MacOS Catalina issues

Will try this, thanks for the suggestion.

Hi,

This is my first post, ive used RetroArch previously on my mac and also on rpi. Im running Catalina and when I installed the latest version the app does not see any of the roms, for example a .n64 file doesnt show in any of the directories, although the directories and .jpg files for example are there so I know its reading the directly. .zip files show but if I run the .zip the app just quits. Ive seen the people mentioning folder permissions issues but this seems different.

Ive tried 1.8.5 and 1.7.7 - same issue.

John

@wallace4793 You need to download a Nintendo 64 core first…

PLEASE HELP!

I’m using the latest version of OSX Catalina (10.15.6), and was successfully able to install RetroArch v19. I’m using it to emulate N64, and I’ve been able to load and launch a game without issue.

However, no matter what I do I cannot get the program to pick up on my controller. I’m using a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller - whenever I plug it in, RetroArch recognizes it as a ‘Pro Controller’, but doesn’t register any of its inputs when I try to configure the controls.

I’ve tried changing the ‘device type’, as well as several other options, but no matter what I do I can’t seem to get the freakin’ thing to work.

Can someone PLEASE help with this? I’d just use OpenEmu, but the input delay is horrendous.

Thanks,

Sean

@seanhealystudio You need to pair it to the Mac via Bluetooth first, it doesn’t seem to register any input via a USB cable… Even on other Mac games!

OpenEmu has a custom driver included for all kinds of popular controllers, that’s how it manages to accept input from the Pro Controller via USB…

This is absolutely, 100% not a partitioning issue, nor a notarization/Gatekeeper issue. What it sounds like is an issue with TCC. Catalina takes steps to prevent access to certain directories, including Desktop and Downloads.

Try granting RetroArch “Full Disk Access” in System Preferences.

Pairing with bluetooth doesn’t help - Retroarch just treats the controller as if it’s inputting a constant barrage of random inputs. It works on steam and openemu, but not retroarch or mupen64plus.

Sorry, I’ve been away from the forums for a while. Good to be back.

First off, for those having issues RUNNING RetroArch on a Mac, due to gatekeeper complaining about it being unsigned, you simply need to right-click on the app and select “open”. Then, it will ASK you whether it is ok to open it, rather than telling you it is not Ok. You only need to do this once! After that, it will open with no problems.

Regarding the partitioning thing that I mentioned before: Catalina introduced a new feature behind the scenes. Most users will never know that this transition occurred. Starting with Catalina, the main OS is stored on a read-only partition. A second, “overlay” partition is used to store any changes that need to be made to the system. This makes it easier to reset the system to factory defaults very quickly, as well as maintain the overall integrity of the system. I was thinking that this means that there are 2 home folders - one blank one on the read only partition, and one with all your data in it on the writable partition. After thinking about it again, though, I realized that the system partition would be read only before any home folders are created. My first assumption would seem to be incorrect. My earlier thinking was that RetroArch was not aware of the change, and only looking at the (blank) home folders in the system partition. This theory is also full of holes, as I don’t think the app would be able to differentiate between the two partitions - it would be just as transparent to the app as it is to the user.

To solve the issue for myself, I created a disk image with all of my ROMs in it, and told RetroArch to look in the mounted image for the data. For the record, mounted disk images appear in the same place as external media: /Volumes .

I’m not sure why USB drives would have issues. A disk image worked a charm for me!

The earlier tip about allowing full disk access might just be the answer! Please report back if that helped anyone or not.

Thanks,

—Aaron

did you solved that issue? I have the same problem with my nintendo switch pro controller in Mac OS Monterey. retroarch recognize as pro controller but cannot use

A switch controller really won’t work correctly with most devices other than a switch. There are adapters available to bridge the gap, such as the mayflash magic ns2, available on Amazon for $22 as of this writing.

I believe the NS1 would also work, but I’m not quite sure.