Missing Core Updater in 1.3.0

RetroArch Linux devices
#1

Hello, I recently installed Retroarch 1.3 for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and I am having trouble loading in cores. When I go to Online Updater, the Core Updater tool is not listed. This issue appears to be exactly the same as forum post which went unanswered: https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/comments/4eo344/retroarch_core_updater_missing/

I was also unsuccessful at loading in the cores via the PPA and terminal. Typing in sudo apt-get install libretro-snes9x libretro-genesisplusgx libretro-mgba libretro-gambatte did not place any new cores in my core directory. My goal is to retrieve new cores from within Retroarch as this is a program highlight. Thanks for your help in advance!

#2

For the PPAs, we patch out the core updater because it can cause broken packages if you mix and match PPA cores with updater cores. To get a full RetroArch installation, just do: sudo apt-get install retroarch* libretro* If the packages installed successfully, the cores should be going into /usr/lib/libretro.

If you want to use the updater instead, you’ll have to compile it on your own, which is pretty easy to do as far as those things go. I’m happy to walk you through it.

#3

Yeah, we hide it on purpose. Btw, why do you need the core updater? We have almost 50 cores in the stable PPA, and 70 in testing.

#4

Thanks for the prompt reply and support, hunterk! I ran that command in Terminal and changed the core directory to /usr/lib/libretro. As it turns out, I already had these cores installed, but I had been searching for them in .config. I don’t always seem to know where files get stored to when I retrieve them from a PPA. Any insight you have on that would be appreciated. Unfortunately, I now have some Retroarch system crashes and wireless XBOX 360 controller issues (currently using xboxdrv). I’ll save these for another post after some research.

Just from my user perspective, the feature that really drew me to Retroarch is the powerful ability to choose and acquire specific cores from within the program and therefore cutting dependence on another program (web browser or terminal) for this purpose. I’m running this on a HTPC, so the experience is to avoid having to drop the gamepad, return to the desktop, pickup the keyboard, and type/copy/paste commands. Also, all of the tutorials I found for Retroarch talk about using the Core Updater for Ubuntu which saves the cores to the default core directory in .config. I didn’t come across anything about this feature being hidden and using the PPA for /usr.

#5

We had to make some tough decisions with the PPA packages to fit in with Debian packaging rules, which forbids writing to the user directory during installation and strongly discourages storing user-independent files in user directories. Plus, the packaging predates the updater and we didn’t want to break all of the existing installations just to move everyone over to the updater.

Anyway, like I said, if you want to use the updater instead, we can walk you through building it yourself.

For the crashing, just run from a command line with --menu --verbose and it should print any errors to the console there.

#6

Hi, I was looking for this too, my answer to your question is that I don’t need the core updater, but from the download page it’s not very clear that the ppa also contains the cores. Maybe you could add after “sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libretro/stable && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install retroarch” another line showing how to search and install a core with apt, or a link to the relevant documentations. Just my two cents… Thanks.

#7

Download page is updated (I just realized they included instructions to PPA installation there these days… sorry)

@hunterk @jsb2127 the right place for Cores is /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libretro/ (it’ll vary if you are running in i386 or ARM architecture ). Actually, /usr/lib/libretro/ has just symlinks (and this folder does not exist in Debian official packages)

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