Androidx86 feedback Thread

RetroArch Android devices
#1

Hi, everybody!

I decided to use my NUC computer as a HTPC for my dining room and I think Android eases this a lot, so I’ve just installed the latest release available, added some apps, and I put the current version of Retroarch for this platform.

Here are my hardware specs: [ul] [li]Intel NUC DC3217IYE[/li][li]8 GB DDR3[/li][li]64GB mSATA SSD[/li][li]USB wired (low budget) Keyboard & Mouse[/li][li]x360 wired Controller.[/li][li]OS: Android-x86_64-6.0-r1. Installed with read&write filesystem access and root permissions.[/li][/ul]

I don’t know of anyone else doing this, so I thought this could be a good chance to share my experience with you guys, while I learn how to configure RetroArch properly.

First thing you’ll need to know is that the app runs quite unstable and it is not intended to be used on a TV, but with some tweaks we can improve it a lot. I’m giving you the next tips:

[ol] [li] The UI text appears über small and it’s using the ugly menu. Go to the Driver menu options and change it to XMB or RGUI, whatever your preference is.[/li][li] Save your config and most basic settings as soon as you can.[/li][/ol]

At this point you will learn that due the user-permission ‘thing’ in Android, most of your files were saved on a read-only temporal filesystem (and not in the internal storage). In fact, everything is scattered: some files are located in /data/user/0/com.retroarch/ , while other directories are located in the internal storage filestsystem, in the /Retroarch folder.

I read at the forums that some crashes are mostly because the app can’t write changes nor access to the read-only folder. So my solution was a bit drastic, but it seems to work perfectly:

[ul] [li]Start a terminal session (Alt+F1) and copy the contents from the /data/user/0/com.retroarch/ folder to a new folder in your internal/external storage.[/li][li]Chmod 644 or 755 the target folder to avoid future access errors.[/li][li]Repopulate by adding the missing folders. You can make use of a FileManager apk for this.[/li][/ul]

Then you can proceed to run Retroarch again, change all paths in the Directory menu option, and save your changes. You’ll may want to transfer your Bios&Games now, use the Online Updater and tweak most settings.

Hope these tips will help ease you the pain of dealing with this port of RetroArch, which seems fairly outdated or missing some features from the main Windows port.

#2

Thanks for the writeup :slight_smile:

The version in the Google Play store is indeed pretty old at this point as compared with the nightly builds. We’ll be putting out a new stable release soon, though, and we’ll push that new release up to the app store, as well.

#4

I’ve found no problems with the x360 controller, it worked out of the box.

I did try a recent stable build from the repo yesterday, but it crashed a lot. Of course, this was before I realized how to fix the read-only file permissions problem… Anyways, I’ll grab the newest build tomorrow and do some more tests.

The most annoying issue for me right now is when there are multiple available cores for a game (i.ex. different MAME or FBA versions), but only one works, actually. The other ones just crash the whole app. This also happens on the Windows version. Yeah, there’s also that thing with the Playlist, that doesn’t overwrite itself everytime you scan a folder, but it’s not that important…

Another thing I’ve just found is that I can’t find some GLSL shaders & overlays from the Windows port in the Android’s. Aren’t those supposed to be cross-platform? I’m not talking about the complex ones, but also the simplest like blurs, scanlines, or even color filters. In fact, I don’t quite understand why is there so much differences between cores and their options, but I guess it’s more related to the author of that core, in particular.

Merry Christmas everybody!

#5

Last build totally freezes the app. There’s no response, I’ve got no input feedback neither with keyboard or joypad, so I only can force close the app.

I’ve tried both clean installation from scratch, and installing on top of the already existant…