Sound, input and vulkan issues on Ubuntu Server 18.04

RetroArch Linux devices
#1

I am having a couple of oddities. I have a fresh install of Ubuntu Server 18.04 (Running on an Intel Atom Z8350, x64) and I am running the most recent stable. I have no desktop interface installed, and this might be part of the problem.

First, from the terminal I run “retroarch” or “retroarch -v” which loads up retroarch without issue. The only problem is, my keyboard, nor USB Xbox 360 controller will work… at all. However I found out how to fix this. if I run “sudo retroarch” everything works fine. Is running retroarch as root the preferred way to run?

Second, I can’t get audio to work at all. I believe this is caused by running a server edition of Ubuntu. I tried doing an “apt-get install pulseaudio” and selecting “pulse” from the audio/driver options, but still no dice. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Lastly, I wanted to try out the new vulkan drivers. But whenever I try to launch a gamecube game, I get a seg fault. Enable Shared Hardware Context is set to “on” and I have downloaded the dolphin_data.zip. Using retroarch -v I see the resolution is getting set to something ridiculously low like 320x240. Also I am not sure if its needed but I also did an "apt-get install libvulkan-dev vulkan-utils but this didn’t really make a difference.

Sorry for the multiple issues, but i am really looking forward to to getting everything working!

#2

  1. probably udev permissions: https://docs.libretro.com/guides/input-joypad-drivers/#setting-up-udev-permissions

  2. not sure there, but you probably need a bunch of stuff, like alsa.

  3. if you’re running without a desktop, there is vulkan’s vk_khr_display, which is sort of like GL’s KMS mode, but apparently KMS has better performance, so YMMV.

#3

Excellent reply. Thank you for the information and for the links!

It sounds like getting start with Lubuntu, or something with a desktop environment might be a bit easier to get started.

In case anyone is interested, I am trying to get this running on an “AtomicPi”.

Just got mine a few days ago, and seeing if I can make a functional emulation box out of it.

#4

Ah, cool. Yeah, a general purpose distro will typically make things much easier on you. You can always uninstall your desktop environment later on if you decide you don’t need it.