] = getConfigValue(input)

It seems to work now, I can start a game without having start, select or hotkey set. I was able to use at enter as the start key while playing with the gamepad. Not sure what kind of side effects I may have caused...

But I'd hope this to be fixed in a way that allows me to complement my gamepad's lack of buttons with the keyboard.