RetroPie / OpenELEC (KODI) Dual Boot Disc Image

[smithers]

**EDIT** – to save you time reading through this whole thread – here is a direct link to my images:

RetroPie v3 (my build) + OpenELEC (KODI) v14 – Beast Build:

[links removed – copyrighted content is not welcome here]

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Hi.

Not sure if this is really the correct place to post this but I’m trying to gage interest on something. I have been working on my setup for months now and have finally got it all working 100% as I would like it. I have a dual boot setup and created an add-on for KODI that will start retropie and vice versa within RetroPie to start KODI. It all runs beautifully and I have hidden all boot text etc. I have also set all the best emulators for Mame, FBA, SNES games etc so you don’t need to. I have also modified the theme to show only screenshots per game and have changed all the background system images for my own personal touch, along with a themed KODI too.

So, I was going to offer my setup as a downloadable image for anyone who wanted to cut out the hassles of getting it all setup but before I did I just wanted to see if there was any interest as it will take me a long time to strip it all back to a small size (removing all roms of course), to be able to upload. I get terrible upload speeds of 0.7mbps so I would need the image to be small as possible!

Let me know if you would be interested and if there is enough interest then I will start working on it.

Not meaning to tread on the toes of all the hard work that has already been put in by the creators and contributors to the RetroPie project as a whole, just wanted to contribute something myself and I know that if such an image was available when I first started out I would have been most appreciative!(and would have 7 months of my own time back haha!).

Cheers.
Steve

[kamovsky]

Hi, Steve
I will be very appreciated to you if you send me a link to download the image. :)

Thank you.

[thatguyinfl]

Looks good. I would appreciate it.

[thatguyinfl]

Did you happen to document any of your setup?

Looks clean!! great job!

[smithers]

Hi.

I didn’t document it, no – it’s been a case of trial and error all the way. I know it all in my head though, the amount of tweaking I have been doing over the months, so if you are having any issues just ask and I may be able to help.

I will start making this image then – I think it would be best to make a disc image rather than noobs Setup files, as it cuts out the need for any manual installation (and the chance of things going wrong!).

Only thing you need to add is roms and I will include my screenshots and a directory print out so you can simply rename your roms using a renaming tool (Fatmatch is good), then drop them in the right directories and a game list will be setup already waiting so the screenshots should appear. Simple! (in theory!). Then the last thing you would need to do is set up your controllers, OR, buy a pair of Thrustmaster mini t wireless pads and then you can use my config as is!

Anyway, I will post an update when I’m near completion!

Cheers.
Steve

[thatguyinfl]

Thank you!!! I know it took you a lot of time. Appreciate the share.

[Anonymous]

Looks very good, I would be interested in an image also.

[smithers]

Ok then. I have created an image which should owrk out ok but its rather large @ ~8GB!

I am currently compressing it via tar.xz in Linux which will hopefully reduce it somewhat but we will see.

In the meantime – here is a zip file containing directory prints of my roms folder structures. This means you can rename your rom files to match mine and then the screenshots will appear and they will load into the best emulator etc.

[thatguyinfl]

Your the man!! Thanks again!

[pieguy123]

wow, this would be GREAT to have. Im new to the RP2, and all I plan on using it for is to be able to dualboot retropie and openelec.

if you could help me out too with an img, that would be awesome. Good vid too btw. Thanks in advance!

[smithers]

Ok then, update!

The Tar.xz file I tried to make in Linux did not work at all and the Tar file was bigger than the original image @ 9GB!! :s Not sure what happened there!!

So then, I have used 7-Zip instead and it has trimmed the ~8GB image nicely down to 3.7GB. Perfect!

So now the question is – where to upload it? I have a Mega account, is that any good for such a large file? I don’t ever have the need to upload anything massive like this so don’t know what the best options are.

Any thoughts?

[thatguyinfl]

Mega is a great choice and also if you have a google drive. I personally for something like this would use mega.

[mayki]

Good work, MEGA is good, or to create a torrent …

[smithers]

I am currently uploading to Mega, but it is going to be verrrry slow going with my horrific upload speeds (currently 89kb with an ETA of nearly 12 hours!).

I can’t imagine a torrent would be any easier or faster would it?

[pieguy123]

no the upload most likely wont be any faster to torrent. Probably faster to download, but not the reverse since your upload speeds are crappy. My upload is the same. blows.

Probably best just to let it keep uploading to mega as is. :)

[thatguyinfl]

So besides the script on each partition to switch back and forth, what else did you to to retropie itself?

Did you modify the way it transitions when you launch something, looks like it. Also did you change the default image size for poster? I am just curious off the top of your head the things you did. It looks so clean and smoooth.

Thanks

Luis

[smithers]

Right then folks – the upload has finally finished! :!:

Here is a link – hope this works!

https://mega.co.nz/#!0RgHiBaB!5XA3mXLz-DgEe6zSURZAnjUmoftVkp8zAKx9dcjeB-g

*EDIT* – use this link instead which is updated and tweaked:

[ links removed]

Please let me know how you get on.

I will respond to your question tomorrow as I must now go to bed (got to be up for work in less than 5 hours!) :(

[thatguyinfl]

Thank you for putting all this effort in sharing this. Much appreciated. get some sleep!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for offering up your image, can’t wait to give it a try. BTW, is the image for a Raspberry Pi 2 or other version?

[smithers]

Right then. To answer a few questions – firstly, this is Raspberry Pi 2 only, I imagine it wont work at all on a Pi 1, however you could probably replace the various files needed for a Pi1 if needed? I would recommend buying a Pi2 instead though – its much better!

OK so a couple of notes on my build. I have disabled all boot text and all command line text etc. This gives a lovely clean look however it does mean that you cannot see the command prompt if you need to work on anything via terminal (command line). This means it is strictly SSH only unless you revert the cmdline.txt back to original settings. Another side-effect of this is that if you go into a menu (e.g. when you press ‘X’ whilst loading a game), when you make your changes and exit out you will notice that a static screen of the menu screen will appear every time you load / exit a game (instead of fading to black). This is resolved by a reboot. There is probably a way to enter a ‘clear’ command or something into the script to get around this, but I haven’t got that far and you shouldn’t need to really tweak too much in there anyways. Another point to note is that this also makes some of the RetroPie Setup items defunct as they need the command line visible. I normally remove the ‘Settings’ tab on my build as I don’t need them, but I kept it in for this build.

Over clocking – If you check my ‘Config.txt’ file you will see I have commented out my over clock settings. Those settings work great for me, however I do not want to be responsible for corrupting your SD card so please test your own over clock settings. I have not applied ‘Turbo’ mode though so will not invalidate your warranty (if that’s still a thing these days?).

Screen resolutions – I have a Samsung Smart TV and it can handle pretty much any resolution I throw at it. Your TV may be different, so if you get no image when stating a game you may want to use a different resolution via the RetroPie launch script.

So as to what I have actually done in my build – nothing revolutionary, more of a time-saver for you really, but here is a list off the top of my head of ‘non-standard’ things I have done to this setup:

Created dual boot between OpenELEC and RetroPie, with a script in RetroPie to launch KODI and an Add-on in KODI to launch RetroPie.
Created a boot video which transitions smoothly into the ES logo
Hidden all boot text, Pi splash screen, Pi logo
Hidden all RetroPie text so when selecting or exiting a game no text is displayed
Merged AdvMAME and MAME4ALL / lr-MAME4ALL under 1 system menu and assigned the best emulator for each rom (this means no static noise in Donkey Kong, better sound quality in System 16 games [aside from Altered Beast which doesn’t work properly in AdvMame], and the MK2 / 3 roms play in Lr-MAME and I have set the config to boost the volume to normal levels)
Assigned the correct emulator for every FBA rom, so every one works properly in the best emulator (PiFBA or lr-FBA)
Created KODI system / theme
Tweaked video resolutions and ratios on all systems (and individual games where needed), to get maximum screen size possible. *some people may not like this, but I prefer to have a full screen stretched image when running on my 16:9 TV, rather than huge black borders
Installed various extra systems, through the RetroPie setup script and otherwise (e.g. OpenBOR)
Amended all themes to add in frontend sounds and also so only a (large) screenshot is shown per game. Also added screenshots for every rom (in my collection), and re-sized all to 640×480 or less so no lag when scrolling through games
Created new system backgrounds for every system and hidden the Emulation Station help text for a cleaner look
Removed /etc/network/interfaces file due to it creating a start-up lag (in my experience)

That’s all I can think of from the top of my head. Like I say, nothing revolutionary, but all in all it has taken me around 7 months to get to the point where I can say I am happy with the full setup. It is more time consuming than anything. An understanding of Linux helps too (which I now have, but am no-where near skilled in it yet!).

Any questions or feedback just let me know.

Cheers.
Steve

[thatguyinfl]

Wow!! Simply thank you! Love the whole “Merged AdvMAME and MAME4ALL / lr-MAME4ALL under 1 system menu and assigned the best emulator for each rom”

I cant wait to dig into this deeper after work. Will def be watching this thread.

Thanks again!!!!!!

Luis

[smithers]

Your welcome! Hope it all works ok as I would hate to have to upload again! :o

Another note that I forgot to add – you will need to re-size your RetroPie partition to make full use of your SD card (unless you are using an 8GB). You will probably have to do this via SSH though.

Also, in the Ports section you will find I have left the shortcuts in for Quake (Darkplaces), Duke 3D and Doom2, but these will not work as I removed the pak / wad files. Doom 1 will work as I replaced it with shareware version. The remake games will also work as they are homebrew games (OpenBOR) so fine to leave in there.

[thatguyinfl]

Finally had a chance to load it. Bo9ots right up. had to change the resolution but looks great.

I am trying to figure out the ES navigation controls for now. Lookindg at retroarchconfig but confused on the keyboard navigation. But will report back once I check it out more. It does work and boots and looks pretty though.

Thanks

Luis

[thatguyinfl]

So I am trying a couple things and cant get them to work:

1 – F4 disabled? get black screen
2 – SCP roms to roms folder, access denied

Thanks

Luis

[smithers]

F4 won’t work unless you edit the cmdline.txt to revert it back to original settings (see my ‘notes on build’ post further up). Otherwise you will have to use SSH instead (that’s what I do).

Roms folder permissions should be fine? I set them all as read/write for user ‘Pi’ (and others). If it’s a problem then SSH in and type:

sudo chmod 777 "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/"

And that should fix it for you.

As for keyboard navigation – what is confusing you, and is it in ES or or RetroArch?

[thatguyinfl]

Will try it regarding the roms, as for the navigation keys, I am curious where they stored. I thought es_input.cfg for example

Start=Enter key
Select=right shift key (to scroll directly to a specific letter)
A=S key
B=A key
Left bottom = page down
Right bottom= page up
etc

and if I wanted to register a new controller withing emulationstation (not retroarch) how do i bring the menu up to do it using the keyboard?

Thanks for the quick reply

[smithers]

In the ES_input.cfg file you need to enter the keyboard inputs using their numeric value that the Pi assigns them. In SSH, type in the below and press enter, then scroll through the file to see the various numbers that are assigned:

nano /usr/include/linux/input.h

**edit** – I have attached a text file which shows the keyboard input part of that file above. probably easier to work from.

I use a keyboard / air mouse / remote combo and have mine setup to use the ‘power’ button on the remote to bring up the ES menu. That’s why it may look a little weird in the file on my build! In hindsight I should have probably changed it back to standard before I uploaded but never mind. It’s an easy fix.

[smithers]

I’ve been having a think about it and I’m going to create a script that will let you toggle between having the command / boot text showing and disabling it (also the RetroPie text). I can think of how it will work on my head but haven’t tried it in the real world yet! Providing it works I will also make a script that installs it into the RetroPie settings menu in ES (along with a picture for the theme, to keep it uniform!).

I will probably make a new post for this (as others may be interested) but link it here too.

I will also create a simple script to revert my build back to es_input.cfg and RetroArch.cfg standard settings (for controllers).

[smithers]

Ok – here is an installer script I’ve made that when run will create 2 new scripts that will sit inside the RetroPie Menu screen in Emulation Station that will allow you to toggle command line access on and off (so you can use retropie setup script etc. but when finished you can turn off to allow clean emulator open and exit).

[ links removed]

Extract the contents and you should be left with a folder named “text_switcher”. Copy the folder onto your Raspberry Pi via FTP (or using Linux, if you run it), into the /home/pi/ directory, so it should look like:

/home/pi/text_switcher/

Now log into the pi via SSH and type in the following exactly:

cd text_switcher/
sudo ./install.sh

It is very important that you are inside the ‘text_switcher’ directory when running the above install script, so do not run it from another directory as it will not work!

Your Pi will now reboot and you will notice 2 extra items in the RetroPie menu. Now because you have used my build, it is safe to install an update to my gamelist.xml file which will assign a proper name and picture for the 2 new items.

I would not advise doing this step if you have not used my build

To install the theme update, log back into SSH on your Pi and type the following:

cd text_switcher/
sudo ./theme_install.sh

Your Pi will now reboot again and you will notice the 2 new items have been renamed and they have a picture to go with them, keeping with the theme throughout.

It is now safe to delete the “text_switcher” folder in /home/pi/, but do not delete the /home/pi/backup/ folder! This is where the magic takes place! ;)

I have also attached the standard es-input.cfg file should you want to replace mine.

Hope this helps people who were having difficulties in amending settings etc.

Cheers.
Steve

[thatguyinfl]

I attached an error I receive when trying to run the script. By the way, your going above and beyond and we appreciate it.

Thanks

Luis

[attachment file=”error.jpg”]

[smithers]

Hi.

I replied this last night but my post must not have worked? :a

So basically I think this a permissions thing. Linux is a swine for permissions, especially if you have copied the files via ftp from Windows as Windows doesn’t retain the file permissions that Linux attaches (in my experience – maybe someone more knowledgeable could confirm?).

So to fix this, in SSH go to your /home/pi directory and type the following command:

sudo chmod 777 "text_switcher"

This should reset the permissions for the whole folder and allow you to install.

If this does not work then you need to go into the folder and chmod the script files and make them executable again by using the following command:

sudo chmod +x "filename.sh"

Do that on every script file (including in the /resources/ folder).

I always have permission issues if I have copied via ftp from a Windows machine so it is a good habit to always reset the permissions via ftp after you have copied the files. I use FileZilla and you can right-click I’m the files, set permissions.

Anyway, good luck!

[lozzajp]

I am currently downloading from mega, where does mega site save the file? it is not in my default download directory nor did I get a prompt or on the desktop…

[kamovsky]

Hi,
I’m trying to download the file but I can’t get it.
Even I can’t get https://mega.co.nz (ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT).
Please upload the file to other file server.

Thank you!

[smithers]

Right then. You may wish to hold back from downloading the image above as I have decided to tweak the image and upload again.

I have reverted back to standard controller settings in all emulators and Emulation Station so when you first boot this image it will display the ‘Controller Setup’ screen as if it was a fresh install.

I have added in my command line switcher script and by default the command line is enabled, allowing you to perform any setup / command line activities you need to do. You can then disable it when you are ready, to allow a clean fade between rom open / exit.

I have re-enabled all of the retropie setup scripts and added an image for each item, keeping with the theme of the rest of the system.

I have added the shareware version of Duke Nukem 3D back in.

I have added a ‘readme.txt’ file in the archive – please read through for installation instructions, build notes and troubleshooting.

I envisage this will be my final build!

File size remains the same @ 3.7GB and I am currently uploading now but it will take all night (ETA 10 hours), so I will post a link here when it is done.

Sorry but I cannot upload to multiple different sites – my terrible upload speeds makes it un-feasible. If somebody feels generous enough to upload it to a different website once they have downloaded from MEGA then feel free.

[thatguyinfl]

Thanks again!! Everything you posted above worked like a charm. By the way, csudo chmod +x “filename.sh” fixed all the scripts.

Copying over the es_config file you provided also fixed my controllers. Your command enable/disable also worked great.

I appreciate you uploading another image.

Either, way, i know it was a lot of work and you put in so much time into this, truly shows but love what you did with it.

The modified theme alone makes it look so much better

Anyways, thanks again!!!

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