Emulation station / Retropie fails to launch to 4" LCD (solved)

[Duhjoker]

 after setting up Retropie on my Pi I then added the wave share 4 inch LCD and I can't get emulation station to load to the LCD. I keep getting the error below.

Lv10 AudioManager Error - unable to open sdl audio: ALSA: couldn't open audio device: no such file or directory

I tried downloading ALSA but that didn't work. I also tried going into rasping-config and forcing it to the headphone jack. Oddly enough if I add the HDMI cable it will play on my tv, and I have sound coming through the jack.

Would anybody happen to have a solution?

[MacGyver]

You must have missed my rant on that screen.  If it's the 480x320 SPI version, just give up now (and return it if you can), it will only frustrate you.  The SPI interface cannot output at a rate faster than 10-15 frames per second at that resolution.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149276.0.html

I have no idea about the audio issue.

[Duhjoker]

What about the 4.3 inch screen or the 5 inch?

[Duhjoker]

 Is there a way to turn off the touch part of the touchscreen? Make it display only.

[Duhjoker]

Well I feel duped. I think they should clearly post this info so people can make the right choice for what they need. Kind of defeats the purpose.

I literally tried everything known to man today to try and get it going. My eyes are so tired I can barely write this. On the other hand I learned a bunch of stuff.

[MacGyver]

Is there a way to turn off the touch part of the touchscreen?

Just don't turn it on in /boot/config.txt,  I can't remember the line but it contains "ADS7846" I think.  Just put a "#" in front of it.

You can also comment out the 6 lines (with a #) in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-calibration.conf  that configure it to work in X-windows.

What about the 4.3 inch screen or the 5 inch?

It's not the size or even the resolution, it's the SPI interface.  Any HDMI-based LCD of any size should work the same as your normal computer monitor does.  The SPI interface just can't render anything above 320x240 at a decent speed.  (I have not used an SPI-based screen at these lower 320x240 resolutions but others appear to have no issues.)

One thing I would be mindful of is the size the ports and adapters will add to the dimensions of the screen. (in that they stick out A LOT)

Many HDMI-based LCDs use the SPI for power and/or touchscreen functions and that is fine as long as the video is being fed by the HDMI interface.

I bought one similar to this after my 4" debacle, and it works fine at full speed.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Inch-800x480-HDMI-Touch-LCD-Screen-Display-For-Raspberry-Pi-Pi2-Model-B-A/331681442660

I literally tried everything known to man today to try and get it going.

Here are some links to some "beginning to end" setups, they may not work with your exact screen model, but they will give you an idea of how and why the screen is working.
http://futurice.com/blog/id-like-to-have-some-lcd-on-my-pi
http://blog.iteadstudio.com/raspberry-pi-2-8-tft-add-on/
http://ozzmaker.com/raspberrypi-tft/



If you don't have something similar to this in your /etc/modules file

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flexfb  width=320  height=480  regwidth=16 init=-1,0xb0,0x0,-1,0x11,-2,250,-1,0x3A,0x55,-1,0xC2,0x44,-1,0xC5,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,-1,0xE0,0x0F,0x1F,0x1C,0x0C,0x0F,0x08,0x48,0x98,0x37,0x0A,0x13,0x04,0x11,0x0D,0x00,-1,0xE1,0x0F,0x32,0x2E,0x0B,0x0D,0x05,0x47,0x75,0x37,0x06,0x10,0x03,0x24,0x20,0x00,-1,0xE2,0x0F,0x32,0x2E,0x0B,0x0D,0x05,0x47,0x75,0x37,0x06,0x10,0x03,0x24,0x20,0x00,-1,0x36,0x28,-1,0x11,-1,0x29,-3
fbtft_device debug=3 rotate=90 name=flexfb speed=16000000 gpios=reset:25,dc:24
it isn't going to work.


I can tell you with that screen if you don't have this line at the top of your ~/.advance/advmame.rc file

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device_video_clock 0-100/0-100/0-100and this line near the bottom

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device_video_modeline generate 12.6 320 320 368 400 480 490 492 525 -hsync -vsyncthen Mame it isn't going to work. 

If you have a normal HDMI monitor and an LCD plugged in at the same time and you're not launching Mame with something similar to

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FRAMEBUFFER=/dev/fb1 advmame galagait's not going to output on the LCD.

[Duhjoker]

   This frame buffering app solved my problem.............

sudo apt-get install cmake
git clone https://github.com/tasanakorn/rpi-fbcp
cd rpi-fbcp/
mkdir build
cd build/
cmake ..
make
sudo install fbcp /usr/local/bin/fbcp

    Then type fbcp && and start emulation station

[MacGyver]

Now hold on, do you mean it let you see the output of ES on your screen or that it allowed you to use that 4" SPI-based screen at a usable framerate?

I started from scratch 3 different times with my screen, and could always get it to work, it was the horrible delay between the audio and video compounded by the horrendous framerate that made me give up on it.  Are you telling me that you can actually play games at full speed with that particular FB program?  I had simply been using the built-in one (assuming that it must have been the best one) so it is possible that an aftermarket one works better, but I'm skeptical.

Have a video of it playing?

[Duhjoker]

Well it loads emu station and I loaded an SNES game Addams family and it looked all right. I'm still waiting for a controller and I can't figure out how to turn the emulators off from the keyboard it when I do I will post a vid.

All I can say is try it. It takes about 5 minutes.