RetroPie Setup - Auto-installer/updater for RetroArch gaming

This might be interesting for those of you that are looking for an easy way to use various emulators based on RetroArch and the Raspbian distribution:

I just committed a major update for the RetroPie setup script >>available at Github<<. The corresponding >>blog post<< was also refined. A main element of the update is a console-based GUI and the possibility to install per-compiled libraries, which dramatically speeds up the whole installation of RetroArch, various cores, SNESDev, and Emulation Station.

When the installation is finished the following cores are ready to use:

Atari 2600
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Color
NES
SNES

Doom, MAME, Mega Drive are prepared, but would need some configuration. These will be fully supported in following commits. A short step-by-step guide can be found in >>the post<< about the RetroPie setup script.

Hi,

i started with your first version of the script setting up my pi for retro gaming. In the meantime I can play sega games, too. Do you need some Help? I also tried MAME but actually i'am too stupid for loading a game...

Hi,

i started with your first version of the script setting up my pi for retro gaming. In the meantime I can play sega games, too. Do you need some Help? I also tried MAME but actually i'am too stupid for loading a game...

Thanks for the offer! Any help is appreciated! You could either post your settings etc. here or create a >>pull request<< on the Github site or generate a >>new issue<< on the Guthub site.

I think that a lot of people have the same intention as we have, and this script should really ease things ...

Because i'am not that familiar with Github i will post my settings here. The only thing to get Sega Mega Drive run is so to set the parameter "system_directory" to "any" path. You can do it in "/etc/retrorarch.cfg" or in the users home e.g. "/home/pi/.retroarch.cfg" (the dot is important!).
I set it manually in /etc to "/home/pi/RetroPie/emulatorcores" and add the following lines to the .es_system.cfg. Thats all (because the rest was already prepared by you)!

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NAME=Sega Mega Drive
PATH=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/megadrive
EXTENSION=.sms
COMMAND=retroarch -L /home/pi/RetroPie/emulatorcores/Genesis-Plus-GX/libretro.so %ROM%

Do you know what file of a mame rom is the right one to use with the emulator? I tried two different games with any file but i get always an error that the game could not be loaded. I'm so confused about all these different file extensions...

So...I'm kind of stuck. I went through the binary install process using the script. Now...I don't have the ability to start X server. It tries and then tells me the resource is temporarily unavailable. Any suggestions?

Because i'am not that familiar with Github i will post my settings here. The only thing to get Sega Mega Drive run is so to set the parameter "system_directory" to "any" path. You can do it in "/etc/retrorarch.cfg" or in the users home e.g. "/home/pi/.retroarch.cfg" (the dot is important!).
I set it manually in /etc to "/home/pi/RetroPie/emulatorcores" and add the following lines to the .es_system.cfg. Thats all (because the rest was already prepared by you)!

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NAME=Sega Mega Drive
PATH=/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/megadrive
EXTENSION=.sms
COMMAND=retroarch -L /home/pi/RetroPie/emulatorcores/Genesis-Plus-GX/libretro.so %ROM%

Do you know what file of a mame rom is the right one to use with the emulator? I tried two different games with any file but i get always an error that the game could not be loaded. I'm so confused about all these different file extensions...

Thanks for that! I will add these settings into the RetroPie script. With respect to MAME: I didn't have a look at running MAME roms yet, but it's on top of my to-do list. Maybe you can use the .zip file that contains all the "smaller" rom files and the emulator will take care for the extraction on its own?

So...I'm kind of stuck. I went through the binary install process using the script. Now...I don't have the ability to start X server. It tries and then tells me the resource is temporarily unavailable. Any suggestions?

Hmm, I am not sure. Do you mean

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startx

to start the LXDE does not work for you? I just tested this with my Pi and it works. The RetroPie script should not touch any of the X components.

Maybe one of this links helps: http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/1329/problems-starting-x

Another thing could be that there is not enough space on your SD card? http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=74457#p74457

I just committed an update for the script that will allow you to set things up for starting Emulation Station on boot. I also added the configuration for Mega Drive emulation, thanks go to "mats". See https://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup.

My PI has a 8gb SD card and a 3TB hard drive. I installed the RetroPie setup files into my 3TB drive but it seemed to install the program on my SD card instead of the "current directory" which was on my HD. Is there a way to have it install the program on my 3TB drive instead?

My PI has a 8gb SD card and a 3TB hard drive. I installed the RetroPie setup files into my 3TB drive but it seemed to install the program on my SD card instead of the "current directory" which was on my HD. Is there a way to have it install the program on my 3TB drive instead?

Hi!

Actually, retropie_setup.sh can be called with optional arguments. I describe these in the README.md. I am sorry if this was not obvious! Here is an excerpt:

The script is executed with

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cd RetroPie-Setup
chmod +x retropie_setup.sh
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh

Optional arguments can be passed to the script. If called with

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sudo ./retropie_setup.sh

the installation directory is /home/CURRENTUSER/RetroPie for the current user, where CURRENTUSER is the home directory of the current user. If called with

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sudo ./retropie_setup.sh USERNAME

the installation directory is /home/USERNAME/RetroPie for user USERNAME. If called with

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sudo ./retropie_setup.sh USERNAME ABSPATH

the installation directory is ABSPATH for user USERNAME

So, for you the third case seems to be appropriate. Let me know if this worked out or if you have any other problems!

I just added the settings for the MAME core. I tested it with some free ROMS from the late 80'ies.

And another small update: You can now set the ARM frequency from within RetroPie setup.

A choice of 800 MHz should run fine and a choice of 900 MHz is reported from various people to lead to even better frame rates.

Do this at your own risk!!

Great script. Makes life a lot easier. I have a question though. How do you get a keyboard working with the mame core? I can't put money in (key 5), press tab for the menu or use any of the frameskip F8 keys.

Hi,

Got this installed so super work.

I have a ROM (It's a MAME one) and it loads. It comes up with a copyright disclaimer and says "Press Left the Right to continue" but no keypresses are caught.

I'm assuming I have missed out a step but can't work it out. Is there a config app to run to setup the keys?

Cheers

Hi,

Got this installed so super work.

I have a ROM (It's a MAME one) and it loads. It comes up with a copyright disclaimer and says "Press Left the Right to continue" but no keypresses are caught.

I'm assuming I have missed out a step but can't work it out. Is there a config app to run to setup the keys?

Cheers

If you use a normal keyboard pressing left and right arrow should work. If you try to use it with a gamepad you have to use the retroarch-joyconfig command first.

I am using a wireless keyboard and it doesn't log any of my key presses, I have to power off the pi as esc doesn't even work.

I am using a wireless keyboard and it doesn't log any of my key presses, I have to power off the pi as esc doesn't even work.

Sounds like the problem other users have too. In the EmulationStation or in the RetroArch thread here some users reported that they loose there keyboard after starting a rom. Search for it, i don't know if there was a solution for it...

It seems it might be because I started it in X, so will try from terminal tonight.

Im having a bit of a problem. I did the quick install option and then installed the emulator cores separately. I got nes and snes working well but when i installed the MAME cores it didnt show up in the emulationstation menu. Can someone help me why this is or help add MAME to the gui frontend.

Im having a bit of a problem. I did the quick install option and then installed the emulator cores separately. I got nes and snes working well but when i installed the MAME cores it didnt show up in the emulationstation menu. Can someone help me why this is or help add MAME to the gui frontend.

ES author here - open ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg in your text editor of choice. If MAME isn't set up, you should be able to add it manually with something like:

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NAME=MAME
PATH=home/$USER/RetroPie/roms/mame
EXTENSION=.zip
COMMAND=retroarch -L home/$USER/RetroPie/emulatorcores/imame4all-libretro/libretro.so %ROM%   


(replacing $USER with your username)

Im having a bit of a problem. I did the quick install option and then installed the emulator cores separately. I got nes and snes working well but when i installed the MAME cores it didnt show up in the emulationstation menu. Can someone help me why this is or help add MAME to the gui frontend.

ES author here - open ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg in your text editor of choice. If MAME isn't set up, you should be able to add it manually with something like:

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NAME=MAME
PATH=home/$USER/RetroPie/roms/mame
EXTENSION=.zip
COMMAND=retroarch -L home/$USER/RetroPie/emulatorcores/imame4all-libretro/libretro.so %ROM%   


(replacing $USER with your username)

thanks aloshi. i initially had a problem with that code but then i realized i had to put a "/" in front of home and then it worked.

It seems it might be because I started it in X, so will try from terminal tonight.

Since the problem with starting Emulation Station with X running and loosing the keyboard input seems to be a general issue I have included a check for X running in the background in the recent commit for the RetroPie setup script.

Just a notification about the recent commit of >>the RetroPie setup script<<:
- I have added ES-thegamesdb-scraper to the script. the scraper can be controlled from within the script and allows the automatic generation of ROM metadata and box art. Thanks a lot to jpzapa!
- Also, I have added an auto-installer for the gamecon GPIO driver for NES, SNES, and N64 controllers. Thanks a lot to marqs!
- As mentioned above, I have also added a check for X running in the background when starting emulation station.

To install the latest version of Emulation Station, you need to run the custom installation (possibly after a binaries-based installation) and select only Emulation Station. I will update the downloadable binaries in the next days.

Can someone help please? My problem is, that after running the script i get the following error:

~/RetroPie/EmulationStation ~/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup
./emulationstation: error while loading shared libraries: libboost_system.so.1.49.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Can someone help please? My problem is, that after running the script i get the following error:

~/RetroPie/EmulationStation ~/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup
./emulationstation: error while loading shared libraries: libboost_system.so.1.49.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Which distribution are you using?
Does

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sudo apt-get install -y libboost-system-dev

solve your problem?