RetroELEC Kodi+Wayland+Emulationstation+RetroArch (x86/XU4/RPi)

Hello escalade

Newbie and complete noob here.

Please be gentle with me because I might just be the dumbest person here.

I've tried reading the thread a bit but frankly can't figure out what's being said

I tried to install the latest build on a OLD x86 PC. (Dell Optiplex)

I used to run LibreElec on it but for some weird reason LibreElec refused to run Retroarch (would crash immediately I tried to enter a setting menu).

NB: I can probably run whatever commands I am required to run or do whatever to solve this I just don't know them

(Problem 1)

Installation of your generic build on this PC went fine.

When I tried to boot it, I ended up with a blank screen after the RetroElec splash screen.

I normally connect this PC to a TV via a DVI to HDMI adapter. It worked fine with vanilla LibreElec

I tried using a VGA cable instead and found it was booting to the Kodi Desktop just fine.

It just wasn't giving a display via the HDMI

Problem is the VGA gives a lower resolution and the color is quite washed out for some reason I don't know.

(Problem 2)

I use a USB wifi stick on this PC and it worked ok on LibreElec

On your build it isn't detected.

I tried running lsusb in terminal on the desktop.

It is recognized as a RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Adapter.

Running modprobe rtl8188EUS results:

modprobe: FATAL : Module rtl8188EUS not found in directory /lib/modules/5.8.0-rc5

How can I get the Wifi stick to work?

I'm also starting to play with the latest Generic build on a laptop that is connect to an external screen via a DisplayPort to HDMI cable.

On boot up I get the RetroELEC boot splash screen on both Laptop and external screens.

It boots up into Kodi, but only the Laptop screen is enabled, and I can't see anywhere in the Kodi System Video settings to change displays.

If I switch to Desktop I get the display on both screens.

If I switch to RetroArch the laptop screen is active, but I can activate the external screen by switching to display #2, but it reverts to the laptop screen when I launch a MAME game.

On the generic LibreELEC build I used to use xrandr commands to active the external screen and disable to laptop screen, but xrandr doesn't appear to be in the RetroELEC build.

Is sway meant to replace xrandr ???

I found the sway config and did some reading, but when I was booted into Kodi I couldn't get info on sway

 RetroELEC (community): devel-20200716014709 (Generic.x86_64)
LibreELECusb:~ # swaymsg -t get_outputs
00:00:00.000 [common/ipc-client.c:67] Unable to connect to /run/sway.sock

Is there a set of commands (possibly to put in an autostart.sh) that can control/force external displays in the various environments for Kodi, RetroArch, MAME, Desktop ?

Thanks.

Quote from kidhazy

I'm also starting to play with the latest Generic build on a laptop that is connect to an external screen via a DisplayPort to HDMI cable.

On boot up I get the RetroELEC boot splash screen on both Laptop and external screens.

It boots up into Kodi, but only the Laptop screen is enabled, and I can't see anywhere in the Kodi System Video settings to change displays.

If I switch to Desktop I get the display on both screens.

....

I tried a different laptop today with an external HDMI monitor. Same issue. Kodi doesn't see external screen, and no sway service available whilst Kodi running. When desktop is active, the display is spanned across the 2 displays.

Anyone able to run the latest generic build on a laptop external display?

Thanks.

I really enjoyed escalade's work with RetroELEC but I wanted to have my personal touch on the software, so I just ended up doing an Ubuntu 18.04 minimal install and then installed RetroPie (with Pegasus FE) + Kodi on it (can run Steam too, even in BPM). The upside with doing this is that you'll have access to more drivers and aren't limited to what's included in RetroELEC (or LibreELEC for that matter). You'll also be using Ubuntu which is widely supported and discussed in forums should you run into any issues or want to add something of your own.

Here's what I did if anyone is interested in trying:

#! /bin/bash

#this setup script is brought to you by Northbane (c) 2021
#it is known to be very crude and simple 
#IMPORTANT: only run it once! or it will most likely fubar your os

#need to install deps for RetroPie and PegasusFE
sudo apt install menu python-xdg at-spi2-core pulseaudio alsa-utils libglib2.0-bin dbus-x11 triggerhappy git dialog unzip xmlstarlet x11-xserver-utils gstreamer1.0-alsa gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-plugins-good jq policykit-1 curl xdg-utils -y

#installing drivers if needed + openbox & lightdm
sudo apt install ubuntu-drivers-common software-properties-common curl lightdm openbox -y
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers -y
#check https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers for more info
sudo apt-get update
#sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall -y
#uncomment the above line if you need other drivers and comment the oibaf repo


#manually install basic package in RetroPie or it wont work and PegasusFE from exp packages
cd ~
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git
cd RetroPie-Setup 
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh

#enable lirc in Ubuntu 18.04
sudo apt purge ir-keytable lirc
sudo sed -i '1 i\deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial universe' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install lirc/xenial -y
sudo apt-mark hold lirc
#remove deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial universe from /etc/apt/sources.list
echo "remove first line in sources.list"
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update

#disabling power saving mode
#echo "#turn off screen saver and power saving" >> ~/.profile
#echo "xset s off && xset -dpms" >> ~/.profile
echo "1 i\xset s off && xset -dpms" > ~/.xsession

#set up custom plymouth:
cd ~
sudo apt-get install plymouth plymouth-themes plymouth-x11 -y
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/HerbFargus/plymouth-themes.git tempthemes
sudo cp -r ~/tempthemes/. /usr/share/plymouth/themes/
rm -r -f tempthemes
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/share/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/themes/retropie-pacman/retropie-pacman.plymouth 10
sudo update-alternatives --set default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/themes/retropie-pacman/retropie-pacman.plymouth
sudo update-initramfs -u
sudo cp /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.backup
sudo sed -i -e 's/GRUB_TIMEOUT=10/GRUB_TIMEOUT=2/g' /etc/default/grub
sudo sed -i -e 's/GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""/GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet splash"/g' /etc/default/grub
sudo update-grub

#sensitive stuff below could possibly break your system if ran more than once

#create autologin for current user / deprecated?
if [ ! -e "/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf" ]; then
echo "[SeatDefaults]" >> ~/lightdm.conf
echo "autologin-user=$USER" >> ~/lightdm.conf
echo "autologin-user-timeout=0" >> ~/lightdm.conf
echo "user-session=openbox" >> ~/lightdm.conf
sudo mv ~/lightdm.conf /etc/lightdm/
fi

#remove password from user sudoers. 
#if grep -q "$USER ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" "/etc/sudoers"; then
sudo sed -i -e '$a\$USER ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL' /etc/sudoers
#remove user from sudo
sudo gpasswd -d $USER sudo
#end of sensitive stuff

# OpenBox autostarts unclutter, then passes off to the RetroPie autostart
mkdir -p ~/.config/openbox
echo 'unclutter -idle 0.01 -root' >> ~/.config/openbox/autostart
echo '/opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh' >> ~/.config/openbox/autostart
chown -R $USER:$USER ~/.config
# Create RetroPie autostart
mkdir -p /opt/retropie/configs/all
touch /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh
chmod +x /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh
chown -R $USER:$USER /opt/retropie/configs

#create openbox autostart script for pegasus, which will start again if exited
echo "#!/bin/bash" >> ~/pegasus.sh
echo "while true; do" >> ~/pegasus.sh
echo "pegasus-fe" >> ~/pegasus.sh
echo "done" >> ~/pegasus.sh
chmod +x ~/pegasus.sh
echo 'gnome-terminal --full-screen --hide-menubar -- ~/pegasus.sh' >> /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh

#install kodi with rar support, user interaction required
echo Installing Kodi with RAR support, please wait
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kodi kodi-vfs-rar -y
mkdir ~/RetroPie/roms/ports
touch ~/RetroPie/roms/ports/Kodi.sh
echo "kodi-standalone" >> ~/RetroPie/roms/ports/Kodi.sh
chmod +x ~/RetroPie/roms/ports/Kodi.sh

#install Steam
echo Installing Steam, please wait
sudo apt-get install steam -y
touch ~/RetroPie/roms/ports/Steam.sh
echo "steam" >> ~/RetroPie/roms/ports/Steam.sh
chmod +x ~/RetroPie/roms/ports/Steam.sh
{~7
#installing requirements for Overcooked2
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade libstdc++6 -y

#change audio to hdmi pulseaudio
sudo sed -i -e 's/set-default-sink output/set-default-sink output alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo-extra1/g' /etc/pulse/default.pa

#tips for retroarch 
echo "dont forget to edit retroarch with start pressed for 2 secs to enter menu"
echo ""
#tips on getting audio to work check https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio/Examples for more info 
echo "do pacmd list-sinks | grep -e 'name:' -e 'index:'"
echo "check etc pulse default.pa"
echo "and ucomment the last line and set something like set-default-sink output alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo-extra1"
echo ""
echo "All Done!"

NOTES:
Also, make sure to install Pegasus FE from RetroPie Setup under experimental packages if videos aren't playing after scraping them.

You can copy & save that as a file in your user home dir as "retropie_install.sh" for example and then run the cmd: "chmod +x retropie_install.sh"

execute with "sudo sh retropie_install.sh" afterwards. After a reboot you should now see the Pegasus frontend, you can scrape games with SkraperUI (run it from a Windows PC and point to your Ubuntu machine's LAN IP / name).

Good luck with your new project!

Audio issues? Check audio preferences with

pacmd list-sinks | grep -e 'name:' -e 'index:'

and ucomment the last line in /etc/pulse/default.pa and set something like set-default-sink output alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo-extra1

Controller issues? Go to RetroPie section and launch Retroarch and setup your controller binds there.

Also if you have more than one user it will probably break stuff with the install script. Use a clean new Ubuntu 18.04 install for this.

Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any damage running that script may cause. You're on your own if things go haywire.

Note: If you want to use MizterB's RetroPie script for Ubuntu 18.04/20.04 you can download it here. It uses EmulationStation as frontend and installs main packages for RetroPie automatically

been using this image for a while, i’d like to use different skins (I am growing tired of the default) Has anyone had any luck using a different skin? cannot seem to get others to work while retaining access to the emulation aspect of this image.

Thanks!

Quote from Liquidmercury

been using this image for a while, i’d like to use different skins (I am growing tired of the default) Has anyone had any luck using a different skin? cannot seem to get others to work while retaining access to the emulation aspect of this image.

Thanks!

Either you have to see if you can enter a custom command from skin settings menu in Kodi or you'll need to edit " \\<networkname>\Userdata\addon_data\skin.<skin.name>\settings.xml "
My entry looks like this:

<setting id="CustomHome.1.Label" type="string">Games</setting>
<setting id="CustomHome.1.Path" type="string">System.Exec(/usr/bin/retroarch.sh)</setting>

I'm using Amber skin, so I can't guarantee the same will work for all skins. Best make a backup of it prior to changing it. Also, you probably can't have Kodi running that skin when trying to edit it.

Edit: But feel free to try the Ubuntu 18.04 minimal iso and the script in my post above to get Pegasus FE + Kodi and possible native Steam support.

Tried your entry on the skin I would like to use (Madnox) but no success. I may have done something wrong but I am not sure what. I will continue to mess with it, unless you have any other ideas. Thanks for the help.

Quote from Liquidmercury

Tried your entry on the skin I would like to use (Madnox) but no success. I may have done something wrong but I am not sure what. I will continue to mess with it, unless you have any other ideas. Thanks for the help.

See if the skin you're using support adding custom items to the menu, then you should be able to put the cmd "System.Exec(/usr/bin/retroarch.sh)" as a custom command. If not, try some other skin and see if it works just as a proof of concept.

If I were to want to setup Doom, Doom2, 3 and possibly wolfenstein wehre would I put the necessary files to get it to work?

*Edit: Figured things out.

Sorry if I've missed something around the RetroElec builds - but has development slowed/stopped?

I see the latest RPi4 image is 30 April, Generic x86 image mid-July. I see a new Silverlake image on the download site.

I'm using the RPi4 and generic x86 images and just wondering if it's still being worked on/updated.

Thanks.

Neither of the instructions listed for using other skins have worked for me guess i might be missing a step. if i edit the settings.xml with the code listed above us there anything else i need to do?

Also noted that there is a doom3 port for retro arch has anyone had success on getting that set up if so is there a tutorial somewhere?

Quote from Liquidmercury

Neither of the instructions listed for using other skins have worked for me guess i might be missing a step. if i edit the settings.xml with the code listed above us there anything else i need to do?

Make sure Kodi isn't running when editing settings.xml or else it won't work.
But as I mentioned earlier, try Ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04 and the Retropie install script in the above post. The MizterB bootstrap + install script should be fool proof.

decided to go the linux route, however its been quite a while since ive messed with it, do I need to download the above listed minimal install then copy the text listed above save it as retropie_install.sh place it where noted then run the script, or run the items one at a time?

Thanks for the help all

Quote from Liquidmercury

decided to go the linux route, however its been quite a while since ive messed with it, do I need to download the above listed minimal install then copy the text listed above save it as retropie_install.sh place it where noted then run the script, or run the items one at a time?

Thanks for the help all

Yep, you need to install the minimal Ubuntu version, I recommend v18.04 but v20.04 is (obviously) the latest. After downloaded and installed (from USB preferably) to a storage device, you need to create and either copy the "retropie_install.sh" file to samba share (this has to be installed and setup, check /etc/samba/smb.conf afterwards) or copy it to and from a USB drive and run that file. Don't forget to do "chmod +x retropie_install.sh" after that it's just a matter of executing retropie_install.sh
If you don't want to bother with that, just download MizterB's bootstrap.sh file, it's way more automated aka user friendly and has some advantages over my script (like no terminal output when launching a game)

Included an attachment of how the setup looks when done.

Hi all,

I would like my x86 image of skylake to boot directly to kodi or emulation station.

As far as i red and tried i need to change the kernel bootloader with fronted=kodi for example.

the grub.cfg file is in /flash and read only .

can anyone help / tell me how i can configure this? of how to configure to boot the image directly in a app.

thanks so far for reading.

Hi, I'm a Libreelec and Linux NOOB.
How can I integrate my roms from the omv nas into emulationstation.
In Kodi I see the nas but in Retroarch I can't see it.

Solved

Hi escalade,

Is there a way to upgrade existing kodi (9.2.6) installation on RPI4 to your RetroElec ?

I have recently installed LibreElec 9.2.6 on my RPI4B (2 gb version) and Kodi run like a charm, I would not like to lose it)

I've tried to install Retroarch and EmulationStation but it's a nightmare:

- Retroarch suddenly exit when I navigate inside the menu (by example I click on Settings then on Directory and it exit and return to Kodi interface, so I can't configure it)

- EmulationStation just show the splash screen then directly return back to Kodi interface ...

Did your distribution work with RPI4B ?

Thanks for you answer.

Fonzy44

I've been enjoying your build for a long time now and want to say thanks for your great build.