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Author Topic: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.250 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400  (Read 127971 times)

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bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #200 on: April 29, 2021, 05:40:05 pm »
Just to let you know that I now fixed the incorrect paths from the scripts provided in the image file.

The new/updated download link is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gt3qrtnvEf7N4aBoGVwswhXjEeYLsVzT/view?usp=sharing

Downloaded... here goes nothing!

What do you mean?
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

Gilrock

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #201 on: April 29, 2021, 05:45:04 pm »
Just to let you know that I now fixed the incorrect paths from the scripts provided in the image file.

The new/updated download link is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gt3qrtnvEf7N4aBoGVwswhXjEeYLsVzT/view?usp=sharing

Downloaded... here goes nothing!

What do you mean?

"here goes nothing" means "I'm about to try something with fingers crossed"

javeryh

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #202 on: April 29, 2021, 06:16:07 pm »
Just to let you know that I now fixed the incorrect paths from the scripts provided in the image file.

The new/updated download link is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gt3qrtnvEf7N4aBoGVwswhXjEeYLsVzT/view?usp=sharing

Downloaded... here goes nothing!

What do you mean?
Yeah - like Gilrock said, “Here goes nothing” just means “I’m about to try something unfamiliar and I hope it all goes well!”

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #203 on: April 29, 2021, 06:31:36 pm »
Thanks, guys (for the translation)!  :D :D
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #204 on: April 30, 2021, 09:58:06 pm »
Just to let you know the availability of the NEW disk image file with MAME 0.231 (please see the original post of this thread for the download link).   :cheers:

This image and onwards will include 2 Front-ends: Attract Mode and AdvanceMENU.

To select them, while in Service Mode:

Code: [Select]
sudo nano /etc/environment
And set the FRONTEND variable (see comments from the file).
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #205 on: May 04, 2021, 09:54:49 pm »
I'm just wondering if you guys had a chance to test drive the new image?
If so, how do you like (or not) the new image?

Thanks in advance for your comments/appreciation.
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

javeryh

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #206 on: May 05, 2021, 07:14:21 am »
I'm just wondering if you guys had a chance to test drive the new image?
If so, how do you like (or not) the new image?

Thanks in advance for your comments/appreciation.
I have the image burned, WiFi working, forced 1080p, and now I’m trying to figure out how select the front end.  Should be able to tinker with it more today and I’ll report back.

javeryh

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #207 on: May 05, 2021, 04:07:59 pm »
I'm just wondering if you guys had a chance to test drive the new image?
If so, how do you like (or not) the new image?

Thanks in advance for your comments/appreciation.
I have the image burned, WiFi working, forced 1080p, and now I’m trying to figure out how select the front end.  Should be able to tinker with it more today and I’ll report back.

I spoke too soon.  I keep getting an error message saying "No wireless interface found" when I'm in the raspi-config menu trying to set up WiFi. 

If I type hostname -I at the command prompt to get the IP address there is none.  I don't get an error but nothing happens.  Is WiFi diasbled somehow with this new image?

EDIT: every time I create the wpa_supplicant.conf file with my WiFi information inside, it gets deleted as soon as I move it over to the pi.  On the memory card connected to my PC it shows and I save it and I've even popped the card in and out of the PC multiple times just to be sure it is still there but when I bring it to the pi and boot up, it is gone.  I cannot figure out why and this wasn't happening with an earlier image I was using.

Also, when I insert the memory card into my PC, it shows the "boot" drive as D:\ but it also shows "Removeable Drive" for E:\ and "Removeable Drive" for F:\ which doesn't seem right either.

Any ideas?

EDIT#2: I connected via ethernet and could find an IP address so I can use WinSCP to move files around.  Weird.  I'd like to figure out the WiFi but I guess this isn't too bad.  Presumably I'll tinker with the image to get it just how I want and when it goes into an arcade cabinet I won't need to connect to WiFi or anything.

EDIT#3:  So I'm back in Service Mode... How do I select the front end from the command prompt?  I'm at pi@arcade(rw):

The instructions above say: 

Quote
To select, just type:

Code: [Select]
sudo nano /etc/environment
And ajust the value of the FRONTEND variable (see comment from the file).

But I am not sure what to do.  When you say, "see comment from the file" what file am I supposed to be looking at?

Thanks!!   :cheers:
« Last Edit: May 05, 2021, 06:19:42 pm by javeryh »

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #208 on: May 05, 2021, 09:48:23 pm »
The content of /etc/environment is:

Code: [Select]
MAMEVER=0231

# FRONTEND accept one of these values:
# attract, advance, mame
FRONTEND=mame

SDL_VIDEODRIVER=kmsdrm
SDL_RENDER_DRIVER=opengles2
SDL_RENDER_VSYNC=1
SDL_GRAB_KEYBOARD=1
SDL_VIDEO_GLES2=1

To select the front-end of your choice, just set the related value to the FRONTEND variable.

For example:

If you want to use Attract Mode, the line would be:

Code: [Select]
FRONTEND=attract
If you want to use AdvanceMENU, the line would be:

Code: [Select]
FRONTEND=advance
If you want to use MAME GUI, the line would be:

Code: [Select]
FRONTEND=mame
« Last Edit: May 05, 2021, 09:50:49 pm by bbegin »
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

javeryh

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #209 on: May 06, 2021, 01:14:07 pm »
The content of /etc/environment is:

Code: [Select]
MAMEVER=0231

# FRONTEND accept one of these values:
# attract, advance, mame
FRONTEND=mame

SDL_VIDEODRIVER=kmsdrm
SDL_RENDER_DRIVER=opengles2
SDL_RENDER_VSYNC=1
SDL_GRAB_KEYBOARD=1
SDL_VIDEO_GLES2=1

To select the front-end of your choice, just set the related value to the FRONTEND variable.

For example:

If you want to use Attract Mode, the line would be:

Code: [Select]
FRONTEND=attract
If you want to use AdvanceMENU, the line would be:

Code: [Select]
FRONTEND=advance
If you want to use MAME GUI, the line would be:

Code: [Select]
FRONTEND=mame

Ahhh.... OK.  I was trying commands from the command prompt.  Typing "sudo nano /etc/environment" does open the file and I was able to make changes and save.  However, I changed to "arcademode" and rebooted and all I'm getting is a black screen with the word "MAME 1/0" displaying in the bottom right corner of the screen.  I assume I screwed something up?  MAME GUI was working fine before I switched to "attract" in the /etc/environment file.

Editing the file back to say FRONTEND=mame does get the MAME GUI working just fine again. 

EDIT: When I tried "FRONTEND=advance"  I get an error saying my display sucks.  It says try setting it to be "-display_size 1280x1024" but I didn't know what that meant.  Maybe my stupid 4K TV is causing issues.  I'm going to see if I can connect to another display in the house...
« Last Edit: May 06, 2021, 02:03:48 pm by javeryh »

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #210 on: May 06, 2021, 05:19:22 pm »
Ahhh.... OK.  I was trying commands from the command prompt.  Typing "sudo nano /etc/environment" does open the file and I was able to make changes and save.  However, I changed to "arcademode" and rebooted and all I'm getting is a black screen with the word "MAME 1/0" displaying in the bottom right corner of the screen.  I assume I screwed something up?  MAME GUI was working fine before I switched to "attract" in the /etc/environment file.

Editing the file back to say FRONTEND=mame does get the MAME GUI working just fine again. 

EDIT: When I tried "FRONTEND=advance"  I get an error saying my display sucks.  It says try setting it to be "-display_size 1280x1024" but I didn't know what that meant.  Maybe my stupid 4K TV is causing issues.  I'm going to see if I can connect to another display in the house...

To set the corret video mode with AdvanceMENU, you should run the AdvCfg binary and set the resolution to the one EDID has detected:

Code: [Select]
./frontend/advance/advcfg
If you want to switch the desired Front-end more easily, just add this line in /home/pi/.bash_alias:   :)

Code: [Select]
alias frontend='_frontend(){ if [[ "$1" =~ ^(mame|attract|advance)$ ]]; then sudo sed -i "s/FRONTEND=.*$/FRONTEND="$1"/g" /etc/environment && echo "Frontend set to: "$1" (reboot to apply)."; else echo "Invalid or missing argument. Try: mame, attract or advance"; fi;}; _frontend'
Then, logoff/logon and now you just have to issue one of these 3 commands to switch the Front-end:

Code: [Select]
frontend mame
frontend advance
frontend attract
« Last Edit: May 06, 2021, 05:23:43 pm by bbegin »
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #211 on: May 06, 2021, 08:43:12 pm »
Hi javeryh,

Just to let you know that I uploaded a new revision with the Wi-Fi fixed (including the new alias definition, named frontend).

Sorry for the Wi-Fi issue (my mistake).
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

javeryh

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #212 on: May 07, 2021, 01:10:17 pm »
Hi javeryh,

Just to let you know that I uploaded a new revision with the Wi-Fi fixed (including the new alias definition, named frontend).

Sorry for the Wi-Fi issue (my mistake).

Sweet.  I will download this new version and see if I can get it working.  Thanks!!   :cheers:

javeryh

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #213 on: May 07, 2021, 04:23:50 pm »
Hi javeryh,

Just to let you know that I uploaded a new revision with the Wi-Fi fixed (including the new alias definition, named frontend).

Sorry for the Wi-Fi issue (my mistake).

OK - I'm using the new image and WiFi seems to be working again - thank you!  MAME GUI works fine but there are a few issues I'm running into with Attract Mode and AdvanceMENU.

When booting into Attract Mode the screen just displays "MAME I/O" in the lower right corner.  Not sure how to fix that.

When booting into AdvanceMENU, I am getting a video display error (no video mode available for your configuration) and when I go into ./frontend/advance/advcfg and set it to what EDID detects it doesn't work.  I'm sure this is because I am using a 4K TLC TV for this right now.  I really need to buy a small HDMI enabled monitor for testing, which I am doing now.

Also, how do I force downloading of artwork (screen shots, etc.)?  In the MAME GUI there is a blank area on the right that says "No image Available" but on the previous build I was messing with yesterday this was all automatically populated.

rizel67

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #214 on: May 08, 2021, 05:47:59 pm »
Hi.
First of all. Good job.  :applaud: :applaud:

I think i'm kind of dumb because i'm not able to make your sd card image working. I'm using balena etcher and when i want to flash with your image it send me a pop up telling me "missing partition table. It looks like this is not a bootable image. The image does not appear to contain a partition table, and might not be recognized or bootable by your device."
I continue and then when i put my card inside my Pi. It tell me "unable to read partition as FAT"
Should i change the format of the card to FAT or FAT 32 or even ExtFat ? it's a 32gb sd card by the way.
Thanks for your time.

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #215 on: May 09, 2021, 02:30:01 pm »
@rizel67,

I just uploaded a new version of the image file that should fix the FAT partition/partition table issue. The download link is the same.

@javeryh

The automatic artwork management service should be taking care of the automatic download of the snapshots. Just make sure it is running by issuing the following command:

Code: [Select]
systemctl status mame-artwork-mgmt.service
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

Nelviticus

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.231 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #216 on: May 22, 2021, 06:00:05 pm »
Hi there, I just registered to say thank you for all your hard work. I've been using your image for a couple of days now on my new Pi400 and it works great.

Awesome stuff!

Nelviticus

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.231 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #217 on: May 24, 2021, 06:42:47 pm »
Thank you very much, Nelviticus!

Very glad you appreciate the system!  :cheers:
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #218 on: June 01, 2021, 12:12:59 pm »
Just to let you know the availability of the NEW disk image file with MAME 0.232 (please see the original post of this thread for the download link).   :cheers:

As with the previous release, this image (and onwards) include 2 Front-ends: Attract Mode and AdvanceMENU.

To select one of them, just issue one of the following commands:

Code: [Select]
# To use Attract Mode:
frontend attract

# To use AdvanceMENU:
frontend advance

# To use the MAME GUI (default):
frontend mame

Reboot the system (sudo reboot).
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

beernite

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #219 on: June 03, 2021, 03:19:12 pm »
Sorry for the total noob question here. I was able to download your image and expand the file system. I'm not able to connect to my wifi however. I know you said that wifi isn't disabled in the image, but it seems like the OS doesn't even find the interface. Trying to set things up with raspi-config gives me a "No wireless interfaces found" message. Is that something I screwed up?

Thanks for all the work

Hi jhummel,

I forgot a little ajustment (in my staging process) when I published the image of 0.227 and it has to do with Wi-Fi.

You will need to reinstall wpasupplicant with the following command and reboot:

Code: [Select]
sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant -y
Sorry for the mistake.

Hi, bbegin -

First off, thank you for this wonderful thread and for sharing your image file. I built a MAME cabinet powered by a PC many years ago. I am now replacing the CRT display with a flat screen, and the PC with a raspberry pi 4. I have installed the June 1st 2021 image and am now experiencing the same issue that jhummel was encountering. Any advice as to how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. I tried some of the steps you suggested to him, but with no luck.

update: I should add that changing the password upon initial start did not work. The system replied "passwd: Authentication token manipulation error". Perhaps this issue is related to the "cannot lock /etc/password" reply when I tried the command sudo usermod -a -G render pi

« Last Edit: June 03, 2021, 03:31:24 pm by beernite »

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #220 on: June 03, 2021, 11:11:36 pm »
Hi, bbegin -

First off, thank you for this wonderful thread and for sharing your image file. I built a MAME cabinet powered by a PC many years ago. I am now replacing the CRT display with a flat screen, and the PC with a raspberry pi 4. I have installed the June 1st 2021 image and am now experiencing the same issue that jhummel was encountering. Any advice as to how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. I tried some of the steps you suggested to him, but with no luck.

update: I should add that changing the password upon initial start did not work. The system replied "passwd: Authentication token manipulation error". Perhaps this issue is related to the "cannot lock /etc/password" reply when I tried the command sudo usermod -a -G render pi

Hi beernite, thanks! :)

You mean when you run raspi-config, you get "No wireless interfaces found" message? If so, it may be caused by the fact I forgot to remove some lines from a file.

To check, issue this command:
Code: [Select]
cat /etc/modprobe.d/raspi-blacklist.conf
Make sure the lines below are NOT in the file (remove them, if they are there):

Code: [Select]
# WiFi
blacklist brcmfmac
blacklist brcmutil

EDIT: I double-checked on the image I provide and the lines are not there, so the Wi-Fi interface should work (be detected/enabled).

The second issue you are experiencing is because the root filesystem is kept in read-only mode, by default. To put it in read/write mode, so you can make changes to the system (in this case, configuration changes), you should type this command, prior:

Code: [Select]
rw

The prompt suffix will then change to (rw). Then, you can make your changes and they will be persistent.

To put the system back in read-only mode, just type:

Code: [Select]
ro

The prompt suffix will be back to (ro).
« Last Edit: June 04, 2021, 02:19:58 pm by bbegin »
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

beernite

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #221 on: June 05, 2021, 10:51:51 am »
You mean when you run raspi-config, you get "No wireless interfaces found" message?

What is happening is that when I run raspi-config to set up my network, it says "Could not communicate with wpa_supplicant". After hitting Ok it says "There was an error running  option S1 Wireless LAN". I then reviewed the contents of wpa_supplicant by typing 'sudo cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf' :

Code: [Select]
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config==1

Is there anything incorrect about this file? I apologize in advance if this is a basic Linux problem/question and is inappropriate for this thread. I will not take it personally if I am told that is indeed the case :)

Finally, thank you for the information about read/write mode. I had forgotten that from your README file.

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #222 on: June 05, 2021, 12:50:00 pm »
You mean when you run raspi-config, you get "No wireless interfaces found" message?

What is happening is that when I run raspi-config to set up my network, it says "Could not communicate with wpa_supplicant". After hitting Ok it says "There was an error running  option S1 Wireless LAN". I then reviewed the contents of wpa_supplicant by typing 'sudo cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf' :

Code: [Select]
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config==1

Is there anything incorrect about this file? I apologize in advance if this is a basic Linux problem/question and is inappropriate for this thread. I will not take it personally if I am told that is indeed the case :)

Finally, thank you for the information about read/write mode. I had forgotten that from your README file.

You should configure the Wi-Fi interface according to your Access Point's SSID and associated security settings.

You can do this offline from another computer, just plug the SD card in a reader and access the "boot" partition and follow these steps:

https://linuxhint.com/rasperberry_pi_wifi_wpa_supplicant/
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

beernite

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #223 on: June 05, 2021, 03:10:59 pm »
I didn't have any luck with that either. I ended up reimaging the SD card and am now having no problems. Thanks for your patience with me!

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #224 on: June 05, 2021, 05:59:17 pm »
I didn't have any luck with that either. I ended up reimaging the SD card and am now having no problems. Thanks for your patience with me!

Good to know that all is working OK! :D

It is a pleasure for me to help, if I can!

Happy gaming!
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #225 on: June 19, 2021, 07:51:08 pm »
I just got this set up today, made a few tweaks, did a slight overclock, and it works SO well!

Nice!!!

I registered so I could thank you.

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #226 on: June 20, 2021, 01:17:02 pm »
I just got this set up today, made a few tweaks, did a slight overclock, and it works SO well!

Nice!!!

I registered so I could thank you.

Thanks to you, I'm very glad you appreciate the system!  :D
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #227 on: June 21, 2021, 10:51:11 pm »
Thank you for creating this image.  I've been using it for the last week or so (with the latest MAME 0.232 version), but have been coming across a few issues that others have described in this thread.

The first is that when I switch the frontend to AttractMode, it boots to a solid black screen with 'MAME 0/1' in the lower right and goes no further.  At least one other poster had the exact same issue, but if they resolved it, I didn't see the solution.  SSH'ing back into the system and changing the frontend back to 'mame' gets everything going again.

My second issue is that I've had to overclock my Pi4 (4GB version) to get some games to run smoothly without exhibiting choppy audio.  At the default settings, Mario Bros. (1983) has very choppy audio on the first animation screen before the first level.  Ms. Pac Man also had a few minor instances of an audio breakup, but nowhere near as bad as Mario Bros.  Overclocking fixed the issue, but elsewhere in the thread, it's stated that 1980s games should run at full speed on the Pi4 without the need to overclock.

My third and final issue is that during setup my WiFi doesn't work and I can't connect to my network - it throws errors on the raspi-config screen where I would connect to the network. I've had to resort to the wpa_supplicant manual method to get it to work.  My understanding was that this issue was fixed in earlier versions of the image, so I shouldn't be experiencing this problem.  I've been able to fix it, but any ideas of why I'm running into this issue?

Again, thanks for the image.  It's well put together and simple to use.

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #228 on: June 22, 2021, 12:06:17 pm »
Thank you for creating this image.  I've been using it for the last week or so (with the latest MAME 0.232 version), but have been coming across a few issues that others have described in this thread.

The first is that when I switch the frontend to AttractMode, it boots to a solid black screen with 'MAME 0/1' in the lower right and goes no further.  At least one other poster had the exact same issue, but if they resolved it, I didn't see the solution.  SSH'ing back into the system and changing the frontend back to 'mame' gets everything going again.

You should first build your Romlist for any games to appear in Attract Mode. You then have to scrape your Romlist to get the graphic material associated with your ROMs. You all do this from the menu with the Tab key. Please refer to the Attract Mode documentation for all the details.

My second issue is that I've had to overclock my Pi4 (4GB version) to get some games to run smoothly without exhibiting choppy audio.  At the default settings, Mario Bros. (1983) has very choppy audio on the first animation screen before the first level.  Ms. Pac Man also had a few minor instances of an audio breakup, but nowhere near as bad as Mario Bros.  Overclocking fixed the issue, but elsewhere in the thread, it's stated that 1980s games should run at full speed on the Pi4 without the need to overclock.

My mistake: I should have stated virtually all 80's games run at full speed. The problem is that some system/platforms are poorly supported in MAME via an old or poorly written driver and thus is not optimized, resulting in a lot of CPU consumption. The only solution is to file an issue on mametesters.org and wait for a newer version of MAME with updated driver code.

My third and final issue is that during setup my WiFi doesn't work and I can't connect to my network - it throws errors on the raspi-config screen where I would connect to the network. I've had to resort to the wpa_supplicant manual method to get it to work.  My understanding was that this issue was fixed in earlier versions of the image, so I shouldn't be experiencing this problem.  I've been able to fix it, but any ideas of why I'm running into this issue?

Again, thanks for the image.  It's well put together and simple to use.

I have not investigated yet the Wi-Fi issue using raspi-config. It may have to do with the fact that the root filesystem is kept in read-only mode. Can you tell me what steps/options you are doing in raspi-config, what behavior and error messages you get? Thanks very much in advance!
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #229 on: June 22, 2021, 06:02:43 pm »
Thank you for creating this image.  I've been using it for the last week or so (with the latest MAME 0.232 version), but have been coming across a few issues that others have described in this thread.

The first is that when I switch the frontend to AttractMode, it boots to a solid black screen with 'MAME 0/1' in the lower right and goes no further.  At least one other poster had the exact same issue, but if they resolved it, I didn't see the solution.  SSH'ing back into the system and changing the frontend back to 'mame' gets everything going again.

You should first build your Romlist for any games to appear in Attract Mode. You then have to scrape your Romlist to get the graphic material associated with your ROMs. You all do this from the menu with the Tab key. Please refer to the Attract Mode documentation for all the details.

My second issue is that I've had to overclock my Pi4 (4GB version) to get some games to run smoothly without exhibiting choppy audio.  At the default settings, Mario Bros. (1983) has very choppy audio on the first animation screen before the first level.  Ms. Pac Man also had a few minor instances of an audio breakup, but nowhere near as bad as Mario Bros.  Overclocking fixed the issue, but elsewhere in the thread, it's stated that 1980s games should run at full speed on the Pi4 without the need to overclock.

My mistake: I should have stated virtually all 80's games run at full speed. The problem is that some system/platforms are poorly supported in MAME via an old or poorly written driver and thus is not optimized, resulting in a lot of CPU consumption. The only solution is to file an issue on mametesters.org and wait for a newer version of MAME with updated driver code.

My third and final issue is that during setup my WiFi doesn't work and I can't connect to my network - it throws errors on the raspi-config screen where I would connect to the network. I've had to resort to the wpa_supplicant manual method to get it to work.  My understanding was that this issue was fixed in earlier versions of the image, so I shouldn't be experiencing this problem.  I've been able to fix it, but any ideas of why I'm running into this issue?

Again, thanks for the image.  It's well put together and simple to use.

I have not investigated yet the Wi-Fi issue using raspi-config. It may have to do with the fact that the root filesystem is kept in read-only mode. Can you tell me what steps/options you are doing in raspi-config, what behavior and error messages you get? Thanks very much in advance!

From the documentation of AttractMode, I was under the impression that upon its first use I'd get a menu from where I could generate the ROMs list and handle other matters.  I don't get a menu at all, just the black screen with the 'MAME 0/1' in the corner.  I was able to get it running on a very basic level by using the command-line option to generate the ROMs list.

With overclocking the Pi4, Mario Bros. does appear to run at full speed with good sound, so at least that's an option.  I feel that the old Nintendo games are often the ones that will have issues as I believe that many still use sound samples rather than emulating the audio chips.

Raspi-config is the only option that a Linux novice like myself was aware of for setting up the WiFi.  I get the errors regardless of whether I'm in read-only or read-write mode.  I tried both as I suspected that read-only mode might be the cause - it's not.  The first message I get when configuring the WiFi is 'Could not communicate with wpa_supplicant' with 'OK' being the only button.  Pressing 'OK' brings up another message saying "There was an error running option S1 Wireless LAN' also with an OK button.  Pressing 'OK' this time just takes me back to the main raspi-config screen.

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #230 on: June 22, 2021, 10:13:06 pm »
Raspi-config is the only option that a Linux novice like myself was aware of for setting up the WiFi.  I get the errors regardless of whether I'm in read-only or read-write mode.  I tried both as I suspected that read-only mode might be the cause - it's not.  The first message I get when configuring the WiFi is 'Could not communicate with wpa_supplicant' with 'OK' being the only button.  Pressing 'OK' brings up another message saying "There was an error running option S1 Wireless LAN' also with an OK button.  Pressing 'OK' this time just takes me back to the main raspi-config screen.


Could you make a test for me?

Reset your Wi-Fi configuration (re-flash the image to a new SD-card, if you have an extra one)
Put the system in read/write mode by typing:  rw
Run sudo raspi-config and set the wifi country code by going to:

Code: [Select]
5 Localisation Options
Then:

Code: [Select]
L4. WLAN Country
Then select your country code from the list.

Then try to go to and setup your Wi-Fi interface (as you tried earlier):

Code: [Select]
S1 Wireless Lan
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #231 on: June 22, 2021, 10:16:38 pm »
From the documentation of AttractMode, I was under the impression that upon its first use I'd get a menu from where I could generate the ROMs list and handle other matters.  I don't get a menu at all, just the black screen with the 'MAME 0/1' in the corner.  I was able to get it running on a very basic level by using the command-line option to generate the ROMs list.

The reason you get a black screen is because I kind of pre-configured Attract Mode with an emulator called MAME. I did this because I wanted to pre-configure the MAME binary path ($HOME/mame/mame). To remove this, just delete this emulator and start from scratch. Sorry, I think this cause more confusion than I was expecting... :\

Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

sboultbee

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #232 on: June 22, 2021, 11:18:12 pm »

Could you make a test for me?

Reset your Wi-Fi configuration (re-flash the image to a new SD-card, if you have an extra one)
Put the system in read/write mode by typing:  rw
Run sudo raspi-config and set the wifi country code by going to:

Code: [Select]
5 Localisation Options
Then:

Code: [Select]
L4. WLAN Country
Then select your country code from the list.

Then try to go to and setup your Wi-Fi interface (as you tried earlier):

Code: [Select]
S1 Wireless Lan

No luck - I get the 'Could not communicate with wpa_supplicant' when I select the L4 option to set the WiFi country.  The next screen then says 'There was an error running option L4 WLAN Country'.

I'd just used an article online about how to set up the wpa_supplicant.conf file manually, so that's what I've done to get WiFi working.

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #233 on: June 23, 2021, 10:59:29 am »
From the documentation of AttractMode, I was under the impression that upon its first use I'd get a menu from where I could generate the ROMs list and handle other matters.  I don't get a menu at all, just the black screen with the 'MAME 0/1' in the corner.  I was able to get it running on a very basic level by using the command-line option to generate the ROMs list.

The reason you get a black screen is because I kind of pre-configured Attract Mode with an emulator called MAME. I did this because I wanted to pre-configure the MAME binary path ($HOME/mame/mame). To remove this, just delete this emulator and start from scratch. Sorry, I think this cause more confusion than I was expecting... :\

The pre-configuring of AttractMode is what confused me. I was expecting it to boot into a menu where I’d generate the ROMs list and take care of other matters. It never occurred to me that AM was working but that I needed to press the ‘Tab’ key to get into the menu system to continue the setup. It just looked like something had broken.

I think it would help to add a line to the first post that says something like “If using AttractMode, you’ll need to press Tab at the black screen to open the menus and complete set up.”

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #234 on: June 23, 2021, 11:11:10 am »
The pre-configuring of AttractMode is what confused me. I was expecting it to boot into a menu where I’d generate the ROMs list and take care of other matters. It never occurred to me that AM was working but that I needed to press the ‘Tab’ key to get into the menu system to continue the setup. It just looked like something had broken.

I think it would help to add a line to the first post that says something like “If using AttractMode, you’ll need to press Tab at the black screen to open the menus and complete set up.”

You're right. I will add information in the first post to specify that Attract Mode is pre-configured with an emulator called "MAME" and use the Tab key to complete the setup (generate the Romlist, etc.).
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #235 on: June 23, 2021, 11:16:19 am »
No luck - I get the 'Could not communicate with wpa_supplicant' when I select the L4 option to set the WiFi country.  The next screen then says 'There was an error running option L4 WLAN Country'.

Can you try this:

Code: [Select]
systemctl status wpa_supplicant.service
rfkill unblock all
sudo systemctl restart wpa_supplicant.service
sudo raspi-config

And try again (with first setup the country code)?

I'd just used an article online about how to set up the wpa_supplicant.conf file manually, so that's what I've done to get WiFi working.

Yes, there is a neat offline method of pre-configuring the Wi-Fi on on Raspbian/RaspiOS (creating and configuring the wpa_supplicant.conf file in the boot partition).
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

sboultbee

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #236 on: June 24, 2021, 01:39:14 am »
No luck - I get the 'Could not communicate with wpa_supplicant' when I select the L4 option to set the WiFi country.  The next screen then says 'There was an error running option L4 WLAN Country'.

Can you try this:

Code: [Select]
systemctl status wpa_supplicant.service
rfkill unblock all
sudo systemctl restart wpa_supplicant.service
sudo raspi-config

And try again (with first setup the country code)?

I'd just used an article online about how to set up the wpa_supplicant.conf file manually, so that's what I've done to get WiFi working.

Yes, there is a neat offline method of pre-configuring the Wi-Fi on on Raspbian/RaspiOS (creating and configuring the wpa_supplicant.conf file in the boot partition).

Yep, preparing the offline version of the wpa_supplicant.conf file is basically what I did to get WiFi working.

Went through the steps in your last post from a freshly flashed image with the same error messages.

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.232 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #237 on: July 05, 2021, 12:18:59 pm »
Just to let you know the availability of the NEW disk image file with MAME 0.233 (please see the original post of this thread for the download link).   :cheers:

As with the previous releases, this image (and onwards) include 2 Front-ends: Attract Mode and AdvanceMENU.

To select one of them, just issue one of the following commands:

Code: [Select]
# To use Attract Mode:
frontend attract

# To use AdvanceMENU:
frontend advance

# To use the MAME GUI (default):
frontend mame

Reboot the system (sudo reboot).
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.233 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #238 on: July 12, 2021, 12:14:39 pm »
Hi @bbegin,

Once again, thank you very much for all the time you offered to the community, to make this project alive and fully functional! It is a unique chance for us to learn from you, your passion and how MAME works.

Concerning about performances, I was reading this article on the excellent site RetroRGB : https://www.retrorgb.com/raspberry-pi-mame-benchmarks.html

Unfortunately, It is not detailed on how the benches have been performed (from X11 ?), but it shows how clearly the RPI4 can be a solution for a short selection of great titles. In contrast,  it also shows, how the RPI4 is not the solution to play to all devices supported,  with more or less success, by MAME.

My final understanding is, if you know which games you want to play, and understand why it is important to keep MAME up-to-date, then YES, your approach here, getting a JeOS and MAME, is the best for all players who love accuracy, in memory of video games.

Thank you and keep playing!
« Last Edit: July 12, 2021, 12:53:24 pm by exonaax »
More pixels here, best it is!

bbegin

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Re: How to make a dedicated MAME 0.235 Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4B
« Reply #239 on: September 06, 2021, 04:18:21 pm »
Just to let you know the availability of the NEW disk image file with MAME 0.235 (please see the original post of this thread for the download link).  :cheers:

Enjoy!
Personal project:
How to make a dedicated MAME Appliance on a Raspberry Pi 4/Pi 400
https://gist.github.com/sonicprod/f5a7bb10fb9ed1cc5124766831e120c4