Can't get Lakka to work on Pentium 4 system

Libretro Lakka
#1

I am trying to get Lakka running on a Pentium 4 system and I am not succeeding.

First of all, the live image wouldn’t boot, because the BIOS does not support GPT. Is there any reason why this is distributed as a GPT image and not MBR? Because if you install Lakka, it does so on an MBR volume…

Anyway, I used a machine that could boot from the GPT disk to install Lakka in the otehr machine’s hard drive, and that was solved.

but now the computer gets stuck in a loop at boot… It keeps flashing between the Lakka logo and some black and white graphic that looks wavey? Kind of like the PSP menu screen… Sorry I cannot explain it any better, here’s a tiny video:

Now things I thought could be the problem here are:

  • the amount of RAM
  • the video hardware.

The system currently has only 512MB of RAM, and it’s using its onboard “Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900” video hardware.

Anybody thinks those two would be a problem? If it’s the video hardware, I don’t have that many options to solve it, the machine has either 2 PCI slots or 1 PCI Expresss 1x slot. Not really sure what video options, compatible with Lakka, I have in such form factors,

Any help greatly appreciated!

#2

It’s probably crashing on GL stuff. Try opening your ~/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg in a text editor and change menu_driver from “xmb” to “rgui”. You may want/need to change your video driver from “gl” to “gl1” at the same time. Not sure.

#3

How can I edit that file if I can’t even boot the system?

#4

hook the drive up to another system. Inconvenient, I know. You might also try ssh-ing into it from another machine, as it may just be the RetroArch part that’s crashing over and over and the system itself may be fine.

#5

Good call on SSHing, it might be working, but yeah attaching the drive to another system might be the best option. I just feel it’ll be for nothing, this old Intel chipset might just not be supported. I could get an NVidia quadro if it’d work.

Yes it does seem Retroarch is crashing when trying to enter the UI

#6

I suspect your issue is really that Lakka runs in KMS/EGL mode, IIRC, and that may require OpenGL v2+, which I don’t think your integrated gfx supports. If you have a discrete card you could throw in there that for-sure supports it, that may help.

#7

Seems like the only Nvidia card I can get that fits is that Quadro, and I have no idea what it supports. All the other ones I find are ATI.

#8

Is there a reason you’re wanting an Nvidia card? AMD/ATi tend to have better open source driver support.

#9

From the Lakka FAQ:

Generic PC

CPU: i386, x86_64 GPU: Intel/Nvidia/Radeon

PCs can work very well. In fact, performance depends on its hardware.

Nvidia and Intel graphic cards should work. If you have to choose, choose Intel HD graphics for now.

That’s the only reason.

#10

If your PC has a standard PCIE (even a 1x) slot any old GPU should slot in and work in theory. You could grab a cheap one off ebay pretty much anything purchasable should outperform that particular igpu. Old low profile business GPU’s like the Radeon 7570 or the r5 340x can be purchased around 10-25 USD if your only goal is low end emulation.

#11

So I had this exact issue when I built my box. It’s a p4 as well. Just turn the box on and ssh into it. Or use windows as samba should be on by default and just type //lakka you should see retroarch.cfg . Edit that. Look for a line that says shader pipeline set that to false. You will boot. The shader pipeline kills all p4 machines. It really should be off by default.