Saves gone, PSX won't find BIOS

Libretro Lakka
#1

Hi All,

I have been troubleshooting this for a couple of days now and running retroarch in verbose logging and here’s what I’ve found so far.

My config appears to use the default directory structure, and when I load a PSX game it claims it cannot find the BIOS. I have the correct files in the correct location (/storage/system/) and the md5 sums match that of what lakka.tv reports.

I also see all my save files and save states in the /storage/savestates folder (can’t remember if that’s the correct dir name as I’m not in front of my machine right now, but the folder is full of saves) but no games see my existing save games or save states.

What would be the next troubleshooting step in this case?

I also already have a reddit post on this with the logs:

#2

Check if in Settings - Directory the paths are pointing to the right folder.

IIRC on default LAKKA points to /tmp/system for BIOS
/storage/savefile for saves
/storage/savestate for savestates

All three of them will revert to <Content dir> if you press spacebar on keyboard or start on your gamepad (hotkey to reset value to the default value)

Don’t worry, everything in /storage/system will override /tmp/system so all your files should be recognized unless you changed something

#3

Yeah I’m not horribly worried since I see that the data is actually there, but it’s annoying when all I wanted to do was crush a couple of my limited hours on my save game and everything seemed lost haha.

I’m also curious about Lakka pointing to /tmp/system since I never had the BIOS files in that directory, they were always in /storage/system/. Again why I suspect the spacebar thing because this happened even before I updated the firmware.

#4

Where is this, in the retroarch.cfg file? Or from the GUI?

#5

Here is the entire log of my launch on an SNES ROM: `

[INFO] Using content: /storage/roms/SNES/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy’s Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].zip#Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy’s Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].smc.

[INFO] arg #0: retroarch
[INFO] arg #1: /storage/roms/SNES/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].zip#Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].smc
[INFO] arg #2: -c
[INFO] arg #3: /storage/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg
[INFO] arg #4: -L
[INFO] arg #5: /tmp/cores/snes9x_libretro.so
[INFO] arg #6: -v
[INFO] Content ran for a total of: 00 hours, 00 minutes, 00 seconds.
[INFO] Unloading game..
[INFO] Unloading core..
[INFO] Unloading core symbols..
[INFO] [Video]: Average monitor Hz: 59.322537 Hz. (43.658 % frame time deviation, based on 2048 last samples).
[INFO] Set config file to : /storage/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg
[INFO] RetroArch 1.7.6 (Git ed5bd80)
[INFO] Redirecting save file to "/storage/roms/SNES/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].srm".
[INFO] Redirecting savestate to "/storage/roms/SNES/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].state".
[INFO] === Build =======================================
[INFO] CPU Model Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4570T CPU @ 2.90GHz
Capabilities: MMX MMXEXT SSE1 SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 SSE4 SSE4.2 AVX AES 
Built: Mar 10 2019
[INFO] Version: 1.7.6
[INFO] Git: ed5bd80
[INFO] =================================================
[INFO] Loading dynamic libretro core from: "/tmp/cores/snes9x_libretro.so"
[INFO] [overrides] no core-specific overrides found at /storage/.config/retroarch/config/Snes9x/Snes9x.cfg.
[INFO] [overrides] no content-dir-specific overrides found at /storage/.config/retroarch/config/Snes9x/SNES.cfg.
[INFO] [overrides] no game-specific overrides found at /storage/.config/retroarch/config/Snes9x/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].cfg.
[INFO] Shaders: preset directory: /storage/.config/retroarch/shaders/presets
[INFO] Shaders: no game-specific preset found at /storage/.config/retroarch/shaders/presets/Snes9x/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].cgp.
[INFO] Shaders: no game-specific preset found at /storage/.config/retroarch/shaders/presets/Snes9x/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].glslp.
[INFO] Shaders: no content-dir-specific preset found at /storage/.config/retroarch/shaders/presets/Snes9x/SNES.cgp.
[INFO] Shaders: no content-dir-specific preset found at /storage/.config/retroarch/shaders/presets/Snes9x/SNES.glslp.
[INFO] Shaders: no core-specific preset found at /storage/.config/retroarch/shaders/presets/Snes9x/Snes9x.cgp.
[INFO] Shaders: no core-specific preset found at /storage/.config/retroarch/shaders/presets/Snes9x/Snes9x.glslp.
[INFO] Environ SET_SUBSYSTEM_INFO.
[INFO] Special game type: Multi-Cart Link
[INFO]   Ident: multicart_addon
[INFO]   ID: 4357
[INFO]   Content:
[INFO]     Cart A (optional)
[INFO]     Cart B (optional)
[INFO] Environ SET_VARIABLES.
[INFO] Environ SET_CONTROLLER_INFO.
[INFO] Controller port: 1
[INFO]    None (ID: 0)
[INFO]    SNES Joypad (ID: 1)
[INFO]    SNES Mouse (ID: 2)
[INFO]    Multitap (ID: 257)
[INFO] Controller port: 2
[INFO]    None (ID: 0)
[INFO]    SNES Joypad (ID: 1)
[INFO]    SNES Mouse (ID: 2)
[INFO]    Multitap (ID: 257)
[INFO]    SuperScope (ID: 260)
[INFO]    Justifier (ID: 516)
[INFO]    M.A.C.S. Rifle (ID: 1028)
[INFO] Controller port: 3
[INFO]    None (ID: 0)
[INFO]    SNES Joypad (ID: 1)
[INFO]    Justifier (2P) (ID: 772)
[INFO] Controller port: 4
[INFO]    None (ID: 0)
[INFO]    SNES Joypad (ID: 1)
[INFO] Controller port: 5
[INFO]    None (ID: 0)
[INFO]    SNES Joypad (ID: 1)
[INFO] Controller port: 6
[INFO]    None (ID: 0)
[INFO]    SNES Joypad (ID: 1)
[INFO] Controller port: 7
[INFO]    None (ID: 0)
[INFO]    SNES Joypad (ID: 1)
[INFO] Controller port: 8
[INFO]    None (ID: 0)
[INFO]    SNES Joypad (ID: 1)
[INFO] Remaps: remap directory: /storage/remappings
[INFO] Remaps: no game-specific remap found at /storage/remappings/Snes9x/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].rmp.
[INFO] Remaps: no content-dir-specific remap found at /storage/remappings/Snes9x/SNES.rmp.
[INFO] Remaps: no core-specific remap found at /storage/remappings/Snes9x/Snes9x.rmp.
[INFO] Redirecting save file to "/storage/roms/SNES/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].srm".
[INFO] Redirecting savestate to "/storage/roms/SNES/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].state".
[INFO] Environ GET_LOG_INTERFACE.
[WARN] SYSTEM DIR is empty, assume CONTENT DIR /storage/roms/SNES/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].zip#Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].smc
[INFO] Environ SYSTEM_DIRECTORY: "/storage/roms/SNES/".
[INFO] Environ SET_SUPPORT_ACHIEVEMENTS: yes.
Sound buffer size: 4100 (1025 samples)
[INFO] Environ PERFORMANCE_LEVEL: 12.

From what that’s telling me is:

  1. it’s loading this config: /storage/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg, which is default and specifies the correct directories
  2. There is nothing being overridden or remapped

I am not sure what used to be in the remappings directory, but mine is relatively empty: Lakka:~ # ls /storage/remappings/ DOSBox Gambatte Nestopia TyrQuake

By default, which file is doing the mappings and what specifically is it mapping? Because obviously my setup is missing something randomly.

#6

Settings -> Directory = GUI

In your retroarch.cfg search for:

savefile_directory = ""
savestate_directory = ""
system_directory = ""

Reading from your log shows that savefile and savestate is redirecting to your rom folder:

[INFO] Redirecting save file to "/storage/roms/SNES/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].srm".
[INFO] Redirecting savestate to "/storage/roms/SNES/Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest (U) (V1.1) [!].state".

To redirect to the savefile/savestate folder you have to change paths

This means that while running a game you changed settings and than you saved a core override

[EDIT] The settings for overrides are in the Quick Menu by pressing F1 when you have a game running (or the hotkey you have defined in Settings -> Input -> Hotkey Binds) from GUI

1 Like