Retroarch on A64

[Luke]

Hello everyone, 

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If you are using a Pine A64

pfeerick is kindly building Retroarch images for the Pine A64 for those who wish to test and offer feedback. As of 0.7.5.8 most issues with the Retroarch front-end should have been ironed out.  

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If you are using a different A64 device:

You can use the linked script to make a dedicated Retroach image   

Here is the script

Easiest way to use the script is as follows: 
First download one of the minimal ubuntu images (needs to be 0.7.5 or later!) for your device. 

SSH into your Pinebook (you will be copying and pasting contents so SSH is easiest) and create a script file in your home folder: 

Code:

sudo nano install_retroarch.sh

Copy and paste the contents of the script and save the file by pressing CTRL + X followed by Y and clicking Enter. 

Make the script executable: 

Code:

sudo chmod +x install_retroarch.sh

Now all you have to do is execute the script and it will do the rest: 

Code:

sudo ./install_retroarch.sh

Upon reboot Retroarch will start in full screen. 


I have so far tested: Megadrive, SNES, FBA - all work great and run at full speed. 
I put it together it for my own purposes but decided to share it with you lot to spare others who want to do this all the hard work  


Here are some features of the linked image:

* Minimal ubuntu image with xterm twm 
* Disabled CLI login
* Boots straight into Retroarch (added to rc.local)
* Retroarch with all available emulator cores
* Quitting Retroarch powers down the board (added to rc.local)
* Customised the front-end theme for performance 
* Set up a ROMs folder where BIOS and ROM files should be placed. Its accessible via SMB as guest (no credentials needed)
* Start + Select = Retroarch menu in emulator

What doesn't work (to my knowledge): 

*Mupen (N64)
*PSX emulators

[samandiriel]

Thanks for sharing man, that's pretty sweet !

[Luke]

Thanks for sharing man, that's pretty sweet !

No worries, let me know what works and what doesn't. If there will be a demand for this I may ask someone more knowledgeable to help me iron out the remaining issues. But as I said, it runs very well as is.

[KryPtAlIvIaN]

Great job once again!

[fire219]

Looks good!

[Luke]

Looks good!

Thanks, already figured out a much better way of doing this : I'll take another look at it when I got more spare time.

[pfeerick]

Thanks, already figured out a much better way of doing this : I'll take another look at it when I got more spare time.

Drats... did google drive/upload corrupt the image again? Can you share a folder next time, and include a sha256sum (run sha256sum -b [imagename] > [imagename].sha256) so we can check what's going on? For reference, this is what I have for the downloaded file (both copies, I re-downloaded it when it failed to write before I can onto the forum)

Code:

dc1458c9b1b24493d6a8a3c3f6412f962640b9c4dff3b00a602f6a434549e6ac *retroarch.img.xz

[Luke]

Thanks, already figured out a much better way of doing this : I'll take another look at it when I got more spare time.

Drats... did google drive/upload corrupt the image again? Can you share a folder next time, and include a sha256sum (run sha256sum -b [imagename] > [imagename].sha256) so we can check what's going on? For reference, this is what I have for the downloaded file (both copies, I re-downloaded it when it failed to write before I can onto the forum)

Code:

dc1458c9b1b24493d6a8a3c3f6412f962640b9c4dff3b00a602f6a434549e6ac *retroarch.img.xz

Yes. For some really odd reason the process of uploading the image to google corrupts it. I have a .zip of the new image which I have tried on three different computers - it fails to unzip after uploading to google. Need to figure out an alternative.

[Luke]

Ok, new image is up (thanks pfeerick for the help!) - turns out google corrupts large archives. Strange. 
If you try it, please provide feedback!

[KryPtAlIvIaN]

Have all the cores been downloaded in these images?