Retropie on raspbian bios files

[Duhjoker]

 I'm building a multi Pi set up for media games browsing and so on. I want to add my whole games library but I need to ask a couple questions first.

When I got done installing each emulator I got messages about the bios. Do all the bios files go into the one bios folder? Why didn't it tell me I needed the mame bios files.

[Duhjoker]

HELLO Hello hello, is there any body out there? Seriously? I could use a lil help.

[MacGyver]

The answer is not a simple one.  The bios files can sometimes go in their own zip file, and sometimes in with the parent roms in their zip file. 

These are all the bios names that belong in their own .zip file in the roms folder.

acpsx
ar_bios
atpsx
atluspsx
konamigv
crysbios
decocass
hng64
maxaflex
megaplay
megatech
macsbios
neogeo
nss
pgm
playch10
psarc95
stvbios
skns
konamigx
taitofx1
taitogn
tps
cpzn1
cpzn2

Each of those may have 1 or more bios "rom" file in them, but those roms may work from within the parents zip too depending on which version of mame you are using.  They may even demand it.
Rom files tend to be small, so if they aren't working from their own zip file in the rom folder, copy the files inside them out to a temp location and bundle them with their parent game roms in that game rom zip file.  It won't hurt anything having them in both places and you will only lose a little space.

[Duhjoker]

Thank you. The mame4all is what comes with the download

Hopefully I can get it going but right now I'm getting

Bash emulationstation no such command

Is that normal with out games and bios?

[MacGyver]

It's the only way for them to distribute it legally.

Those bios files (and the rom dumps) are still the property of some company somewhere.  Sure they might not ever sell another copy, but it still theirs to not sell to anyone if they want.

If MAME or RetroPie bundles roms with their stuff that they don't own or get the permission from the copyright holder for, they immediately become a target for litigation from the rightful owner.

Remember this when it comes time to sell anything.  You can sell anything you want, but if it has roms in it, and you don't own them, and the person you sell it to decides to tell, you can have your ass sued off.

[Duhjoker]

   I know all about rule #5. This all private, I don't plan on selling either my mame cocktail can or my Pi. The Pi is basically a super console that I can take with to play old games with friends or for social gatherings.

  These game manufacturers and owners really should think about liscensing. There is much money that can be made off this.

[MacGyver]

Some do still license their games (or some in some cases bastardized 3D reincarnation of them with the same brand name).  If it wasn't for MAME some of the older obscure games would have been lost and forgotten by now though.  Some vendors even opened up their licensing rights so their old games could be used by everyone.  (Those public domain guys rock.)

[Duhjoker]

    Ok I did a clean install of Raspbian Jessie then downloaded KWEB and omxplayer and they seem to work. After that I re-installed Retropie 3.5. I only installed the emus I'm gonna use. Then I downloaded retro arch and emulation station. I then did the set-up script then rebooted.

After that I put all the bios files in the bios folder and games in thier appropriate roms folder.

    Now when I type in "emulationstation" i get an error message that says::

X is running. Please shutdown X in order to mitigate problems with loosing keyboard input. For example, logout from LXDE

What exactly is LXDE and X.

   If I hit the f1 control alt key then ^c and the gui closes and leaves me at the terminal. When I type emu station again I get X is running please turn off X.

So I type Pkill x and it makes me log back into the RJessie gui.

What am I doing wrong here???

[MacGyver]

Try Ctrl+Alt+Bksp to really close X (the windows looking gui).

If that doesn't work, run:

Code: [Select]

sudo raspi-config
from a terminal window and find the startup setting and set it to console only.  when you boot it will only go to the login prompt.  you'll log in and the run your command.

If you want to run the pretty windows-looking gui again, just type:

Code: [Select]

startxat the prompt (after logging in of course)

Note:  While you're in the raspi-config, you might want to set the video ram and change the pi user password too (and anything else you investigate thoroughly first, like the cpu speed).

If you want it to login automatically in console mode (the text-only mode) you'll need to work at it. 
Start here:
http://www.opentechguides.com/how-to/article/raspberry-pi/5/raspberry-pi-auto-start.html



Way down the road when you have a better idea of how things are working, you can learn to adjust the video resolution to whatever you want here:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md
You should understand that not every TV/monitor supports all video resolutions/modes so make sure you know how to telnet/SSH in with Putty or something similar for when you screw up and can no longer see the screen.

[Duhjoker]

Thank you so much that worked perfectly!!!!

Ok thanks to the good people here I have figured the problem.

Here's a short tutorial on how I set up raspbian Jessie with Retropie 3.5

   You cannot run the emulationstation from with in the Jessie GUI so you have exit completely out of it. Here's how I did it.

Install the Raspbian Jessie image file to your card using the preferred method of your choice. While in raspi-config choose to boot to console. This makes it boot straight to the CLI.

  Next follow the instructions here for setting up your keyboard found here. Follow it to a t until it asks if you want to use control+alt+backspace. The guide says choose no but you want to choose yes since this is the easiest way to turn X and LDXE off and take you to the CLI.

http://thepihut.com/blogs/raspberry-pi-tutorials/25556740-changing-the-raspberry-pi-keyboard-layout

Set everything under internationalism along with your keyboard then expand your file system to use all those gigs. Go to advanced options then open ssh and choose to enable it.

Now reboot pie and it will ask you for your login and password. Give both and it will give you a command line. Type start x to start the Desktop GUI.

Go ahead and type in start X then click the network icon at the right top of the GUI. When you see your network pop up click it then enter your credentials to log in to it.

Now that we have everything configured correctly we can set up Retropie by using the link below to maually install the latest version of Retropie.

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Manual-Installation
Transfer games and bios using win32scp

Now exit the GUI using control+alt+backspace. Then type in emulationstation to start emu station. F4 will exit.


At this point if you want an MP3 player or video player you can download the latest version of omxplayer and KWEB.

I don't know why emu station will not start in X but it would be a lot easier if you could access it through a desktop icon or through a menu option.