New User Questions

Gumdoc · 31 October 2017 19:19

Hi All,

Relatively new user, run into a couple of issues I could use help with. I’m running the latest version of Retroarch on an nVidia Shield (2017 model). My ROMs sit on an external HD on my network.

I’m able to scan the folders without any issues. When I try to get boxart for SNES systems, it never works. Alternates between 0-2% but never gets past that, eventually times out. All other systems it works like a charm, NES, N64, PSP, etc…takes all of 2 minutes for the boxart to download and install. But SNES is a no go.
I changed the save state location to the same drive where my ROMs exist ( I want to be able to load the save states from another Android machine I have). However, the bottom of the screen says 0%: Saving state…it never gets past that, been staring at that for the past 15 minutes.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

hunterk · 31 October 2017 19:40

For the saves, it needs to be a location on your local storage (i.e., not a mounted network share). Thanks to Google’s ever-changing security policies, RetroArch can’t write to anything except its own directory or directories on local storage. I just dump mine right into my localstorage/RetroArch directory, but it’s probably a better idea to make a ‘saves’ subdirectory. My RetroArch directory has gotten to be quite a mess, lousy with loose saves…

Gumdoc · 31 October 2017 19:54

Thanks for your reply. So, is there any way to do what I want to do? I have two Android boxes on my network. I want to be able to play a game on one of the boxes, save the game/state, and then be able to continue the game on the other box at some other time. If Retroarch only writes to local storage, how do I get around that limitation…if it all?

Gumdoc · 31 October 2017 20:01

Would something like Dropbox work?

hunterk · 1 November 2017 00:03

Yeah, I think so. That’s what I was going to suggest, actually.

Gumdoc · 1 November 2017 00:28

Thanks.

Any thoughts on the SNES box art issue? Have tried it on two separate devices, 300/25 Internet speed, every other system completes in 2-3 minutes. SNES I can let run for hours, eventually it just times out and no box art is ever added.

hunterk · 1 November 2017 01:02

I think you can go here and just download the ones you want and put them where you need manually: http://thumbnails.libretro.com/Nintendo%20-%20Super%20Nintendo%20Entertainment%20System/

Gumdoc · 1 November 2017 01:35

Thanks…doesn’t seem to be any way to download them en masse, downloading 700+ individually has little appeal

hunterk · 1 November 2017 01:52

You should be able to use any download manager extension for your browser or something like wget.

sonkun · 2 November 2017 02:21

I’m not sure about running an external over a network but I do have an external connected directly to my Shield TV and just recently discovered that I can indeed write to my external HD from the Shield simply by placing my Retroarch folder in a folder called “NVIDIA_SHIELD” that’s located right in the root of the drive. I believe that folder gets created automatically when connecting any new hard drive to the Shield for the first time. Nvidia made it so that you can only write inside that folder only, everywhere else will just have read access.

I couldn’t even get PC-98 games to run off my external until I placed my whole roms folder in there. I also put my Retroarch folder in there as well, changed my directories and noticed differences right away. PSP games that wouldn’t save now save, cores that wouldn’t create config files when starting up for the first time now create them (Sharp x68000 and pc-98). I think a lot of Shield users aren’t even aware of that one folder and how important it is especially for Retroarch use. Assuming you also have that folder in your external root definitely try putting your saves ( or maybe even your Retroarch and/or roms folders) in there then try again and see what happens

hunterk · 2 November 2017 00:39

Interesting! I was not aware of that. I wonder if it’ll work with network shares… I’ll have to give it a shot sometime soon. Thanks for the heads-up on that!

sonkun · 2 November 2017 02:46

Yes please let me know if you also have that folder as well. If you do then this information definitely needs to be stickied in the Android section. I had my Shield since 2015 and only just found out about this a few days ago lol. I’m sure a lot of other Shield users also don’t know about this as well and you’re definitely welcome and for all other Shield TV users that had trouble starting a game, saving etc, try moving your files inside that folder, change your directories and try again, it may just work