32/64bit Groovy Arcade Linux LiveCD/Install

[bitbytebit]

32 bit and 64 bit Groovy Arcade Linux liveCD/install using my kernel patch and switchres.  

This is tailored to run on Arcade monitors and utilize the newest versions of X and Linux DRM/KMS kernel.  It also contains GroovyMame and Mess with cabmame patches, should be able to do the best possible display of arcade resolutions of any Linux distribution using groovymame/switchres Mess, advance menu or wahcade frontends and mupen64plus/gens/zsnes/nestopia/stella emulators.  

Also I have the complete build scripts and extra files needed to build the Groovy Arcade Linux liveCD distribution from scratch, although not recommended because of the effort and having it already built for you, it is available for the curious.

http://arcade.groovy.org


Live CD of Groovy Arcade Linux, 32 bit and 64 bit versions
==========================================================

You can choose to run the ISO as a LiveCD or Install it to
your hard drive.  You will need a completely empty (no partitions)
drive to install to unless you want to manually setup partitions.
With the LiveCD you can use a partition as your 'home' directory
and it can save the setup for future reboots.  It is recommended
to setup a swap partition with the LiveCD but not necessary, it
just helps when generating the Wah!Cade game database. 

There's basically 3 sections to the main setup menu...
1. Setup options
2. LiveCD options
3. Install to disk

You can just to straight to installing to disk, and it'll autopartition
the drive for you into the proper partitions needed to install.

You can choose the LiveCD options and setup a stateful home drive, setup
swap space, and/or just startup the FrontEnd in X Windows.  You also can
change the frontend in Setup options, configure Advance Menu, use a window
manager to do system configuration from xterms (or use as a desktop and
browse the web etc.).

[Quinny]

Looks interesting! I will try this out.

[Quinny]

I have an arcadeVGA 3000 on my system and I tested with my CRT monitor and a PAL TV.

On the PAL TV, after it got to the stage of changing the resolution, the text all went swirlly and could not be read. I guessed at options and got to the X window which was showing me one screen split three times and did not stretch to the screen (which could be because of the first CGA option I chose).
It didn't look like a PAL option was available to select, could this please be added?

On the monitor I used the SVGA option and got to the X window. The menu was slightly off to the left of my screen. Could possibly be ok on there but I don't want to use a CRT monitor in the end.

[bitbytebit]

I have an arcadeVGA 3000 on my system and I tested with my CRT monitor and a PAL TV.

On the PAL TV, after it got to the stage of changing the resolution, the text all went swirlly and could not be read. I guessed at options and got to the X window which was showing me one screen split three times and did not stretch to the screen (which could be because of the first CGA option I chose).
It didn't look like a PAL option was available to select, could this please be added?

On the monitor I used the SVGA option and got to the X window. The menu was slightly off to the left of my screen. Could possibly be ok on there but I don't want to use a CRT monitor in the end.

Ah, yeah I actually haven't put in PAL or NTSC TV support yet, but I will look at doing that in the next day or so.  Thanks for the report to remind me of that, definitely something I need to think about.

So you could see the Grub boot prompt then, that is good if so since I can at that point have an option for a PAL or NTSC frame buffer modeline too.  Will let you know when I've gotten that support put in, which I'm redoing the kernel patch some with new modelines and the configuration setup right now so it's a good time to add that in.

Good to know though that the ArcadeVGA 3000 works actually, because it didn't a kernel version back and it might be fixed actually which is a great thing.  Mine didn't work at least when I tested it last, but also haven't had time to put it in there and test it lately.

[Quinny]

Ah, yeah I actually haven't put in PAL or NTSC TV support yet, but I will look at doing that in the next day or so.  Thanks for the report to remind me of that, definitely something I need to think about.

So you could see the Grub boot prompt then, that is good if so since I can at that point have an option for a PAL or NTSC frame buffer modeline too.  Will let you know when I've gotten that support put in, which I'm redoing the kernel patch some with new modelines and the configuration setup right now so it's a good time to add that in.

Good to know though that the ArcadeVGA 3000 works actually, because it didn't a kernel version back and it might be fixed actually which is a great thing.  Mine didn't work at least when I tested it last, but also haven't had time to put it in there and test it lately.

Thanks bitbytebit. Yes I could see the GRUB menu and it still showed some of the status lines as it went but then it changed resolutions and I couldn't read it anymore.

Will look forward to seeing PAL support added.

[bitbytebit]

Ah, yeah I actually haven't put in PAL or NTSC TV support yet, but I will look at doing that in the next day or so.  Thanks for the report to remind me of that, definitely something I need to think about.

So you could see the Grub boot prompt then, that is good if so since I can at that point have an option for a PAL or NTSC frame buffer modeline too.  Will let you know when I've gotten that support put in, which I'm redoing the kernel patch some with new modelines and the configuration setup right now so it's a good time to add that in.

Good to know though that the ArcadeVGA 3000 works actually, because it didn't a kernel version back and it might be fixed actually which is a great thing.  Mine didn't work at least when I tested it last, but also haven't had time to put it in there and test it lately.

Thanks bitbytebit. Yes I could see the GRUB menu and it still showed some of the status lines as it went but then it changed resolutions and I couldn't read it anymore.

Will look forward to seeing PAL support added.

I'm uploading new .iso images now, should be a few hours before they are up there, will be livecd32_12-03-2010_1291434263.iso and livecd64_12-03-2010_1291434978.iso.  These should boot directly into X Windows and use the newest kernel, more statefull saving of configured information if there's a home directory.   Also the enable the ethernet interface by default when booted the first time and in configuration mode, so should be able to get into them easier if they don't work and see what the logs say.  There's definitely a few rough edges still but should be good hopefully to test the theory that X Windows may work while the DRM console doesn't. 

I added a framebuffer option for PAL support, and also curious if the X Windows shows up or not after boot and if the PAL framebuffer works to that point.  I'm not sure if I'll need to use that same frame buffer modeline in X Windows on boot or not, so should be able to tell from the results you see.  If you have remote ssh access then you can do some tests, root password will be arcade to the system through ssh.  If it works up till X starts, then ssh into the box and the menu system should be there, configure it from there possibly and use pal as your monitor type.  This would be interesting to see if that works if the default X startup doesn't.  The framebuffer seems sort of different than the X modelines reaction, so I'm not sure if the modeline I used is bad or it's another framebuffer oddness in the DRM stuff.

[bitbytebit]

Ah found a bug in the new one, well a couple :/.  Will let you know when I get them fixed, had restricted the xorg.conf hsync too tightly for the generic modeline used to setup, and the kernel changes seem to have totally allowed the frame buffer to be way too free with what modelines it used too.

[bitbytebit]

New .iso images are up, 32/64 bit, should hopefully have more of a chance working with PAL TV's.  Curious if the framebuffer shows up, either either with the default CGA option or possibly the PAL option if it doesn't.  Also if X Windows works with the modeline it'll use, else I may need to make a different modeline for PAL TV's. 

[Quinny]

New .iso images are up, 32/64 bit, should hopefully have more of a chance working with PAL TV's.  Curious if the framebuffer shows up, either either with the default CGA option or possibly the PAL option if it doesn't.  Also if X Windows works with the modeline it'll use, else I may need to make a different modeline for PAL TV's. 

Thankyou bitbytebit.

I realised now that the original issue with the triple screen is because the modes are not set properly. I found this out when I tried to boot normally. I have to change to a lrmc -pal mode of some sort to get a clear screen on the TV. Using the PAL option from the LiveCD doesn't work once X starts but it is ok before that when it shows the command outputs as it's installing/running or if I switch to a terminal screen.

The 768 x 576 x 50i is being used in the terminal but not in X for some reason. I can set that using lrmc values and adding to xrandr after I boot normally, but I can't do this from the LiveCD as there is no terminal window available.

Going in to Wahcade and selecting a non-arcade system and choosing a game in there will change the resolution on the TV and sometimes it becomes readable but other times it breaks. I couldn't find any resolutions in the arcade section which changed the TV resolution (there are no games linked to the titles, don't know if that makes a difference).

I tried to run the ISO to boot from a USB stick and it would not work because it couldn't get past the GRUB menu, like the file references were mixed up and it couldn't find squashfs. I don't know if that's an issue with how I installed it on the USB stick or if that is a problem within the LiveCD code. It would be good to not have to burn a CD everytime to test a new version of the ISO.

[bitbytebit]

New .iso images are up, 32/64 bit, should hopefully have more of a chance working with PAL TV's.  Curious if the framebuffer shows up, either either with the default CGA option or possibly the PAL option if it doesn't.  Also if X Windows works with the modeline it'll use, else I may need to make a different modeline for PAL TV's. 

Thankyou bitbytebit.

I realised now that the original issue with the triple screen is because the modes are not set properly. I found this out when I tried to boot normally. I have to change to a lrmc -pal mode of some sort to get a clear screen on the TV. Using the PAL option from the LiveCD doesn't work once X starts but it is ok before that when it shows the command outputs as it's installing/running or if I switch to a terminal screen.

The 768 x 576 x 50i is being used in the terminal but not in X for some reason. I can set that using lrmc values and adding to xrandr after I boot normally, but I can't do this from the LiveCD as there is no terminal window available.

Going in to Wahcade and selecting a non-arcade system and choosing a game in there will change the resolution on the TV and sometimes it becomes readable but other times it breaks. I couldn't find any resolutions in the arcade section which changed the TV resolution (there are no games linked to the titles, don't know if that makes a difference).

I tried to run the ISO to boot from a USB stick and it would not work because it couldn't get past the GRUB menu, like the file references were mixed up and it couldn't find squashfs. I don't know if that's an issue with how I installed it on the USB stick or if that is a problem within the LiveCD code. It would be good to not have to burn a CD everytime to test a new version of the ISO.

Interesting, that is good that the boot up and DRM stuff works, it means I just have to setup the first X Windows startup config used to configure using the PAL definition.  I didn't do that in this version, I wanted to see if the generic modeline worked but it seems it doesn't.  The main reason I avoided it is there is a bit of tricky stuff involved with knowing which boot option was chosen, but seems that will be necessary and not terribly hard (just seemed a bit messy if not necessary).  Thanks so much for testing this, definitely interesting and hopefully next version if I have X startup up using the PAL definitions it might just act right I hope (hopefully then my switchres configuration for PAL settings are correct to produce modelines that work right on the TV for all games, that has not been tested). 

Yeah the live cd thing is a start, I'm wanting to get it working fully then look at the way to have an installation option too.  The trick with that is the live CD build I do basically specifies the system to use a liveCD and won't work any other way without reversing that.  So I'll have to go through and find all the differences and see how to reverse them, not sure if it'll just be a simple thing and able to copy the live CD and run a few scripts or it'll be a whole other build necessary.  I'm sure it'll eventually grow into a full installation CD too, since Gentoo can do that from a live CD, I just want make sure to keep it as small of iso as possible and avoid downloading too much extra stuff and compiling it which is how Gentoo mostly works usually.  Would rather have a small binary archive to decompress into the / root directory and transform the installation into a normal one from a liveCD one.

Might be later tonight I think, or tomorrow, since waiting on reports from another person to see how it goes for certain Arcade monitors and can hopefully add any fixes needed there too if there's issues.  It's actually very close though it sounds like in your case, I just need to put some checking and run the xorg.conf creation with pal as the argument instead of generic and if switchres likes the modelines we are set.


Here's a something to try though, might be a way to get it working...


When booted up into X, where you can't see it, push Ctl-Alt-F2
You should then be at the second console prompt (left that open to allow this type of thing, seems it's needed ).
type `killall startup.pl` about 3-4 times till it says it can't find anything
push Ctl-Alt-F1 and push Ctl-C a few times and enter till it's a command prompt
Then type the following commands:

rm -rf /root/setup_done
rm -rf /home/arcade/.gentooarcade/
rm -rf /home/arcade/arcade.orig

After that, you need to patch it, I just added what should work to support checking the kernel command prompt for
which monitor type exactly was specified.  If you put this patch on a usb stick, and mount that, suspect you'll be able
to get it onto the system and of course after this is done and your home directory is a real partition then the setup
should be saved even though the boot CD won't have these changes permanently (only ran when no home directory is
found with the previous configuration on it).

basically go into / and type `cat /mnt/usbstick/this.diff | patch -p0` or -p1 if that doesn't work (think it'd be -p0).

Code: [Select]

diff --git a/root/create_xorg-dyn.pl b/root/create_xorg-dyn.pl
index f2b9d8f..04b6739 100755
--- a/root/create_xorg-dyn.pl
+++ b/root/create_xorg-dyn.pl
@@ -10,15 +10,15 @@ print "# $monitor Monitor configuration\n\n";
 my $hfreq_range = "";
 my $vfreq_range = "";

-if ($monitor eq 'cga' || $monitor eq 'generic') {
-        $hfreq_range = "15-16.6";
-        $vfreq_range = "49.5-65";
-} elsif($monitor eq 'd9800' || $monitor eq 'd9200') {
+if($monitor eq 'd9800' || $monitor eq 'd9200') {
         $hfreq_range = "15.1-38.5";
         $vfreq_range = "40-80";
 } elsif($monitor eq 'h9110') {
         $hfreq_range = "15.625-16.670";
         $vfreq_range = "49.5-65";
+} elsif($monitor ne 'multi') {
+        $hfreq_range = "15-16.6";
+        $vfreq_range = "49.5-65";
 }

 `Xorg -configure 2>&1 >/dev/null`;
diff --git a/root/create_xorg.pl b/root/create_xorg.pl
index 43ad522..f54838e 100755
--- a/root/create_xorg.pl
+++ b/root/create_xorg.pl
@@ -29,16 +29,16 @@ $PCIID =~ s/\./:/g;
 my $hfreq_range = "";
 my $vfreq_range = "";

-if ($monitor eq 'cga' || $monitor eq 'generic') {
-       $hfreq_range = "15-16";
-       $vfreq_range = "49.5-65";
-} elsif($monitor eq 'd9800' || $monitor eq 'd9200') {
+if($monitor eq 'd9800' || $monitor eq 'd9200') {
        $hfreq_range = "15.1-38.5";
        $vfreq_range = "40-80";
 } elsif($monitor eq 'h9110') {
        $hfreq_range = "15.625-16.670";
        $vfreq_range = "49.5-65";
-}
+} elsif ($monitor ne 'multi') {
+       $hfreq_range = "15-16";
+       $vfreq_range = "49.5-65";
+}

 my @newfile = `cat /root/xorg.conf-TEMPLATE`;
 my $in_monitor = 0;
diff --git a/root/startup.pl b/root/startup.pl
index 15ee3d7..d04a0a6 100755
--- a/root/startup.pl
+++ b/root/startup.pl
@@ -85,12 +85,34 @@ if (! -d "/home/arcade/$CFG_DIR") {
 # Check if first setup has been done
 my $start_x = 0;
 if (! -e "/root/setup_done" && $tty =~ /\/dev\/tty1/ && $home eq '') {
-       my $montype = "multi";
-       my $cmdline = `cat /proc/cmdline`;
-       chomp($cmdline);
-       if ($cmdline =~ /\svideo=\d+x\d+.*c/) {
-               $montype = "generic";
-       }
+        my $montype = "multi";
+        my $cmdline = `cat /proc/cmdline`;
+        chomp($cmdline);
+        if ($cmdline =~ /\svideo=.*\d+x\d+c/) {
+                $montype = "generic";
+                my (@ca) = split(/\s+/, $cmdline);
+                my $vline = "";
+                foreach(@ca) {
+                        my $line = $_;
+                        chomp($line);
+                        if ($line =~ /video/) {
+                                $vline = $line;
+                        }
+                }
+                my ($v, $wh) = split(/=/, $vline);
+                my ($j, $k) = split(/:/, $wh);
+                if ($k ne '') {
+                        $wh = $k;
+                }
+                $wh =~ s/x/_/g;
+                $wh =~ s/[a-zA-Z]//g;
+                my ($w, $h) = split(/_/, $wh);
+                if ($w == 720 && $h == 480) {
+                        $montype = "ntsc";
+                } elsif ($w == 768 && $h == 576) {
+                        $montype = "pal";
+                }
+        }
        # No configuration yet
        setup_monitor($montype);
        system("rm -f .xinitrc");


Ok, so all that is done, scripts patched and those directories and files removed.  Then you just type 'exit' at the
root prompt and should then startup X again with the PAL definitions in xorg.conf hopefully.

I'll get that onto the next liveCD, so either play around trying this or it should be all up in a day or so, but would be interesting for you to test it this way to see since it'll definitely save time if there's still an issue with it like this.

[Quinny]

Thanks. Do you mean install the ISO on a USB stick and patch that? Then boot from the liveCD as a CD while also having the USB stick mounted?

I may not have time to test this before you create the next patch but I'll keep an eye out.

Thankyou so much for doing this.

Any reason for the Wahcade arcade games not changing the resolution but the other game systems would?

[bitbytebit]

Thanks. Do you mean install the ISO on a USB stick and patch that? Then boot from the liveCD as a CD while also having the USB stick mounted?

I may not have time to test this before you create the next patch but I'll keep an eye out.

Thankyou so much for doing this.

Any reason for the Wahcade arcade games not changing the resolution but the other game systems would?

Just from the live CD actually, just using the USB stick to store the patch and mount that to access it.

I'm not sure what is going on there with the resolutions, but that part of having the  games accessible and all able to get setup properly is definitely something that needs work right now.  I've got it setup in a static configuration currently where the /data/ directory has the same basic tree as mine does and it expects that.  Plus the wahcade setup is somewhat static and possibly going through the setup of it will re-index them games for you.  I plan on focusing on that and making it all easier to setup, also possibly change it so the /data/ directory can be actually just /home/arcade/ or inside there if a person has one single partition they are using.  The /data/ directory structure is like this:


#
# Default directory layout for WahCade
#
## ROMS
/data/artwork_all
/data/samples
/data/roms
/data/biosroms
/data/Games/NES
/data/Games/SNES
/data/Games/Coleco
/data/Games/N64
/data/Games/C64
/data/Games/Atari2600
/data/Games/SegaGenesis
#
## Snap shots
/data/screen_shots/NES/snaps
/data/screen_shots/SNES/snaps
/data/screen_shots/Coleco/snaps
/data/screen_shots/N64/snaps
/data/screen_shots/C64/snaps
/data/screen_shots/Atari2600/snaps
/data/screen_shots/SegaGenesis/snaps
## Mame control/info files
/data/ctl
## Mame snapshots
/data/mrq
/data/cab
/data/fly
/data/cat
/data/pcb
/data/ttl
/data/prv
/data/ico


Possibly try running the games from an xterm, 'switchres <game>' and maybe add -v -v (more make it more verbose) and see what is going on there, or even add to that `--args -verbose` after all the other args which passes -verbose to mame. 

[bitbytebit]

In a few hours or so there should be new versions of the .iso's up, which hopefully fix the PAL tv support.  They also have better support for installation to a drive/usb stick, the support for that isn't fully tested but in theory it's now possible.  There's a menu option, but not complete in setting up, it's very experimental.  There's more support now for setting up the links properly to the ROM drive to all work properly when not located in the default directories. 

Will be named livecd32_12-06-2010_1291689634.iso and livecd64_12-06-2010_1291690462.iso

[Quinny]

Just trying again from a USB stick and this is the same error as last time:

>> Determining looptype ...
!! Invalid loop location: /livecd.squashfs
!! Please export LOOP with a valid location, or reboot and pass a proper loop=...
!! kernel command line!

It drops into BusyBox and I can't see the USB stick from there, or so it seems. I can't find livecd.squashfs even though it should be in the root directory.

[bitbytebit]

Just trying again from a USB stick and this is the same error as last time:

>> Determining looptype ...
!! Invalid loop location: /livecd.squashfs
!! Please export LOOP with a valid location, or reboot and pass a proper loop=...
!! kernel command line!

It drops into BusyBox and I can't see the USB stick from there, or so it seems. I can't find livecd.squashfs even though it should be in the root directory.

Yeah it won't actually run that way most likely, it would have to be first booted from the liveCD and then the installer stuff I'm writing would need to basically re-groom the system to be able to boot on another medium.  The whole setup of the liveCD seems like it requires a CD to mount the part with the squashfs on it.  I need to look at how the USB stick installation with a squashfs is done though since it should be possible too.  Right now I've somewhat gotten the things I *think* done to install it to a hard drive decompressed and like a normal installation.  It's crude still though, but then I need to look at what exactly a usb stick would require.  

Hopefully this version should allow X Windows to work right on the PAL TV though, curious as to how that goes.  If it has trouble switching again then try the switchres command in an xterm and post the 'switchres -v -v -v <game> --args -verbose` output since that'll hopefully show what's going on.


Update: I think I may see how to do that, it may be as simple as the kernel option for USB Mass storage support being built in and  not a module.

[bitbytebit]

I'm compiling USB Mass storage support in the kernel, actually most likely will get a USB stick myself and do some tests to get this working since I'd like to run it this way too.  So hopefully will have liveCD/USB and installation support in a day or so, if it all works it's definitely more than I'd hoped getting working this soon .  I'm just not fully sure yet if the liveCD stuff and USB bootup are somehow going to differ in it expecting to mount a CDROM instead of the USB stick, I'll have to research that and test it to see.

[Quinny]

When I boot up with a monitor connected (DVI-0) and a TV connected (DVI-1) switchres tries to update the monitor. If I use xrandr to put that same mode on to DVI-1 (the TV) then the resolution changes. I tried this with pacman and the resolution was not so good as the image wobbled quite a bit. The resolution for mace was reasonably good though.

When first starting X the resolution is still no good and it shows me the "three screens" issue.

If I just boot up with the TV connected it still thinks it's DVI-1 and for some reason using switchres will break it. I have to type the modes into xrandr to see the change. As you can imagine that is quite tedious.
Maybe using xrandr instead of switchres isn't as effective at changing the resolutions?

Using switchres --monitor pal changes the values for the modeline and switchres still doesn't work. The screen goes black and I get it back by using xrandr.

[bitbytebit]

When I boot up with a monitor connected (DVI-0) and a TV connected (DVI-1) switchres tries to update the monitor. If I use xrandr to put that same mode on to DVI-1 (the TV) then the resolution changes. I tried this with pacman and the resolution was not so good as the image wobbled quite a bit. The resolution for mace was reasonably good though.

When first starting X the resolution is still no good and it shows me the "three screens" issue.

If I just boot up with the TV connected it still thinks it's DVI-1 and for some reason using switchres will break it. I have to type the modes into xrandr to see the change. As you can imagine that is quite tedious.
Maybe using xrandr instead of switchres isn't as effective at changing the resolutions?

Using switchres --monitor pal changes the values for the modeline and switchres still doesn't work. The screen goes black and I get it back by using xrandr.

One thing is that having a monitor connected and a TV/Arcade monitor is really hard to get working with xrandr mode changing, since it likes to try and have all monitors the same unless the xorg.conf is setup very carefully.  It'll end up refusing to change it at all, but also it sounds like something else is going on which might have to do or not (not sure about it) with the boot option change to have all the output's enabled with video=HxWec (the 'e' added now).  If you can, in the grub menu see if you can change the command line to not include that 'e' and using just the TV see if you get anything better.

Also I'm curious about what your 'xrandr -q' output looks like, with just the TV connected and with both TV/Monitor connected at boot.  That might give me more information on what it's doing exactly there.   

It also sounds like the PAL modeline generation is a bit 'off' which I did suspect could be possible, since the values used might be wrong and I wasn't sure yet what to use for those exactly.  What would be interesting is if you had a modeline generated with lrmc for each of the ones that look bad, and compared the two, I might be able to start figuring out more with that information quicker.  It definitely sounds like if I can get this working on the USB stick I guess it'll be at least easier to change out the kernel or alter the grub.conf bootup.  Is your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file generated saying it's PAL at the top, and what does it look like at the bottom  with the modeline generated for it?  If the console is working it in theory should be using the exact same modeline now for X but there might be something going wrong with generating the xorg.conf properly I am guessing.  Unfortunately too, the dual monitor support is probably going to be very 'weird', at least I suspect, since the way I'm doing setup of the xorg.conf doesn't take into account for that and I'm not fully sure what exactly will happen .     So hopefully the output of xrandr -q and possibly even the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file would help some too, the output of `dmesg` might even be good I thinik, after you've done switches (also the /var/log/dmesg might help since that's the bootup info, while the dmesg output will fill up the buffer quite fast and lose information from startup).

[Quinny]

One thing is that having a monitor connected and a TV/Arcade monitor is really hard to get working with xrandr mode changing, since it likes to try and have all monitors the same unless the xorg.conf is setup very carefully.  It'll end up refusing to change it at all, but also it sounds like something else is going on which might have to do or not (not sure about it) with the boot option change to have all the output's enabled with video=HxWec (the 'e' added now).  If you can, in the grub menu see if you can change the command line to not include that 'e' and using just the TV see if you get anything better.

This works and shows only one monitor with xrandr. However, it is still using a mode (1024x768 I think) which is not compatable with PAL on startup.

Also I'm curious about what your 'xrandr -q' output looks like, with just the TV connected and with both TV/Monitor connected at boot.  That might give me more information on what it's doing exactly there.   

I am not sure how to get this info from the computer I am testing on to this one I am using now.
This is with both the TV and monitor connected.
Both DVI-0 and DVI-1 have the exact same parameters.
DVI-0 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 60.0*
800x600 60.3
640x480 59.9
512x384 120.0
400x300 120.6
320x240 120.1

With just the TV (with video=HxWec):
Same as above.

Just TV with video=HxWc:
Same as above.

It also sounds like the PAL modeline generation is a bit 'off' which I did suspect could be possible, since the values used might be wrong and I wasn't sure yet what to use for those exactly.  What would be interesting is if you had a modeline generated with lrmc for each of the ones that look bad, and compared the two, I might be able to start figuring out more with that information quicker.  It definitely sounds like if I can get this working on the USB stick I guess it'll be at least easier to change out the kernel or alter the grub.conf bootup.  Is your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file generated saying it's PAL at the top, and what does it look like at the bottom  with the modeline generated for it?  If the console is working it in theory should be using the exact same modeline now for X but there might be something going wrong with generating the xorg.conf properly I am guessing.  Unfortunately too, the dual monitor support is probably going to be very 'weird', at least I suspect, since the way I'm doing setup of the xorg.conf doesn't take into account for that and I'm not fully sure what exactly will happen .     So hopefully the output of xrandr -q and possibly even the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file would help some too, the output of `dmesg` might even be good I thinik, after you've done switches (also the /var/log/dmesg might help since that's the bootup info, while the dmesg output will fill up the buffer quite fast and lose information from startup).

There is no file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
Again, not sure how to get those files from that PC to this one.

Sorry I can't provide more info with the logs. I'll see if I can figure out a way to get the files across.

[bitbytebit]

One thing is that having a monitor connected and a TV/Arcade monitor is really hard to get working with xrandr mode changing, since it likes to try and have all monitors the same unless the xorg.conf is setup very carefully.  It'll end up refusing to change it at all, but also it sounds like something else is going on which might have to do or not (not sure about it) with the boot option change to have all the output's enabled with video=HxWec (the 'e' added now).  If you can, in the grub menu see if you can change the command line to not include that 'e' and using just the TV see if you get anything better.

This works and shows only one monitor with xrandr. However, it is still using a mode (1024x768 I think) which is not compatable with PAL on startup.

Also I'm curious about what your 'xrandr -q' output looks like, with just the TV connected and with both TV/Monitor connected at boot.  That might give me more information on what it's doing exactly there.   

I am not sure how to get this info from the computer I am testing on to this one I am using now.
This is with both the TV and monitor connected.
Both DVI-0 and DVI-1 have the exact same parameters.
DVI-0 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1024x768 60.0*
800x600 60.3
640x480 59.9
512x384 120.0
400x300 120.6
320x240 120.1

With just the TV (with video=HxWec):
Same as above.

Just TV with video=HxWc:
Same as above.

It also sounds like the PAL modeline generation is a bit 'off' which I did suspect could be possible, since the values used might be wrong and I wasn't sure yet what to use for those exactly.  What would be interesting is if you had a modeline generated with lrmc for each of the ones that look bad, and compared the two, I might be able to start figuring out more with that information quicker.  It definitely sounds like if I can get this working on the USB stick I guess it'll be at least easier to change out the kernel or alter the grub.conf bootup.  Is your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file generated saying it's PAL at the top, and what does it look like at the bottom  with the modeline generated for it?  If the console is working it in theory should be using the exact same modeline now for X but there might be something going wrong with generating the xorg.conf properly I am guessing.  Unfortunately too, the dual monitor support is probably going to be very 'weird', at least I suspect, since the way I'm doing setup of the xorg.conf doesn't take into account for that and I'm not fully sure what exactly will happen .     So hopefully the output of xrandr -q and possibly even the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file would help some too, the output of `dmesg` might even be good I thinik, after you've done switches (also the /var/log/dmesg might help since that's the bootup info, while the dmesg output will fill up the buffer quite fast and lose information from startup).

There is no file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
Again, not sure how to get those files from that PC to this one.

Sorry I can't provide more info with the logs. I'll see if I can figure out a way to get the files across.

Interesting, it's having the default modelines used it seems, so I suspect it's not creating an xorg.conf which sounds like what your seeing so it's trying to use the default modes then.  Oddly it sounds like for some reason the xorg.conf isn't getting setup right, not sure why that's occuring though, it might be from the custom command line change it's not working with my check for the command line.  Good to know though that the 'e' option causes the issue, although that also might be a fix for Jpac and Arcade monitors, so might have to do some more exact forcing of things to work on the first output like Soft15Khz has to do.

What does this show, `cat /proc/cmdline`?   When you get the 1024x768 resolutions for X, that would be interesting to see since that's what it parses to setup the monitor config.  Also is the home directory your using writable, is there a .gentooarcade/ directory in /home/arcade/ (/home/arcade/.gentooarcade/), and what does the config file contain in that directory?  Another thing you can do, at the command prompt as root run `create_xorg.pl pal > /etc/X11/xorg.conf` and copy that to /home/arcade/.gentooarcade/ and it'll at least force it to use the right xorg.conf setup, and also can check and make sure that really works too.

I think I've figured out the fuzzy pacman issue, why some resolutions are not good like that one.  Has to do with some calculations in switchres which needed a check for strict Horizontal freq displays like a TV and how it's interlaced normally and has an extra half line I guess.  I'll check with Calamity to see what he thinks, but I think I have a good fix for it.  Also think some of the timing information needs to be slightly altered too for the front porch/back porch possibly to make sure things are more correct with the resolutions generated for TV's.

[bitbytebit]

If you have the network enabled, then just running `scp -C /file root@host:`  should allow you to transfer them, or mount the USB stick and copy them to it.  I mostly think I know what's going on with things now, except just not sure why exactly that xorg.conf doesn't exist and what /proc/cmdline contains that would not allow it to be created with the startup script.  It sounds odd it's using the default modes, acting as if the 'c' option isn't on the command line but it should be, so possibly seeing /proc/cmdline output and doing some of the other stuff I mentioned might help figure it out.

[bitbytebit]

New .iso images are up which should work with usb booting now hopefully, also has the change to possibly fix the bad fuzzy resolution for some PAL modelines, and have removed the 'e' part of the boot command for PAL mode (so no longer have to edit the grub config for it).  Let me know how the USB goes and if X Windows acts any better too, and how the new modelines work. 

[Quinny]

New .iso images are up which should work with usb booting now hopefully, also has the change to possibly fix the bad fuzzy resolution for some PAL modelines, and have removed the 'e' part of the boot command for PAL mode (so no longer have to edit the grub config for it).  Let me know how the USB goes and if X Windows acts any better too, and how the new modelines work. 

Unfortunately it still does not work from a USB stick and gives me the same error that I got above.
So I am using the previous version to test with from a CD (not the latest because I am running low on CDs):
I am using only the monitor with the TV unplugged and using PAL mode from the GRUB menu, since I would expect the monitor to display nothing (out of range) and it's easier for me to get the logs and show why it isn't changing resolutions.

cat /proc/cmdline shows:
real_root=/dev/loop0 looptype=squashfs loop=/livecd.squashfs initrd udev nodevfs cdroot dodmraid  video=768x576ec

I don't see anything in /home/arcade/.gentooarcade/
/home/arcade is writeable

create_xorg.pl: command not found

I have attached the logs you asked me to attach earlier.

[bitbytebit]

New .iso images are up which should work with usb booting now hopefully, also has the change to possibly fix the bad fuzzy resolution for some PAL modelines, and have removed the 'e' part of the boot command for PAL mode (so no longer have to edit the grub config for it).  Let me know how the USB goes and if X Windows acts any better too, and how the new modelines work. 

Unfortunately it still does not work from a USB stick and gives me the same error that I got above.
So I am using the previous version to test with from a CD (not the latest because I am running low on CDs):
I am using only the monitor with the TV unplugged and using PAL mode from the GRUB menu, since I would expect the monitor to display nothing (out of range) and it's easier for me to get the logs and show why it isn't changing resolutions.

cat /proc/cmdline shows:
real_root=/dev/loop0 looptype=squashfs loop=/livecd.squashfs initrd udev nodevfs cdroot dodmraid  video=768x576ec

I don't see anything in /home/arcade/.gentooarcade/
/home/arcade is writeable

create_xorg.pl: command not found

I have attached the logs you asked me to attach earlier.

I'll have to get a USB stick and test with that to figure out how that works, have gotten the disk drive install mostly working so that'll eventually work.  Could in theory install to a USB stick I think, I'll have to look into that, wondered if there was something different going on.  Yeah I understand about the CD issue, I got a few rewritable ones and have been testing with those, so far have been pretty cool having many writes on them and still only using the two original ones for 32/64 bit testing.

The create_xorg.pl command is at /root/create_xorg.pl so you'll need to reference it by the full path actually.  Did you go through the setup menu, the .gentooarcade/ directory will get those files after a run through the setup menu actually.  You can probably run through it remotely, if you run /root/startup.pl -rs it will bring up the setup menu.  Choosing option 5 will re-run the first setup, and there's other options there too.

I'll have to look at the logs more, thanks.  The latest .iso you have mainly has a difference in not using the 'e' which I suspect will make it work better in your case, but I also think that when editing that at the grub command line something happens different to the /proc/cmdline file and it doesn't work with my parsing stuff to know it's a PAL setup.

[bitbytebit]

Also how exactly is the TV connected, what output type used from the AVGA card and what in between that, and the connection to the TV? 

I think I need to do the same as Soft15Khz does and basically say the first connector (at least DVI one most likely) will be the arcade output, because otherwise it seems things are not going to work (since only the first output actually is going to be used for X Windows anyways). 

Try these command line options (with the TV connected to the first output, nothing on the second):

video=DVI-I-1:768x576ec

and:

video=TV-1:768x576ec


That will effectively force the first output of the card (I'm still not sure if DVI or TV is needed here) and leave the rest alone, which shouldn't be connected.  If it doesn't work well with one output, try the other, I'm not totally sure the cards order is always right in the DRM layer.  Also additionally, only if the above don't work, try to add a 'D' into the mix up there 'eDc' possibly.  Here's some more detail on how the command line should work, my 'c' option for CGA is an addition to this...

Code: [Select]

A mode can be forced on the kernel command line. Unfortunately, the command line option video is poorly documented in the DRM case. Bit and pieces on how to use it can be found in

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/nouveau/linux-2.6/tree/Documentation/fb/modedb.txt
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/nouveau/linux-2.6/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_fb_helper.c
The format is: video=<conn>:<xres>x<yres>[M][R][-<bpp>][@<refresh>][i][m][eDd]

<conn>: Connector, e.g. DVI-I-1, see your kernel log.
<xres> x <yres>: resolution
M: compute a CVT mode?
R: reduced blanking?
-<bpp>: color depth
@<refresh>: refresh rate
i: interlaced (non-CVT mode)
m: margins?
e: output forced to on
d: output forced to off
D: digital output forced to on (e.g. DVI-I connector)
You can override the modes of several outputs using "video" several times, for instance, to force DVI to 1024x768 at 85 Hz and TV-out off: video=DVI-I-1:1024x768@85 video=TV-1:d


[bitbytebit]

New .iso images are up which should work with usb booting now hopefully, also has the change to possibly fix the bad fuzzy resolution for some PAL modelines, and have removed the 'e' part of the boot command for PAL mode (so no longer have to edit the grub config for it).  Let me know how the USB goes and if X Windows acts any better too, and how the new modelines work.  

Unfortunately it still does not work from a USB stick and gives me the same error that I got above.
So I am using the previous version to test with from a CD (not the latest because I am running low on CDs):
I am using only the monitor with the TV unplugged and using PAL mode from the GRUB menu, since I would expect the monitor to display nothing (out of range) and it's easier for me to get the logs and show why it isn't changing resolutions.

cat /proc/cmdline shows:
real_root=/dev/loop0 looptype=squashfs loop=/livecd.squashfs initrd udev nodevfs cdroot dodmraid  video=768x576ec

I don't see anything in /home/arcade/.gentooarcade/
/home/arcade is writeable

create_xorg.pl: command not found

I have attached the logs you asked me to attach earlier.

It's odd that there's no /etc/X11/xorg.conf file being created, and your logs show that, it's not setting up the xorg.conf file.  Also is there a /etc/switchres.conf?  That also might explain switchres not working, although if that's created then it's really odd because that is created when the xorg.conf is.  Also strange there's no files under /home/arcade/.gentooarcade/ at all, should create an xorg.conf and put it there to and use that after the first one is created.  

One thing though is that the TV should be connected to the first video card output, the second one won't be used actually for X Windows so that could explain some issues.  It at least shouldn't when the xorg.conf file is created since it's hard to be able to setup one for all situations like that and like Soft15Khz it's really needing the first video card output to be the arcade output (and have to run all stuff on that output too for starting up things).  The whole way the video card dual output works is really tricky to setup generically in xorg.conf and something I haven't touched on exploring yet, but for now am trying to make it the simple one output case.  So that could be one thing causing it not to work as expected, although it's just really odd the xorg.conf isn't there.  Manually creating it with the `/root/create_xorg.pl pal >/etc/X11/xorg.conf` command is a work around but I'm really curious why it's not working in the first place.  




Update:

Another thing to check, have you got a directory already setup as /home/arcade for mounting?  If so, try removing the .gentooarcade/ directory for that partition/drive.  If there's already a config setup there it might cause some issues with getting things setup at first since it thinks they already have been.  That might explain why the xorg.conf isn't being created.   Basically remove that .gentooarcade directory if it exists and reboot, or from another installed system on the machine.

[bitbytebit]

Something to try, on the usbstick edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and change the following...

Remove the 'cdroot' option and replace with root=/dev/XXX   where XXX is the device your usb stick will show up as to the system.  That might allow it to find it, and not use the cdrom for the root directory (which is what cdroot seems to force).

If that doesn't work then try 'cdroot=/dev/XXX' instead, that might act different I think.  From what I can tell this is the issue, finding the USB stick as the root drive which right now the grub setup is told it's a CD so it tries to use the cdrom as the root which is why you don't see the squashfs file in /. 

[Quinny]

Something to try, on the usbstick edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and change the following...

Remove the 'cdroot' option and replace with root=/dev/XXX   where XXX is the device your usb stick will show up as to the system.  That might allow it to find it, and not use the cdrom for the root directory (which is what cdroot seems to force).

If that doesn't work then try 'cdroot=/dev/XXX' instead, that might act different I think.  From what I can tell this is the issue, finding the USB stick as the root drive which right now the grub setup is told it's a CD so it tries to use the cdrom as the root which is why you don't see the squashfs file in /. 

I still can't get this to work. Changing those settings didn't help. Using root=... locks up when it tries to mount root.

However I have good news! Now I am testing with only the TV connected. It is connected via a SCART-VGA cable. There's a sticky thread in the Monitor forum about how to do this. Mine is working quite well. This connects to RGB SCART on the TV.
I found the free roms in /data/roms. When I use "switchres <rom> --monitor pal" I seem to be getting the right resolution!! YAY!
I've only tested with some of the roms so far. Some colours (red in particular) bleed a bit but I suspect that is a hardware issue.

X still will not let me see a decent resolution! Configuring the xorg, copying it and running startup.pl caused a crash. Plus I can't see what I am doing so it's all guess work.
I noticed this line when it boots:
Use of uninitialized value $k in string ne in at ./startup.pl line 112

That is possibly why startup doesn't run and there's no xorg.conf file.

So the only issue I have at the moment is getting a resolution in X that I can see with.

[bitbytebit]

Something to try, on the usbstick edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and change the following...

Remove the 'cdroot' option and replace with root=/dev/XXX   where XXX is the device your usb stick will show up as to the system.  That might allow it to find it, and not use the cdrom for the root directory (which is what cdroot seems to force).

If that doesn't work then try 'cdroot=/dev/XXX' instead, that might act different I think.  From what I can tell this is the issue, finding the USB stick as the root drive which right now the grub setup is told it's a CD so it tries to use the cdrom as the root which is why you don't see the squashfs file in /. 

I still can't get this to work. Changing those settings didn't help. Using root=... locks up when it tries to mount root.

However I have good news! Now I am testing with only the TV connected. It is connected via a SCART-VGA cable. There's a sticky thread in the Monitor forum about how to do this. Mine is working quite well. This connects to RGB SCART on the TV.
I found the free roms in /data/roms. When I use "switchres <rom> --monitor pal" I seem to be getting the right resolution!! YAY!
I've only tested with some of the roms so far. Some colours (red in particular) bleed a bit but I suspect that is a hardware issue.

X still will not let me see a decent resolution! Configuring the xorg, copying it and running startup.pl caused a crash. Plus I can't see what I am doing so it's all guess work.
I noticed this line when it boots:
Use of uninitialized value $k in string ne in at ./startup.pl line 112

That is possibly why startup doesn't run and there's no xorg.conf file.

So the only issue I have at the moment is getting a resolution in X that I can see with.

Great, at least for the resolutions working I need to get a USB stick tonight and figure that out, sounds good to get that working and it probably is just some weird grub thing or I might need to make a custom linuxrc for the initrd ram disk.

I am making quite a few changes in setup, I think I might see some of the issue happening with the main X setup and so hopefully these fix that.  I'm also working on using the lxde window manager, setup having more options, and wahcade setup during setup.  I think the xorg.conf issue might be something about how my logic in the startup.pl script works, I did fix that $k issue actually but also have now reworked that whole part to be a bit nicer in how it figures out what boot prompt was chosen. 

Will let you know when I figure out the USB stick part, and hopefully later tonight will have an .iso at least with fixes to xorg.conf setup which hopefully will allow the normal desktop display to work for you too.  I think that's mostly just my xorg.conf setup had an issue or two, hopefully is the problem and is fixed.

This new way I'm doing the output hopefully will work, you'll need to test it and might be some issue with the grub command line.  I'm trying to do things where the first output is the only one used, and choosing the specific output which can be DVI/VGA or TV.  I am seeing yours is DVI-I-1: from your logs, so on this new grub menu there will be a [PAL DVI Output] option.  That way the other TV one will be for S-Video type setups.  What this will do is get what your seeing now most likely even if your other monitor was connected originally, since it seems that as your seeing the whole xrandr setup only really works if only one 'monitor' for the mode switching is attached/enabled.  It seems in X Windows the two video outputs of the card are always combined together with modeswitching like we are doing and also very tricky to tell which one your actually using actively.  So that should explain what you saw before, and now, which hopefully I've made this become less tricky to figure out with the way I'm turning off all other outputs besides the main one for the arcade/TV monitor.

[Quinny]

This new way I'm doing the output hopefully will work, you'll need to test it and might be some issue with the grub command line.  I'm trying to do things where the first output is the only one used, and choosing the specific output which can be DVI/VGA or TV.  I am seeing yours is DVI-I-1: from your logs, so on this new grub menu there will be a [PAL DVI Output] option.  That way the other TV one will be for S-Video type setups.  What this will do is get what your seeing now most likely even if your other monitor was connected originally, since it seems that as your seeing the whole xrandr setup only really works if only one 'monitor' for the mode switching is attached/enabled.  It seems in X Windows the two video outputs of the card are always combined together with modeswitching like we are doing and also very tricky to tell which one your actually using actively.  So that should explain what you saw before, and now, which hopefully I've made this become less tricky to figure out with the way I'm turning off all other outputs besides the main one for the arcade/TV monitor.

Just from what I noticed. With the AVGA 3000, it has a VGA port and DVI port. The VGA port is the only one that can be used with an arcade monitor/TV. The DVI one is only for computer monitors. With both connected, the computer monitor (DVI port) is DVI-1 and the TV is DVI-0. With only the TV connected (VGA port) it shows up as DVI-1. So I am not sure if this confusion will impact on what you are doing.

[bitbytebit]

This new way I'm doing the output hopefully will work, you'll need to test it and might be some issue with the grub command line.  I'm trying to do things where the first output is the only one used, and choosing the specific output which can be DVI/VGA or TV.  I am seeing yours is DVI-I-1: from your logs, so on this new grub menu there will be a [PAL DVI Output] option.  That way the other TV one will be for S-Video type setups.  What this will do is get what your seeing now most likely even if your other monitor was connected originally, since it seems that as your seeing the whole xrandr setup only really works if only one 'monitor' for the mode switching is attached/enabled.  It seems in X Windows the two video outputs of the card are always combined together with modeswitching like we are doing and also very tricky to tell which one your actually using actively.  So that should explain what you saw before, and now, which hopefully I've made this become less tricky to figure out with the way I'm turning off all other outputs besides the main one for the arcade/TV monitor.

Just from what I noticed. With the AVGA 3000, it has a VGA port and DVI port. The VGA port is the only one that can be used with an arcade monitor/TV. The DVI one is only for computer monitors. With both connected, the computer monitor (DVI port) is DVI-1 and the TV is DVI-0. With only the TV connected (VGA port) it shows up as DVI-1. So I am not sure if this confusion will impact on what you are doing.

Yeah I'm right now hoping that I can have a DVI and VGA option on the grub menu, DVI being the default.  Since in theory a user with the AVGA card can see the grub menu in every situation but the other ATI cards the user won't always and most of the time would have the DVI as the first input (also I think it'll still be viewable but just doubled possibly. 

The odd part that is trick is the DRM stuff uses different names, so DVI-I-1 in DRM is DVI-0 in Xorg, and VGA-1 DRM is VGA-0 in Xorg.  Besides that, there might be some other inconsistency and I'm not sure how the order matches for each either.  Definitely sounds there might be some oddness with figuring that out if they show up differently like that.   Which is something I'm guessing we'll have to work out and hopefully eventually get things to where we can logically setup all the different possible combinations and know what DRM layer output to use and what Xorg output to isolate and disable all the rest.

[bitbytebit]

There are new .iso files out, hopefully solve the missing xorg.conf issues and get the desktop to work. 

Also I have gotten a usb stick and can boot it off that now, so good news there.  The steps I took to do this were...

1. create ext2 partition on drive
2. copy over .iso contents to partition
3. go into /boot/grub/ and rm menu.lst and symlink it to grub.conf
4. check to see what drive the partition is on the system, mine is /dev/sdd2 for example
5. edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf file to have cdroot=/dev/sdd2 (or your partition name for the usb drive)
6. use the grub command, following this basically http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/grub_intro,
    where you run `grub find /boot/grub/stage1`, figure out the order and which one is your usb sticks partition
    then run `grub` and in the grub prompt type something like `root (hd3,1)` which was the one for my /dev/sdd2,
    and then `setup (hd3)` to put grub into the master boot record of the usb stick partition.

After that, it boots up from the usb stick, and then it's just the task to copy over to the usb stick each new version it seems.
How are you trying to boot it, I suspect the main issue is the 'cdroot=/dev/XXX` part and getting the correct drive name.
I am not sure how to make that more generic, like the /dev/cdrom drive is easy usually to find while for USB drives (at least
from what I can tell) the names always some disk drive and can vary per system.

[bitbytebit]

Newest ISO has the ATI Radeon page flipping support:

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati/commit/?h=kms-pflip&id=69639ef377a9d6701cdef902f8a1c5e0b58cf833

32 bit Minimal ISO is uploaded and 64 bit to follow in a few hours

Performance looks good, there is an issue with non-updating screen parts getting frame buffer junk data in them sometimes with vertical games.  I've notified the AMD guy who is the author of the page flipping code, so that'll be fixed hopefully soon, but right now it's quite nice performance and non-tearing capability better than the plain OpenGL Mesa waitvsync stuff I had been using.

[emphatic]

Also I have gotten a usb stick and can boot it off that now, so good news there.  The steps I took to do this were...

1. create ext2 partition on drive
2. copy over .iso contents to partition
3. go into /boot/grub/ and rm menu.lst and symlink it to grub.conf
4. check to see what drive the partition is on the system, mine is /dev/sdd2 for example
5. edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf file to have cdroot=/dev/sdd2 (or your partition name for the usb drive)
6. use the grub command, following this basically http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/grub_intro,
    where you run `grub find /boot/grub/stage1`, figure out the order and which one is your usb sticks partition
    then run `grub` and in the grub prompt type something like `root (hd3,1)` which was the one for my /dev/sdd2,
    and then `setup (hd3)` to put grub into the master boot record of the usb stick partition.

After that, it boots up from the usb stick, and then it's just the task to copy over to the usb stick each new version it seems.
How are you trying to boot it, I suspect the main issue is the 'cdroot=/dev/XXX` part and getting the correct drive name.
I am not sure how to make that more generic, like the /dev/cdrom drive is easy usually to find while for USB drives (at least
from what I can tell) the names always some disk drive and can vary per system.

I have a working system, so I thought about giving this a try on the liveCD, but install it on an USB card. I am a total noob when it comes to Linux, so I am a bit confused about the 3-6 steps. I managed to install the XBMC Live CD without any issues on a 8 GB memory stick I have by simply choosing it as the target harddrive after choosing to "Install to harddrive" in the boot menu. Is that menu not available when using your release?

[bitbytebit]

Also I have gotten a usb stick and can boot it off that now, so good news there.  The steps I took to do this were...

1. create ext2 partition on drive
2. copy over .iso contents to partition
3. go into /boot/grub/ and rm menu.lst and symlink it to grub.conf
4. check to see what drive the partition is on the system, mine is /dev/sdd2 for example
5. edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf file to have cdroot=/dev/sdd2 (or your partition name for the usb drive)
6. use the grub command, following this basically http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/grub_intro,
    where you run `grub find /boot/grub/stage1`, figure out the order and which one is your usb sticks partition
    then run `grub` and in the grub prompt type something like `root (hd3,1)` which was the one for my /dev/sdd2,
    and then `setup (hd3)` to put grub into the master boot record of the usb stick partition.

After that, it boots up from the usb stick, and then it's just the task to copy over to the usb stick each new version it seems.
How are you trying to boot it, I suspect the main issue is the 'cdroot=/dev/XXX` part and getting the correct drive name.
I am not sure how to make that more generic, like the /dev/cdrom drive is easy usually to find while for USB drives (at least
from what I can tell) the names always some disk drive and can vary per system.

I have a working system, so I thought about giving this a try on the liveCD, but install it on an USB card. I am a total noob when it comes to Linux, so I am a bit confused about the 3-6 steps. I managed to install the XBMC Live CD without any issues on a 8 GB memory stick I have by simply choosing it as the target harddrive after choosing to "Install to harddrive" in the boot menu. Is that menu not available when using your release?

Using the USB card as an install target should work, it has an option after setup to install to disk drive which could be a usb card.  The grub setup part is not fully user friendly yet, basically it installs the MBR to the device you want to boot from.  The liveCD for now probably is best since the USB method isn't well tested, I got it to work but admit the grub setup was a bit painful.  Most distributions definitely make this much easier, there is a generic ISO to USB installer program Ubuntu and others can use which might just work:  http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Universal-USB-Installer/Universal-USB-Installer.exe

I think the USB installer is probably the best bet, seems like it'll probably work, I'm not sure though since I haven't tested it but worst case probably just fail at installing to the USB card.  Would be interested in how it goes, I'm hoping that USB installer works, or possibly do the USB installer first then after that do a install to disk through the CD because the USB installer might just do the Grub part for you and make it bootable ahead of time.

[emphatic]

Thanks, I'll try the pendrive approach first and let you know how it goes.

[emphatic]

Well, the Universal Pendrive installer didn't give me a bootable USB. It might be because of the option I used though, "Try Unlisted Linux ISO (New Syslinux)". Trying to boot gives me a "no setup file" or "setup.ini not found" or something like that.

Next up is burning the .iso to disc and trying to install to the USB from it.

[bitbytebit]

Version 1.282-b299821 of the ISO images for 32 and 64 bit are being uploaded now.  There have been considerable improvements in performance for Multithreading systems now being able to utilize all processors and still run in waitvsync mode. 

* Versions of mame and mess are 0141 with cabmame patches now, plus a few performance patches too for waitvsync to utilize mulithreading. 
* The 64 bit version can now run the Sega Gens emulator program, and support for vertical/rotating monitors is now in the setup script so should be easy to get working on those. 
* If you can setup wahcade, then it gets a pretty nice dedicated arcade cabinet system going, boot up and setup through the script the first liveCD boot (can install to disk from there).  Remember to use 'switchres <game>' to run games/mame or 'switchres n64 --emulator mupen64plus --rom <rompath/name> --args <args to mupen64plus>' to for example use another emulator instead of mame.

[bitbytebit]

Big improvements, fully redid the setup/install interface to be a nice console menu system...

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=106405.msg1157231#msg1157231

[bitbytebit]

Have gotten the LiveCD and Installation to the point where I would say this is a pretty easy Linux installation and bare bones arcade cabinet system.  Have AdvanceMenu and Wahcade working pretty much without any real setup, SMB remote share access for ROM/Snaps to be put onto the system, remote web admin access for the entire system control/monitoring.  Works best with ATI Radeon cards/ArcadeVGA 3000 or older cards, and decent most likely with other video cards (may not be able to use vsync with others, but otherwise should be good).  Much easier installation/setup which is menu system based at the console now, dos like interface (based of of the Arch Linux installer).  Give it a try and report issues, I'm hoping to do everything I can to make it the best system available for real arcade cabinet/monitor emulation output.

[tikbalang]

(i didn't notice your update today, i have LiveCD32-Full-1.495-a4effa2 as i was typing this.)

hello. i'm an advancemame (DOS) user with limited experience with linux. i used to multiboot  winxp with slackware and/or ubuntu but recently prefer minimalist distros like slitaz, tinycore and puppy. i can multiboot several of them from my usbdisk using nomadic frugal installation. it's like several livecd's all in one.

i would still be using DOS for mame'ing but hardware drivers are the limiting factor. winxp or later is ok if one can shave off unneeded files and still get a workable system. tinyxp is perfect but it borders illegality. as i see it, linux is the perfect platform. it's just too daunting for most linux noobs.

allow me to share some insights which i hope will give some familiarity to most dos/win users.


1. this assures that all available partitions are searched for the loop filesystem

Code: [Select]


cdroot=/dev/sd[a-z][0-9]




2. add/fix support for fat32

i'm assuming fat32 is broken/missing because your ext2/usb was a success while my fat32/usb failed. there does not seem to be a module for it. fat32 is the common factor between linux and win users.


3. probably fix how CDROM is loaded?

this could another reason why the the loopfile can't be found. maybe the type needs to be auto and not fixed to iso9660. the idea is mentioned on this page (modifying initrd):

http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/HOWTO_LiveCD_on_disk


4. use SUBDIR parameter

looking at "/init" and "/etc/initrd.scripts" inside initrd, a "SUBDIR" parameter is mentioned. if this is similar to puppylinux's "PSUBDIR", this means that it can bs used as the starting point for searching for the squashfs file. this can be exploited so groovymame files will not clutter the partition root with files.


5. use 8.3 filenames

line #76 of "initrd.defaults" contain this:

Code: [Select]


LOOPS='/livecd.loop /zisofs /livecd.squashfs /image.squashfs /livecd.gcloop'


maybe you can add "/livecd.sfs" to the list. this allows DOS users to freely copy the entire groovy folder without fear of munging the long filenames. another file that may be important is "boot.catalog". in other distros, i see it as "boot.cat" only. initrd, vmlinuz, system.map are safe. the files under grub/ and memtest/ are not needed by dos users.


6. allow for manual installation

most 3rd party livecd cd-to-usb installer does not always work. some even fail to see the existing multiboot setup and some need to start from a clean partition. i think users should be allowed the choice to keep existing files while installing to an existing partition, whether testing or installing permanently.


altogether, i'm suggesting a simple unpack-and-go setup, to a single folder that can be easily deleted by the user if he decides it's not for him. the entire folder structure can even be copied and preserved (even in DOS, if not using LFN) to another disk if needed. usbdisks are my preferred medium now. i find them easier to copy files to, make bootable, and troubleshoot compared to CD/DVDroms.

sorry for rambling. i hope i explained myself well.

[bitbytebit]

Thanks, all very interesting things I'll work on getting done, and look like the missing parts of how to get things working on usb boot device setups.

[kevinp]

This distro seems very promising but I found the partitioning very difficult to figure out.  Would be nice to have a one click setup just like every other modern release.

What is the recommended partition setup, approximate sizes, etc?  I can't get this thing to boot even when installing to MBR and having the first part marked as bootable... not getting it.

[bitbytebit]

This distro seems very promising but I found the partitioning very difficult to figure out.  Would be nice to have a one click setup just like every other modern release.

What is the recommended partition setup, approximate sizes, etc?  I can't get this thing to boot even when installing to MBR and having the first part marked as bootable... not getting it.

Yeah I plan on creating some kind of way to automatically create partitions if chosen from the free space.  Also the grub MBR thing is tricky, basically it works best to pick the same partition that was the root partition chosen to install to, although there's more testing I need to do and try to make that an automated decision.  Thanks for the feedback, I agree this part of the install is hard to understand properly if you aren't already a semi-advanced Linux user, which I would like to make and automatic option like you want to get past this one point in the install which definitely is the hardest part of setup. 

[kevinp]

Thanks.. i'm pretty good with linux but I honestly havent done manual partitioning since i used Slackware in 1997.  I couldn't figure out how to set the MBR and have grub boot up... Don't mean to be unappreciative, just really want to try your package out..

[kevinp]

Can you post an fdisk -l on what this should look like.. been trying to get grub MBR on for hours with no luck

[bitbytebit]

Can you post an fdisk -l on what this should look like.. been trying to get grub MBR on for hours with no luck

Basically something like this, creating a swap partition (new partition, change to type 82) of 1 gig or double your RAM.   
creating the rest as a normal Linux partition, making sure to set it as bootable
installing to that partition, then choosing it (/dev/sda2) in the MBR menu (MBR menu should suggest the right one actually).

So you'll basically just have everything as the / drive using /dev/sda2, and /dev/sda1 as swap space (won't need a home or data/roms drive).  Of course the home/data/roms drives just have more /dev/sda3 and on using the same model as /dev/sda2 below but are not flagged as bootable.

Code: [Select]


   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1                1          14      112423+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2   *           15         276     2104515   83  Linux

Hopefully that helps, might be the bootable flag?  I need to look at how the arch linux installer did the automatic setup, and try to get that functional in gasetup.  Hopefully will have time this week to do that.

[kevinp]

Ok, I was going through each menu choice but I didn't realize that the extra partitions were not required...

I followed the instructions and now have

error: unknown filesystem.
grub rescue>

Can you post an fdisk -l on what this should look like.. been trying to get grub MBR on for hours with no luck

Basically something like this, creating a swap partition (new partition, change to type 82) of 1 gig or double your RAM.   
creating the rest as a normal Linux partition, making sure to set it as bootable
installing to that partition, then choosing it (/dev/sda2) in the MBR menu (MBR menu should suggest the right one actually).

So you'll basically just have everything as the / drive using /dev/sda2, and /dev/sda1 as swap space (won't need a home or data/roms drive).  Of course the home/data/roms drives just have more /dev/sda3 and on using the same model as /dev/sda2 below but are not flagged as bootable.

Code: [Select]


   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1                1          14      112423+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2   *           15         276     2104515   83  Linux

Hopefully that helps, might be the bootable flag?  I need to look at how the arch linux installer did the automatic setup, and try to get that functional in gasetup.  Hopefully will have time this week to do that.

[bitbytebit]

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

Try that, it might be a quick fix to grub for now.  I need to look into things more, one check also before rebooting after install would be to check and send me the contents of /groovyarcade/boot/grub.conf  (where the install mounts the / partition) and possibly of 'fdisk -l' too.

I think that disk claims to fix grub installations, it's worth a shot until I can figure out more, and possibly would see what is going on pretty quickly if your able to get those two fdisk and grub.conf output/file information.

This link seems like the right one for what we need...

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub-disk/

[kevinp]

Hi,

My partition table looks exactly like yours including the bootable flag set.  GRUB seems to install without any complaint, yet I still get the same error.

Maybe I'll revisit this in a few versions but its waaay too complicated just to get booting for me.  Looks like back to Windows for now.

Thanks

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

Try that, it might be a quick fix to grub for now.  I need to look into things more, one check also before rebooting after install would be to check and send me the contents of /groovyarcade/boot/grub.conf  (where the install mounts the / partition) and possibly of 'fdisk -l' too.

I think that disk claims to fix grub installations, it's worth a shot until I can figure out more, and possibly would see what is going on pretty quickly if your able to get those two fdisk and grub.conf output/file information.

This link seems like the right one for what we need...

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub-disk/

[bitbytebit]

Hi,

My partition table looks exactly like yours including the bootable flag set.  GRUB seems to install without any complaint, yet I still get the same error.

Maybe I'll revisit this in a few versions but its waaay too complicated just to get booting for me.  Looks like back to Windows for now.

Thanks

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

Try that, it might be a quick fix to grub for now.  I need to look into things more, one check also before rebooting after install would be to check and send me the contents of /groovyarcade/boot/grub.conf  (where the install mounts the / partition) and possibly of 'fdisk -l' too.

I think that disk claims to fix grub installations, it's worth a shot until I can figure out more, and possibly would see what is going on pretty quickly if your able to get those two fdisk and grub.conf output/file information.

This link seems like the right one for what we need...

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub-disk/

Sounds good, I'll work on making it more automatic and figure out more about what exactly is a failsafe grub setup, seems tricky and guessing there must be certain factors that get in the way even if things look the same.  I read about how possibly sometimes the systems bios requires a separate grub partition instead of using the main root / one, so just another possible issue going on.  The whole grub setup and partitioning has been probably the hardest part of making sure the setup is clean and reliable, seems for some reason it's hard to automate but since others do it must be some secret they are using.

[kevinp]

Thanks so much for your hard work and quick replies..  I think when this gets sorted out you will have a very very nice setup, especially for 64 bit users.  As good as Soft15khz works, I think that linux has a better future for a nearly embedded arcade setup.  I used to love the whole HyperSpin-esque razzle dazzle but I found that stuff to just  get in the way of playing the games.  May main interest now is a fast-booting, fast-running and reliable front end.

I'll be waiting anxiously =]

[General_Faliure]

I also have the grub problem.
I installed Opensuse on the second hard drive and Opensuse added groovymame to the grub menu, so i could give it a test run.
I could startup Wahcade and play a game, so far it works, i didn't have much time to play around with it.
It is a bit slow at starting up tough.
The hardware of the test system: athlon 64 3000, 1 gigabyte ram, ati 9600.
My cab runs on similar hardware, but starts up a lot faster.
I would like to know how to add more games, and maybe some more emulators, (like Daphne).
Is there also a file manager? mc didn't work.

Greetz, Ger.

[bitbytebit]

In the next 24 hours I'll I now have new ISO's up, they should fix the Grub issues, they should automate partition setup, and a few other fixes, they will have midnight commander file manager available from the setup menu.  So hopefully will be a big step in setup ease, really should be able to just run the 'Install' option and it'll do most everything for you now, no need to know about partition setup details anymore.

Also I now am including the LXDE Window manager which has a graphical file manager, and mplayer/ffmpeg plus gstreamer etc... Chromium, so it's more than an arcade system, it's a full on Multimedia Linux system too...

Code: [Select]

        - Midnight Commander file manager added and able to be entered through main menu.
         - Fixes for X Windows detection, xorg.conf only exists if created by setup, so
           we know if it needs to be setup by the user during install.
         - Automatic partition setup, can specify a disk drive and all partitions are setup
           magically for you, no need to worry about layout.
         - Automatic Grub setup, no longer need to do anything, it's done and done right
         - Updated SDL to re-read system modelines each time the listmodes is called
         - Updated to GroovyMame 008 with changeres support
         - Add wiimote init script by Ves

As soon as I get the ISO's built/uploaded, I'll post, should be version 1.515 release.  

[ufoufo512]

Great project! I really have longed for a replacement for AdvanceMame DOS that I have used until now.

I am using Pentium IV 2,4 GHz, Ati Radeon X800 Pro and an arcade monitor. I yesterday tried the older version 1.500 with the Voodoo3 and Matrox G400 I used to use with AdvanceMame DOS. Those cards didn't work. Fortunately I found an old Radeon which seems to work better. So far with the new version, I have been able to see LiveCD booting and AdvanceMenu in 15 KHz glory, but games themselves are using wrong garbled display mode.

I will keep tinkering with the software, I don't have a spare hard disk atm, but I will try to improvise with a USB stick.

I really hope this project will stay updated. I try to contribute something myself too. Bug reports and feature requests if nothing else.

[bitbytebit]

Great project! I really have longed for a replacement for AdvanceMame DOS that I have used until now.

I am using Pentium IV 2,4 GHz, Ati Radeon X800 Pro and an arcade monitor. I yesterday tried the older version 1.500 with the Voodoo3 and Matrox G400 I used to use with AdvanceMame DOS. Those cards didn't work. Fortunately I found an old Radeon which seems to work better. So far with the new version, I have been able to see LiveCD booting and AdvanceMenu in 15 KHz glory, but games themselves are using wrong garbled display mode.

I will keep tinkering with the software, I don't have a spare hard disk atm, but I will try to improvise with a USB stick.

I really hope this project will stay updated. I try to contribute something myself too. Bug reports and feature requests if nothing else.

Possibly set the window manager to use fvwm or lxde, then from a terminal run groovymame <rom> -verbose -md 4    That output might show something interesting about the issue, I'm guessing it's a mismatch between monitor setting to groovymame and actual monitor.  See what monitor you've got set in mame.ini, check if it's the same as in switchres.conf since they should be the same.  What kind of arcade monitor is it, what khz and hz ranges can it do?  There's a 'cga' monitor option, a generic one, and h9110 one, all slightly different sections of the 15khz range from low-med-higher (or 15.2 - 16.5 or something).    Also trying `xrandr -q` in the terminal in fvwm/lxde might be interesting, double check you've got the right output as VGA-0 or DVI-0.  See  what mame.ini has for the connector, and if it's really the right connector, maybe even try the other connector on the card and bootup with that one.  One possibility is the mame.ini isn't getting setup properly with these settings.  If you're able to get logs from running groovymame in verbose mode, post them here if possible too. 

I must admit though the ATI X800 might be the issue, I have an X850 actually and I had issues with it getting 15khz properly in all modes, never was sure about if just my model (since it's a special Crossfire one). 

[ufoufo512]

Thanks for a quick reply. I will those things out. In the meantime, do you have info about the cards that should work easily? I can get a specific one for my cab, if needed. I have bunch of old ones I used to collect for AdvanceMame: Matrox, Ati (pre-Radeon), S3 and some Voodoo3 and nVidias for example, but I guess they are too old. To complicate things, the system I use uses AGP.

[bitbytebit]

Thanks for a quick reply. I will those things out. In the meantime, do you have info about the cards that should work easily? I can get a specific one for my cab, if needed. I have bunch of old ones I used to collect for AdvanceMame: Matrox, Ati (pre-Radeon), S3 and some Voodoo3 and nVidias for example, but I guess they are too old. To complicate things, the system I use uses AGP.

The ATI HD4xxx cards are good, ATI HD5xxx cards good but more risky, I have a hd4350 and hd5450 and both work great.  The AVGA3000 is good, I use one, get the bios bootup, the older AVGA 92x0 cards are good, and the ATI equivalents just as good but no bios bootup.  I would stay away from any of  the cards that start with X, seem to have issues.  The older HD2600 ATI cards work ok.  Cheapest of course is probably the HD4350 or HD5450 but I'm not fully certain of AGP options for those, but are the most well tested choices.

I'm guessing the older cards, or ones you have, mostly will not be able to do the 15khz resolutions.  One of my plans is to go through different video cards, look through the Linux kernel code for them, figure out what state they're in and if possible make them 15khz capable or at least document which ones can actually do the same as the ATI Radeon ones.  Unfortunately the ATI development for general modeline switching and vsync/page flipping is really ahead from what I can tell, but would really be nice if I discovered other drivers were there too and I just haven't realized it.  I might look into that more in the next few days, I'm curious now and sounds like a good thing, have been basically under the assumption everyone used an ATI card or Nvidia but the Nvidia ones with the nouvue driver are probably not "there" yet in supporting all we need to do 15khz modelines.  Also one other possible issue with an Nvidia card, or others, is that connector name needed in Groovymame.  It may need to be something odd like 'default' for those, using xrandr -q will show you what the driver decided to call the output connectors, and all the different brands have chosen different names unfortunately.

[ufoufo512]

Thanks for the info. I will hunt down an ATI card. It really isn't a problem, just get a card that works and me done with it. I am so happy that I get the suitable software for my cabinet that supports new Mame version.

The monitor I am using is Wells Gardner K7000.

Specs:
Horizontal scan: 15.1 KHz - 16.8 KHz
Vertical scan: 47 Hz - 63 Hz

I have mostly used the 1. CGA, also tested the second fixed frequency CGA and H9110. I am also using JPAC which should not pass any frequencies much above and below 15 KHz, standard 31 KHz modes also show, but with double image. As far as I can tell the output for games looks like output with Advancemame when the video card was pressed to too low pixelclock value. So it might well be a problem with my video card.

[bitbytebit]

Thanks for the info. I will hunt down an ATI card. It really isn't a problem, just get a card that works and me done with it. I am so happy that I get the suitable software for my cabinet that supports new Mame version.

The monitor I am using is Wells Gardner K7000.

Specs:
Horizontal scan: 15.1 KHz - 16.8 KHz
Vertical scan: 47 Hz - 63 Hz

I have mostly used the 1. CGA, also tested the second fixed frequency CGA and H9110. I am also using JPAC which should not pass any frequencies much above and below 15 KHz, standard 31 KHz modes also show, but with double image. As far as I can tell the output for games looks like output with Advancemame when the video card was pressed to too low pixelclock value. So it might well be a problem with my video card.

Sounds good, excited to hear back your results, does sound like the video card, thanks for testing.

[Calamity]

As far as I can tell the output for games looks like output with Advancemame when the video card was pressed to too low pixelclock value. So it might well be a problem with my video card.

I've long been interested in knowing if the issue with low dotclocks that affects some ATI families (the X series, the HD3000 ones, etc.) was hardware related or just a software/driver thing. It's interesting than since HD4000 they don't have that problem anymore.

At some point, it could be interesting to add this "dotclockmin" feature I've been testing with VMMaker. So if the calculated dotclock of a given modeline turns out to be below some minimum value, say 7.00 MHz, then we'll double the horizontal resolution and recalculate the modeline (so 256x224 would become 512x224). Mame makes a great job scaling the game with no artifacts when the resolution is an integer multiple of the requested one, so the result is indistinguishable. This could be a good workaround for these rebel ATI models.

[ufoufo512]

At some point, it could be interesting to add this "dotclockmin" feature I've been testing with VMMaker. So if the calculated dotclock of a given modeline turns out to be below some minimum value, say 7.00 MHz, then we'll double the horizontal resolution and recalculate the modeline (so 256x224 would become 512x224). Mame makes a great job scaling the game with no artifacts when the resolution is an integer multiple of the requested one, so the result is indistinguishable. This could be a good workaround for these rebel ATI models.

Horizontal scaling by x2 would be a very good feature to have. I will get a ATI Radeon 9200 SE soon though. I found a spare hard drive yesterday evening and played some more with the software. Some observations:

* Can anyone recommend a (cheap) WLAN card that "just works"  ? I tried 3 yesterday (2 PCI and 1 USB). One of them didn't get recognized at all and two others ended up with error messages when I did select them (RTNETLINK or something). I wasn't planning to network the cab, because I didn't have before, but now that it is possible, it would be great thing to have. Components are so crammed in the cab that remote maintanance would be great.

* I think I might get bluetooth (or other wireless) keyboard and mouse also for MESS and general configuration. Are there any compatibility issues I should know about?

* The image with Linux booting messages, the configuration menu and for Advmenu are too wide for my monitor. (I am using Wells Gardner K7000). There is no control for the image width in the monitor chassis, is it possible to adjust it in the software.

* I had quite a customized Advancemenu configuration before with the Advancemame. Mostly for the key mapping. I am planning to use it for the Groovy Arcade Linux also. Are there any settings that I shouldn't change on the default supplied configuration?

* With Advancemame DOS I used to shut down the cab by turning of the power from the cab, which in turn turned off the power from the computer. With DOS this was OK, I guess with Linux it isn't?

[bitbytebit]

At some point, it could be interesting to add this "dotclockmin" feature I've been testing with VMMaker. So if the calculated dotclock of a given modeline turns out to be below some minimum value, say 7.00 MHz, then we'll double the horizontal resolution and recalculate the modeline (so 256x224 would become 512x224). Mame makes a great job scaling the game with no artifacts when the resolution is an integer multiple of the requested one, so the result is indistinguishable. This could be a good workaround for these rebel ATI models.

Horizontal scaling by x2 would be a very good feature to have. I will get a ATI Radeon 9200 SE soon though. I found a spare hard drive yesterday evening and played some more with the software. Some observations:

* Can anyone recommend a (cheap) WLAN card that "just works"  ? I tried 3 yesterday (2 PCI and 1 USB). One of them didn't get recognized at all and two others ended up with error messages when I did select them (RTNETLINK or something). I wasn't planning to network the cab, because I didn't have before, but now that it is possible, it would be great thing to have. Components are so crammed in the cab that remote maintanance would be great.

* I think I might get bluetooth (or other wireless) keyboard and mouse also for MESS and general configuration. Are there any compatibility issues I should know about?

* The image with Linux booting messages, the configuration menu and for Advmenu are too wide for my monitor. (I am using Wells Gardner K7000). There is no control for the image width in the monitor chassis, is it possible to adjust it in the software.

* I had quite a customized Advancemenu configuration before with the Advancemame. Mostly for the key mapping. I am planning to use it for the Groovy Arcade Linux also. Are there any settings that I shouldn't change on the default supplied configuration?

* With Advancemame DOS I used to shut down the cab by turning of the power from the cab, which in turn turned off the power from the computer. With DOS this was OK, I guess with Linux it isn't?

Here's one database of compatible linux hardware, there are quite a few, just google for it and you should somewhat find information.  http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compatdb/lists/hardware_linux.html  Usually they just work, some don't but are usually cheaper ones or no names.  The 3com ones usually work, intel ones.

Blue tooth should be fine, it should work in theory out of the box if supported by Linux, I have blue tooth on mine to talk to a wii remote.

That's strange about the monitor, I didn't expect it to not fit  but I'm guessing that's one of those issues with certain arcade monitors.  Calamity might have more ideas on that, but I've been somewhat trying to keep the menus as small as possible in width, seems that's more important than I had thought.  So your monitor is horizontal, doing 640x480 interlaced, I 19" or smaller?   I just thought that would always work, very strange, but again Calamity probably has more insight into why and the technical ways possibly to adjust that.  I will need to think about that more.

Well mostly the advanced menu setup should just move over, there might be a few little changes to specify how the setup is but I'd try yours and then if doesn't work possibly do a `diff -ru old.config new.config` and see what that shows, that should give an idea hopefully what is different.  I think it'll be fine, but I'm not sure, or another way would be to go through your config, pick the things you know you changed and tweaked, and copy them to the new config and go from there.

Nope, you will not want to turn off Linux, although it is much more bullet proof than Windows with this, I mean you probably won't damage the system and most likely it'll always just take a long time to boot doing a disk repair since it is journaled and the system generally will not even lose data doing that.  Yet you don't want to, it is very risky, just not as risky as say turning off an XP system every day like that .  Now you could, in theory with Linux, (and maybe Windows I guess) setup the off switch to trigger the reset button and have the reset button setup to send a ACPI signal to start an automatic shutdown of the system.  It can do that, I am not sure how I have the stuff setup but it's probably more possible in Linux than anywhere else to have the system respond to a power switch event (or a relay signal to some kind of input/usb device/sensor) to run shutdown.  I'm sure this hasn't been explored before for Arcade systems and Linux, but I would guess we have a much more chance with a Linux system to wire into the on/off switch somehow to trigger the system to shutdown nice and cleanly every time.

[ufoufo512]

Thanks for the answers. I think I have enough info to go forward.

I think the monitor is 19", I am not sure. I haven't measured it and the manual for it I have, is a generic for all sizes for this monitor. It is actually rotatable, but with width I mean the larger dimension in this case.

Edit 1:
Here is the service manual for the manual:
http://www.dosmame.mameworld.info/data/_uploaded/image/dos.other.wg-k7000.pdf

And, yes I think the display modes I have seen are interlaced. Probably 640 x 480 as you said.

Edit 2: The service manual talks about both horizontal and vertical size adjustments are possible, but I don't have similar controls on my model. Strange...

[dmarcum99]

you guys are sure making it hard not to give this a try on linux now!!!

How would I go about setting this up for a hard drive install?  I have a empty 500GB HD that I could move my roms and snaps to if need be.

I burned the CD (1.515 64bit) and was able to get the packed in games to work...just wasn't smart enough to figure out how to get it to see my NTFS drive where my roms and snaps have been for my XP setup.  I wasn't able to figure out how to get it to boot from the HD either...I thought I had it, but everytime I rebooted to the 500GB HD it stalled.

[bitbytebit]

you guys are sure making it hard not to give this a try on linux now!!!

How would I go about setting this up for a hard drive install?  I have a empty 500GB HD that I could move my roms and snaps to if need be.

I burned the CD (1.515 64bit) and was able to get the packed in games to work...just wasn't smart enough to figure out how to get it to see my NTFS drive where my roms and snaps have been for my XP setup.  I wasn't able to figure out how to get it to boot from the HD either...I thought I had it, but everytime I rebooted to the 500GB HD it stalled.

I'm not sure, but might be something about the size of the drive that the grub boot loader doesn't work.  What message does it say or where does it stall? 

To setup the NTFS drive you have to access either the http web interface and configure it (username: admin password: arcade).  It's sort of a pain though, and I need to add an automatic option to ask to set it up the mounting of it.    One quick way to mount it is running this on the console: `sudo mount -t -ntfs /dev/hda1 /data/` or whatever drive the NTFS drive is (use `sudo fdisk -l` and look for which is the NTFS type).  Then you can change the advancemenu config to point to the right locations and test it that way. 

I'll look into making the NTFS setup easy from the setup menu, something I haven't focused on but shouldn't be too much trouble at all.  The grub issue is odd, I'm possibly going to try and redo the way I do autopartitioning and drive setup to hopefully fix the issue.  Probably need to make a small /boot partition for the kernel and grub to setup on, and I'm guessing that should solve the issues with grub and an install being able to boot.  Hopefully by next weekend I have a lot of that done, maybe sooner if I get time.

[Calamity]

* The image with Linux booting messages, the configuration menu and for Advmenu are too wide for my monitor. (I am using Wells Gardner K7000). There is no control for the image width in the monitor chassis, is it possible to adjust it in the software.

If you don't have the horizontal size coil adjustment your manual explains, then you can easily tweak your modelines to fit in the screen by calculating bigger borders. I'm not sure if the modelines used during boot are actually editable or just prefixed there, I remember soft-15Khz modelines were used for that at some point, don't know how it's done right now.

[bitbytebit]

* The image with Linux booting messages, the configuration menu and for Advmenu are too wide for my monitor. (I am using Wells Gardner K7000). There is no control for the image width in the monitor chassis, is it possible to adjust it in the software.

If you don't have the horizontal size coil adjustment your manual explains, then you can easily tweak your modelines to fit in the screen by calculating bigger borders. I'm not sure if the modelines used during boot are actually editable or just prefixed there, I remember soft-15Khz modelines were used for that at some point, don't know how it's done right now.

The frame buffer ones are calculated with switchres previously, and hardcoded and compiled into the kernel as a table of modelines.  So they can't change dynamically on bootup unfortunately.  Possibly putting the basic modeline calculation into the kernel and utilizing the margin capability would be solution, I haven't thought about that for awhile but should probably be the best way to do it.  I'll look into that possibly soon.

[kevinp]

This is a tremendous contribution to the community, bitbytebit.  I'll definitely be trying out the new ISO's soon.  I think that your distro will be a serious platform to use on MAME cabs, as Linux really should be *the* MAME platform for the future.

Thank you so much.. I think donation will be in order soon

[bitbytebit]

This is a tremendous contribution to the community, bitbytebit.  I'll definitely be trying out the new ISO's soon.  I think that your distro will be a serious platform to use on MAME cabs, as Linux really should be *the* MAME platform for the future.

Thank you so much.. I think donation will be in order soon

Thanks, I've been working on a big change for the next ISO versions which hopefully really makes the grub and partitioning issues vanish.  Things hopefully will be a lot easier, auto partitioning now creates a separate /boot drive that's ext2 (probably will make grub always work on all systems) the home drive is separate and now roms are going to be under /home/roms/* .  Also hopefully the mounting of the /home/roms/ drive will work fine for NTFS (readonly, will need to configure advancemenu for the dir structure your NTFS uses) This basically is aiming at some of the issues and hopefully will make automatic installing even better, hopefully have this out by the end of the week or weekend.  I'm trying to really make the whole setup of the drives both simpler for the user but really more advanced technically with different partitions for /boot, yet won't require the user to know any of that and hopefully just installs cleanly.

[Calamity]

Hi bitbytebit,

Some guys in the Spanish forum are testing las version of GroovyArcade:

http://www.retrovicio.org/foro/showthread.php?14969-GroovyArcade-Por-fin-100-Pixel-Perfect-y-mucho-mas

They are having problems with 9200 and 9250 cards. Only interlaced modes are working, progressive ones are out of sync or completely messed for some reason. I'm waiting to see how it works for VeS. It's really odd... have they changed anything else in the drm code lately? I can't test my 9250 at the moment, but am planning to install my 9250 back in this machine to test patched Catalyst 6.5 for XP64 so I'll be testing that also.

[bitbytebit]

Hi bitbytebit,

Some guys in the Spanish forum are testing las version of GroovyArcade:

http://www.retrovicio.org/foro/showthread.php?14969-GroovyArcade-Por-fin-100-Pixel-Perfect-y-mucho-mas

They are having problems with 9200 and 9250 cards. Only interlaced modes are working, progressive ones are out of sync or completely messed for some reason. I'm waiting to see how it works for VeS. It's really odd... have they changed anything else in the drm code lately? I can't test my 9250 at the moment, but am planning to install my 9250 back in this machine to test patched Catalyst 6.5 for XP64 so I'll be testing that also.

I haven't actually updated the kernel in quite a while, so it shouldn't be that, I'm pretty sure you've used the kernel version that's there right now and guessing VeS is too.  Sounds odd, if either of you can reproduce it would be good to possibly get some logs then after that.  I'll have to try and see if I can figure out what could be going on.

[Calamity]

Yes its odd, now a third folk is reporting it's working perfect with two different 9250s he is testing.

Here is a video by Paul Sernine:
http://www.retrovicio.org/foro/showthread.php?14969-GroovyArcade-Por-fin-100-Pixel-Perfect-y-mucho-mas&p=145452&viewfull=1#post145452

[bitbytebit]

Yes its odd, now a third folk is reporting it's working perfect with two different 9250s he is testing.

Here is a video by Paul Sernine:
http://www.retrovicio.org/foro/showthread.php?14969-GroovyArcade-Por-fin-100-Pixel-Perfect-y-mucho-mas&p=145452&viewfull=1#post145452

Are the problems when using a TV or NTSC output, or is he just using NTSC?  The TV output hasn't been well tested, I suspect that NTSC might not work right now if it really is on a TV.  That sort of makes sense, that we are getting interlaced working on that but not progressive.  I'm not sure though, the settings I used for NTSC were not verified fully and they could be wrong in the monitor settings.

[dmarcum99]

I just want to say.....WOW!!!  I had trouble with the install last night, but I fiddled for a while and struck gold.  After transfering my roms & snaps it was like butter. 

I cannot tell you how glad I am that I tried the linux version.  I had a quad core AMD (OC'd to 3.7GHZ) with 4GB ram & ATI 4350 on XP using Hyperspin and there was so much overhead...I never realized how much CPU I got back by going to  GroovyMAME.  I must admit, I love the bling that hyperspin brings, but for what I gained I don't think I'll miss it.  A simple game like Simpsons bowling had huge gains and made it playable.  Before on my previous setup it was hardly playable.  So far no soundsynch pitch issues or anything!  AND...my trackball worked without me having to do anything.  (WINNING!!!)   

But by far the best advantage was the AUTOMATIC native resolution modeline generation.  I've only tried about 50 or so games, but they were absolutely spot on!  Even the wierd ones like Frogger, Galaxian, Scramble....I can't say enough good things.  I tried advmame for DOS and got nice resolutions, but never could get the refresh rate right.  All the scrollers are now smooth like a baby's bottom!!   NO HITCHING!!!  Just try Vanguard, MK(attract mode), Scramble, or any other scrolling game....it's awesome.  When word spreads about this you and Calamity are going to be very popular people.

I can honestly say my cab will not have windows again.  Next on the list, I'm going to try to figure out how the youtube user "AlexHardest" got his advmenu so awesome and try to replicate or at least personalize my cab.  AdvanceMENU Part01

Huge props to you bitbytebit and to Calamity for the awesome work!   

[Calamity]

Are the problems when using a TV or NTSC output, or is he just using NTSC?  The TV output hasn't been well tested, I suspect that NTSC might not work right now if it really is on a TV.  That sort of makes sense, that we are getting interlaced working on that but not progressive.  I'm not sure though, the settings I used for NTSC were not verified fully and they could be wrong in the monitor settings.

He is booting with [VGA-1 NTSC] and the selecting NTSC in GroovyArcade menu, I'm asking him just to make sure but I think he's tested other options in GroovyArcade menu and it's the same, and also other guy tested with CGA/NTSC/H9110 and still the same. I'm sure it's something that can be fixed, if only I can reproduce it here.

dmarcum99, thanks a lot for your comments, let's thank bitbytebit who is making a huge work supporting all this.

[bitbytebit]

Version 1.525 has some major reworking of the directory layout and menu system, autopartitioning, way install works.  Basically if you had problems with grub not booting, or menu system was a bit confusing, hopefully this makes things somewhat more linear and logical.  Hopefully that's the case, also updated the kernel to the newest stable Linux one now that it's out scsi support on bootup may help some systems.

Importantly the roms directory is now /home/roms/ instead of /data/, also the mame ones are in /home/roms/roms/ and other systems are /home/roms/SYSTEM_roms and SYSTEM_snaps/ format, the directory layout when autopartitioning is basically /boot gets 100 meg for kernel, / gets 4-16 gig depending on your drive size, /home gets all the rest of the space.  So that way /home/ can contain the roms and /home/arcade user directory, and you can mount (hopefully works with NTFS now) another roms partition to that /home/roms/ if you want a separate drive for that. 

The main menu now is basically System Setup, LiveCD Setup, Installation, File Manager, Partition Manager, Reboot.  So you go through the setup menu first, then choose either the LiveCD menu or go through the Install.  In fact you really don't even have to use Setup because the Install now asks you about each Setup menu, more like a normal guided installation in some ways.  The LiveCD menu separates all the LiveCD things so it's not confusing as to what is an Installation thing and what is a LiveCD thing.

24032011 - 1.525 Release
         - Kernel 2.6.38.1 update, new ATI Radeon microcode updated for newer cards
         - Include scsi support in grub bootup and genkernel build
         - Static IP option in network setup
         - Many more checks in setup system for drive configuration
         - Changed /data to /home/roms, quite a big change
         - Changed autopartitioning to use / /boot /home and swap, more complex layout

[dmarcum99]

Since I did a HD install and it appears to be working great with an ATI 4350 is there a reason for me to go from 1.515 to 1.525?

Also, how is the updating handled from a HD install?  I don't want to screw anything up if I do decide to upgrade later on... 

awesome work guy!  just freakin` awesome!!

[bitbytebit]

Since I did a HD install and it appears to be working great with an ATI 4350 is there a reason for me to go from 1.515 to 1.525?

Also, how is the updating handled from a HD install?  I don't want to screw anything up if I do decide to upgrade later on... 

awesome work guy!  just freakin` awesome!!

Nope, probably no need right now since mostly the changes are aimed at making the installation easier, clearer and less likely to fail at grub MBR installs. 

Right now updating mostly is seen as you would want to backup your /home/arcade directory, possibly /data if you haven't already got backups of the roms (or now in 1.525 it's /home/roms, so basically /home all together now), and pretty much copy them onto a fresh install.  I can see how there's probably an option to upgrade I need to make on the menu and it would just not touch the /home directory and instead just re-install to the existing partitions from the old install. 

Another option that I do for systems I use for other purposes like servers/desktops, if  one  knows or reads up on Gentoo, is you can always treat it like a mostly normal Gentoo system and use the emerge/portage/ebuild system, but of course it might drift away from Arcade Monitor safety since there are quite a few modifications and following the ISO images and updating through them in the future when needed is safest on an arcade cabinet.

So probably look forward to a general update option in the next version, although mostly any big important changes would be in the future if you wanted a newer version of Mame as they come out.  Really once it's setup it's fine, but I do see how with the new partition setup I can probably in the future make it easy if one wanted to upgrade for any particular reason.  The only other issue there is if any specific files changed in the /home/arcade/ user directory like .config type files as advancemenu or odd's and ends, but that really isn't happening lately at all so I don't expect much to change there in the future.

One thing I do need  to fix, is going through the different emulators and tuning them for matching mame button input, resolution setup, some work already but 2 or 3 have a few issues and just need to be configured.  Actually if anyone out there does go through and configure the different emulators, gens/snes especially, would be great to pass the changes back and I could incorporate them.

Thanks, it's good to see people starting to be able to use it and enjoy it, definitely knew I had originally gotten something nice setup here on my cab and fortunately have finally been able to make it into a portable distributable form (and from the help of Calamity, Ves and others it's been able to be much better than I had originally thought possible).  The other use of this for me has been the ability to setup my own workstation/server systems quickly which I used to dread going through the whole Gentoo setup from scratch, or using Ubuntu and fighting customizing it over and over, but now I'm able to quickly install a Linux system and know it is ready to go. 

[dmarcum99]

When I select a game from advmenu, right before the game starts, I see an enlarged pic of the game I selected (cool)...but right before the game starts, I see a mouse pointer.  Did I do something wrong in my setup?  Is there anything I can do to keep from seeing the pointer before the game starts?

I also went through another 150 or so roms last night.  A couple of games run too fast.  It might be mame, but I'd thought I'd bring it up.  The games I found were Mace & Wayne Gretzky's 3d hockey.

[bitbytebit]

When I select a game from advmenu, right before the game starts, I see an enlarged pic of the game I selected (cool)...but right before the game starts, I see a mouse pointer.  Did I do something wrong in my setup?  Is there anything I can do to keep from seeing the pointer before the game starts?

I also went through another 150 or so roms last night.  A couple of games run too fast.  It might be mame, but I'd thought I'd bring it up.  The games I found were Mace & Wayne Gretzky's 3d hockey.

Try to change device_video to fullscreen instead of auto, maybe that will prevent that.  I'll have to investigate the mouse pointer thing, I've seen it on certain games but not others although it might be that device_video setting. 

What are the rom file or short names of that and/or others, so I can look them up quicker.  There are a group of games in mame that are set to run at 76hz when they really are 60hz.  If you get the resolution they should be at, and make an ini file (zookeeper has one in there right now) with that resolution 640x480x32@60.00 for example, using the actual height and width (notice that in Linux it needs the extra x32 for depth).  I'm guessing the games are these types, and it's probably mame having the wrong information, but checking the specifically can pinpoint if true.  Also running 'switchres --calc romname' on the system might be interesting, seeing exactly what the resolution is it's choosing.

[dmarcum99]

Thanks for the advice biybytebit!

I'm not near my cab, but I checked online and both of these games have the same res and refresh rate

Mace: The Dark Age (mace.zip) 640x480X32@57.00
Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey (wg3dh.zip) 640x480x32@57.00

I'll make ini's for these games when I get home and I'll let you know how it turns out.

[bitbytebit]

Thanks for the advice biybytebit!

I'm not near my cab, but I checked online and both of these games have the same res and refresh rate

Mace: The Dark Age (mace.zip) 640x480X32@57.00
Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey (wg3dh.zip) 640x480x32@57.00

I'll make ini's for these games when I get home and I'll let you know how it turns out.

That's interesting that they are 640x480, might be another issue then.  Seems like it's possibly choosing the desktop resolution, which it shouldn't because it should be set to 648x480 so would not overlap them.  Possibly running the game, and the remotely checking the resolution setup by doing `DISPLAY=:0.0 xrandr -display :0.0 -q --verbose` through an ssh session, will show details on what is going on.  

Also possibly getting a good log and posting it, running manually from an xterm with -verbose and -md 4 added to the groovymame command line.  You'll need to set the front end to be fvwm or lxde for that.  Or actually could run it like that from an ssh session possibly, just add the `DISPLAY=:0.0 groovymame -verbose -md4 <romname>` so the DISPLAY environment variable is set to go to the console output like the above xrandr method.

[Calamity]

I've attached some logs, have been able to reproduce the 9250 issue here, good news at least as I'll be able to test it directly.

[bitbytebit]

Fixes for the older Radeon 9200/9250 cards and possibly others for lower dotclocks and 15khz modelines.  Installation has dropped the separate /home/ partition, seemed to cause more issues than it helped.  Xrandr automatically detects the connector for the cards output, may have been the problem for some people.

27032011 - 1.536 Release
         - Install should work on drives smaller than 8 gig again, and refuse on ones too small like < 4 gig
         - No longer need to specify connector type for xrandr, auto setting with figure it out for you
         - Patch added to Linux kernel hopefully will fix ATI 9200/9250 cards pll values
         - During install ask about Video setup too, reorder of roms drive setup
         - Fixes to ir_ptr.2 and joystick setting in mame

[dmarcum99]

Hi guys!,

Regarding the two games I found runnig too quickly....I made ini's for the mace.zip & wg3dh.zip roms.  Unfortunately, this did not help as they ran at the same speed.

I got the res info from KLOV...but when I check game info with in MAME, I get different res's listed on both games...??

Since I'm so new to linux I haven't quite figured out how to remote in, but I'm working on it.  I also haven't ran groovymame fom the terminal yet...hopefully I can  get to it in the next day.

FYI... I am still running v.1.515 64bit.
Keep up the great work!!  YOU GUYS ROCK!!!

[Calamity]

Regarding the two games I found runnig too quickly....I made ini's for the mace.zip & wg3dh.zip roms.  Unfortunately, this did not help as they ran at the same speed.

Those games run at 640x480@57, are you getting 105% instead of 100%? That would mean a default video mode is getting in the middle. Anyway, try to set the ini for 641x480@57 or even better 640x488@57, and see if it makes any difference.

[dmarcum99]

Regarding the two games I found runnig too quickly....I made ini's for the mace.zip & wg3dh.zip roms.  Unfortunately, this did not help as they ran at the same speed.

Those games run at 640x480@57, are you getting 105% instead of 100%? That would mean a default video mode is getting in the middle. Anyway, try to set the ini for 641x480@57 or even better 640x488@57, and see if it makes any difference.

Neither the 641x480x32@57.00 or the 640x488x32@57.00 helped.  I forgot to mention that when I made the ini's for the 640x480x32@57.00 that the picture got squashed.  The pic was rectangular...widescreen`ish.  When there is no ini file, it"s fullscreen again...just playing too fast.

I wish I could figure out the ssh task.  I got stuck when PUTTY wanted a username and password.  user-admin and password- arcade didin't work.  If I was doing this in windows this would be much easier, but since this is my first go at linux...I'm having point & click withdrawls.   

Has anyone else had the same problem with the games I'm mentioning?

[bitbytebit]

Regarding the two games I found runnig too quickly....I made ini's for the mace.zip & wg3dh.zip roms.  Unfortunately, this did not help as they ran at the same speed.

Those games run at 640x480@57, are you getting 105% instead of 100%? That would mean a default video mode is getting in the middle. Anyway, try to set the ini for 641x480@57 or even better 640x488@57, and see if it makes any difference.

Neither the 641x480x32@57.00 or the 640x488x32@57.00 helped.  I forgot to mention that when I made the ini's for the 640x480x32@57.00 that the picture got squashed.  The pic was rectangular...widescreen`ish.  When there is no ini file, it"s fullscreen again...just playing too fast.

I wish I could figure out the ssh task.  I got stuck when PUTTY wanted a username and password.  user-admin and password- arcade didin't work.  If I was doing this in windows this would be much easier, but since this is my first go at linux...I'm having point & click withdrawls.   

Has anyone else had the same problem with the games I'm mentioning?

Password for ssh is 'arcade'  and username is 'arcade', not admin that's just for the webmin interface where it's admin. 

If you can get the output of `xrandr -display :0.0 -q` at the console it might be interesting to see.  Also one question is what output of your video card are you using?  Is it VGA-0 or DVI-0, what do you have set in the mame.ini for the monitor_connector setting?  That is one thing that isn't automatically setup in the version of the ISO you have, I just made that setup automatic in the newest groovymame now.  I'm wondering if it possibly has something to do with that.  The xrandr -q output will show what interfaces are connected, and what modelines are configured for them.

You can actually login remotely as 'root' and password 'admin', if you want to have full administrator access, but probably not necessary for checking the couple things, just to know in case you run into any permissions problems.

[dmarcum99]

OK...I was able to remote in via ssh....yippee!!
I am attaching the xrandr output and the groovymame out files in txt format.  Both of these were captured via ssh. 
I'm also attaching my mame.ini in txt format.
My ASUS 4350 is attached to the monitor via VGA-0
Hopefully this helps...

[bitbytebit]

OK...I was able to remote in via ssh....yippee!!
I am attaching the xrandr output and the groovymame out files in txt format.  Both of these were captured via ssh. 
I'm also attaching my mame.ini in txt format.
My ASUS 4350 is attached to the monitor via VGA-0
Hopefully this helps...

Seems like your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file isn't being created, or set to the wrong input instead of VGA-0.  It's getting default modes in there, and that most likely is the issue.

If you run `sudo gasetup` and re-run the Video Settings and choose the monitor type again (on the console), it might fix this I am thinking.  After you do that, if it still shows issues, send the xorg.conf file mentioned above, it might show what is going on.

Thanks,
Chris

[dmarcum99]

Thanks for the help...so it sounds like this issue is isolated to my setup.

May be a dumb question....I also have an ATI 9250.  Can I use this card with the 64bit groovymame linux live CD or do I have to use the 32bit live CD?

If you had to choose between the ATI 4350 and the ATI 9250 for the groovymame linux live cd, which one would you use?

I'll hang up and listen....   

[bitbytebit]

Thanks for the help...so it sounds like this issue is isolated to my setup.

May be a dumb question....I also have an ATI 9250.  Can I use this card with the 64bit groovymame linux live CD or do I have to use the 32bit live CD?

If you had to choose between the ATI 4350 and the ATI 9250 for the groovymame linux live cd, which one would you use?

I'll hang up and listen....   

Yeah it'll work with the 64 bit live CD just fine, newest one actually just fixed issues it had and seems to be good now.

I'd choose the 4350, I have one and it works great, plus is more modern so you'll have some more power and plus a newer ATI Atom bios instead of the older combios which is a good thing at a technical level.

[dmarcum99]

update...sort of

I reran the video setup like you suggested, but no improvement.  I thought perhaps I had done something wrong on the 1.515 install so I  re-reinstalled using the newer version. 1.536....no difference at all.

So I remembered you mentioned you asked about the xorg.conf file.  I opened the file and the only entry was:  "# Unsupported video card!!!"

So...I tried using the DVI input with the dvi/vga adapter...no difference
So...I tried my ATI 9250....couldn't get it to work after the boot screens.  I tried the 9250 with the dvi input using the dvi/vga adapter...would not show a picture after the boot screen.
So...I went in the mobo bios and activated the on-board ATI 4200...same results as the ATI 4350 (only tried VGA input). My mobo is using the amd 785G chipset
Bear in mind I went in the setup screen and redid the video setup for every combination listed.  Also there was no change in the xorg.conf file even after trying 3 different video card options.  I had also created an ini file for the game (wg3dh) using 640x480x32@57.00 and added/removed for each combination of video cards too...

When I hit the F2 button in either game (mace & wg3dh) the service menu is identical.  So noone is having any issues with either of these games but me?  wierd...

[bitbytebit]

update...sort of

I reran the video setup like you suggested, but no improvement.  I thought perhaps I had done something wrong on the 1.515 install so I  re-reinstalled using the newer version. 1.536....no difference at all.

So I remembered you mentioned you asked about the xorg.conf file.  I opened the file and the only entry was:  "# Unsupported video card!!!"
So...I tried using the DVI input with the dvi/vga adapter...no difference
So...I tried my ATI 9250....couldn't get it to work after the boot screens.  I tried the 9250 with the dvi input using the dvi/vga adapter...would not show a picture after the boot screen.
So...I went in the mobo bios and activated the on-board ATI 4200...same results as the ATI 4350 (only tried VGA input). My mobo is using the amd 785G chipset
Bear in mind I went in the setup screen and redid the video setup for every combination listed.  Also there was no change in the xorg.conf file even after trying 3 different video card options.  I had also created an ini file for the game (wg3dh) using 640x480x32@57.00 and added/removed for each combination of video cards too...

When I hit the F2 button in either game (mace & wg3dh) the service menu is identical.  So noone is having any issues with either of these games but me?  wierd...

What is the output of `lspci -v|grep VGA`?  If it says it isn't supported, then that means it's for some reason not seeing the video card. It might be my method of finding the card, and I suspect it's a difference in the way your PCI is done in the motherboard which my method isn't discovering the video card type properly.  

Also check this...
`find /sys/devices/pci0000\:00/ -iname card\*-\*`
See if /sys/devices/pci000\:01/ works gets something if that fails.  Also check to see what the output is that does work and possibly post it.  I think this might just be an issue with the built in video card causing things to think it's the right card, although seems like if pointing just to it like you tried that would then work.  So might be more likely the path that find arg is using for some reason on your system would need to be different, which I may have to alter it to work for it.

Also the script used to create xorg.conf is /usr/local/bin/xorg.sh, so running it should produce the same message you see in xorg.conf. 

[dmarcum99]

I put back in my 4350 using dvi via dvi/vga adapter.  I plugged in the commands you requested and here's the output....trying the one command "find /sys/devices/pci0000\:01/ -iname card\*-\* did not yield any results.

arcade@GroovyArcade ~ $ lspci -v|grep VGA        Flags: bus master, VGA palette snoop, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV710 [Radeon HD 4350] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

arcade@GroovyArcade ~ $ find /sys/devices/pci0000\:00/ -iname card\*-\*
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.0/drm/card0/card0-HDMI-A-1
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.0/drm/card0/card0-VGA-1
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.0/drm/card0/card0-DVI-I-1

arcade@GroovyArcade ~ $ /usr/local/bin/xorg.sh
mount: only root can do that
# Unsupported video card!!!
arcade@GroovyArcade ~ $

[bitbytebit]

I put back in my 4350 using dvi via dvi/vga adapter.  I plugged in the commands you requested and here's the output....trying the one command "find /sys/devices/pci0000\:01/ -iname card\*-\* did not yield any results.

arcade@GroovyArcade ~ $ lspci -v|grep VGA        Flags: bus master, VGA palette snoop, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV710 [Radeon HD 4350] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

arcade@GroovyArcade ~ $ find /sys/devices/pci0000\:00/ -iname card\*-\*
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.0/drm/card0/card0-HDMI-A-1
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.0/drm/card0/card0-VGA-1
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.0/drm/card0/card0-DVI-I-1

arcade@GroovyArcade ~ $ /usr/local/bin/xorg.sh
mount: only root can do that
# Unsupported video card!!!
arcade@GroovyArcade ~ $

Interesting, whats the entire output of lspci -v?  That first part, the Flags... line, seems like it might be the issue.

Update: Here's a new xorg.sh script, unzip and put it on the system (you'll need to be root, run `sudo -s` first, also that'll help execute xorg.sh better too), place it under /usr/local/bin/xorg.sh.  Then rerun the video config setup, see if that helps. 

[dmarcum99]

I reran the lspci -v|grep VGA command, and there was no additional info.  I was worried that I left something out, but after running it several times it looks like I copied all the info on the output.

I reran the /usr/local/bin/xorg.sh with the new file you provided and it had a lot of info this time....here's the output:

arcade@GroovyArcade ~ $ sudo -s /usr/local/bin/xorg.sh
# Config for generic Monitor and ati Video Card

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "DVI-0"
        VendorName      "Unknown"
        ModelName       "Unknown"

        HorizSync       15-50
        VertRefresh     40-80

        Option          "DPMS"  "False"

        Option          "DefaultModes"  "False"
        UseModes        "ArcadeModes"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Card0"
        VendorName      "Unknown"
        BoardName       "Unknown"

        Driver          "ati"
        BusID           "PCI:01:00:0"

        Option          "ModeDebug"     "true"

        Option          "monitor-DVI-0" "DVI-0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "DVI-0"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     8
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     16
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
        EndSection


Section "Modes"
        Identifier      "ArcadeModes"
#  648x480@60.00 15.7500Khz
        ModeLine          "648x480x60.00" 13.230000 648 672 736 840 480 484 490 525 -HSync -VSync interlace

EndSection

[bitbytebit]

I reran the lspci -v|grep VGA command, and there was no additional info.  I was worried that I left something out, but after running it several times it looks like I copied all the info on the output.

I reran the /usr/local/bin/xorg.sh with the new file you provided and it had a lot of info this time....here's the output:

arcade@GroovyArcade ~ $ sudo -s /usr/local/bin/xorg.sh
# Config for generic Monitor and ati Video Card

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "DVI-0"
        VendorName      "Unknown"
        ModelName       "Unknown"

        HorizSync       15-50
        VertRefresh     40-80

        Option          "DPMS"  "False"

        Option          "DefaultModes"  "False"
        UseModes        "ArcadeModes"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Card0"
        VendorName      "Unknown"
        BoardName       "Unknown"

        Driver          "ati"
        BusID           "PCI:01:00:0"

        Option          "ModeDebug"     "true"

        Option          "monitor-DVI-0" "DVI-0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "DVI-0"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     8
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     16
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
        EndSection


Section "Modes"
        Identifier      "ArcadeModes"
#  648x480@60.00 15.7500Khz
        ModeLine          "648x480x60.00" 13.230000 648 672 736 840 480 484 490 525 -HSync -VSync interlace

EndSection

Yep that should do it I think, put that under /usr/local/bin/xorg.sh and rerun the gasetup, I am guessing that may make things a bit better.

[dmarcum99]

I certainly appreciate all the help.     Donation worthy without question.   

Running these two games (mace & wg3dh), they're still running too fast.  A few post ago you asked me to ssh in and get an output while the game is running.  I did this again since I got a new xorg.sh file.  I also attached the groovymame verbose info.  This info is from wg3dh...and I had a ini set to 640x480x32@57.00

**note** as soon as I "tab" into the mame control panel, the game slows down....I almost dare to say that it slows to the correct speed.

[bitbytebit]

I certainly appreciate all the help.     Donation worthy without question.   

Running these two games (mace & wg3dh), they're still running too fast.  A few post ago you asked me to ssh in and get an output while the game is running.  I did this again since I got a new xorg.sh file.  I also attached the groovymame verbose info.  This info is from wg3dh...and I had a ini set to 640x480x32@57.00

**note** as soon as I "tab" into the mame control panel, the game slows down....I almost dare to say that it slows to the correct speed.

Well it does look like it's now correctly setting up the xorg xrandr modelines, doesn't have the default ones anymore, and says it's choosing the right resolution.  It is getting it from an .ini file, might remove that just to double check, but I don't think that matters.  What percentage speed does it run at when you push F11?  That might give some clue as to what refresh rate is really being used, oddly though I can't see where it wouldn't be working with the xrandr and mame output.  Try to run with the monitor type 'cga' just to see, when forcing it to use strict 15khz resolutions.  Also the bottom of the xrandr output is trimmed off, that part shows the xrandr view of what the vertical refresh is so double check that number and see that it's 57hz just to be safe. 

[dmarcum99]

Sorry for all the hastle.

I ran the game (wg3dh) and used the F11 key (I forgot about that function) and the game menu starts around 105 percent, but when the demo continues it goes anywhere to 200% to 245%.  The same situation happens without the ini file.

I also ran the other game (mace) using F11, and it acts similar.  The intro starts at 105% and then the demo goes anywhere from 142% to 195%

Another thing regarding the ini files.  When I set them up at their native resolution (640x480x32@57.00) I'm expecting a full screen.  This does not happen on both games.  Instead, the screen gets squished.  When not using an ini file, I had a larger picture, but same game speed results as when they were using the ini file.

I'll try the CGA monitor option later....at work now....gotta go! 

YOU GUYS ROCK!!!                 

[bitbytebit]

Sorry for all the hastle.

I ran the game (wg3dh) and used the F11 key (I forgot about that function) and the game menu starts around 105 percent, but when the demo continues it goes anywhere to 200% to 245%.  The same situation happens without the ini file.

I also ran the other game (mace) using F11, and it acts similar.  The intro starts at 105% and then the demo goes anywhere from 142% to 195%

Another thing regarding the ini files.  When I set them up at their native resolution (640x480x32@57.00) I'm expecting a full screen.  This does not happen on both games.  Instead, the screen gets squished.  When not using an ini file, I had a larger picture, but same game speed results as when they were using the ini file.

I'll try the CGA monitor option later....at work now....gotta go! 

YOU GUYS ROCK!!!                 

Using fvwm as the window manager, run the program `glxgears` and see how fast it runs.  Basically it should follow vsync and run at 57hz or fps, if not then it's your cards vsync that isn't working for some odd reason.  See what message it prints to the xterm, and if it says it's following the framerate or not.

[dmarcum99]

I'm not sure that I'm using the right syntax.  How do I tell the program to run at 57hz??  I'm at the terminal and I type 'glxgears -geometry 640x480x32@57.00'

It's outputting 60.034 fps....

[bitbytebit]

I'm not sure that I'm using the right syntax.  How do I tell the program to run at 57hz??  I'm at the terminal and I type 'glxgears -geometry 640x480x32@57.00'

It's outputting 60.034 fps....

It doesn't take args, but that just confirms that vsync does work for your setup.  Its odd since all looks technically good in the logs and settings from what I can tell.  Has to be something else going on but not sure what it is.

[dmarcum99]

I'm not sure that I'm using the right syntax.  How do I tell the program to run at 57hz??  I'm at the terminal and I type 'glxgears -geometry 640x480x32@57.00'

It's outputting 60.034 fps....

It doesn't take args, but that just confirms that vsync does work for your setup.  Its odd since all looks technically good in the logs and settings from what I can tell.  Has to be something else going on but not sure what it is.

Is this program supposed to run @ 57hz by default?  I just figured that the fvwm is running @ 60hz and running the program verifies it.  Should I run the wg3dh program and then remote in and try to run glxgears?

[bitbytebit]

Is this program supposed to run @ 57hz by default?  I just figured that the fvwm is running @ 60hz and running the program verifies it.  Should I run the wg3dh program and then remote in and try to run glxgears?

Yeah try to remote in, use the same DISPLAY=:0.0 on the command line for it.  It runs at whatever the screen modelines refresh is.

[dmarcum99]

Is this program supposed to run @ 57hz by default?  I just figured that the fvwm is running @ 60hz and running the program verifies it.  Should I run the wg3dh program and then remote in and try to run glxgears?

Yeah try to remote in, use the same DISPLAY=:0.0 on the command line for it.  It runs at whatever the screen modelines refresh is.

I used DISPLAY=:0.0 glxgears and it reported 57.022FPS

I am going to try the onboard video (ati4200) again and see if that help any.  I don't believe I tried it after you gave me the new xorg.sh file

[bitbytebit]

Is this program supposed to run @ 57hz by default?  I just figured that the fvwm is running @ 60hz and running the program verifies it.  Should I run the wg3dh program and then remote in and try to run glxgears?

Yeah try to remote in, use the same DISPLAY=:0.0 on the command line for it.  It runs at whatever the screen modelines refresh is.

I used DISPLAY=:0.0 glxgears and it reported 57.022FPS

I am going to try the onboard video (ati4200) again and see if that help any.  I don't believe I tried it after you gave me the new xorg.sh file

So it's just certain games that do this, or all?  I'm going to have to look at this since I in theory should be able to reproduce the issue here.  Does that game do resolution changes?  That could be a part of the problem if so.  Seems like the video card is probably ok, it seems to be centered around the actual running of mame and either resolution switching or it's not setting up vsync right.  I'm guessing more likely the game and/or resolution changing, also do you have the monitor=d9800 sections in mame.ini?  Your using a d9200 or d9800?  The log files are each different from mame, once you had the .ini file in use it's stuck at 640x480@57 but the game may want to change resolutions, try to remove the .ini file for the game too and let groovymame do it, since it should be able to figure it out and that's possibly causing some issues I think (since when setup in an .ini file it no longer will change resolutions).  I'm looking at that game here too in a bit, will see what I can find and if I can reproduce the issue.


Update:
  Yeah it does the same thing here, and it does change resolutions to 512x256x57.00 actually.  Does it work in Windows, and really at vsync or just throttling there or with triplebuffer?  I'm guessing this is an issue with this and probably other games in mame that switch resolutions and possibly wanted different refresh rates but of course it seems mame doesn't help us out (at least that I know of) with knowing the new refresh rate.  Would be interesting to really figure out though what it wants, do you have verbose logs of it working with groovymame in Windows properly, or regular mame?  That would be interesting to see.

[dmarcum99]

At first I thought I found a bug and wanted to help you out by testing them. That's why I kept posting... Then we found out that my setup was skewed a bit and you got that sorted.

The problem is only with a couple of games I found.  I've tried maybe 200 roms and those two games (mace.zip & wg3dh.zip) were the only ones I spotted.  I feel much better that you were able to reproduce the symptoms.  I deleted the ini files and even tried the throttle setting in a new ini file and it still ran 200%.

I haven't hooked up my XP hard drive for a couple of weeks, but I can hook it back up to see if the same problems exist in windows.  This linux setup is so sweet I can't believe this thing hasn't went viral yet.

My mobo must be doing something....no matter what I try I can't get my pci ATI 9250 to work with the 64 bit Groovymame live cd.  It works great in windows...just cant get past the setup screen on the live cd...?  I don't feel so bad cause the ati 4350 is working fine.

[bitbytebit]

At first I thought I found a bug and wanted to help you out by testing them. That's why I kept posting... Then we found out that my setup was skewed a bit and you got that sorted.

The problem is only with a couple of games I found.  I've tried maybe 200 roms and those two games (mace.zip & wg3dh.zip) were the only ones I spotted.  I feel much better that you were able to reproduce the symptoms.  I deleted the ini files and even tried the throttle setting in a new ini file and it still ran 200%.

I haven't hooked up my XP hard drive for a couple of weeks, but I can hook it back up to see if the same problems exist in windows.  This linux setup is so sweet I can't believe this thing hasn't went viral yet.

My mobo must be doing something....no matter what I try I can't get my pci ATI 9250 to work with the 64 bit Groovymame live cd.  It works great in windows...just cant get past the setup screen on the live cd...?  I don't feel so bad cause the ati 4350 is working fine.

It's definitely interesting to see how it acts in Windows, I suspect it's the same, I got it to act the same in non-modeswitching and throttling, guessing it's just a broken game for now. 

Have you tried it with the new changed xorg.sh, that might be partly the issue I think.  Although not sure and since there's another video card on the motherboard it could be linked to that too.  In my detection code, it chooses the first video card on the PCI bus, at least should, and possibly the 9250 comes up after the main one while the 4350 trumps the main one for being chosen. 

Hopefully as small installation and other bugs get worked out like the xorg.conf one you saw, more people will be able to easily install/use it to see and enjoy it.  Right now I'm trying to mostly work on all the stuff like setup, not adding much extra new features besides to help setup things, partly from time constraints and also to hopefully stabilize things more and more.  Thanks for helping test it and enjoy it.

[Calamity]

Hi, I've been a bit disconnected for some days.

I've tried to run these wg3dh and mace games but it reports an error as it seems to need some chd files which I've never gathered for my system (too big downloads), am I right?

Yes, I also thought of a possible resolution switch issue, is it possible that Groovymame disables vsync just for the second resolution for some reason, maybe not getting close enough to the target vfreq or something?

ATI 9250 should work fine with GroovyMame 64 since the last patch, at least it does here and several folks in the Spanish forum reported it was working perfectly for them too.

On the NTFS drives for roms subject, the other day I noticed that even after mounting it from webmin, I couldn't select it from gasetup rom/snap drive option, it complained "no drive available" or something like that. It's not a problem as I manually edit advmenu.rc and mame.ini with the proper paths and it works fine, but I wonder if basic drive mounting could be performed from gasetup as I see it can actually see the drives in the system (in the partition menus, for instance). This is a feature I've dreamed of since this project started, to be able to visit a friend with my cd to boot his machine with, and be able to target his roms/snaps without attaching a network cable. I've seen a big progress in that direction but honestly don't know if it's supposed to do that already or not. Of course to make things easier one should have the path structure GroovyArcade is expecting. I think your using /roms/roms for Mame, I suppose there must be a special reason for that. Usually I setup my cabs with this path scheme, which I've found to be the clearest possible for me:

/roms/emulator (/roms/mame, /roms/snes, etc.)
/snaps/emulator (/snaps/mame, /snaps/snes, etc.)

Maybe all this has been already discussed, I don't intend to force this standard to everybody though But I think that from the implementation point of view, I can be easier to just tell everybody "use this path structure" than having users browse for their paths from gasetup.

[bitbytebit]

Hi, I've been a bit disconnected for some days.

I've tried to run these wg3dh and mace games but it reports an error as it seems to need some chd files which I've never gathered for my system (too big downloads), am I right?

Yes, I also thought of a possible resolution switch issue, is it possible that Groovymame disables vsync just for the second resolution for some reason, maybe not getting close enough to the target vfreq or something?

ATI 9250 should work fine with GroovyMame 64 since the last patch, at least it does here and several folks in the Spanish forum reported it was working perfectly for them too.

On the NTFS drives for roms subject, the other day I noticed that even after mounting it from webmin, I couldn't select it from gasetup rom/snap drive option, it complained "no drive available" or something like that. It's not a problem as I manually edit advmenu.rc and mame.ini with the proper paths and it works fine, but I wonder if basic drive mounting could be performed from gasetup as I see it can actually see the drives in the system (in the partition menus, for instance). This is a feature I've dreamed of since this project started, to be able to visit a friend with my cd to boot his machine with, and be able to target his roms/snaps without attaching a network cable. I've seen a big progress in that direction but honestly don't know if it's supposed to do that already or not. Of course to make things easier one should have the path structure GroovyArcade is expecting. I think your using /roms/roms for Mame, I suppose there must be a special reason for that. Usually I setup my cabs with this path scheme, which I've found to be the clearest possible for me:

/roms/emulator (/roms/mame, /roms/snes, etc.)
/snaps/emulator (/snaps/mame, /snaps/snes, etc.)

Maybe all this has been already discussed, I don't intend to force this standard to everybody though But I think that from the implementation point of view, I can be easier to just tell everybody "use this path structure" than having users browse for their paths from gasetup.

I think that wg3dh game is just like that, even with throttle and no -switchres or anything like that, it does the same type of odd activity running faster than it should.

The newest ISO hopefully will just mount an NTFS drive same as the native Linux ones using the Roms/Snaps drive option, hopefully it works, I've added the extra args to mount for them that should do the permissions issue you had and fix that.

Yeah the paths right now might be a little odd, but somewhat basic too.  If I make a menu option to go through and ask what the paths are it might help that, so a person doesn't have to hand edit advance menu configurations.  I like your paths you have, sound real easy to setup that way, I might move to that standard in the future when I work on the menu setup for changing the roms paths too.

When you have some time, try the new ISO and test the NTFS support, or basically try to use the NTFS drive from the liveCD menu Snaps/Roms drive option, I wish I had a way to test that here but haven't gotten a testing setup for it, probably should, I think I need to get some linux tools for creating ntfs drives so I can make one in the virtual machine before install or something.

[Calamity]

Thanks, I'll test the new iso later today.

[bitbytebit]

Thanks, I'll test the new iso later today.

Also if it doesn't work, then if you could do the ntfs mount from webmin that does work, and send the output of the command `sudo mount` from the console/ssh/xterm, that'd help me see the options they use to make it work.

[bitbytebit]

02042011 - 1.546 Release
         - Added new option to groovymame named -monitor_specs that takes switchres monitor specs format
         - Now NTFS drives really should allow being used as the Roms/Snap folder
         - fixes for xorg.conf generation when lspci shows other interfaces with VGA in them
         - cwiid controller fixes
         - Really prevent extra setup on install if already done

[Calamity]

I've tested the new version. I've managed to mount my ntfs roms drive without using the network, directly from the menu with the drive mount option, very very nice. I've only missed an option in gasetup to open mame.ini and edit the roms/snaps path, similar to the AdvanceMenu one, nothing important as you can enter the lxde environment and do that.

I'm seeing an issue with twincobr, I think it might be the same one dmarcum99 is reporting for mace. I think that for those games the system is simply defaulting to the desktop resolution, even if it creates the right modeline, as you can see in the xrandr log I've attached, done while the game was running from ssh. So twincobr is running 109% (60/54.88). It's interesting because other virtualized games like 1945kiii seem to work perfectly with their right resolution, so it's really strange.

There's also a problem with menu fonts in GroovyMame, they look garbled for some reason, while they were perfect in previous versions.

[bitbytebit]

I've tested the new version. I've managed to mount my ntfs roms drive without using the network, directly from the menu with the drive mount option, very very nice. I've only missed an option in gasetup to open mame.ini and edit the roms/snaps path, similar to the AdvanceMenu one, nothing important as you can enter the lxde environment and do that.

I'm seeing an issue with twincobr, I think it might be the same one dmarcum99 is reporting for mace. I think that for those games the system is simply defaulting to the desktop resolution, even if it creates the right modeline, as you can see in the xrandr log I've attached, done while the game was running from ssh. So twincobr is running 109% (60/54.88). It's interesting because other virtualized games like 1945kiii seem to work perfectly with their right resolution, so it's really strange.

There's also a problem with menu fonts in GroovyMame, they look garbled for some reason, while they were perfect in previous versions.

Ah it's a bug, here's my mistake...

Code: [Select]

diff --git a/src/osd/sdl/sdlmain.c b/src/osd/sdl/sdlmain.c
index 9a138e6..66801ac 100644
--- a/src/osd/sdl/sdlmain.c
+++ b/src/osd/sdl/sdlmain.c
@@ -605,7 +605,7 @@ bool switchres_modeline_setup(running_machine &machine)
        if (machine.switchRes.resolution.ini == 0) {
                // Force resolution
                sprintf(machine.switchRes.modeLine->resolution, "%dx%dx32@%f",
-                       machine.switchRes.gameInfo.width, machine.switchRes.gameInfo.height, machine.switchRes.gameInfo.refresh);
+                       machine.switchRes.modeLine.hactive, machine.switchRes.modeLine.vactive, machine.switchRes.modeLine->vfreq);
                mame_printf_verbose("SwitchRes: Setting Option -resolution %s\n", machine.switchRes.modeLine->resolution);
                options_set_string(&machine.options(), SDLOPTION_RESOLUTION(""), machine.switchRes.modeLine->resolution, OPTION_PRIORITY_MAXIMUM);
        } else


I'm surprised that slipped by, but I guess it's from my d9800 never doing virtualized resolutions which is all it affected.  Definitely should make a difference with this change.

[bitbytebit]

Uploaded new ISO images that fix that issue with virtualized resolutions in groovymame, and also updated to the latest stable kernel 2.6.38.2.   

[Calamity]

Thanks! Downloading...

EDIT: Great! It's fixed, virtualized modes work fine now.
EDIT2: They're also reporting the monitor_specs options is working great for TV sets, allowing to center the picture for all modes.

[ufoufo512]

Thanks again for updating this project. Currently I am still stuck with no correct game graphics on my AGP Radeon X800Pro. I had gotten the WLAN to work and using ssh and Webmin makes the configuration much easier than using 15KHz arcade monitor which at the moment is rotated to vertical orientation. I had a spare PCI-e motherboard I thought I was able to use for the project, but unfortunately it doesn't work. So I am back to square one hunting AGP Radeon 92xx. It shouldn't be much of a problem, I should be able to get one cheap from the local auction easily.

Meanwhile, I thought giving a shot on making Groovy Arcade Linux from the Git sources. The instructions given in the README seem a bit outdated, but is there something that can't be figured out easily? My goal is to have a 32bit version. If I have understood correctly looking at the source patches is that only combios-Radeons get the hardcoded low pixelclock values, Atom-bios ones (which the X800Pro is) read the value from the BIOS, I guess. I could try to hack hardcoded minumum pixel clock for all Radeons regardless of the bios version. If it doesn't work, no harm done, I will got a Radeon 92xx anyway and maybe I learn something. I got this idea looking at the video posted in that Spanish forum with Radeon 92xx not working with older release of the Groovy Arcade Linux CD. The problems with my setup seem very similar, so maybe it is worth of try.

[dmarcum99]

Thanks! Downloading...

EDIT: Great! It's fixed, virtualized modes work fine now.
EDIT2: They're also reporting the monitor_specs options is working great for TV sets, allowing to center the picture for all modes.

While I wasn't able to verify that twincobr behaved the same as mace and wg3hd, I can confirm that after reinstalling the new iso, twincobr runs @ 100%.  Unfortunately, wg3dh & mace still run well over 100% on my setup.  There was an improvement...the games finally were displayed fullscreen.  I've tried the following since installing the new iso:

-selected every monitor option in the setup menu while getting the same results in game speed.
-created an ini file for wg3dh with the throttle 1 option - same results as before.
-created an ini file for wg3dh with resolution 640x480x32@57.00.  This resulted in a squished picture that played at the excellerated rate.
-created an ini file with the speed set to 0.5 with no improvement

-created an ini file for wg3dh with resolution 511x256x32@56.25.  This resulted in a full screen picture that had a slight change.  Upon normally starting wg3dh the 1st screen runs abound 180%...then the credits screen starts....normally @ 105%....but with the 511x256x32@56.25 this screen ran at 100%.  Then following the credits screen the % jumps anywhere from 208-245%

-removed the ati 4350 and used the on-board ati4200 graphics...same results as the others..(also selected every monitor combination avail)

[bitbytebit]

Yeah those games most likely are hopeless and a mame issue, they run that way in throttle mode and no resolution switching.  That makes sense, the games switches resolutions at startup so it will do that if you force it to one or the other. 

Thanks! Downloading...

EDIT: Great! It's fixed, virtualized modes work fine now.
EDIT2: They're also reporting the monitor_specs options is working great for TV sets, allowing to center the picture for all modes.

While I wasn't able to verify that twincobr behaved the same as mace and wg3hd, I can confirm that after reinstalling the new iso, twincobr runs @ 100%.  Unfortunately, wg3dh & mace still run well over 100% on my setup.  There was an improvement...the games finally were displayed fullscreen.  I've tried the following since installing the new iso:

-selected every monitor option in the setup menu while getting the same results in game speed.
-created an ini file for wg3dh with the throttle 1 option - same results as before.
-created an ini file for wg3dh with resolution 640x480x32@57.00.  This resulted in a squished picture that played at the excellerated rate.
-created an ini file with the speed set to 0.5 with no improvement

-created an ini file for wg3dh with resolution 511x256x32@56.25.  This resulted in a full screen picture that had a slight change.  Upon normally starting wg3dh the 1st screen runs abound 180%...then the credits screen starts....normally @ 105%....but with the 511x256x32@56.25 this screen ran at 100%.  Then following the credits screen the % jumps anywhere from 208-245%

-removed the ati 4350 and used the on-board ati4200 graphics...same results as the others..(also selected every monitor combination avail)

[dmarcum99]

no worries then...GAME ON!!

[emphatic]

Will this work on an onboard Intel GPU?

[bitbytebit]

Thanks again for updating this project. Currently I am still stuck with no correct game graphics on my AGP Radeon X800Pro. I had gotten the WLAN to work and using ssh and Webmin makes the configuration much easier than using 15KHz arcade monitor which at the moment is rotated to vertical orientation. I had a spare PCI-e motherboard I thought I was able to use for the project, but unfortunately it doesn't work. So I am back to square one hunting AGP Radeon 92xx. It shouldn't be much of a problem, I should be able to get one cheap from the local auction easily.

Meanwhile, I thought giving a shot on making Groovy Arcade Linux from the Git sources. The instructions given in the README seem a bit outdated, but is there something that can't be figured out easily? My goal is to have a 32bit version. If I have understood correctly looking at the source patches is that only combios-Radeons get the hardcoded low pixelclock values, Atom-bios ones (which the X800Pro is) read the value from the BIOS, I guess. I could try to hack hardcoded minumum pixel clock for all Radeons regardless of the bios version. If it doesn't work, no harm done, I will got a Radeon 92xx anyway and maybe I learn something. I got this idea looking at the video posted in that Spanish forum with Radeon 92xx not working with older release of the Groovy Arcade Linux CD. The problems with my setup seem very similar, so maybe it is worth of try.

I actually made the change for the x800 or ones with the AtomBios too, so if it isn't working then those have some more issues.  I have one and have never been able to get it to work right.

Let me know how it goes building from source, not sure how much of that completely works because of course I've been moving forward with the same build and so might have left out a thing here and there.  It's definitely a large amount of downloading and compiling to setup the build system for the ISO's, which is why I haven't went through and tested it over and over from scratch.  Plus there's definitely little odd configurations here and there I've done to the source directories for each system, and I try to figure out ways to have the build system account for those but can't always get that done or sometimes forget when doing too much at once.

[bitbytebit]

Will this work on an onboard Intel GPU?

I think it should, I haven't tested it but I think they somewhat actually can do 15khz modes in Linux.  Testing the LiveCD and seeing how it goes, and reporting back the results, definitely will get me a good idea of what the status is and if I need to do anything to fix it.  Logs from xorg and mame also would be interesting and help make this work if it doesn't already.  I am pretty sure the intel GPU's can do vsync, I have a laptop with one in it I have tested things on before but I never attached it to an arcade monitor or tried the 15khz setup on it.  Partly from being a laptop and the main output being the LCD, would probably require a somewhat custom config for me to test it forcing the VGA to work as the primary output.

[dmarcum99]

This may be off topic discussion, but I thought I should ask anyway...maybe someone has an answer or some help.

I used romlister to create a specific .xml file for the controls my cab has and I went through and hand-picked the roms I wanted to be displayed in advmenu.  It took me two days to create this list, but when I delete the mame.xml file in the folder ".advance" and I restart advmenu, I get a blank screen and mame selection is no longer available in the frontend.  As soon as I delete my .xml file (named mame.xml) and restart advmanu, it goes through the xml regeneration and displays all the roms again(I have a full .143u3 set).

Is there something I'm doing wrong?  When I used romlister I selected the xml creation option and thought I had everything covered...??

[ufoufo512]

I actually made the change for the x800 or ones with the AtomBios too, so if it isn't working then those have some more issues.  I have one and have never been able to get it to work right.

Yeah. I was a bit tired when I was looking at the patches code, you are right. I still might try to making the iso from sources. Gentoo is required, I have to install it to Virtual Box.

[dmarcum99]

This may be off topic discussion, but I thought I should ask anyway...maybe someone has an answer or some help.

I used romlister to create a specific .xml file for the controls my cab has and I went through and hand-picked the roms I wanted to be displayed in advmenu.  It took me two days to create this list, but when I delete the mame.xml file in the folder ".advance" and I restart advmenu, I get a blank screen and mame selection is no longer available in the frontend.  As soon as I delete my .xml file (named mame.xml) and restart advmanu, it goes through the xml regeneration and displays all the roms again(I have a full .143u3 set).

Is there something I'm doing wrong?  When I used romlister I selected the xml creation option and thought I had everything covered...??

perhaps I was thinking it wrong...I was thinking that if I gave advmenu my .xml file it would read it and list only my games.

So...I took another approach.  I made a .bat file and copied only the games (roms and chd's)that I had listed in the new.xml file.  I deleted the modified xml file and I let advmenu create the xml file again.  Now...some of the games are not listed in advmenu....how do I make sure advmenu shows everything in my roms folder?

[bitbytebit]

This may be off topic discussion, but I thought I should ask anyway...maybe someone has an answer or some help.

I used romlister to create a specific .xml file for the controls my cab has and I went through and hand-picked the roms I wanted to be displayed in advmenu.  It took me two days to create this list, but when I delete the mame.xml file in the folder ".advance" and I restart advmenu, I get a blank screen and mame selection is no longer available in the frontend.  As soon as I delete my .xml file (named mame.xml) and restart advmanu, it goes through the xml regeneration and displays all the roms again(I have a full .143u3 set).

Is there something I'm doing wrong?  When I used romlister I selected the xml creation option and thought I had everything covered...??

perhaps I was thinking it wrong...I was thinking that if I gave advmenu my .xml file it would read it and list only my games.

So...I took another approach.  I made a .bat file and copied only the games (roms and chd's)that I had listed in the new.xml file.  I deleted the modified xml file and I let advmenu create the xml file again.  Now...some of the games are not listed in advmenu....how do I make sure advmenu shows everything in my roms folder?

From what I can tell, advmenu seems to check the .xml file and recreate it if it's not timestamped/checksummed or both properly.  I can generate the .xml file myself but if advmenu has not done it, it'll do it again and overwrite whatever I put in there. 

[dmarcum99]

This may be off topic discussion, but I thought I should ask anyway...maybe someone has an answer or some help.

I used romlister to create a specific .xml file for the controls my cab has and I went through and hand-picked the roms I wanted to be displayed in advmenu.  It took me two days to create this list, but when I delete the mame.xml file in the folder ".advance" and I restart advmenu, I get a blank screen and mame selection is no longer available in the frontend.  As soon as I delete my .xml file (named mame.xml) and restart advmanu, it goes through the xml regeneration and displays all the roms again(I have a full .143u3 set).

Is there something I'm doing wrong?  When I used romlister I selected the xml creation option and thought I had everything covered...??

perhaps I was thinking it wrong...I was thinking that if I gave advmenu my .xml file it would read it and list only my games.

So...I took another approach.  I made a .bat file and copied only the games (roms and chd's)that I had listed in the new.xml file.  I deleted the modified xml file and I let advmenu create the xml file again.  Now...some of the games are not listed in advmenu....how do I make sure advmenu shows everything in my roms folder?

From what I can tell, advmenu seems to check the .xml file and recreate it if it's not timestamped/checksummed or both properly.  I can generate the .xml file myself but if advmenu has not done it, it'll do it again and overwrite whatever I put in there. 

Well, I went in another direction and it worked out great.  I went back to Wah!Cade and it created a list of only the games I put in the roms folder.  I also tricked out the layout using the mamewah layout editor and someone elses background image.  I'll post a pic when I get home.

I am still so impressed with the groovymame project.  It's awesome!!!

**edit**  here's the pic of my wahcade layout.  I had to include a gratuitus shot of my marquee for pure vanity reasons   

[Calamity]

Hi bitbytebit,

When you have some time please have a look at this post by the folk Paul Sernine:

http://www.retrovicio.org/foro/showthread.php?14969-GroovyArcade-Por-fin-100-Pixel-Perfect-y-mucho-mas&p=148162#post148162

He's having an issue with some usb wifi dongle, maybe you can give us a hint of what could be the possible problem.

[bitbytebit]

Hi bitbytebit,

When you have some time please have a look at this post by the folk Paul Sernine:

http://www.retrovicio.org/foro/showthread.php?14969-GroovyArcade-Por-fin-100-Pixel-Perfect-y-mucho-mas&p=148162#post148162

He's having an issue with some usb wifi dongle, maybe you can give us a hint of what could be the possible problem.

I'm pretty sure when he's setting up the network interface, that the 'Is this Wireless' question isn't used.  Otherwise the wpa_supplicant.conf file would be there, and it would have asked him for details.  If he is going through that part of the
config though, then it's really odd that the wpa_supplicant.conf file isn't created.  

Update: Also may want to check the dmesg output, it might be a USB network device issue too, some don't work without proprietary drivers from the company, at least work *right*. 

[ufoufo512]

At last I got a Radeon 7000 AGP. I can tell it is working great with Groovy Arcade Linux. I still have much tweaking to do. I want to customize AdvanceMenu quite a lot, happily I have old configuration file somewhere. I also mentioned earlier that the image is too wide on my monitor WG K7000. I have now found that there might be a Horizontal Size control for the monitor after all. It is kind of hidden there.

The performance on my Celeron 2,4GHz was positive surprise. I didn't check the actual framerates, but everything seemed quite smooth with NeoGeo era games. I know that I will not be able to run newer games and I have understood that even old ones using discrete sound are quite demanding.

[Calamity]

You can also reduce horizontal amplitude by software using a custom monitor line in GroovyMame, like this:

monitor_specs 15625-16200,50-60,4.000,4.700,9.000,0.064,0.192,1.024,0,0,288,448

Here, the values 4.000 and 9.000 are the horizontal front and back porch sizes, you can play with those, think of them as the right/left border's size (the bigger they are the narrower the picture).

[dmarcum99]

Hi Guys!

A couple of questions.

Can you recommend a cheap PCI wireless card that will work well with the GROOVYMAME live cd?  I want to close the back of my cab and I'm tired of having wires running through my house to be able to remote in if I need to.

Also, I see some current discussion on the monitor forum about rankings, mode selection, etc...does this also affect the linux distro or is the discussion just related to Windows?

Thirdly, mame .142 is out.  I saw there were some issues in the mameui program hogging a bunch of memory and such...is .142 performance wise any different and are there any benefits upgrading to it when it's avail for groovymame? 

[bitbytebit]

Hi Guys!

A couple of questions.

Can you recommend a cheap PCI wireless card that will work well with the GROOVYMAME live cd?  I want to close the back of my cab and I'm tired of having wires running through my house to be able to remote in if I need to.

Also, I see some current discussion on the monitor forum about rankings, mode selection, etc...does this also affect the linux distro or is the discussion just related to Windows?

Thirdly, mame .142 is out.  I saw there were some issues in the mameui program hogging a bunch of memory and such...is .142 performance wise any different and are there any benefits upgrading to it when it's avail for groovymame? 

Wireless cards are tricky in Linux, plenty work great but there's ones that don't work or sort of work with proprietary drivers, so it makes it hard to pick the ones that do work.  Also there's chipsets vs. the actual commercial labels/names given.  So that varies per country too, like certain Linksys ones from Europe use a working chipset, while the ones of the exact same name in the US might not have that working chipset.  That all said, I am using a ath9k (Atheros chipset) based card, here's a link that might help...

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k/products/external

Mine actually since a few months ago has picked up a slightly crappy connection, has pauses every minute or so, which sucks.  I'm not sure what they did in the driver, plus I have to use G networking instead of N on it or large data transfers hang it.  So that shows I've had issues with what I have, that used to mostly work fine, it's a pain.  There's belkin based ones that might work, or might not, mine don't.  Also there's ones based on Broadcom chipsets and they only with with a proprietary driver and are really hard to setup, I have one and only worked in Ubuntu but never in Gentoo.


Nope, the rankings don't matter in Linux, that's just to work around the whole modeline setup and limitations in Windows.

The newest ISO uses Mame 142, I doubt you'll need it though, I haven't found any differences unless there's the new exotic games added to it but classics are all the same from what I can tell. 

[ufoufo512]

Played with my cab little more. I have a rotating monitor and used to use inbuilt Advancemenu's filtering to display only horizontal or vertical games on the list. Now I tried from AdvanceMenu and choose Only Vertical. Available games list was empty, which was incorrect as there were many vertical games in my ROMS folder.

I don't have the access to my cab now to give proper steps to reproduce, but basically it is like this:
1) In AdvanceMenu bring up the menu dialog.
2) Navigate to Filtering (or something like that)
3) Choose "Only Vertical" in "Display Orientation"

Expected results:
Games list should list all vertical orientation games.

Actual results:
Games list is empty.

[bitbytebit]

Played with my cab little more. I have a rotating monitor and used to use inbuilt Advancemenu's filtering to display only horizontal or vertical games on the list. Now I tried from AdvanceMenu and choose Only Vertical. Available games list was empty, which was incorrect as there were many vertical games in my ROMS folder.

I don't have the access to my cab now to give proper steps to reproduce, but basically it is like this:
1) In AdvanceMenu bring up the menu dialog.
2) Navigate to Filtering (or something like that)
3) Choose "Only Vertical" in "Display Orientation"

Expected results:
Games list should list all vertical orientation games.

Actual results:
Games list is empty.

Ah, so it's just not filtering, but works without the filtering?  Sounds like possibly the XML format has changed or something since that version of AdvanceMenu (which is pretty old now), interesting, might be needing some changes to filter properly or something.  I'll have to look at it and see.

[bitbytebit]

New ISO's up, main changes are updated groovymame (not tons of changes there) and new menu options/submenu with a 29" 30-50Khz arcade monitor type and a 15-31Khz trisync monitor type (Makovision and Bililabs I think), the Trisync one uses composite sync.  Both somewhat experimental, definitions for them may still need some changes, will see.

15042011 - Version 1.558-86f6575 Release
         - New monitor types in gasetup Video section, also new MultiSync separate menu too
         - /home/roms/snaps symlink added for /home/roms/ttl directory
         - GroovyMame 0142 v. 012  update, new git based ebuild

[ufoufo512]

Ah, so it's just not filtering, but works without the filtering?  Sounds like possibly the XML format has changed or something since that version of AdvanceMenu (which is pretty old now), interesting, might be needing some changes to filter properly or something.  I'll have to look at it and see.

Yeah. The vertical games do show up and work if I don't change filtering. One question: How do I update only the groovymame on my installed system? This eBuild/Gentoo system is a bit new to me. I am happy with my installation otherwise, but somewhere in the future I would like to update the groovymame binary.

[bitbytebit]

Ah, so it's just not filtering, but works without the filtering?  Sounds like possibly the XML format has changed or something since that version of AdvanceMenu (which is pretty old now), interesting, might be needing some changes to filter properly or something.  I'll have to look at it and see.

Yeah. The vertical games do show up and work if I don't change filtering. One question: How do I update only the groovymame on my installed system? This eBuild/Gentoo system is a bit new to me. I am happy with my installation otherwise, but somewhere in the future I would like to update the groovymame binary.

That's something in this newest ISO I've mostly taken care of.  You basically just have to run 'sudo emerge -av groovymame' to upgrade it, that now pulls from the most recent active git repository, always the newest version and caches the source so only downloads the changes each time run (if there are any changes since the last emerge). 

[emphatic]

Is it possible for you to write a short installation guide and add it to your original post? Like this

What you need:
1. A PC with a computer monitor and keyboard
2. A blank disc
3. A J-Pac or other means of hooking up the PC to your arcade cabinet
4. etc

Installation and setup:
1. Download the ISO and burn it to your blank disc
2. Start your computer and put the disc in
3. Now what?

Why? Well, I've been looking at this thread from start to finish, and I still feel like this:   because I don't know how many steps of the installer to follow before I can hook the PC up to my arcade cabinet.

[bitbytebit]

Is it possible for you to write a short installation guide and add it to your original post? Like this

What you need:
1. A PC with a computer monitor and keyboard
2. A blank disc
3. A J-Pac or other means of hooking up the PC to your arcade cabinet
4. etc

Installation and setup:
1. Download the ISO and burn it to your blank disc
2. Start your computer and put the disc in
3. Now what?

Why? Well, I've been looking at this thread from start to finish, and I still feel like this:   because I don't know how many steps of the installer to follow before I can hook the PC up to my arcade cabinet.

Hopefully what I just added is good, it's actually what is on the page where the ISO's exist but it's good to have on the main post on this thread too.  I'll look at doing more detail than that even, but one main thing is the newest ISO really only requires one extra step besides yours up there (or number 3) is basically 3. Run Installation (number 3 on the cd's main menu).  Then it should go from there asking the person questions and setting up everything, I'm sure that could be streamlined even more though.  Hopefully someone with better HowTo writing skills can eventually take up the task of putting things into more user friendly tutorials though.  I'm really bad at writing things out simply, I'm really best at coding internally on C programs , it's just where my brain is and unfortunately my documentation often looks similar so it's nice to have more than one person at times for different aspects of projects like this doing the different parts. 

[emphatic]

Thanks, but what's confusing to me is when I switch from my computer screen to my cabinet?

[bitbytebit]

Thanks, but what's confusing to me is when I switch from my computer screen to my cabinet?

You mean like installing with a lcd connected and the plugging in the arcade monitor? For that I would recommend attaching the lcd to the output you won't use for the arcade monitor/15khz output.  The bootup menu choice you make, like vga-0 for example, is the only output that'll be 15khz.  The rest will be normal Vesa modes at 31khz or more.  After an install, you can change which output is the magic 15khz one though the video setup menu under the option for output freq.  I think after that and a reboot, you probably will need to run the monitor type setup again, now that I think about that it may be a bit tricky, but also changing the output for 15khz after install should really not be necessary except in rare situations since at install it can be chosen which will be which from the grub bootup choice.

[emphatic]

You mean like installing with a lcd connected and the plugging in the arcade monitor? For that I would recommend attaching the lcd to the output you won't use for the arcade monitor/15khz output.  The bootup menu choice you make, like vga-0 for example, is the only output that'll be 15khz.  The rest will be normal Vesa modes at 31khz or more.

If there's only one VGA output (and it's a single adapter only) on the computer you're installing to, choosing vga-0 is the only option if you want to use a 15kHz monitor, correct?

After an install, you can change which output is the magic 15khz one though the video setup menu under the option for output freq.

This is what I want to hear. Now, can I see that menu on the computer monitor, or will I have to connect the arcade monitor at this time already? I don't like to assume things when using a computer with my precious arcade monitors.

I think after that and a reboot, you probably will need to run the monitor type setup again, now that I think about that it may be a bit tricky, but also changing the output for 15khz after install should really not be necessary except in rare situations since at install it can be chosen which will be which from the grub bootup choice.

So, when the computer boots up to show the grub menu, does it come up in all scenarios, or just when running the Live CD? Thanks for explaining stuff, I won't mind writing up a dummy guide for you if I get everything up and running.

[bitbytebit]

You mean like installing with a lcd connected and the plugging in the arcade monitor? For that I would recommend attaching the lcd to the output you won't use for the arcade monitor/15khz output.  The bootup menu choice you make, like vga-0 for example, is the only output that'll be 15khz.  The rest will be normal Vesa modes at 31khz or more.

If there's only one VGA output (and it's a single adapter only) on the computer you're installing to, choosing vga-0 is the only option if you want to use a 15kHz monitor, correct?

After an install, you can change which output is the magic 15khz one though the video setup menu under the option for output freq.

This is what I want to hear. Now, can I see that menu on the computer monitor, or will I have to connect the arcade monitor at this time already? I don't like to assume things when using a computer with my precious arcade monitors.

I think after that and a reboot, you probably will need to run the monitor type setup again, now that I think about that it may be a bit tricky, but also changing the output for 15khz after install should really not be necessary except in rare situations since at install it can be chosen which will be which from the grub bootup choice.

So, when the computer boots up to show the grub menu, does it come up in all scenarios, or just when running the Live CD? Thanks for explaining stuff, I won't mind writing up a dummy guide for you if I get everything up and running.

Ah for one output (what kind of card is it?) you really then would need to pick the SVGA/VGA monitor type on the grub menu to install, and then do the after installation method of switching output to be 15khz.  When you change the output to 15khz vga-0, it's only 15khz after a reboot, so you'll want to wait till you change it in the menu and then halt the system then change monitors and reboot.  I'd actually leave it connected to the LCD monitor/VGA monitor until full reboot and check the screen and see that it's really 15khz (or doesn't output to the monitor), if you want to be extra careful, then can turn off monitor/connect arcade monitor/turn it on.

The grub menu only comes up with the LiveCD, the installation puts one on that's only got the main entry and from then on the setup menu changes that entry to whatever type of output you choose it to use. 

That would be great, really wonderful to have help with documentation, since I definitely am not the best at that part of things .

[emphatic]

Ah for one output (what kind of card is it?) you really then would need to pick the SVGA/VGA monitor type on the grub menu to install, and then do the after installation method of switching output to be 15khz.  When you change the output to 15khz vga-0, it's only 15khz after a reboot, so you'll want to wait till you change it in the menu and then halt the system then change monitors and reboot.  I'd actually leave it connected to the LCD monitor/VGA monitor until full reboot and check the screen and see that it's really 15khz (or doesn't output to the monitor), if you want to be extra careful, then can turn off monitor/connect arcade monitor/turn it on.

It's an onboard Intel graphics adapter.

Thanks for the info. Whenever I start installing to my PC I'll take notes and make a comprehensive document that can be pasted into the first post (for us noobs). I think you will have lots more people converting to this if it's easy to review before "taking the leap" from an easy setup (XP, Win7) to Linux (easy as well, but the whole hardware aspect can be confusing).

[bitbytebit]

Ah for one output (what kind of card is it?) you really then would need to pick the SVGA/VGA monitor type on the grub menu to install, and then do the after installation method of switching output to be 15khz.  When you change the output to 15khz vga-0, it's only 15khz after a reboot, so you'll want to wait till you change it in the menu and then halt the system then change monitors and reboot.  I'd actually leave it connected to the LCD monitor/VGA monitor until full reboot and check the screen and see that it's really 15khz (or doesn't output to the monitor), if you want to be extra careful, then can turn off monitor/connect arcade monitor/turn it on.

It's an onboard Intel graphics adapter.

Thanks for the info. Whenever I start installing to my PC I'll take notes and make a comprehensive document that can be pasted into the first post (for us noobs). I think you will have lots more people converting to this if it's easy to review before "taking the leap" from an easy setup (XP, Win7) to Linux (easy as well, but the whole hardware aspect can be confusing).

Cool, definitely check with the liveCD first to see if that adaptor really can handle 15khz.  It may be one that needs possibly the dotclock setting to be higher which I do have an option for now in groovymame but it isn't automated in the setup interface yet.  Just a mame.ini option to raise it instead.  I figure the intel adapters should work, although might need some tweaks here and there through the system, not sure.  No one has tested and reported what they do yet, given logs, so I have no clue if they really work or need some special settings.  I just know the code in the Linux kernel looks pretty active, they seem to be doing as much work as the ATI ones are, and looks like they are supposed to support all the same features but just not sure about 15khz modelines (the 15khz console I have is global all DRM drivers so it covers all graphics adaptors that are supported by the Linux frame buffer, but each individual adaptor might need PLL tweaks possibly or special dotclock limits in mame.ini).

[dmarcum99]

It's me again!

More Wah!cade questions:

What do I need to do to get some of the multimedia features in wah!cade to work?  I'm trying to get music to play in the background...and to the best of my knowledge I've pointed the wah!cade setup program to the directory where the .mp3 file is(arcade ambience file) /home/arcade/emulators/mame/music/arcade83.mp3

I'm also trying to get my videos (.avi's) to play as the screensaver and also to play while in the front end.  Again, I believe in the setup I pointed the setup program to where my files are. /home/arcade/emulators/mame/videos

Lastly, intro video...I am trying to get the mame lightning video (.avi) to be used as the intro video when wha!cade starts up.  I believe I've pointed the setup program to my file, but like the other items, it won't play on startup.    /home/arcade/intro/intro.avi

[bitbytebit]

 Wahcade needs gstreamer to do the music and video functionality.  I had this running before, I'm not sure but it might require a rebuild too of wahcade and some python modules too.  With emerge you can search for the gstreamer parts, I will look at what is exactly required to get it going too.

It's me again!

More Wah!cade questions:

What do I need to do to get some of the multimedia features in wah!cade to work?  I'm trying to get music to play in the background...and to the best of my knowledge I've pointed the wah!cade setup program to the directory where the .mp3 file is(arcade ambience file) /home/arcade/emulators/mame/music/arcade83.mp3

I'm also trying to get my videos (.avi's) to play as the screensaver and also to play while in the front end.  Again, I believe in the setup I pointed the setup program to where my files are. /home/arcade/emulators/mame/videos

Lastly, intro video...I am trying to get the mame lightning video (.avi) to be used as the intro video when wha!cade starts up.  I believe I've pointed the setup program to my file, but like the other items, it won't play on startup.    /home/arcade/intro/intro.avi

[dmarcum99]

With zero prior knowledge with linux I hope I did the right thing...  I typed #sudo emerge gstreamer
It appeared to go to the gstreamer website and downloaded files, but afterward, still no luck.  Did I do the emerge thing right?  Reboot...

I also tried the emerge thing for groovymame... #sudo emerge groovymame.  It took a long time before I was able to use the cab again, but groovymame appears to work normally.  Do I need to go through the setup program again?

[bitbytebit]

With zero prior knowledge with linux I hope I did the right thing...  I typed #sudo emerge gstreamer
It appeared to go to the gstreamer website and downloaded files, but afterward, still no luck.  Did I do the emerge thing right?  Reboot...

I also tried the emerge thing for groovymame... #sudo emerge groovymame.  It took a long time before I was able to use the cab again, but groovymame appears to work normally.  Do I need to go through the setup program again?

Ah cool, the groovymame part should be fine, should be the newest groovymame now, no need to go through the setup part.

Yeah the gstreamer libraries are there I guess now, but there might be other missing parts, and besides that wahcade itself will need to be re-compiled and installed which unfortunately the way I've got it isn't possible on your end.  Since I have a customized wahcade config setup so that the config files are modified for paths to groovymame, and a couple bugs fixed they have.  I need to do something about that, when I have some time I'll see what it'll take to enable the media functions of wahcade.  Also I really need to make it into a ebuild like groovymame to allow an update like you did through emerge.  Unfortunately it's probably quite a bit of work to do that since there's no wahcade ebuild in gentoo and it'll be a whole new ebuild, I haven't explored creating them from scratch like that yet.  It'll probably be easiest for me to try and get wahcade to be enabled for the gstreamer/media setup already, hopefully it doesn't take up too much space to do that, I'll have to see.

[Quinny]

There is a bug with the current release when using Ubuntu 10 that causes a error and crashes Wahcade when the video tries to play. The latest patch of wahcade will work though. Maybe try that version (1.0pre1) to see if it works any better.

https://code.launchpad.net/wahcade
I used lp:wahcade, not the experimental one.

[dmarcum99]

There is a bug with the current release when using Ubuntu 10 that causes a error and crashes Wahcade when the video tries to play. The latest patch of wahcade will work though. Maybe try that version (1.0pre1) to see if it works any better.

https://code.launchpad.net/wahcade
I used lp:wahcade, not the experimental one.

The splash screen indicates I'm running 1.0pre1 already...and my lack of linux knowledge has left me scratching my head.  Having the multimedia things not work right now isn't a deal breaker...I'd like them to work but in the end they're fluff to enhance thw WOW factor. 

I tried to mess with advancemenu before deciding to use wahcade, but there is so little info anymore since advancemenu seems a bit dated.  I've seen videos of some great work done in advancemenu, but nobody is willing to share their work, help with questions, or even reply.  It's not like I have no skills...before going to groovymame and linux, I was using a fully loaded Hyperspin setup with a custom made theme for my cab that I made myself.  But bitbytebit made it difficult not to use his linux setup if you have the right equipment....and he and Calamity are great at responding to questions.

[bitbytebit]

There is a bug with the current release when using Ubuntu 10 that causes a error and crashes Wahcade when the video tries to play. The latest patch of wahcade will work though. Maybe try that version (1.0pre1) to see if it works any better.

https://code.launchpad.net/wahcade
I used lp:wahcade, not the experimental one.

The splash screen indicates I'm running 1.0pre1 already...and my lack of linux knowledge has left me scratching my head.  Having the multimedia things not work right now isn't a deal breaker...I'd like them to work but in the end they're fluff to enhance thw WOW factor.  

I tried to mess with advancemenu before deciding to use wahcade, but there is so little info anymore since advancemenu seems a bit dated.  I've seen videos of some great work done in advancemenu, but nobody is willing to share their work, help with questions, or even reply.  It's not like I have no skills...before going to groovymame and linux, I was using a fully loaded Hyperspin setup with a custom made theme for my cab that I made myself.  But bitbytebit made it difficult not to use his linux setup if you have the right equipment....and he and Calamity are great at responding to questions.

Yeah AdvanceMenu is really weird actually codewise, looking at it is very confusing (and only half as confusing as AdvanceMame).  The way it was written, they separated it up into arbitrary directories that use single letters, I have no clue what arrangement it's following.  All I know is when I look at the code for any of the Advance stuff, I get really confused and never know where anything is really or what any of the code really does, it's like they just used gibberish for function names, file names, variable names, so it's very sad since it'd be nice to modernize it (since the XML parsing is obviously out of date in it).

I'll look at WahCade some this weekend, I am using 1.0pre1 actually in groovy linux right now, will check out that patch and see if I can get it more 'multimedia' ized since that'll make it more appealing towards people used to hyperspin and such.  

Also there was an interesting frontend in C for Linux named camino I think that I played with once, had to hack at it to get it to work with thousands of games since internally the programming didn't allow that and did eat a lot of resources.  But it did the whole wheel of games thing similar to hyperspin and was pretty cool, at least looked like it had potential.  Possibly I can include it too as another option, really it seems like it could be the future for Linux frontends being in C and already having that sort of hyperspin type interface, plus actively being developed.  I like wahcade but being in python has disadvantages of it using quite a bit of memory and cpu for what it does, although it's good when your system can handle it, but there is generally some better system response/behavior to a C program opposed to a scripting language.



Update:  Also could you run wahcade with the -d option, and get the output when you try to use multimedia with it?  That might be interesting to see, and help see what I need to do to enable it.  I think that's how I got it working when I did have it working, doing that and finding the stuff it was complaining about.  That would help me hunt down what is missing, which the newest ISO's I've been not including the multimedia stuff so they definitely won't work :/, but the one you have installed did have the media stuff I think, so it should have the basic needed parts just missing something probably that wahcade wants.

[bitbytebit]

Here's something to try, and it'll give you the ability to fully setup wahcade from scratch too.  It also will help me in seeing what works, to get it into the main ISO .

Checkout both the stable and development wahcade:

# first get bzr
sudo emerge -av bzr
# get devel
bzr branch lp:~waynemou/wahcade/devel
# get stable
bzr branch lp:wahcade

Then you can apply the patch attached here to these for the changes in config options groovymame uses...

cd wahcade && cat ../wahcade.diff |patch -p0

Then run the normal install script in the wahcade directory.  I'm guessing the devel version isn't the one to use, but the main one might be with the fix mentioned earlier in this thread, possibly will help.  If not, at least with this patch you can recompile wahcade, and possibly try the other main one that's available (99preX), but with that there's still a fix that needs to be done for it...
http://www.anti-particle.com/forum_phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=590

So that should be a third branch/option, but the bzr checkout ones are much better there were a lot of bugs ironed out it seems, I found they actually setup automatically and efficiently compared to the 99pre versions, hopefully that doesn't mean the media stuff is broken in the 1.0pre ones.

[dmarcum99]

I ran into a couple of snags...

I was able to do the wahcade -d thing...at first I got 3 issues and I was able to resolve 2 of those.
1)PIL module not found error.....something about rotated images not supported
2)control.ini missing in /emulators/mame/ ....easy fix
3)directory not found /home/roms/avi...easy fix
So I copied the controls.ini file and moved all my .avi's to the appropriate directory.  Nothing to talk about though...no improvement.

Checkout both the stable and development wahcade:

# first get bzr
sudo emerge -av bzr
# get devel
bzr branch lp:~waynemou/wahcade/devel
# get stable
bzr branch lp:wahcade

Then you can apply the patch attached here to these for the changes in config options groovymame uses...

cd wahcade && cat ../wahcade.diff |patch -p0

Then run the normal install script in the wahcade directory.  I'm guessing the devel version isn't the one to use, but the main one might be with the fix mentioned earlier in this thread, possibly will help.  If not, at least with this patch you can recompile wahcade, and possibly try the other main one that's available (99preX), but with that there's still a fix that needs to be done for it...

I was able to download the three branches, but I'm at a roadblock now.  I downloaded the wahcade.diff file but wasn't sure what directory to copy it to.  Also, I typed the your command verbatim and I got a directory or file not found error. (cd wahcade && cat ../wahcade.diff |patch -p0)  Since I didn't get any further, I didn't attempt the install script.....

[bitbytebit]

I ran into a couple of snags...

I was able to do the wahcade -d thing...at first I got 3 issues and I was able to resolve 2 of those.
1)PIL module not found error.....something about rotated images not supported
2)control.ini missing in /emulators/mame/ ....easy fix
3)directory not found /home/roms/avi...easy fix
So I copied the controls.ini file and moved all my .avi's to the appropriate directory.  Nothing to talk about though...no improvement.

Checkout both the stable and development wahcade:

# first get bzr
sudo emerge -av bzr
# get devel
bzr branch lp:~waynemou/wahcade/devel
# get stable
bzr branch lp:wahcade

Then you can apply the patch attached here to these for the changes in config options groovymame uses...

cd wahcade && cat ../wahcade.diff |patch -p0

Then run the normal install script in the wahcade directory.  I'm guessing the devel version isn't the one to use, but the main one might be with the fix mentioned earlier in this thread, possibly will help.  If not, at least with this patch you can recompile wahcade, and possibly try the other main one that's available (99preX), but with that there's still a fix that needs to be done for it...

I was able to download the three branches, but I'm at a roadblock now.  I downloaded the wahcade.diff file but wasn't sure what directory to copy it to.  Also, I typed the your command verbatim and I got a directory or file not found error. (cd wahcade && cat ../wahcade.diff |patch -p0)  Since I didn't get any further, I didn't attempt the install script.....

You'll need to download, and unzip the patch 'unzip wahcade.zip', then copy it to the directory of wahcade and reference it with the patch command.  I was just assuming it was one directory below the wahcade directory you were compiling with that command using ../ but it could be anywhere in the file system.  The PIL images not supported doesn't matter, so don't worry about that.  If able to patch each of those, and run ./install for them, might get better results hopefully in one or another of them. 

[bitbytebit]

Here's the newest wahcade 1.0pre1 zipped up, just unzip it and enter the wahcade directory it makes.  After that just type sudo ./install and it should install on the system, see if that works better.

http://mario.groovy.org/GroovyArcade/wahcade.zip

[dmarcum99]

after much testing I still could not get any of the multimedia features to work. 

I unzipped the file and ran the ./install in the newly created wahcade directory and it installed fine.  When I ran wahcade-setup from the same directory, I expected to see the setup program at the program defaults, but it had my previous settings from the livecd install directory (/.wahcade).  So I don't know if that has anything to do with not getting anything to play....     I rebooted, started from the terminal, and still no go.

the arcade ambience file is almost 90mb and .mp3 format...would this make a difference?
my video files are in 640x480 .avi format - these should be fine, right?

[bitbytebit]

after much testing I still could not get any of the multimedia features to work. 

I unzipped the file and ran the ./install in the newly created wahcade directory and it installed fine.  When I ran wahcade-setup from the same directory, I expected to see the setup program at the program defaults, but it had my previous settings from the livecd install directory (/.wahcade).  So I don't know if that has anything to do with not getting anything to play....     I rebooted, started from the terminal, and still no go.

the arcade ambience file is almost 90mb and .mp3 format...would this make a difference?
my video files are in 640x480 .avi format - these should be fine, right?

Yeah the config files are fine, they should be the same.  I think the author of wahcade is reworking the whole way the media stuff functions, says that in the repository comments, guessing it's either broken right now or some other library is missing. 

We can try the development version too, see what that does.  Not sure, I do know it's got a bit more changes with the media stuff, it could be fixed there, but of course it also could be quite more broken since it's a development branch, we'll have to see.

I'm not sure about the file size, it could be, actually all I ever did was to have wahcade play my mp3 files like a jukebox randomly.  So the other media stuff I never tested actually, it could still be a work in progress for all I know.

[bitbytebit]

Here's the development wahcade patched, see how it works, zip file will extract to ./devel...

http://mario.groovy.org/GroovyArcade/wahcade_devel.zip

[dmarcum99]

no luck with the devel version either...I was worried that the gstreamer was broken, so I loaded up advmenu and I was able to get the arcade ambience .mp3 to play in the background.  I still couldn't figure out how to get the movies to play even in advmenu.  But I don't think advmenu plays .avi's either.

I was starting to think perhaps I wasn't setting up WAHCADE right, but the setup program asks for the specific directories and I can point it to them...??

[General_Faliure]

You can also post wahcade specific questions in the wahcade forum at; http://www.anti-particle.com/wahcade.shtml.

Greetz, Ger.

[Quinny]

I have tried the latest LiveCD and it works fantastically for what I was testing. I just wanted to test it live without installing anything. However there is one minor issue I had and I'm not sure if it's been mentioned in this thread yet.

I have a custom chassis which can use the CGA setting and that works fine. When I get to test a game and it loads up the menu (Advance menu? The green one) but it loses sync and starts flickering/scrolling and appears three times on screen. Once I choose a game the screen is fine again. So there seems to be an issue setting the resolution for when the game menu is displayed.

In the monitor.c file you have some predefined setting for different monitors. How do you find out the settings? I have a custom chassis and I was wondering how I can work out what those settings should be? CGA is fine but perhaps I can get something a bit better with the right settings. This chassis is dual-res so I can get 25KHz on it too which I would like to set up in the monitor.c file if I can.

[bitbytebit]

I have tried the latest LiveCD and it works fantastically for what I was testing. I just wanted to test it live without installing anything. However there is one minor issue I had and I'm not sure if it's been mentioned in this thread yet.

I have a custom chassis which can use the CGA setting and that works fine. When I get to test a game and it loads up the menu (Advance menu? The green one) but it loses sync and starts flickering/scrolling and appears three times on screen. Once I choose a game the screen is fine again. So there seems to be an issue setting the resolution for when the game menu is displayed.

In the monitor.c file you have some predefined setting for different monitors. How do you find out the settings? I have a custom chassis and I was wondering how I can work out what those settings should be? CGA is fine but perhaps I can get something a bit better with the right settings. This chassis is dual-res so I can get 25KHz on it too which I would like to set up in the monitor.c file if I can.

The X windows startup, or when it runs the front end/Advance Menu, probably needs a better 641x280 modeline generated.  You can exit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and replace it with a new one. 

To generate a new modeline, you need to use switchres at the command line, like this...

switchres 641 480 60.00 --mrange 15250.00-15700.00,49.50-65.00,2.000,4.700,8.000,0.064,0.192,1.024,0,0,288.0,448

Trick is you'll need to edit the line and figure out the right ranges for your monitor, basically you should see that it is first the horizontal range, then the vertical refresh range, then the front porch sync pulse and back porch first horizontally then vertically, then the horizontal polarity and then the vertical polarity, maximum line height and then the min virtualized or interlaced line size.

Calamity might know more details on what it actually needs to get the monitor to work right.  Since in Mame things are working fine, should probably only need to edit xorg.conf for now to get the front end working.  If you know your monitors exact ranges, and other details, that would be possibly the best way to get it working with 640x480 resolutions (the front end is setup though to 641 width to avoid clashing with games using that resolution too). 

In the mame.ini you can do this same setting, multiple times too if you want different ranges like to add the EGA one you can do.  In mame.ini it uses monitor_specs ...  then basically the same format as with switchres.  Probably better to avoid that for now till just get xorg.conf right though.  You can pull out and view the lines/ranges with switchres using this command...

switchres 641 480 60 --showmrange  --monitor cga

So can use that and give it ega for the 24khz range, and in theory add two lines to mame.ini like this (or actually edit the current ones)...

monitor_specs 15250.00-15700.00,49.50-65.00,2.000,4.700,8.000,0.064,0.192,1.024,0,0,288.0,448
monitor_specs 24959.99-24960.00,50.00-60.00,2.910,3.000,4.440,0.451,0.164,1.048,0,0,384.0,576

And that would give you both ranges available to mame.
 

[gabe]

First and foremost, I would like to thank you for your contributions to the community. As a newcomer to this hobby, I was absolutely shocked by the lack of Linux support. As others in this thread have stated, Linux seems like the obvious choice for a dedicated arcade cabinet.

Also I have the complete build scripts and extra files needed to build the Groovy Arcade Linux liveCD distribution from scratch, although not recommended because of the effort and having it already built for you, it is available for the curious.

I don't like Samba being installed and configured for me. I prefer a text editor to Webmin, and I have no desire to emulate home consoles (I'm happy with MAME). I don't want FVWM and LXDE installed... Nor do I need Midnight Commander, Chromium, etc etc.

I understand why the distribution is setup this way, but it would be nice if there was a "minimal" install option, or perhaps an "advanced setup" that allowed the user to deselect packages. If that is not an option, I would be very interested in any information on "rolling my own" install of Groovy Arcade Linux.

I gather that Groovy is Gentoo based. Beyond that, things get a bit fuzzy. It sounds like Groovy might be using a custom patched kernel? If I installed and configured Gentoo to my liking, what would I need to do to get SwitchRes, GroovyMAME, etc humming along on my Wells Gardner monitor? Is it as simple as grabbing the ebuilds?

I understand you are not a documentation writer, but I'm willing to help. If you can point me in the right direction, I would be more than happy to create a proper "Custom Groovy Install" howto... Unless of course, this goes against the project's goals.

Cheers!

[bitbytebit]

First and foremost, I would like to thank you for your contributions to the community. As a newcomer to this hobby, I was absolutely shocked by the lack of Linux support. As others in this thread have stated, Linux seems like the obvious choice for a dedicated arcade cabinet.

Also I have the complete build scripts and extra files needed to build the Groovy Arcade Linux liveCD distribution from scratch, although not recommended because of the effort and having it already built for you, it is available for the curious.

I don't like Samba being installed and configured for me. I prefer a text editor to Webmin, and I have no desire to emulate home consoles (I'm happy with MAME). I don't want FVWM and LXDE installed... Nor do I need Midnight Commander, Chromium, etc etc.

I understand why the distribution is setup this way, but it would be nice if there was a "minimal" install option, or perhaps an "advanced setup" that allowed the user to deselect packages. If that is not an option, I would be very interested in any information on "rolling my own" install of Groovy Arcade Linux.

I gather that Groovy is Gentoo based. Beyond that, things get a bit fuzzy. It sounds like Groovy might be using a custom patched kernel? If I installed and configured Gentoo to my liking, what would I need to do to get SwitchRes, GroovyMAME, etc humming along on my Wells Gardner monitor? Is it as simple as grabbing the ebuilds?

I understand you are not a documentation writer, but I'm willing to help. If you can point me in the right direction, I would be more than happy to create a proper "Custom Groovy Install" howto... Unless of course, this goes against the project's goals.

Cheers!

Yeah I'm in the middle of moving right now, haven't had any time to do extra stuff, sorry about getting back to you late. 

I agree, the extra stuff isn't necessary, I actually could make a script to run and it would remove all the extras.  In Gentoo it's easy to completely remove all those packages, with the emerge command.  If you read up some on Gentoo, and how emerge works, you'll see the ways you can remove packages and the dependencies too, or add packages.  I'll look into writing a script to remove that stuff, or if you figure it  out before me that would be a wonderful contribution.  Also thanks for offering to write documentation, it would be great.

It's a patched kernel, to allow the console to be 15khz with the proper video= kernel command line added in grub to activate it.  There's 2 patches in the kernel/patches/ subdirectory in the git repository that are the ones used.

[gabe]

You replied within 12 hours of my post. I hardly consider that late.

I can probably handle a simple bash script to remove packages and dependencies. I'll dig into the Gentoo/emerge documentation and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for the tips. I'll report back with my findings.

[gabe]

After tinkering with various setups for the past week, I've decided that I'd rather patch together a custom solution using Arch (my distribution of choice). I still plan on documenting my findings, and possibly submitting some Arch PKGBUILDs... But I have a few questions.

I falsely assumed I would be able to use my AVGA3000 with a vanilla kernel and open source ATI Drivers... When Googling the complaints found in dmesg, I was brought back here to find that you have already solved this problem. For my particular case, am I correct in assuming that the only kernel patch of yours I need is avga3000.diff?

I also have some questions about building GroovyMAME, but I don't want to pollute this thread too much. Would you rather I create a new thread?

Thanks!

[bitbytebit]

After tinkering with various setups for the past week, I've decided that I'd rather patch together a custom solution using Arch (my distribution of choice). I still plan on documenting my findings, and possibly submitting some Arch PKGBUILDs... But I have a few questions.

I falsely assumed I would be able to use my AVGA3000 with a vanilla kernel and open source ATI Drivers... When Googling the complaints found in dmesg, I was brought back here to find that you have already solved this problem. For my particular case, am I correct in assuming that the only kernel patch of yours I need is avga3000.diff?

I also have some questions about building GroovyMAME, but I don't want to pollute this thread too much. Would you rather I create a new thread?

Thanks!

Try all patches, they won't hurt and best to apply both of them (the avga and general linux diffs).  Also you need the hd2600.bin vbios for the ATI generic HD2600 card too, it makes the AVGA3000 into a normal Radeon ATI card, and allows it to work with the ATI DRM interface in the Linux kernel.  That is located under /lib/firmware/radeon/ in the ISO image, so you can boot the CD and scp that file from it, copy it somewhere, and make sure it's available for the patches to use.  Also make sure you use the .config file from the git repository too as a starter for compiling the kenrel, there are a few important lines in there to make the ATI drivers in Linux work right.  That is located under the /kernel/ directory I think in the git repository.  Hopefully you can figure all that out from this, I don't have tons of time right now, but mostly should be enough to help you get it working in Arch Linux.  Someone else had issues getting a kernel compiled with the patches in another distribution, but will be interesting how it work for you.  It's another thing I'd like to look at eventually, when I have more time .

[gabe]

I finally got around to trying this in Arch.

I successfully patched and compiled the kernel. The new kernel boots, and recognizes that I have an AVGA3000... But then I run into problems. I've attached what I assume to be the relevant errors from kernel.log. I'm out of time to tinker for the evening, but I'll be back at it tomorrow. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them.

I should note that at the moment, I am running this on a 17" CRT computer monitor using a DVI-->VGA adapter.

This is where my monitor scrambles:

Code: [Select]

Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.246249] [drm] Loading RV630 Microcode
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200108] r600_cp: Failed to load firmware "radeon/R600_rlc.bin"
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200153] [drm:r600_startup] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware!
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200195] radeon 0000:01:00.0: disabling GPU acceleration
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201275] radeon 0000:01:00.0: ffff88007a08e400 unpin not necessary
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201317] radeon 0000:01:00.0: ffff88007a08e400 unpin not necessary
The rest, for context:

Code: [Select]

Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.010372] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.010425] [drm] radeon defaulting to kernel modesetting.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.010466] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.010581] radeon 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.010625] radeon 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.011946] [drm] initializing kernel modesetting (RV630 0x1002:0x958F).
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.012002] [drm] register mmio base: 0xFEAF0000
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.012043] [drm] register mmio size: 65536
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.012089] ArcadeVGA 3000 board found
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.760138] Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 3000.170 MHz.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.760183] Switching to clocksource tsc
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.244611] ATOM BIOS: 102
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.244678] radeon 0000:01:00.0: VRAM: 512M 0x0000000000000000 - 0x000000001FFFFFFF (512M used)
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.244722] radeon 0000:01:00.0: GTT: 512M 0x0000000020000000 - 0x000000003FFFFFFF
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.244937] [drm] Detected VRAM RAM=512M, BAR=256M
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.244984] [drm] RAM width 128bits DDR
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245106] [TTM] Zone  kernel: Available graphics memory: 1025478 kiB.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245150] [TTM] Initializing pool allocator.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245203] [drm] radeon: 512M of VRAM memory ready
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245244] [drm] radeon: 512M of GTT memory ready.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245299] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 1 (10.10.2010).
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245340] [drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245416] radeon 0000:01:00.0: irq 42 for MSI/MSI-X
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245421] radeon 0000:01:00.0: radeon: using MSI.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245483] [drm] radeon: irq initialized.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245523] [drm] GART: num cpu pages 131072, num gpu pages 131072
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.246249] [drm] Loading RV630 Microcode
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200108] r600_cp: Failed to load firmware "radeon/R600_rlc.bin"
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200153] [drm:r600_startup] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware!
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200195] radeon 0000:01:00.0: disabling GPU acceleration
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201275] radeon 0000:01:00.0: ffff88007a08e400 unpin not necessary
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201317] radeon 0000:01:00.0: ffff88007a08e400 unpin not necessary
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201360] [drm] Enabling audio support
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201404] failed to evaluate ATIF got AE_BAD_PARAMETER
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201536] [drm] Radeon Display Connectors
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201576] [drm] Connector 0:
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201615] [drm]   DVI-I
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201654] [drm]   HPD1
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201694] [drm]   DDC: 0x7e50 0x7e50 0x7e54 0x7e54 0x7e58 0x7e58 0x7e5c 0x7e5c
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201737] [drm]   Encoders:
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201776] [drm]     DFP1: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_TMDS1
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201816] [drm]     CRT2: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC2
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201856] [drm] Connector 1:
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201895] [drm]   VGA
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201935] [drm]   DDC: 0x7e40 0x7e40 0x7e44 0x7e44 0x7e48 0x7e48 0x7e4c 0x7e4c
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201978] [drm]   Encoders:
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.202017] [drm]     CRT1: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC1
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.202057] [drm]     DFP2: INTERNAL_LVTM1
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.266520] [drm] radeon: power management initialized
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.341662] [drm] fb mappable at 0xD0040000
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.341706] [drm] vram apper at 0xD0000000
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.341745] [drm] size 3145728
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.341784] [drm] fb depth is 24
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.341823] [drm]    pitch is 4096
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.565287] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.567922] fb0: radeondrmfb frame buffer device
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.567923] drm: registered panic notifier
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.567977] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.8.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0

[bitbytebit]

ah might need to copy a newer /lib/firmware directory from the cd too, that distro might be missing the latest radeon firmware.

I finally got around to trying this in Arch.

I successfully patched and compiled the kernel. The new kernel boots, and recognizes that I have an AVGA3000... But then I run into problems. I've attached what I assume to be the relevant errors from kernel.log. I'm out of time to tinker for the evening, but I'll be back at it tomorrow. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them.

I should note that at the moment, I am running this on a 17" CRT computer monitor using a DVI-->VGA adapter.

This is where my monitor scrambles:

Code: [Select]

Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.246249] [drm] Loading RV630 Microcode
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200108] r600_cp: Failed to load firmware "radeon/R600_rlc.bin"
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200153] [drm:r600_startup] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware!
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200195] radeon 0000:01:00.0: disabling GPU acceleration
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201275] radeon 0000:01:00.0: ffff88007a08e400 unpin not necessary
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201317] radeon 0000:01:00.0: ffff88007a08e400 unpin not necessary
The rest, for context:

Code: [Select]

Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.010372] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.010425] [drm] radeon defaulting to kernel modesetting.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.010466] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.010581] radeon 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.010625] radeon 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.011946] [drm] initializing kernel modesetting (RV630 0x1002:0x958F).
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.012002] [drm] register mmio base: 0xFEAF0000
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.012043] [drm] register mmio size: 65536
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.012089] ArcadeVGA 3000 board found
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.760138] Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 3000.170 MHz.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [    1.760183] Switching to clocksource tsc
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.244611] ATOM BIOS: 102
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.244678] radeon 0000:01:00.0: VRAM: 512M 0x0000000000000000 - 0x000000001FFFFFFF (512M used)
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.244722] radeon 0000:01:00.0: GTT: 512M 0x0000000020000000 - 0x000000003FFFFFFF
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.244937] [drm] Detected VRAM RAM=512M, BAR=256M
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.244984] [drm] RAM width 128bits DDR
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245106] [TTM] Zone  kernel: Available graphics memory: 1025478 kiB.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245150] [TTM] Initializing pool allocator.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245203] [drm] radeon: 512M of VRAM memory ready
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245244] [drm] radeon: 512M of GTT memory ready.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245299] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 1 (10.10.2010).
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245340] [drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245416] radeon 0000:01:00.0: irq 42 for MSI/MSI-X
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245421] radeon 0000:01:00.0: radeon: using MSI.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245483] [drm] radeon: irq initialized.
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.245523] [drm] GART: num cpu pages 131072, num gpu pages 131072
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [   62.246249] [drm] Loading RV630 Microcode
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200108] r600_cp: Failed to load firmware "radeon/R600_rlc.bin"
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200153] [drm:r600_startup] *ERROR* Failed to load firmware!
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.200195] radeon 0000:01:00.0: disabling GPU acceleration
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201275] radeon 0000:01:00.0: ffff88007a08e400 unpin not necessary
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201317] radeon 0000:01:00.0: ffff88007a08e400 unpin not necessary
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201360] [drm] Enabling audio support
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201404] failed to evaluate ATIF got AE_BAD_PARAMETER
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201536] [drm] Radeon Display Connectors
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201576] [drm] Connector 0:
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201615] [drm]   DVI-I
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201654] [drm]   HPD1
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201694] [drm]   DDC: 0x7e50 0x7e50 0x7e54 0x7e54 0x7e58 0x7e58 0x7e5c 0x7e5c
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201737] [drm]   Encoders:
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201776] [drm]     DFP1: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_TMDS1
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201816] [drm]     CRT2: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC2
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201856] [drm] Connector 1:
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201895] [drm]   VGA
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201935] [drm]   DDC: 0x7e40 0x7e40 0x7e44 0x7e44 0x7e48 0x7e48 0x7e4c 0x7e4c
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.201978] [drm]   Encoders:
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.202017] [drm]     CRT1: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC1
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.202057] [drm]     DFP2: INTERNAL_LVTM1
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.266520] [drm] radeon: power management initialized
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.341662] [drm] fb mappable at 0xD0040000
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.341706] [drm] vram apper at 0xD0000000
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.341745] [drm] size 3145728
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.341784] [drm] fb depth is 24
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.341823] [drm]    pitch is 4096
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.565287] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.567922] fb0: radeondrmfb frame buffer device
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.567923] drm: registered panic notifier
Jun 14 17:52:39 localhost kernel: [  123.567977] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.8.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0

[gabe]

SUCCESS! Thanks for the help, bitbytebit.

I doubt there will be much demand for a detailed write-up, as anyone who actually has the desire to do this could probably figure out the process from the preceding posts... But for posterity, here is the quick and dirty version of how I Groov-ified Arch Linux with an AVGA 3000.

bitbytebit - if you have any input or feedback, I'd love to hear it.

I enabled the testing repository so that I could update xf86-video-ati from 6.14.1 to 6.14.2. I'm not sure if this is necessary, but it seemed like a good idea after running into problems with my first compile.

The latest version of Groovy was built using kernel 2.6.38.3, so that is also the version I used. After downloading from kernel.org, I unpacked and did make mrproper. I then applied ati9200_pllfix.diff, avga3000.diff, and linux.diff sourced from git.groovy.org. I did NOT apply oss4_liveCD.diff as I do not believe it is necessary for my application.

I then copied over my existing (default Arch) .config via zcat /proc/config.gz > .config. I compared this .config to kernel_config-64bit found on git.groovy.org. It looked to me like the relevant changes were found under Device Drivers --> Generic Driver Options.

I changed:

Code: [Select]

CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE=""
to:

Code: [Select]

CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE="radeon/JUNIPER_rlc.bin radeon/CYPRESS_rlc.bin radeon/CEDAR_rlc.bin radeon/R700_rlc.bin radeon/R600_rlc.bin radeon/CEDAR_me.bin radeon/CEDAR_pfp.bin radeon/JUNIPER_me.bin radeon/JUNIPER_pfp.bin radeon/CYPRESS_me.bin radeon/CYPRESS_pfp.bin radeon/PALM_me.bin radeon/PALM_pfp.bin radeon/SUMO_rlc.bin radeon/REDWOOD_me.bin radeon/REDWOOD_pfp.bin radeon/REDWOOD_rlc.bin radeon/hd2600.bin"
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE_DIR="/lib/firmware"
I then booted the Groovy Linux live CD, switched to a virtual console, mounted my Arch root filesystem and copied /lib/firmware/radeon from Groovy to the same location on my Arch filesystem. I then rebooted (back to Arch).

Finally, I compiled using a kernel PKGBUILD found on the Arch Wiki and installed the resulting package with pacman. I double checked the contents of /boot/ and menu.lst, crossed my fingers, and rebooted. When the system came back up, Kernel Mode Setting worked, and I was also able to startx!

I'm going to dig into Groovy Mame next.

[gabe]

In the interest of documenting the process, I've attached my xorg.conf. It is based largely on xorg.conf's posted by bitbytebit in the Switchres thread.

Code: [Select]

# Config for Wells-Gardner k7000 and ArcadeVGA 3000

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option          "BlankTime"  "0"
        Option          "NoPM"  "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "VGA-0"
        VendorName      "Wells-Gardner"
        ModelName       "25k7191"

        Option          "DPMS"  "false"

        HorizSync       15.10-16.80
        VertRefresh     47.00-63.00

        UseModes        "ArcadeModes"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Card0"
        VendorName      "ATI Technologies Inc"
        BoardName       "Unknown Board"

        Driver          "radeon"
        BusID           "PCI:01:00:0"

        Option          "EXAVSync"  "true"
        Option          "EnablePageFlip"  "true"
        Option          "ModeDebug"  "true"
        Option          "IgnoreEDID"  "true"
        Option          "monitor-VGA-0"  "VGA-0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "VGA-0"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     8
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     16
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Modes"
        Identifier      "ArcadeModes"
        ModeLine        "640x480x60.00" 13.004160 640 664 728 832 480 482 488 521 -HSync -VSync interlace
EndSection
Originally, I had included the following lines, but they resulted in warnings in Xorg.0.log. I'm wondering if this is because I am presently using the virgin unpatched ATI driver?

Code: [Select]

Section "Monitor"
        Option          "MinClock"      "1Mhz"
        Option          "MaxClock"      "90Mhz"

Section "Device"
        Option          "ForceMinDotClock"  "3mhz"

[gabe]

no luck with the devel version either...I was worried that the gstreamer was broken, so I loaded up advmenu and I was able to get the arcade ambience .mp3 to play in the background.  I still couldn't figure out how to get the movies to play even in advmenu.  But I don't think advmenu plays .avi's either.

I have mp3 playback working in wah!cade devel under Arch Linux. It plays Arcade Ambiance with no issues. I needed to install 3 packages:

• gstreamer0.10
• gstreamer0.10-plugins
• gstreamer0.10-python

I'm guessing the "gotcha" is that last package. The Gentoo equivalent looks to be gst-python. I can't comment on playback of *.avi's (yet).

[bitbytebit]

Awesome, that is great, glad to know it's working outside of the distribution and in general for other distros .  Yeah I think all those steps are the key, firmware was something that sort of slipped my mind at first but is an important key to get the  stuff kicking into 15khz mode right after the grub menu displays.  The reason I really built the distribution was to create a prototype and since it was hard for others to do all the changes I made to get a Linux system to do 15khz mode.  So good to know it's actually allowing anyone to repeat the steps I took to get any linux distro to work right.

[bitbytebit]

Diffs are up for mame 0143, will get the mame ebuild and CD ISO images updated soon hopefully, probably next few days.

[ves]

Hello bitbytebit , this morning I started to update the diff for the new version but have been faster than expected  , even thought these out of service, so much better.

You will not include the patch wiimote? and Openppjoy with applications that you said they were for the new livecd?



Thank you.

[dmarcum99]

I am intrigued with the wiimote thing as well.  A new gun that has a wiimote built-in the housing is available now.  It's called Scorpion VII.  I am dying to hear if this can work with groovymame.

http://superufo.com/product_html/Nintendo_Wii_Wii_Scorpion_Vii.html

[ves]

Hello updated the patch to use the wiimote with the new version of groovymame 0143, you can also patch with the original mame 0143, might give you some offset errors but they patched it and it works.


Greetings.

[bitbytebit]

Hello updated the patch to use the wiimote with the new version of groovymame 0143, you can also patch with the original mame 0143, might give you some offset errors but they patched it and it works.


Greetings.

Cool I will check this out, might have it as a separate patch along side the groovymame one, so things are easier to keep updated in the future with mame changes. 

Hopefully I get to the ISO in the next week, although I'm sort of waiting on Linux kernel 3.0 to come out first since I'd like to update it.  I have the newer kernel patch modified to work (3.0-rc5), but haven't tested it yet to make sure it's good.  Then I'll wait till 3.0 comes out probably, so can do the big upload all at the same time.

[gabe]

Hopefully I get to the ISO in the next week, although I'm sort of waiting on Linux kernel 3.0 to come out first since I'd like to update it.  I have the newer kernel patch modified to work (3.0-rc5), but haven't tested it yet to make sure it's good.  Then I'll wait till 3.0 comes out probably, so can do the big upload all at the same time.

The Linux Foundation is projecting late July/early August for the 3.0 release.

On the topic of Linux, I have done the following:

• Applied your kernel patches
• Applied your SDL patch
• Applied the GroovyMame patches

Am I missing anything else?

I seem to recall reading in one of the threads that I needed patched ATI drivers to take advantage of lower dotclocks, but I can't seem to find any evidence of said patches while browsing GIT. 

As always, I appreciate your help.

[bitbytebit]

Hopefully I get to the ISO in the next week, although I'm sort of waiting on Linux kernel 3.0 to come out first since I'd like to update it.  I have the newer kernel patch modified to work (3.0-rc5), but haven't tested it yet to make sure it's good.  Then I'll wait till 3.0 comes out probably, so can do the big upload all at the same time.

The Linux Foundation is projecting late July/early August for the 3.0 release.

On the topic of Linux, I have done the following:

• Applied your kernel patches
• Applied your SDL patch
• Applied the GroovyMame patches

Am I missing anything else?

I seem to recall reading in one of the threads that I needed patched ATI drivers to take advantage of lower dotclocks, but I can't seem to find any evidence of said patches while browsing GIT. 

As always, I appreciate your help.

There aren't patches needed anymore for the X Windows side of things, but does need some exact configuration options to turn off the default modelines and config must be setup to proper 'specs' (which are not very obvious) to which output on the video card is being used.  The one used on the ISO after configuring the monitor type, that should explain mostly I hope.  There's some picky stuff with X Windows in how it chooses which video output to do certain things on like modeline setup.

Also there are some radeon firmware files needed from /lib/firmware/radeon and the configuration in X Windows setup to use those and start the ati driver upon bootup in the kernel.  Also the kernel video= command like video=DVI-I-1:640x480ec (and specify the right video output connector, else it won't work, it forces it to not use EDID or detection, always on instead).  Also of course a newer X Windows. 

Well I guess I might just use the 3.0-rc5 for now if it tests alright.  The newer kernels changed where some of the code was in the diffs but applied pretty easily with doing some parts by hand.

There might be a few other things too I forgot, it's quite a complex but tiny little fixes here and there to push true 15khz support on most ATI cards.  So hopefully those can all be nailed down better in the future, mostly just hacked at the distribution while digging out the changes I had made to my original prototype system, haven't really had time to go through and test each one and recreate the system on another to prove out what all changes are necessary.  Probably the things above will get there, although after they are done there might yet be some other little thing I forgot, but should be able to figure that out at that point and hopefully can finally nail down the missing parts. 

[gabe]

There aren't patches needed anymore for the X Windows side of things, but does need some exact configuration options to turn off the default modelines and config must be setup to proper 'specs' (which are not very obvious) to which output on the video card is being used.  The one used on the ISO after configuring the monitor type, that should explain mostly I hope.  There's some picky stuff with X Windows in how it chooses which video output to do certain things on like modeline setup.

Also there are some radeon firmware files needed from /lib/firmware/radeon and the configuration in X Windows setup to use those and start the ati driver upon bootup in the kernel.  Also the kernel video= command like video=DVI-I-1:640x480ec (and specify the right video output connector, else it won't work, it forces it to not use EDID or detection, always on instead).  Also of course a newer X Windows. 

Well I guess I might just use the 3.0-rc5 for now if it tests alright.  The newer kernels changed where some of the code was in the diffs but applied pretty easily with doing some parts by hand.

There might be a few other things too I forgot, it's quite a complex but tiny little fixes here and there to push true 15khz support on most ATI cards.  So hopefully those can all be nailed down better in the future, mostly just hacked at the distribution while digging out the changes I had made to my original prototype system, haven't really had time to go through and test each one and recreate the system on another to prove out what all changes are necessary.  Probably the things above will get there, although after they are done there might yet be some other little thing I forgot, but should be able to figure that out at that point and hopefully can finally nail down the missing parts. 

OK - I have done all of that, and ALMOST everything is working perfectly. The games that work, look absolutely incredible (Neo Geo games, Cave shmups, 1942, Shinobi etc)... But I have found many games which simply fail to load (Bad Dudes VS Dragon Ninja, Gradius, VS. Super Mario Brothers). With logging, I get something similar to this (from baddudes):

Code: [Select]

Parsing mame.ini
SwitchRes: Found output connector 'VGA-0'
SwitchRes: Monitor: cga Orientation: horizontal Aspect 4:3
SwitchRes v0.013: [baddudes.zip] (1) horizontal (256x240@57.39)->(256x240@57.39)->(256x240@57.39)
SwitchRes: # baddudes.zip 256x240@57.39 15.2663Khz
SwitchRes:      ModeLine          "256x240x57.39" 5.251606 256 272 296 344 240 244 247 266 -HSync -VSync
SwitchRes: Setting Option -redraw 0
SwitchRes: Setting Option -rotate
SwitchRes: Setting Option -nothrottle
SwitchRes: Setting Option -refreshspeed
SwitchRes: Setting Option -waitvsync
SwitchRes: Xrandr ADD VGA-0:    ModeLine          "256x240x57.39" 5.251606 256 272 296 344 240 244 247 266 -HSync -VSync
SwitchRes: Running 'xrandr  --newmode      "256x240x57.39" 5.251606 256 272 296 344 240 244 247 266 -HSync -VSync'
SwitchRes: Running 'xrandr  --addmode VGA-0 256x240x57.39'
SwitchRes: Setting Option -resolution 256x240x32@57.392092
Build version:      0.143 (Jun 29 2011)
Build architecure:  SDLMAME_ARCH=
Build defines 1:    SDLMAME_UNIX=1 SDLMAME_X11=1 SDLMAME_LINUX=1
Build defines 1:    LSB_FIRST=1 PTR64=1 DISTRO=generic SYNC_IMPLEMENTATION=tc
SDL/OpenGL defines: SDL_COMPILEDVERSION=1214 USE_OPENGL=1 USE_DISPATCH_GL=1
Compiler defines A: __GNUC__=4 __GNUC_MINOR__=6 __GNUC_PATCHLEVEL__=0 __VERSION__="4.6.0 20110603 (prerelease)"
Compiler defines B: __amd64__=1 __x86_64__=1 __unix__=1
Compiler defines C: __USE_FORTIFY_LEVEL=0
SDL Device Driver     : x11
SDL Monitor Dimensions: 640 x 480
Enter sdlwindow_init
Using SDL single-window OpenGL driver (SDL 1.2)
Leave sdlwindow_init
 640x 480 -> 0.001600
 304x 224 -> 0.000015
 288x 224 -> 0.000020
 256x 240 -> 2.000000
Loaded opengl shared library: <default>
I'm at a bit of a loss. I've tried several different config changes, (custom monitor_specs0, turning off modeline, changeres, etc.) If you have any ideas on where I should look next, I would be most grateful.

[bitbytebit]

There aren't patches needed anymore for the X Windows side of things, but does need some exact configuration options to turn off the default modelines and config must be setup to proper 'specs' (which are not very obvious) to which output on the video card is being used.  The one used on the ISO after configuring the monitor type, that should explain mostly I hope.  There's some picky stuff with X Windows in how it chooses which video output to do certain things on like modeline setup.

Also there are some radeon firmware files needed from /lib/firmware/radeon and the configuration in X Windows setup to use those and start the ati driver upon bootup in the kernel.  Also the kernel video= command like video=DVI-I-1:640x480ec (and specify the right video output connector, else it won't work, it forces it to not use EDID or detection, always on instead).  Also of course a newer X Windows.  

Well I guess I might just use the 3.0-rc5 for now if it tests alright.  The newer kernels changed where some of the code was in the diffs but applied pretty easily with doing some parts by hand.

There might be a few other things too I forgot, it's quite a complex but tiny little fixes here and there to push true 15khz support on most ATI cards.  So hopefully those can all be nailed down better in the future, mostly just hacked at the distribution while digging out the changes I had made to my original prototype system, haven't really had time to go through and test each one and recreate the system on another to prove out what all changes are necessary.  Probably the things above will get there, although after they are done there might yet be some other little thing I forgot, but should be able to figure that out at that point and hopefully can finally nail down the missing parts.  

OK - I have done all of that, and ALMOST everything is working perfectly. The games that work, look absolutely incredible (Neo Geo games, Cave shmups, 1942, Shinobi etc)... But I have found many games which simply fail to load (Bad Dudes VS Dragon Ninja, Gradius, VS. Super Mario Brothers). With logging, I get something similar to this (from baddudes):

Code: [Select]

Parsing mame.ini
SwitchRes: Found output connector 'VGA-0'
SwitchRes: Monitor: cga Orientation: horizontal Aspect 4:3
SwitchRes v0.013: [baddudes.zip] (1) horizontal (256x240@57.39)->(256x240@57.39)->(256x240@57.39)
SwitchRes: # baddudes.zip 256x240@57.39 15.2663Khz
SwitchRes:      ModeLine          "256x240x57.39" 5.251606 256 272 296 344 240 244 247 266 -HSync -VSync
SwitchRes: Setting Option -redraw 0
SwitchRes: Setting Option -rotate
SwitchRes: Setting Option -nothrottle
SwitchRes: Setting Option -refreshspeed
SwitchRes: Setting Option -waitvsync
SwitchRes: Xrandr ADD VGA-0:    ModeLine          "256x240x57.39" 5.251606 256 272 296 344 240 244 247 266 -HSync -VSync
SwitchRes: Running 'xrandr  --newmode      "256x240x57.39" 5.251606 256 272 296 344 240 244 247 266 -HSync -VSync'
SwitchRes: Running 'xrandr  --addmode VGA-0 256x240x57.39'
SwitchRes: Setting Option -resolution 256x240x32@57.392092
Build version:      0.143 (Jun 29 2011)
Build architecure:  SDLMAME_ARCH=
Build defines 1:    SDLMAME_UNIX=1 SDLMAME_X11=1 SDLMAME_LINUX=1
Build defines 1:    LSB_FIRST=1 PTR64=1 DISTRO=generic SYNC_IMPLEMENTATION=tc
SDL/OpenGL defines: SDL_COMPILEDVERSION=1214 USE_OPENGL=1 USE_DISPATCH_GL=1
Compiler defines A: __GNUC__=4 __GNUC_MINOR__=6 __GNUC_PATCHLEVEL__=0 __VERSION__="4.6.0 20110603 (prerelease)"
Compiler defines B: __amd64__=1 __x86_64__=1 __unix__=1
Compiler defines C: __USE_FORTIFY_LEVEL=0
SDL Device Driver     : x11
SDL Monitor Dimensions: 640 x 480
Enter sdlwindow_init
Using SDL single-window OpenGL driver (SDL 1.2)
Leave sdlwindow_init
 640x 480 -> 0.001600
 304x 224 -> 0.000015
 288x 224 -> 0.000020
 256x 240 -> 2.000000
Loaded opengl shared library: <default>
I'm at a bit of a loss. I've tried several different config changes, (custom monitor_specs0, turning off modeline, changeres, etc.) If you have any ideas on where I should look next, I would be most grateful.

Are the games just black screens, scrambled screens, or do they crash mame?  Looking at xrandr output might be interesting during the issue if possible.  It does look like there's some other modelines setup, which is odd, possibly it's crashing I'm guessing and leaving those setup without removing them.    

Are you using the Gallium version of OpenGL or classic, the classic one is necessary, just in case that's set to gallium.

[gabe]

Are the games just black screens, scrambled screens, or do they crash mame?

They crash mame.

Looking at xrandr output might be interesting during the issue if possible.  It does look like there's some other modelines setup, which is odd, possibly it's crashing I'm guessing and leaving those setup without removing them.

I'd be happy to post the xrandr output while it's happening... But I don't know how to do so right at the moment.

Are you using the Gallium version of OpenGL or classic, the classic one is necessary, just in case that's set to gallium.

I found out that Gallium is enabled by default in Arch, so I just compiled ati-dri from git with --disable-gallium, but the problem persists. 

[bitbytebit]

New ISO is out for Groovy Arcade Linux version 1.563-e6c97bb.

Changes included:
* Mame 143
* Linux 3.0 Kernel
* Improved wireless network config file (might help work with more wireless networks)
* Now have Multi Media and Desktop builds, so have all the bells and whistles available, lxde desktop, chromium browser etc.

Mostly just an upgrade to the kernel and mame, didn't have time for more than that for now.  The new GroovyMame forum TODO list I just created should be used to help organize ideas for the future when I have more time, can work out more rough edges that exist.

[dmarcum99]

anyone having trouble using the new iso?  I downloaded the iso two different times and got the same errors booting from the cd-rom.  Here's a pic of the error:



EDIT:  the powernow k8 error eludes to the "cool-n-quiet" feature which I enabled...but doesn't help with the errors with the red exclamation marks...    and the liveCD boot process stops right there and doesn't continue 
EDIT#2:  I downloaded the 64-bit iso if it helps...and I also included another pic.  this is the info on the screen right before I get the red exclamation marks.

[gabe]

It sounds like you have been messing around with BIOS settings? If so, have you confirmed that the old iso works with your new BIOS settings?

Complete shot in the dark here - but try loading the "fail safe defaults" in BIOS.

[dmarcum99]

I haven't messed with my BIOS settings outside of turning on the C-N-Q.....and ver. 1.560 live CD installed fine.

The squashfs error relates to the filesystem...I tried to read up on it but it was too techy for my soft brain.

Am I the only one who has tried the new ISO??  This will go a long way to determine if the error is specific to my setup.  Maybe I need to wipe the drive before I install...??  I had a brand new install of 1.560 when bitbytebit announced the new version...

EDIT:  I've read this could an issue with my DVD drive.  I'll post my findings after I get home and swap drives.
Sent from my EV Eris using Tapatalk

[dmarcum99]

I have exhausted all possibilities now.
 
I have loaded fail-safe defaults on mobo w/v1.563- no difference
I have loaded v 1.560 with the original dvd drive - v. 1.560 boots off cd no problem
I have loaded v 1.563 with the original dvd drive - v. 1.563 halts with the squashfs - invalid loop location error
I have loaded v 1.560 with new dvd drive -v. 1.560 boots off cd no problem
I have loaded v. 1.563 with new dvd drive 0 v. 1.563 halts with the squashfs - invalid loop location error

I'll try to download the iso again...but at 35K download speeds it takes 6 hours to download    

EDIT: just downloaded 32-bit version....NO DICE....same result.
re-downloaded 64-bit version for the 3rd time....same result.
FRUSTRATED....I took the 64-bit CD to another PC in my house....THE DANG THING WORKS!!!??   
What could be doing this to my cab??  My mobo has a AMD 785G chipset and I'm using an AUSUS ATI 4350 (outside of the dvd drive swap, my hardware hasn't changed)

Help me Obi-Wan (bitbytebit) youre my only hope!!  

[Quinny]

I am not ready to download the new ISO at the moment (does this work with USB sticks or only a CD/DVD?) but thanks for testing it out dmarcum99. I am interested to see the results.

[bitbytebit]

I have exhausted all possibilities now.
 
I have loaded fail-safe defaults on mobo w/v1.563- no difference
I have loaded v 1.560 with the original dvd drive - v. 1.560 boots off cd no problem
I have loaded v 1.563 with the original dvd drive - v. 1.563 halts with the squashfs - invalid loop location error
I have loaded v 1.560 with new dvd drive -v. 1.560 boots off cd no problem
I have loaded v. 1.563 with new dvd drive 0 v. 1.563 halts with the squashfs - invalid loop location error

I'll try to download the iso again...but at 35K download speeds it takes 6 hours to download    

EDIT: just downloaded 32-bit version....NO DICE....same result.
re-downloaded 64-bit version for the 3rd time....same result.
FRUSTRATED....I took the 64-bit CD to another PC in my house....THE DANG THING WORKS!!!??   
What could be doing this to my cab??  My mobo has a AMD 785G chipset and I'm using an AUSUS ATI 4350 (outside of the dvd drive swap, my hardware hasn't changed)

Help me Obi-Wan (bitbytebit) youre my only hope!!  

It seems like the dvd/cd drive that you have isn't working with the newest kernel, which is strange.  I'm not sure if it's possibly a side effect of something going wrong with it from the 3.0.0 vs. 2.6 version jump (scripts that thought of 2.7 as being the next kernel, most of them, have to be rewritten).  I fixed what I think fully fixes that, but there could be other ones possibly.  There might be something in the config that changed, and didn't get configured in to support that dvd drive.  What model is it, what does 'lspci -v' output show on the other older iso?  Also possibly the dmesg from the older in /var/log/dmesg.  Is there anything bus wise in how it hooks up different than the one that works?

[dmarcum99]

Thanks for the help bitbytebit!

The original DVD drive in my cab:  Hitachi/LG GSA-H40N (IDE drive)
I replaced this drive with:  Toshiba/Samsung TS-H353 (SATA drive)  
**on both of these drives v. 1.560 works....1.563 failed (both 32&64-bit)**

I just assumed since I tried 2 different drives without success it had to be something with my motherboard chipset (AMD 785G)

When I took the CD to my living room PC, it booted successfully.  This drive is:  LG GSA-H20L (IDE drive)

I'm attaching txt files of the lspci-v & dmesg you were asking about.

**EDIT**  the lspci-v txt file may have duplicated info.  I typed the command twice and when I copied the output I may have grabbed both outputs. 

[bitbytebit]

Thanks for the help bitbytebit!

The original DVD drive in my cab:  Hitachi/LG GSA-H40N (IDE drive)
I replaced this drive with:  Toshiba/Samsung TS-H353 (SATA drive)  
**on both of these drives v. 1.560 works....1.563 failed (both 32&64-bit)**

I just assumed since I tried 2 different drives without success it had to be something with my motherboard chipset (AMD 785G)

When I took the CD to my living room PC, it booted successfully.  This drive is:  LG GSA-H20L (IDE drive)

I'm attaching txt files of the lspci-v & dmesg you were asking about.

**EDIT**  the lspci-v txt file may have duplicated info.  I typed the command twice and when I copied the output I may have grabbed both outputs. 

Also get the output of /var/log/messages and the output of running the command `dmesg > out.log` too.  Those might get closer to when the cd drive is loaded, and also possibly the output of `lsmod > lsmod.log` which should show which modules are being used.  Also you might want to try these on the live cd that fails, just to see what output you get, if it detects the cd drive there and possibly what errors occur.  The dmesg command output there might be the most interesting to see.

[dmarcum99]

I zipped the log folder so you can take a look.

I also attached the out.log (out.txt) and the lsmod.log (lsmod.txt) but I'm not sure how much good they'll do.  I remoted in from work to my pc and remoted in to the cab to run the commands, but I forgot I don't have any DVD drive attached to the cab right now.    

I'm not sure I can run any commands using the 1.563 iso.  I'm not at the cab right now (work) but the boot process stops at the red exclamation marks indicating invalid loop location.  It appears that a cursor appears so I sould type commands, but the keyboard doesn't function and it appears to hang (lock-up) right there.

[dmarcum99]

 

I figured I'd take the easy way out and swap out with the drive that booted the livecd successfully on my living room pc.  SAME RESULT!!!!  (invalid loop location) AAAAHHHHHH!!!!  
So it has to be my mobo chipset (amd 785G)...right?
AND...it does lock up the keyboard upon the error.  I can't use the keyboard and I'm forced to reboot.  So...I can't attempt any console commands.

**edit** switching out to a PS keyboard allows the keyboard to function after the error.
attached are the same log files as before, but these were taken after hooking up the DVD drive that worked previously on another PC....and a PS2 keyboard attached:

[Calamity]

I figured I'd take the easy way out and swap out with the drive that booted the livecd successfully on my living room pc.  SAME RESULT!!!!  (invalid loop location) AAAAHHHHHH!!!!  
So it has to be my mobo chipset (amd 785G)...right?

Just in case, try booting with -nomsi, it's one of the options in grub menu.

[dmarcum99]

just tried both -nomsi options but same result as before.  I've tried to research the invalid loop location error, but it's been spotty.  Some got it to work by swapping dvd/cd drives, some like me, weren't successful.

[dmarcum99]

Had a thought an wondered what you guys think:

If I take my hard drive from the cab and temporarily move it to the pc that the live cd worked with.
Can I do the install from that pc and move the hard drive back to my cab afterward?  I didn't know if the hard drive install created a hardware config that would conflict when switching to different hardware...??

[bitbytebit]

Had a thought an wondered what you guys think:

If I take my hard drive from the cab and temporarily move it to the pc that the live cd worked with.
Can I do the install from that pc and move the hard drive back to my cab afterward?  I didn't know if the hard drive install created a hardware config that would conflict when switching to different hardware...??

You might have to go through setup again on the other system and redo the video config, I think, depending on if the pci bus looks different (from how the xorg.conf is created).  Go for it and see how it works, I'm thinking it sounds like it should work.  The only thing I've come up with as a possibility to fix the cdrom issue is the genkernel version I'm using to build the kernel.  Not for sure, but it's probably the only thing that could be a reason if it's not the linux kernel itself breaking things between the two versions.  I had to change genkernel's setup to make it work for 3.0.0, possibly the actual updated one for 3.0.0 has something I missed.  Just a guess though, thinking that maybe there's a difference like scsi based or something like that, between the two systems motherboards.  Then based on that, possibly the genkernel isn't loading all the modules needed for some reason to get that motherboard to see the cdrom or ide/sata/scsi bus (possibly that specific version) or whatever kind it is.   

[MonkeyJug]

I figured I'd take the easy way out and swap out with the drive that booted the livecd successfully on my living room pc.  SAME RESULT!!!!  (invalid loop location) AAAAHHHHHH!!!!  
So it has to be my mobo chipset (amd 785G)...right?
AND...it does lock up the keyboard upon the error.  I can't use the keyboard and I'm forced to reboot.  So...I can't attempt any console commands.

**edit** switching out to a PS keyboard allows the keyboard to function after the error.
attached are the same log files as before, but these were taken after hooking up the DVD drive that worked previously on another PC....and a PS2 keyboard attached:

i have the exact same problem about an invalid loop location.

my dvd drive is a pioneer 112d (via ide) and i have the asus m4n68t-m le v2 motherboard, which has the NVIDIA Geforce 7025/nForce 630a chipset.  all other iso-builds of groovymame installed without a hitch.

did you ever get a solution dmarcum99?

[bitbytebit]

I might have a solution, updating genkernel and building with that when I create the ISO.  Also there's a 3.0.3 stable version out.  It might be a week or so, I need to test it, build and upload.  Uploading is a pain currently, internet connection upload speed, so I'm waiting till I make sure I've done enough to have a chance of fixing it to be worth the upload time.

for now installing the older ISO and emerge groovymame with the newer ebuild as root.  That will get the newest mame and be the same mostly as the new ISO.

[dmarcum99]

sounds awesome bitbytebit!! I appreciate your efforts...really!  Not many people go out of their way to supoort like you and Calamity do for the hobby.

FWIW, I tried to install on another PC and move the HD to my cab to see if it would boot, but no dice.  I don't get the invalid loop location error, but I get another error.  That's not really important right now though.  I'm glad it sounds like you think it may be fixed soon.

[Failbot]

Hi,
I've been playing with the Groovy Arcade Linux for a few days now and think it's exactly what I'm after for my current project. Thanks for the effort putting this distro together!

I can however confirm the problems with the kernel's disk detection on some chipsets that has already been noted previously.
When it dumps out to the BusyBox shell there are no /dev/sd? or /dev/sr? devices present, certainly looks like the kernel is missing drivers/modules for these particular disk controllers.
Using SATA or IDE drives does not make a difference, but I *think* I remember getting it to work with a USB DVD drive.

I have had success with ATI/AMD Radeon graphics and Intel onboard graphics (but haven't tried 15 KHz modes on Intel), but no success with any nVidia graphics card.
With nVidia, groovymame runs, switches display mode, but then crashes out with a segmentation fault.

Here is my results for a few machines I've tried:

Groovy Arcade Linux 1.536 (32 or 64bit):
AMD785G chipset (onboard Radeon HD3200): Disks NOT detected.
nVidia 630a chipset (onboard Geforce 7025): Disks NOT detected.
Intel 915GM chipset (discrete Geforce Go 7300): Disks detected. Mame segfaults.
Intel NM10 chipset (onboard Intel GMA3150): Disks detected. Mare runs fine.

Groovy Arcade Linux 1.530 (64bit):
AMD785G chipset (onboard Radeon HD3200): Disks detected. Mame runs fine.
nVidia 630a chipset (onboard Geforce 7025): Disks detected. Mame segfaults.
nVidia 630a chipset (discrete Geforce 7900GT): Disks detected. Mame segfaults.
nVidia 630a chipset (discrete Radeon HD5450): Disks detected. Mame runs fine.

If there's any other info I can provide you to help solving this issue, let me know. I look forward to trying the new version when it's ready, but in the meantime v1.530 will keep me busy for a while.

Thanks again for your hard work, I'll find something to donate .

[bitbytebit]

I've uploaded a new *test* 32bit ISO image which has the 3.0.2 kernel and newer genkernel used to create it.  So it hopefully fixes the booting issues, please test and let me know if this works.  It's this ISO that is the one to test:

LiveCD32-Full-1.565-774c0a9.iso

[dmarcum99]

SUCCESS!!!!  32-BIT iso booted successfully on my AMD 785G chipset.  (anxiously awaiting 64-bit version now!)