[Archived] ANNOUNCING RECALBOX FOR THE ROCK64 - ALPHA RELEASE

[Raere]

General/global issues:

- Official PS4 controller via BT will not pair through the UI. I had to follow the instructions here: https://github.com/recalbox/recalbox-os/...x-or-later
- Official PS3 controllers would not pair via BT even following the above instructions.
- Neither PS3 nor PS4 controllers were detected when connected via USB.
- PS4 controller sometimes times out when trying to connect. When I turn the controller on, it looks for a connection for about 10 seconds and turns itself off if it doesn't find anything in that time. About 25% of the time it doesn't find anything. If I try again it will work. It's almost like the BT adapter on the Rock64 sends broadcasts out every 15 seconds or something, and if the controller doesn't catch that within its 10 second window I need to retry.

These issues could very well be BT adapter specific. My device is ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle
However, neither generation of controllers working via USB would seem to be a core issue.


Emulator issues:

- PSP does not work (which you're aware of)

- GBA w/ Meteor - got to title screen and froze, emitting a high pitch squeal. Was able to return to menu with hotkey.
- GBA w/ GPSP - would not launch, just returns to title screen.
(GBA w/ MBGA is perfect. Used Advance Wars 2 for testing)



More to come, including details of controllers not working via USB.

[Luke]

Hey! many thanks once again, we're currently fighting with controllers -- so no, not BT specific.

Yes - PSP, Amstrad and Dreamcast don't work in the alpha, but will work in the beta *fingers crossed*.
The process of debugging is taking longer than expected, we want this to be a good beta

[Danielsan]

Hi guys, I know we are in summer but any news about it?

Thanks!

[Luke]

Hi guys, I know we are in summer but any news about it?

Thanks!

We're amost there. Mrfixit2001 has been working on it everyday since alpha together with the guys from Recalbox.
It has just proven a lot work.

Hihghlights from changelog as a teaser:

*Boot from all storage mediums (SD, eMMC and USB)
*Overclocking from ES
*KODI 4K 60FPS with HDR (!)
*HD Audio
*All emulators/cores working; including PSP, Dreamcast and Amstrad
*LED blinking on access / actitivty LED working
*Support for dozens of WiFi and BT dongles
*CEC working in KODI
*Newest Recalbox with netplay
*Clean boot without messages
*Selectable audiosources from ES (HDMI, headphone jack, SPIDF)
*Support for many controllers
[edit]
*Custom kernel (previously borrowed from LE)
*Full range HDMI
*IR works in KODI
*ES and emulators at forced at 1080p / KODI and video playback up-to 4K
*quiet boot (no boot messages)
*higher clock speed for GPU (700mhz)
*Fixed (some) shader presets for (some) RA cores
*Fixed mupen resolution (1080p)
*Stability improved

[MichaelRock]

Hihghlights from changelog as a teaser: 

*Boot from all storage mediums (SD, eMMC and USB)
*All emulators/cores working; including PSP, Dreamcast and Amstrad
*LED blinking on access / actitivty LED working
*Support for many controllers
*Much better performance :

Hi,

among a few things, Amstrad emulation is THE great news to me : thanks to all people involve to make it work, I have plan to test RecalBox maybe it will be good to wait a little longer so.
If you need someone to test it, count me in (I have quite a bunch of games to try).

[Danielsan]

Wow the work all you guys have done is amazing! You are the best!

[Trash_Can_Man]

Hi i want to know how is this project progressing and also ask if there is any remote chance to make a guide on how to install this with a dual boot option to have armbian on the same card (with a menu on boot to select i guess), or any other full desktop option (ayufan have any full desktop?), im kinda noobish on linux but TOTALLY willing to make my own research so if a mini guide is not an option at least a pointer of where to search with google, thanks in advance for any help

EDIT: maybe i found my own answer here: https://github.com/aw/linux-build/blob/s...booting.md but im not sure if i can do all those steps, if that is still current (probably it is) im going to try as soon as a beta is released

EDIT2: nvm apparently that option only support serial console, i didnt expect a graphical menu but at least text menu on hdmi, i guess i need to keep waiting...

Or a different option, can i add a desktop to recalbox? ive read somewhere that the file system is not locked but is there some pkg manager of any sort? what about any graphic libraries needed? i know i know, its super long of a shot, any info is totally wellcome

[Luke]

Trash_Can_Man,

The project is progressing well. Since we're going straight to beta and handing over the code to Recalbox guys, its taking a bit longer than we expected ... and we also had some dev hiccups. Regardless, its coming along.

There is no chance for incorporating a desktop into Recalbox (for a variety of reasons). It is also not possible to dual boot Armbian or ayufan's LXDE Bionic image; at least not in an easy way.

[Trash_Can_Man]

Trash_Can_Man,

The project is progressing well. Since  we're going straight to beta and handing over the code to Recalbox guys, its taking a bit longer than we expected ... and we also had some dev hiccups. Regardless, its coming along.

There is no chance for incorporating a desktop into Recalbox (for a variety of reasons). It is also not possible to dual boot Armbian or ayufan's LXDE Bionic image; at least not in an easy way.

Thanks for the info, im waiting to jump from libreelec to this build once its ready anyway, a last question, u-boot for the rock64 is still being developed? is there plans to support this use case in the future? do you have any remote idea? sorry for all the questions and again TYVVVM for the help

[Luke]

I think that mrifixit2001 has just (as in literally 15 min ago) solved one of our major issues with the Recalbox build : I have already been stupid and said 'soon' a month ago, but ... the build should be available soon (feel free to angrily poke at me with a stick if its not out in 2 weeks time).

As for:

is there plans to support this use case in the future?

Not sure what you're referring to? If incorporating a desktop environment into Recalbox then the answer is no -- mostly, even if we wanted to, its because it uses SDL exclusively.

If you are asking about double-booting; its already possible from what I understand, but you wouldn't have the option of a nice menu via HDMI but rather a text-based choice via UART. It is also my understanding that choosing between two images to boot will never be possible via HDMI on the Rock64 (please do not quote me on any of this as I may be completely wrong). There may or may not be other ways to dual-boot in the future - that I do not know. If you want a more precise explanation then please join the IRC and ask someone smart.