I'm close, but have multiple problems

Derrick

Hello,

I've been trying to figure out my multiple problems by searching them through google, but I'm either not using the correct search terms, or my problems are so bad that there no help for me.

I'll start from the beginning.

My laptop is an Acer E15 E5-575-33bm: https://www.cnet.com/products/acer-aspire-e-15-e5-575-33bm-15-6-core-i3-7100u-4-gb-ram-1-tb-hdd-us-international/specs/

I've been following ETA Prime's videos for the install: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eG6RpDzPM_k

I've got a generic 16gb USB thumb drive that I loaded the OS onto, and I've also got a 64gb class 10 Fuji film thumb drive that I had hoped to use for the roms. With that, I have a generic wireless Xbox controller that I've plugged in with a micro usb/usb cable. Spacing on my USB ports sucks, but I can squeeze everything in there. I have a question regarding that later on.

So, I downloaded the image file from this site and put it on the generic 16gb thumb drive. I went into my boot menu and made sure it boots from the USB. No issues there. I was able to boot up right off the bat.

Then, just like every other video, the next step is to config my controller. That's where the problems begin. Most of the keys read just fine. It's when I get down to the hot key. Nothing reads. I've tried various button combos, but nothing seems to work. Could be the controller(it's borrowed). Could be me(likely). Not sure on that one yet. Seems like the easiest of fixes though.

Next issue. Even with my controller not working so hot, I can still navigate through the windows. So I tried the next portion. Plugging in a second thumb drive. In the video he goes into settings, and takes it off internal storage and changes it to his secondary thumb drive. When I try that, it sees nothing. I've tried this multiple times. Each time same results. So, my first thought is that I have a thumb drive that isn't compatible. I noticed in the video that it sees both of his thumb drives. It doesn't even recognize my generic 16g one that I have the OS loaded on. It shows a generic 16gb USB drive, but it's mine. I feel like that's a default. So basically I couldn't reboot from there in order to send all of the files to my 64 so I can load roms. I tried to flip/flop things. OS on the 64. Roms on the 16. Nothing there either. So then I just tried to leave it on "any external" and I think that somehow kind of worked. I went back to windows. Plugged in the 64 and up popped the saved folders.

So, I thought I was in the clear. I put some roms in the roms folders. Atari 2600, NES, and SNES.

I booted back up from the 16gb. Had similar issues configing the controller, but zero of the ROMS showed up. All of the roms I have are from a reputable source. I don't think that is the issue. They're all unzipped & extracted in their individual folders. Still nothing. Not sure what I could've done wrong. Do they need to be pulled from their base folders before I put them in the roms folder on the 64? I noticed his were on the video. He was just dropping in the actual file. Not the folder it came in? Does that make sense?

My last issue is the USB spacing on my laptop. I only have 3 ports. 2 are super close together, so a controller and a thumb drive don't fit very well. Would getting an external hub help me out in any way? If I get this working, it'd be nice to plug in a 2nd controller. If not, it'd just be nice not to have those 2 smashed up against each other.

So to recap:

-Controller issues
-Thumb drive reading issues
-USB spacing

Shoot. I forgot one. So after I changed to any external, and the files magically showed up on my 64, when I went to go bring up the OS it got stuck loading. "Loading" flashed real quick and it just froze on a black screen. So I went back to the windows side of things and deleted the OS from the 16gb and put the image back on using etcher. I tried again after that and it came up just fine. This has happened several times regardless if the is is loaded on the 64 or 16.

What the heck am I doing wrong? Sorry this is so long-winded. I'm trying to paint the best picture so hopefully I can get this figured out.

Thank you

Derrick

chanchomann

What controller model are you using? It might need a file edit on the overlay part of the os

USB spacing lol, the bane of laptops. a USB hub with a ext.power barrel and the correponding ac adapter, would be better than a simple one if you connect more than two controllers. Laptop usb ports don't handle too much voltage drain.

thumbdrive issues might just be a bug in the current version, compared to the video using an older version? What filesystem formatting is on that 64gb stick? ntfs?

In the emulationstation menu, under system settings there is a spot to create a support file. Run it, wait (it makes a 64meg-ish zip with a bigger tar inside, that has a bunch of text files, representing the various logs. The guys here would be interested in the messages file and perhaps dmesg.txt. can you upload those two to pastebin (unlisted) and paste the links to them here?