RetroArch does not seem to do what it says on the tin

RetroArch General
#1

I’m using Ubuntu 19.10 and I followed the instructions here:

https://www.retroarch.com/index.php?page=linux-instructions

and installed retroarch* from the ppa:libretro/stable repository. However, when I run RetroArch, I get the following display:

retroarch-startup
retroarch-startup.png962×756 125 KB

which looks nothing like the screens in documentation here:

https://docs.libretro.com/guides/navigating/

and also complains about assets being missing even though I followed the installation instructions to the letter and the retroarch-assets package is installed:

$ dpkg -l retroarch-assets | tail -n 1
ii  retroarch-assets 1.4.1+git20170209+dfsg1-1 all          RetroArch assets for XMB, GLUI and Zarch

What’s more, my Steam Controller does not work. (In contradiction to the claims on the website that joypads are configured automatically, I might add.)

Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on?

#2

Did you try the instructions printed on the screen? That is, go to the online updater and fetch the assets? The gamepad autoconfig profiles are also available through it.

#3

I did not. Firstly, I would have expected that if it was a necessity to fetch assets through the online updater in order to make use of the program then that step would have been included in the installation instructions.

Secondly, I saw in many places mention of the fact that the online updater is disabled in distro packages. The libretro PPA itself warns that the online updater in its packages is crippled.

Lastly, I come from the land of Debian. I don’t want the program to update itself, I want to use packages. If the program isn’t usable with the PPA packages alone, I would have expected that to be stated explicitly somewhere.

#4

Is the program unusable with the PPA packages alone?

#5

No, it’s usable. You just have to change some directories to point to the location of the packages. You can do this in settings -> directory (since you don’t have any assets, it’s difficult to tell that there’s a settings tab that you can reach by pressing ‘right’ once). They default to user-writeable directories so it can work with the online updater, while the packages are installed outside of the user path (as dictated by debian packaging rules).

IIRC, the assets package installs to /usr/share/libretro or similar, while the cores go to /usr/{arch}/lib/libretro(?), so set your ‘assets’ directory setting and your ‘core’ directory setting to those locations, then close and reopen retroarch.

#6

It’s not difficult, it’s impossible.

So what I take away from this is that the Online Updater is effectively a requirement and the PPA is not intended to be used except as a means to get to a place where one can run the Online Updater, or at least nobody has made the PPA work as-is and likely nobody will and patches are welcome.

:disappointed:

Thanks for your answers.

#7

We (as in, the RetroArch/libretro team) are stuck in a never-win situation here. We can either:

hide the online updater (and change default paths) so everything is done with packages but then we get hassled by people because the packages aren’t as up-to-date as the online updater (I’m also not making any new core packages because it’s not an effective use of my time, so there are a number of newer cores that simply aren’t available to package-only users) <<- this is how we used to do it

or

use the online updater by default and get hassled by people who would rather use packages. <<- this is how we currently do it

You can go back and forth between paradigms by changing a few settings but no one wants to do that. They want everything to fit their preferences out of the box.

1 Like
#9

Why not change RetroArch so that it detects which settings make the most sense? For example, make use of files from the online updater if they’re present but otherwise make use of files from the packages? That way, the packages will work out of the box but anyone who wants to use the online updater will get what they want too.

#10

We’ve discussed it in the past, but it’s a pretty big, fundamental change that will affect a lot of other areas of the program, so it’s not something we want to enter into lightly.

I think it’s pretty likely that we would drop the PPAs altogether first, and rely entirely on the snap/flatpak/appimage packages instead, as the path of least resistance.

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#11

I stopped using the PPA, as the current implementation of RA make updating & installing cores a breeze, especially with the PPA being in “update” mode, so if you use the PPA alone you’ll end up missing all the new cores, and be stuck with cores that no longer get updated as they changed their names

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#12

I am using the PPA (testing) for RetroArch only and the online updater for the rest.

I found this way the most convenient.

2 Likes
#13

Same here, I’m really happy with the current system where the main program comes from the PPA and all its features are managed from the included online updater.

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#14

The program will NOT update itself. You will update assets and cores whenever you want to.

It’s not so different as Steam, GOG or any other game store, If you think about it. It has it’s own internal “package manager” to keep its stuff up to date.

And emulation is a scene where being up to date is paramount. Emulators, supported roms, file formats, change from week to week. Difficult even a rolling distro to keep up with that in their packages, let’s forget about Debian.

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