Installing Batocera as the primary system?

TheDiamondCG

I would like to install Batocera on my old PC that I no longer have a use for, but I would like to install the system on the hard drive. Is this possible? Because I can’t simply sacrifice a USB flash storage device, so I would love to know if that was an option.
Thanks in advance!

BZZ

TheDiamondCG It works exactly the same as installing on USB. The easiest way is to take the HDD out and put it in your current PC. Then use (for example) etcher in unsafe mode so it detects your HDD and put the image on. Put the HDD in the old PC and fire it up -> voila Batocera ;-) I have two HDDs in my old PC one 80gb with the system and another 1TB with roms. As the PC is connected on the same network as my main PC I copy all I need via network. You can check your IP in system settings -> information and then just connect to it via shortcut i.e. 192.168.0.10. Depanding on your PC setup, especially GPU you might want to consider the 5.22 version with legacy driver. I have older nvidia so 5.22(legacy) actually runs some newer systems better than 5.23.

batocera.linux 5.22 with nvidia-legacy drivers (390.xx) (poke)
https://batocera-linux.xorhub.com/forum/d/1851-batocera-linux-5-23-with-nvidia-legacy-drivers-390-xx
batocera-5.22-x86_64-20190608.img.gz (download for x64 systems):
https://batocera-linux.xorhub.com/users/poke-1,0/nvidia-legacy/upgrades/x86_64/stable/last/batocera-5.22-x86_64-20190608.img.gz
Etcher:
https://www.balena.io/etcher/
Also Linux reader(https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/) is a good program to view Linux files under windows if you choose to re-connect the HDD to your PC to copy files. Just remember to actually run it first after putting it on the disk on your old PC. If you use two HDDs make sure you select the second HDD as the one to use for roms inside of Batocera. And enable nvidia in your system via putty(https://www.putty.org/) for example as exaplained in poke post:
mount -o remount,rw /boot
batocera-settings /boot/batocera-boot.conf --command uncomment --key nvidia-driver
mount -o remount,ro /boot
reboot

You can do the same by pressing F1 on your main system screen inside of Batocera and going 'up' then you will find 'boot' folders and re move the '#' from before "nvidia-driver=true" inside "batocera-boot.conf".

Some people also use USB for system and the internal HDD for roms. This gives you couple of giga for games on the Disk and easy access to USB to re-install if something goes wrong ;-)

I hope it all made sense and enjoy ;-)

angelus9151

TheDiamondCG like Kugelblitz said. I use the internal installer and its installed on my hard drive just make sure you backup everything on your hard drive in case it crashes so that you can reinstall it later

Jlindsey86

From what I have seen on youtube it is entirely possible to install Batocera onto a hard drive. Should be able to use Etcher to burn the Batocera image to the HDD.

Kugelblitz

Yes - best way to do that is though to boot Batocera from a USB on that machine, THEN use the internal installer to install it to the HDD/SDD built in. So you need a USB once. Can be an 8Gig one, dont need that much room for an install without ROMs.

BZZ

KingOfGames Do you have HDD or SSD in the PC ? Is your bios giving you message that says something like 'no system detected' or 'system missing' ? If so it is most probably BIOS problem.

You could try an alternative solution, but you will need a working system on that PC. Download EasyBCD and run it in your windows environment. Download link: https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3112-easybcd.html. After install open it and choose 'add new entry'. At the bottom there will be few tabs one of them should say 'bios extender'. The system drive should be selected automatically if not select it. Then click install. This program will give you custom boot options. One of them will be USB. Try it ;-)

I believe you should also be able to do it via CD-ROM. I looked online and if you burn Plop Linux live CD version to your cd-rom you should get USB boot option as well. Download link: https://www.plop.at/en/ploplinux/live/full.html.

Alternatively if you actually have an HDD/SSD try installing Batocera on that HDD. See this: BZZ .

BZZ

thisguy There is space on his partition. He does not need to resize it.... The installation of Batocera must be corrupted or HDD/SSD/USB is broken or/and has bad sectors.... In my case it was surely installation problem as after reinstall I did not have this challenge anymore.

Also the fastest way to transfer roms is either via network or by plugin the USB/HDD/SSD to your main PC and just copy paste. You seem to be making it complicated ;-)

Programs like EasyBCD or LinuxReader are simpler to use as well to read the linux partition under windows rather than running another linux distribution just to copy roms ;-) (BZZ )That is if I understood you correctly.\

There is also this if you're interested: "The next Windows update is coming soon and we’re bringing exciting new updates to WSL with it! These include accessing the Linux file system from Windows, and improvements to how you manage and configure your distros in the command line." https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/whats-new-for-wsl-in-windows-10-version-1903/

Kossay

morning to all! quick question since we are talking about installations, wich hardware would be better to run Nintendo wii and ps2/psn games?? and old intel i5-3330 with 4 cores 3.3ghz/ 4gb ddr3 motherboard, Or a new intel pentium G(dual core ones) at 2.9ghz with 8gb ddr4 motherboard.??

BZZ

Kossay In pure theory new > old. But I dont think with either of these setups you would see much difference. Test both... Once you have Batocera its just a matter of moving USB or HDD to the other PC. I run wii on lower specs than both of yours and it runs perfect.

Kossay

BZZ ty for the quick reply BZZ, how did u manage to make wii games run with decent fps??what video card are u using?....side note: can't figure out how to set my ps3 joystick to work with nintendo emu, i have to remap all each time i start the arcade machine.

BZZ

Kossay I use PS3 dual shock for most emulators and WII controller for WII games ;-) I only have GTX 460 ;-) I use 5.22 legacy version as it seems to run better than the new ones where I dont have nvidia driver ;-) I am not sure what you mean by decent as I actually never checked what my FPS is. But as I own a WII the games seem to look the same(not that I play many)

Kossay

BZZ awesome, last but not least question, so u use the wii motes right?do they work for old N64 and gamecube to?,just plug and play? guess im gonna need something for nintendo games too, since i only got dualshock3

joinski

Kossay

You can play N64 and Gamecube totally fine with a dualshock 3.

AlterEgo

Kossay
You didn't say whether you use discrete gfx or Intel gfx. if you use intel gfx' then the new one will be much better in running pcsx2.

Kossay

AlterEgo got a nvidia 970gtx with an intel i3 from 7ma gen and 8gb ram ddr4

Kossay

btw, i know it takes hard work, but is there anyone that already got a 5.23 image to download with all bios and systems all ready to go and working?idc for the roms i got like 2tb of roms.