GroovyArcade live-CD 2022 (collaborative effort)

[Calamity]

Hi rewind22x,

With regards to the black screen after launching MAME, try setting "dotclock_min 25.0" in mame.ini. This will force super resolutions and probably fix the issue.

Wifi support in GA has always been a problem. Hopefully this will be addressed in future versions.

[Substring]

Hey rewind22x,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

Can you give more details about your rig ? That would help diagnose resolutions issue + which config you chose at boot (15/25/31/svga). 2020.1 had some bugs when applying autosetup parameters.

Regarding wifi, yeah it's a real problem for now. Forget any security stronger than WPA, the default network manager can't handle WPA2 or later. I will explore other alternatives with one main requirement : hase a nice GUI for people who like the text setup, and easily editable config files that allow me to script configuration. That's a major feature that will take much time to evaluate and test all network managers with their possible GUIs.

[rewind22x]

ASRock B360M-HDV
Intel Core i3-9100F
16 GB DDR4 RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7570
Wells Gardner K7000 (as far as I can tell)
J-Pac
GA 2020.2

It's been a week or so since I set things up, so my memory is probaby off.  But on first boot, I selected 15khz, got into the setup.  It did the autodetect, found the display (DVI > VGA > JPAC > Monitor.  Configured the monitor to Wells Gardner K7000, horizontal, 4:3.

I tried the dotclock settings (both manually editing the mame.ini and using the option in gasetup) but no luck.  The screen goes completely black, like it loses power.  I just tap ESC until I hear the AttractMode music, then hit ESC again, press the down arrow and then Enter.  That gets me to gasetup, which activates the monitor and then I relaunch AttractMode.

I will try installing from scratch tomorrow.  The cab is at work, kind of a 'employer sponsored' pet-project.  We had a Galaga Arcade1Up cab that we gave away at the company xmas party.  It was set up in front of my office door and was pretty popular.  So I convinced my boss we needed a full size cab in the office.  We found someone selling a Marvel vs Capcom cab on craigslist and bought it.  The cab itself is kinda beat, but after some TLC, should look pretty good.  I got it working with Retro-Pie + a Rpi 3+ but wanted something more powerful and reliable.

If you guys have any other ideas, I'd be glad to try them.  I do appreciate the work being put into this project and am fully aware it's a work in progress.  I've had 2020.1 running on my arcade1up cab at home (LCD) and it's been rock solid... except for the black-screen issue.  The joysticks/buttons will not wake it up.  A keyboard press does.  So I tell my kids to just tap the Select button until it launches a game and then the screen appears and they can then decide to play or exit and pick another game.  The JPAC shows up as a keyboard, so no issues with waking on the full size cab here at the office.  Half tempted to just use an iPac2 in the arcade 1up, but at this point, I'm done putting more money into it... until I'm not. lol

[Substring]

This setup should just work out of the box, without even forcing horizontal or 4:3.

Check mame.ini and report the monitor parameter, it could have gone wrong, some older parts of gasetup (the text based tool to configure) may interfere with code I've added. Mame's log (it's up to you to manually start mame, check Calamity's signature) could help understanding which screen resolution was selected, and check if it fits in your screen specs.

Now regarding screen blanking ... So far I couldn't remove it. The Xorg options I tried didn't change a thing, I should dig this further.

Now thanks to your feedback, I could set some priorities on my todo I'm on holidays atm, will get back into coding Sunday

[rewind22x]

Crap, I spaced an important detail.

You are right when you said it worked out of the box.  I just checked the cab out over my lunch break.  I did the 'Force XORG' fix, which borked getting into AttractMode.  Then I went through the Monitor/Orientation/Aspect Ratio setup.  Went back into the fixes and forced the "dot_clock" fix, along withe the "screen tearing" fix. Fired up AttractMode and got it back.  On a whim, i opened a game and it showed up.  Couldn't believe it.  I then fired up another.  It had vertical sync issues, but it still appeared.  Another issue appeared though, upon game exit, AttractMode was half its horizontal width and forced to the left of the screen.  Exiting to gasetup and reopening AttractMode fixes that.  I thought about a plugin that needed to be enabled to restore AttractMode after a game is run that changes the resolution, so I opened the settings and then AttractMode froze.  And then my memory jogged. I remember having this issue with AttractMode freezing.  I did some research and fixed it by setting a progressive video resolution.  But then opening MAME games resulted in a completely black screen.  I never thought to see the link.

So anyway, I'll do a fresh install tomorrow (if i have the usual sleepy Friday at work) and keep track of what I'm seeing, as I've probably jacked things to a point where I'm not sure what's broken or whats fixed.  Thanks again for the help.

[Substring]

So your steps show a fundamental difference between the original groovyarcade and my fork : i went the xorg.conf-less way. In 2020, Xorg hardly needs a xorg.conf, it's even not recommended anymore to have one. This also means i'm missing some inputs configuration (like wiimotes), but noone complained so far

Regarding your rig, you shouldn't need the dot clock fix, you gfx card can handle low pixel clocks. Just for a test : you should be able to launch any game from the bare iso once screen autosetup is done, without installing to a HDD. Just follow the autosetup and press a key when necessary, then once in gasetup, just start the first default option. It should launch AM flawlessly, and you can give a go to default roms. They should all work.

I feel more concerned about that game not restoring the default resolution once you've quitted mame. Can you give me its name ?

[rewind22x]

OK, had some time this morning.  I read your post and booted from the USB installer.  Here's the steps I took and what I observed:

First screen is split and offset (left side aligns center then wraps around)
Choose 15khz
I press "enter' when the prompt screen appears. In the end, it reads: -Connection DVI-I-1 was selected / The arcade monitor couldn't be natively detected, the output will be forced at boot / Do you want to validate these settings?  to which I select YES.
Choose Generic 15khz monitor
Get to gasetup, launch AM
Looks good, launch a game
Black screen/loses any picture
Exiting to AM is also black screen, but i can hear audio
Exiting AM to gasetup restores picture, able to launch AM once again.
Tried multiple games (default roms), all the same result
Changed the monitor to K7000 and 15khz arcade, same result
AM will freeze within a couple of minutes

Is there anything I should be checking with regard to the monitor?

[Banane]

Hey Rewind22x, maybe this leads into a wrong direction, but what´s the status of your J-PAC sync light  when the screen switches off ?
Out of the sudden I´m having trouble with this ....could be related.

[Substring]

OK, had some time this morning.  I read your post and booted from the USB installer.  Here's the steps I took and what I observed:

First screen is split and offset (left side aligns center then wraps around)
Choose 15khz
I press "enter' when the prompt screen appears. In the end, it reads: -Connection DVI-I-1 was selected / The arcade monitor couldn't be natively detected, the output will be forced at boot / Do you want to validate these settings?  to which I select YES.
Choose Generic 15khz monitor
Get to gasetup, launch AM
Looks good, launch a game
Black screen/loses any picture
Exiting to AM is also black screen, but i can hear audio
Exiting AM to gasetup restores picture, able to launch AM once again.
Tried multiple games (default roms), all the same result
Changed the monitor to K7000 and 15khz arcade, same result
AM will freeze within a couple of minutes

Is there anything I should be checking with regard to the monitor?

I really need to see your mame.ini, your /var/log/groovy.log, /var/log/Xorg.0.log + a mame log to see what switchres does

[Calamity]

@rewind, also post the output of xrandr. That black screen can happen for 2 reasons:

1. You have another output active as primary and GM is sending video to that one. This is likely the case, since you're using a jpac and your analog connection goes undetected.

2. A low dotclock issue

[Substring]

looks like there is a bug when using RADEON/AMD cards + monitors that don't have the required load input. Will be fixed asap.

[beernut]

A suggestion of a tool to add to your distribution:

Joymap.  Basically joy2key but way easier to use if you need to only map say button17 and 22.  No need for a super long string of blank mappings which are easy to loose track of.

https://github.com/wizlab-it/joymap

[Substring]

Hey thanks ! Will take a look at it

[rewind22x]

A suggestion of a tool to add to your distribution:

Joymap.  Basically joy2key but way easier to use if you need to only map say button17 and 22.  No need for a super long string of blank mappings which are easy to loose track of.

https://github.com/wizlab-it/joymap

This may also kinda solve the black-screen/power save issue.  A JPAC configuration will wake because GA thinks a keyboard is being pressed.  If this will take the "button" inputs and let you assign it to the MAME equivalent keyboard button, it may possibly allow it to wake.

Still kinda weird that there's no fix for it.  I've looked all over the web for a solution, and while there are plenty of methods, none seem to work.

I still haven't had a chance to test anything on my cab.  Been busy at the office and some sick kids at home.  Hopefully will get a chance to get some info for you guys early next week.

[Substring]

Antimicro is already included as well a qjoypad

[Substring]

just found for DPMS : add to ~/.xinitrc :

Code: [Select]

xset -dpms
xset s off

[rewind22x]

just found for DPMS : add to ~/.xinitrc :

Code: [Select]

xset -dpms
xset s off

Finally!  I swear I entered the same commands in, but i don't think it was within this file.  This worked on my LCD cab at home.  Screen still goes black (wasn't the problem, actually was desired to save the monitor) but will turn back on with a joystick movement.  Bravo!

edit:  i have two lcd setups at home. This worked on 2020.2.  I found this did not work on 2020.1.  In addition, 2020.1 was missing entries in the file, but even when i copied the file over from 2020.2 it still didn't work.  The only reason I'm still on 2020.1 on that setup (Arcade1Up cab) is due to the hi-score still working.

Looking forward to the next build Substring!

[lettuce]

Damn this looks impressive and the way to go for anyone trying this in the year 2020?, good work Substring.

I have my 15KHz monitor connected to a J-PAC (to cut out any nasty Signals form the PC) and then going to my PC which has a HD4670 that was flashed with ATOM-15 BIOS about 5 years ago, are these custom BIOS for the GPU even needed nowadays, as didn't super wide resolutions method replace the need for that?.

Considering my setup should this just be plug and play with you ISO image, also can it be installed form a USB stick?

[Substring]

Damn this looks impressive and the way to go for anyone trying this in the year 2020?, good work Substring.

I have my 15KHz monitor connected to a J-PAC (to cut out any nasty Signals form the PC) and then going to my PC which has a HD4670 that was flashed with ATOM-15 BIOS about 5 years ago, are these custom BIOS for the GPU even needed nowadays, as didn't super wide resolutions method replace the need for that?.

Considering my setup should this just be plug and play with you ISO image, also can it be installed form a USB stick?

First of all : expect a new release today or in the coming days.

Your setup should work just fine. I have a jpac + hd5450 (but bios is not patched), works pretty fine. Anyway, you can just flash the iso to a USB stick and try it without installing it.

[lettuce]

First of all : expect a new release today or in the coming days.

Your setup should work just fine. I have a jpac + hd5450 (but bios is not patched), works pretty fine. Anyway, you can just flash the iso to a USB stick and try it without installing it.

So using the USB method it doesn't install it as an OS om the PC???

So having a flashed BIOS on a GPU is no longer need for use with a 15KHz monitor?

[Substring]

Flashing the video BIOS is a safety for monitors so that at boot time it's 15kHz, not 31. That's all. Your JPAC also has such a protection. Once the linux kernel loads, it handles resolutions.

The USB method is just to test, changes are not permanent.

[arfink]

I'm interested in trying your build, I just received my Radeon HD card today. However, my monitor will require composite sync, is that supported here? I couldn't get composite sync to work with old GA builds using Nvidia, just wanted to know it's ok with Radeon.

[Substring]

I'm interested in trying your build, I just received my Radeon HD card today. However, my monitor will require composite sync, is that supported here? I couldn't get composite sync to work with old GA builds using Nvidia, just wanted to know it's ok with Radeon.

Technically speaking, c-sync is possibe, but not out of the box. This also seems to depend on GFX cards, kernel drivers show that only radeon/amd cards seem to support it. All in all: if your GFX card supports it, linux can use it. But there is a major BUT: nothing  in GA is made yet to handle csync. That means none of the kernel fixed resolutions for 15k, nor any script.

Now 2 points:
- can't you output csync by yourself ? This is monitor-dependant. Sometimes just mixing hsync and vsync will work, some time electronics must be involved.
- you're not the first one asking for csync. Although it implies quite some changes, that's something I may consider (but will take months before I spend time on it).

Also remember that it means that switchres must be able to handle csync, which is not (yet ?) the case on Linux. So I think that, for now, the best option is to go the hardware hack path.

[arfink]

I'll try just tying the wires together to start, if that doesn't work I have another monitor that's HV sync I will try instead.

[Substring]

2020.03 is out Don't upgrade systemd, 245 has issues with the splash boot

[arfink]

2020.03 is out Don't upgrade systemd, 245 has issues with the splash boot

I'll give it a try once it's done downloading. I'm rigging up my VGA to RGB cable for my IIgs monitor right now as a first test subject.

[lettuce]

2020.03 is out Don't upgrade systemd, 245 has issues with the splash boot

So if im want to put this on a USB drive (as i dont have a cd drive on my arcade PC) how do i go about going that with the iso file on your github page?

[arfink]

Are you going to try to burn the USB from Windows or from Linux? If in Windows, please use Rufus.

https://rufus.ie/

If you are doing it in Linux, that gets a little more complicated and you'll want to see if your distro has a USB writing tool built in. Many do.

[arfink]

Well, I seem to be having some weird issues getting this to work. When I boot off the USB, the automatic detection actually works about 50% of the time. If it somehow auto-selects a 240p mode my monitor (an Apple IIgs RGB color monitor) will display without issues, however sometimes it will seemingly pick a 480i mode, which the IIgs monitor doesn't know how to handle, so the image is too tall but is otherwise clear and synced. Speaking of sync, this monitor wants composite sync, but is happy with H and V sync just tied together, no issues there.

Once booted successfully I can set things up in gasetup to force 320x240 mode for X, etc, and it plays nicely. However, once I install to the HDD it doesn't remember my settings and I'm not able to get it to display. It picks the wrong output port (DVI-1, instead of VGA-1) and uses the wrong sync, even when I tell it otherwise. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

Also, I'm fairly sure the old Phenom II I'm running doesn't have enough muscle for this version of Mame, as World Rally drops to 50% speed most of the time.

[Substring]

2020.03 is out Don't upgrade systemd, 245 has issues with the splash boot

So if im want to put this on a USB drive (as i dont have a cd drive on my arcade PC) how do i go about going that with the iso file on your github page?

You can burn it on a USB pen, no problem, that's what I do.

[Substring]

Well, I seem to be having some weird issues getting this to work. When I boot off the USB, the automatic detection actually works about 50% of the time. If it somehow auto-selects a 240p mode my monitor (an Apple IIgs RGB color monitor) will display without issues, however sometimes it will seemingly pick a 480i mode, which the IIgs monitor doesn't know how to handle, so the image is too tall but is otherwise clear and synced. Speaking of sync, this monitor wants composite sync, but is happy with H and V sync just tied together, no issues there.

Once booted successfully I can set things up in gasetup to force 320x240 mode for X, etc, and it plays nicely. However, once I install to the HDD it doesn't remember my settings and I'm not able to get it to display. It picks the wrong output port (DVI-1, instead of VGA-1) and uses the wrong sync, even when I tell it otherwise. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

Also, I'm fairly sure the old Phenom II I'm running doesn't have enough muscle for this version of Mame, as World Rally drops to 50% speed most of the time.

So far, you should never boot in 240p unless you flashed an ATI card with ATOM15. When Linux takes the hand, it's 480i all the way unless you manually edit kernel parameters after installation.

You shouldn't force anything for X, GA is meant to be xorg.conf-less now. If you need a resolution, you need a video=<connector>:320x240S or video=<connector>:320x240Se if your monitor wasn't detected by the GX card. I'll remove any setting that touches X conf because it can mess up your configuration.

Please enclose the result of dmesg for your HDD install.

[arfink]

Well, I seem to be having some weird issues getting this to work. When I boot off the USB, the automatic detection actually works about 50% of the time. If it somehow auto-selects a 240p mode my monitor (an Apple IIgs RGB color monitor) will display without issues, however sometimes it will seemingly pick a 480i mode, which the IIgs monitor doesn't know how to handle, so the image is too tall but is otherwise clear and synced. Speaking of sync, this monitor wants composite sync, but is happy with H and V sync just tied together, no issues there.

Once booted successfully I can set things up in gasetup to force 320x240 mode for X, etc, and it plays nicely. However, once I install to the HDD it doesn't remember my settings and I'm not able to get it to display. It picks the wrong output port (DVI-1, instead of VGA-1) and uses the wrong sync, even when I tell it otherwise. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

Also, I'm fairly sure the old Phenom II I'm running doesn't have enough muscle for this version of Mame, as World Rally drops to 50% speed most of the time.

So far, you should never boot in 240p unless you flashed an ATI card with ATOM15. When Linux takes the hand, it's 480i all the way unless you manually edit kernel parameters after installation.

You shouldn't force anything for X, GA is meant to be xorg.conf-less now. If you need a resolution, you need a video=<connector>:320x240S or video=<connector>:320x240Se if your monitor wasn't detected by the GX card. I'll remove any setting that touches X conf because it can mess up your configuration.

Please enclose the result of dmesg for your HDD install.

Hrmmm, well you're right, apparently gasetup can mess with x conf. I was careful to reinstall without touching any of the gasetup options that mess with x conf and now it works off the HDD. Still running slow, but as I said before, I suspect that's more to do with my hardware setup than anything else. I'll continue to play with it and try to take some pics, the IIgs monitor is a nice 12" tube and seems to work great with GA so far.

[arfink]

What is the preferred way to load ROMs and edit the file system on this?

[Substring]

What is the preferred way to load ROMs and edit the file system on this?

I'm not sure I understand.

I prefer doing all through SSH, but there are network shares to drop roms

[arfink]

What is the preferred way to load ROMs and edit the file system on this?

I'm not sure I understand.

I prefer doing all through SSH, but there are network shares to drop roms

Durr. OK, figured that out. With that figured out, the only other things I'm currently chasing are:

1- AttractMode doesn't seem to be very stable with an interlaced resolution, from what I'm reading online, and in fact I find it hangs up often. Is it possible to run it in 240p?
2- The newest and hottest GroovyMAME is obviously too much for my puny Phenom II, so I'll be shopping for a better box soon. Oh well.

Other than that, I can't really complain. It's slick. I'm sure I'll find more stuff to bump my head against as I use it more. Meanwhile, it's time for some Neo Turf Masters.

[arfink]

Here's some indication of how nicely this is working out for me, and thanks again to all the contributors for their hard work. You made this project incredibly easy for a newb like me.

[Substring]

I'm glad you've been through that easily

AM can run at 240p. The kernel even has a 640x240 progressive. Someday I think I'll add 384x288@50Hz, which is the best 4:3 progressive resolution you can have.

[arfink]

I'm glad you've been through that easily

AM can run at 240p. The kernel even has a 640x240 progressive. Someday I think I'll add 384x288@50Hz, which is the best 4:3 progressive resolution you can have.

How does one get it to run at that res? Do you need a theme that's specifically for that res? If that's all it takes, I guess I'm gonna go theme shopping.

[Substring]

Which res exactly?

[keilmillerjr]

I can confirm that attract runs fine at 640x480 interlaced using multiple platforms.

All themes will stretch to the attract window, regardless if you design your theme and set a fixed pixel dimension. The larger issue is when people design a theme without multiple resolutions in mind (not responsive). If you like neogeo, check out my picknmix theme in my attract fork on gitlab.

Easiest way to add files to GroovyArcade is to connect a usb disk and use the command line. It is linux. If GroovyArcade doesn’t auto mount your disk, check out the disk mounting section of my wiki.

https://arcademvs.org/unix/disk-mounting/