RetroPie / OpenELEC (KODI) Dual Boot Disc Image

[kamovsky]

I have not yet had time to fully download the image, but I want to thank this man!
I can download this file!
you’re the best man!
And I will wait your gamelist packs too.
Once again thank you.

[mjfox]

the new version works really well, thanks a lot smithers!

there’s just a problem with dosbox: if you select IBM/dosbox emulatorstation tries to run

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/+Start DOSBox.sh

but the script is named

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/+Start DOSBox.shh

not a big problem, I just changed the name and it works now… I just couldn’t get dosbox to run any exe-files I select from emulatorstation, I had to select Dosbox from emulatorstation and then navigate inside dosbox to the directory and run the desired exe-file… maybe anybody knows how to fix that?

[smithers]

Yes I should have mentioned that. It has became a habit of mine to rename any files that cause a system to appear if I don’t use it (to prevent it showing in the ES menu). I should have renamed the files back again so they appeared – my bad!

This will affect PC, Apple2 and Macintosh (off the top of my head). All I do is add an extra character on the end of the file (.shh instead of .sh), so you just need to rename it and it will re-appear.

I will wait to see if any other bugs are called out first before deciding if it’s enough to warrant a re-upload.

Thanks for trying it out anyway – it’s relieving to hear that it works! :)

[grizzlema]

I tried to download your newest version, but your dropbox account is generating to much traffic and has been disbaled. any way to get it posted somewhere else to download?

[thatguyinfl]

Love it!! Could not figure out the esc key at first but finally figured out using a keyboard was shift+enter. Just loaded it so going to mess with it tonight.

Works great so far. Clean!!! Thanks for all the hard work.

Thank you.

Luis

[smithers]

[quote=103229]I tried to download your newest version, but your dropbox account is generating to much traffic and has been disbaled. any way to get it posted somewhere else to download?
[/quote]

Arrgh! I didn’t realise Dropbox done this otherwise I wouldn’t have uploaded there, but yes you are right – I have received an email saying my link has been suspended due to too much traffic. If I am reading it correctly it will be available again after 24 hours…?

If anyone can advise of a good, reliable, free site where I can upload the image to then I will upload again. Does Google Drive enforce traffic limits too?

[quote=103231]Love it!! Could not figure out the esc key at first but finally figured out using a keyboard was shift+enter.
[/quote]

Hi Luis. I’m not sure what you mean by this – are you saying the ‘Esc’ key isn’t working? Seems ok my end but if you can give me some further diagnosis then I will test it out.

@mjfox – I have updated my build to rename the PC, Apple2 & Macintosh files so they will appear and work again as normal. I will include it in the inevitable next version / upload!

I have also fixed the Atari Lynx issue by reverting back to an older version of the lr-Handy emulator. It works fine now.

FYI – I have created a full theme set of my own now (even systems that will never appear on the Pi, such as Wii!). I will include it in the next update but in the meantime, here is a link should you want to download it:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e4rx0z8d76cfj0z/SS%20Theme.zip?dl=0

OK so now I will await feedback on bugs so I can try and capture everything in the next update but please also let me know where you would prefer me to upload it to?

Cheers,
Steve

[Anonymous]

@ smithers

I haven’t used your image file yet, but it sounds like you’ve done some great work with it. Out of curiosity, did you write the two scripts that allow the user to go back and forth from Kodi and RetroPie (and visa versa)? Or is that something that is available elsewhere?

I’m specifically interested in this feature of your image because I have been really dissatisfied with both the Kodi-inside-RetroPie setup and the Retropie-inside-Kodi setup. There’s always some kind of sacrifice on features one way or the other (problems with controllers, airplay, CEC, etc).

Would you be okay with sharing the scripts/methods of the switching back and forth so that myself and others can implement it in their setups without using your image as a whole?

[smithers]

@agrasan – Yes I created the scripts to switch back and forth between the two. I had seen other methods that switched OS on reboot but I wanted something cleaner than that so found my own way. To be honest, it turned out to be a very easy method too, easier than the ‘reboot’ method in my opinion.

So in a nutshell – by default NOOBS presents you with an OS selection screen on bootup (when you have more than 1 OS installed), but it can be forced into booting into a particular partition by creating an “autoboot.txt” file in the NOOBS partition. My script simply changes the partition number in the file depending on what OS you choose.

I must advise that it would probably be quicker (and certainly easier) for you to just download my build. This is because first of all you need access to a Linux PC to create the tar.xz files needed for the NOBS installer, and secondly – it takes a very long time to set it up ready for NOOBS. That all being said though, it is good to put your own touch on things (and learn new tricks) so I will stop waffling on and describe how I done it:

* Install OpenELEC and RetroPie using NOOBS
* Create a “noobs” folder in each partition to allow mounting of the NOOBS recovery partition. For OpenELEC partition I used ~/noobs/ and for the RetroPie partition I used home/pi/noobs/
* Create a folder in RetroPie to store an “autobootkodi.txt” file (I used /home/pi/.ss/). The “autobootkodi.txt” file should look like this:

boot_partition=5 — note – this assumes you end up with the same partition numbering as I did.

* Create a folder in OpenELEC to store an “autobootgames.txt” file (I used ~/ss/). The “autobootgames.txt” file should look like this:

boot_partition=7

* Create a script for RetroPie to allow booting into KODI – see below:

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/pi
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 noobs
#cd /home/pi/noobs
sudo cp /home/pi/.ss/autobootkodi.txt /home/pi/noobs/autoboot.txt
sudo reboot

* Save the script in home/pi/RetroPie/roms/kodi/kodi.sh on the RetrioPie partition and make it executable.

* Create a script for OpenELEC to allow booting into RetroPie – see below:

#!/bin/bash
cd ~
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 noobs
cp ~/ss/autobootgames.txt ~/noobs/autoboot.txt
reboot

* Save the script in ~/ss/games.sh on the OpenELEC partition and make it executable.

Now you need to create a system theme in Emulation Station for KODI and make it recognise extension ‘.sh’ for its rom files. See below taken from my ‘ES_systems.cfg’ file entry for KODI:

<system>
    <name>kodi</name>
    <fullname>KODI Media Centre</fullname>
    <path>~/RetroPie/roms/kodi</path>
    <extension>.sh .SH</extension>
    <command>%ROM%</command>
    <platform>pc</platform>
    <theme>kodi</theme>
  </system>

This will allow ES to recognise the ‘Kodi.sh’ file you created.

Now you need to install the ‘Advanced Launcher’ addon in KODI. You will need to search in google for the repository .zip file as its no longer available as a KOI repository.

Setup Advanced Launcher to point to your “games.sh” file and save it as ‘Launch Retro Games’ (for example). Now you need to install the ‘Aeon’ theme in KODI as this supports custom addon access from the home screen. When installed, amend the skin settings and set up a custom menu item for Advanced Launcher and name it ‘Games’.

I have kind of skimmed over the Advanced Launcher section there, but it should be self explanatory if you have a go. Let me know if you get stuck.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.
Steve

[Anonymous]

@smithers

Wow! What a great walkthrough, thanks! I’ll have to give this a try as soon as I get a free minute to re-do my setup.

With all of this information, you could easily create a new thread in the forums, as I’m sure lots of people want to know how to accomplish this.

Thank you for the helpful response, and I will report back once I give it a go!

[smithers]

No probs. Its harder to explain than it is to do it really, so you should be fine. The most time consuming part is making a tarball of your build, then compressing it via .xz (a requirement of NOOBS). I would recommend you strip your RetroPie build down to the bare minimum so not too much SD card space is wasted (it will always reside in the NOOBS recovery partition you see). You may be able to store your NOOBS data on a external USB stick which would save you space, but I havent attempted this yet!

Anyways – good luck!

Cheers.
Steve

[grizzlema]

[quote=103246]
Arrgh! I didn’t realise Dropbox done this otherwise I wouldn’t have uploaded there, but yes you are right – I have received an email saying my link has been suspended due to too much traffic. If I am reading it correctly it will be available again after 24 hours…?

If anyone can advise of a good, reliable, free site where I can upload the image to then I will upload again. Does Google Drive enforce traffic limits too?

[/quote]

I did some reading and i think google drive also has a limit even though one artile said it doesnt.

=/

[smithers]

Yeah it seems so. :/

I guess I will upload to Dropbox and MEGA then. Hopefully that will balance things out!

[thatguyinfl]

Its the esc on the keyboard that does not exit a game. But if I hit shift+enter, it exits the game using a keyboard. Joystick exits as it should.

Thats not an issue though.

[kamovsky]

If smithers don’t mind
I’m posting this link to everybody who wants to download last image from smithers ;)
http://www.filedropper.com/retropiekodidualbootss1

[smithers]

[quote=103299]If smithers don’t mind
I’m posting this link to everybody who wants to download last image from smithers
http://www.filedropper.com/retropiekodidualbootss1

[/quote]

Hi kamovsky. I don’t mind at all – thanks very much for re-upping the file. :)

I am awaiting any reports of bugs before uploading a modified build (see posts above), but could you recommend ‘filedropper’ as a reliable host for my future uploads?

[mjfox]

@smithers: could you maybe have a look into the dosbox-scripts? I’m pretty sure that in the latest retropie version it was possible to launch exe-, com- and bat-files from the emulationstation… but when I try to launch such a file dosbox gets launched but nothing else happens, especially the c-drive doesn’t even get mounted so you have to do everything by hand

cheers

MJFox

[smithers]

[quote=103312] @smithers: could you maybe have a look into the dosbox-scripts? I’m pretty sure that in the latest retropie version it was possible to launch exe-, com- and bat-files from the emulationstation… but when I try to launch such a file dosbox gets launched but nothing else happens, especially the c-drive doesn’t even get mounted so you have to do everything by hand

cheers

MJFox

[/quote]

I shall have a look at it for you yes. As it happens I have been playing around with it already tonight but only via command prompt, not via Emulation Station.

Whilst on the subject – do you happen to know if a list exists of ‘good’ games for dosbox on Pi? By good I mean that they are playable. I was really hoping that Blood would run well but unfortunately it runs very slow when there are a few sprites on the screen. :( I would also like Rise of the Triad on the Pi but I bet it too would run badly.

Unless there are tweaks you can do to make the games run better?

[fuzzylogic]

Thanks smithers for creating this image!

I played a bit with the previous version, and it worked fine (except for the PS3 controller issue, but that was an easy fix)
Today i tried to download the latest version based on Noobs, but the dropbox download link was not working anymore, the filedropper link is so extremely slow, that it would have taken atleast 24Hours for me to download the image.

Luckily when i tried the dropbox link later today, i could download it from them.

I have uploaded it to mediafire here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/lb7fe34ggi5sfdv/RetroPie_KODI_DualBoot_SS.zip

I’ve got an account with them, so it should not expire.

btw.. After copying the files to the SD card, i got a “error resizing existing fat partition” but that was caused by not formatting the SD card correctly.

Thanks again, i’ll let it extract/install now, and play with it tomorrow.

[lozzajp]

Thanks fuzzylogic, I was about to report the filedropper link would time out after about 10-50mb downloaded each time and had an unfinished corrupt zip file to show for it.

Downloading ok so far with media fire link.

Great work smithers.

[grizzlema]

So i am pretty new to all of this, is there a way to update the Kodi image to the latest version without having to start all over? Once Isengard is stable for pi’s i would want to update to that.

[smithers]

[quote=103339]
I have uploaded it to mediafire here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/lb7fe34ggi5sfdv/RetroPie_KODI_DualBoot_SS.zip

I’ve got an account with them, so it should not expire.
[/quote]

Many thanks ‘fuzzlogic’ – it is much appreciated by others I am sure too!

[quote=103355]So i am pretty new to all of this, is there a way to update the Kodi image to the latest version without having to start all over? Once Isengard is stable for pi’s i would want to update to that.
[/quote]

Yes – so because KODI is set up on its own partition it means that it can be tweaked however you want and it won’t affect RetoPie at all. As for updating – it will tell you when an update is available then you can just go to ‘OpenELEC Config’ in the ‘System’ section on the home screen and update inside that menu. There is no need to start all over, everything should perform as it should as if it were on its own dedicated SD card. Same goes for RetroPie updates via the RetroPie Setup Script.

p.s. KODI is fully up to date as of a few days ago (an update came through just before I uploaded the image and it all went smoothly).

p.p.s. reading your question again I think you are maybe referring to the Raspbian installer version of KODI which was (last time I checked) still in BETA form. I don’t use that version in my build, I use OpenELEC and it is very stable compared to the Raspbian installer version of KODI, so don’t worry so much about the updates – it runs perfect as-is right now (I haven’t found any issues at all).

Hope this helps.

Cheers.
Steve

[smithers]

[quote=103312] @smithers: could you maybe have a look into the dosbox-scripts? I’m pretty sure that in the latest retropie version it was possible to launch exe-, com- and bat-files from the emulationstation… but when I try to launch such a file dosbox gets launched but nothing else happens, especially the c-drive doesn’t even get mounted so you have to do everything by hand

cheers

MJFox

[/quote]

So I have had a look into this and found that it is working fine, i.e. I am able to launch an .EXE file straight from the emulation station front-end and it works as it should. I tested this on Blood and Hexen and both booted straight up (however Hexen wouldn’t play on DOSBOX, only RPix86).

What happens when you try exactly, like do you get an error message or anything? And what game is it you are trying, I will see if I can re-create it at my end.

Also – have you tried running them in RPix86 instead? I found it to be more compatible for sound than DOSBOX (only tried those 2 games though!).

Cheers.
Steve

[d3s1]

First off, I have to say this is INCREDIBLE and a huge thanks to smithers for putting this together.

I did give this a spin last night with the latest image and while Retropie boots fine, OpenELEC stalls indefinitely at boot (at the OpenELEC boot logo). Hard rebooting doesn’t help and ultimately leads to corruption of the sd card.

Anyone else have this issue?

[smithers]

[quote=103361]First off, I have to say this is INCREDIBLE and a huge thanks to smithers for putting this together.

I did give this a spin last night with the latest image and while Retropie boots fine, OpenELEC stalls indefinitely at boot (at the OpenELEC boot logo). Hard rebooting doesn’t help and ultimately leads to corruption of the sd card.

Anyone else have this issue?

[/quote]

Hmmm that doesn’t sound good. Can I ask how you formatted your SD card? NOOBS is a bit funky on how it partitions your card and if you haven’t partitioned it just how it likes it then it can spit out errors when trying to boot.

I had it fail on me once because I had done my own ‘un-partitioning’and formatting via Gparted in Linux – it didn’t like it and had troubles with the fat32 boot partitioning. It was OpenELEC that was affected Funnily enough.

All I can recommend is to use the SD Formatting tool I mentioned in the Readme file. Using that fixed it for me and it all works perfect now.

Has anybody else had this issue?

[boothy]

Is anyone experiencing problems with booing psx games off a usb? ive tried changing paths multiple times and still no luck. Any help would be much appreciated

thanks in advance

Jodie

[smithers]

[quote=103367]Is anyone experiencing problems with booing psx games off a usb? ive tried changing paths multiple times and still no luck. Any help would be much appreciated

thanks in advance

Jodie

[/quote]

Hi Jodie.

‘thatguyinfl’ posted a method of getting PSX games to boot from usb which he says works great. Its in this thread somewhere if you wanted to have a scout about.

I’ve never tried it before myself but imagine it would be quite handy. I am desperate to try out some MEGA CD games but have ran out of space on my 32GB so it would be useful for me too!

(I’m aware the MEGA CD was a bit crap, but I loved it back in the day!).

Cheers.
Steve

[mjfox]

[quote=103358]So I have had a look into this and found that it is working fine, i.e. I am able to launch an .EXE file straight from the emulation station front-end and it works as it should. I tested this on Blood and Hexen and both booted straight up (however Hexen wouldn’t play on DOSBOX, only RPix86).

What happens when you try exactly, like do you get an error message or anything? And what game is it you are trying, I will see if I can re-create it at my end.

Also – have you tried running them in RPix86 instead? I found it to be more compatible for sound than DOSBOX (only tried those 2 games though!). [/quote]

thanks for all your efforts, they are really appreciated

so far I only testet with DosBox and Star Control 2: http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/144/Star+Control+II.html

I can not test it out right now, but when i tried to run an .EXE file, the console appeared with just:

======================

and after a few seconds I was back in emulationstation again… there was nothing in the logfile after that (it was just empty)

when I run the +Dosbox shell-script from the emulationstation it worked, but I ended up being on drive Z without drive C being mounted

I will try again when I’m at home and tell you exactly how to (hopefully) reproduce it

maybe I mistyped the name of the dosbox shell-script (when I changed the extension from shh to sh)?

[boothy]

Thanks again Smithers for the heads up i will check the thread now. fantastic work may i add! Mega cd was great ive got it soley for sonic cd :)

Jodie

[boothy]

[quote=102764]Thanks for ng this and coming back. Much appreciated. here area a few of my thoughts.

1 – I personally prefer my roms on usb/external. This also makes it easier to add/remove roms, especially for my non-technical friends. Plug it in PC and do what you need/ LoL

My directions for this –
-sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g (I have a 500Gb drive hooked with with psx games)
-sudo mount -t ntfs-3g -o uid=pi,gid=pi /dev/sda1 /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/
-Edit fstab and add /dev/sda1 /home/pi/RetroPie/roms ntfs-3g 0 1

Done. No configs to change. No need to expand SD card. Maybe some users might like this and you do not have to make multiple versions?

2 – Your arcade classics gamelist is fantastic. I would keep them maybe and and users can overwite if they want to. If you do the usb thing above, and scrape, it saves the game list on the usb along with images and yours remain on the sd and just ignored.

Hopefully this helps and gives ideas.

Thanks

Luis

[/quote]

Luis can you help me with this i have tried your guide here and i am trying to boot psx games via usb. i have followed your guide and i get this;

pi@retropie ~ $ sudo mount -t ntfs-3g -o uid=pi,gid=pi /dev/sda1 /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/
Mount is denied because the NTFS volume is already exclusively opened.
The volume may be already mounted, or another software may use it which
could be identified for example by the help of the ‘fuser’ command.

i have tried changing paths although i know you havent, and still no joy. Can anyone lend a hand here. Other than this i have no other faults and will soon be able to enjoy my retropie rather than spend countless hours of coding and trial and error lol

Thanks in advance

Jodie

[kamovsky]

[quote=103353] I was about to report the filedropper link would time out after about 10-50mb downloaded each time and had an unfinished corrupt zip file to show for it.
[/quote]

Sorry guys, this is my mestake :(
I didn’t expect such problems with filedropper anyway…

@fuzzylogic, thank you for right link.

[kamovsky]

[quote=103378]

thatguyinfl wrote:

Thanks for ng this and coming back. Much appreciated. here area a few of my thoughts.

1 – I personally prefer my roms on usb/external. This also makes it easier to add/remove roms, especially for my non-technical friends. Plug it in PC and do what you need/ LoL

Done. No configs to change. No need to expand SD card. Maybe some users might like this and you do not have to make multiple versions?

2 – Your arcade classics gamelist is fantastic. I would keep them maybe and and users can overwite if they want to. If you do the usb thing above, and scrape, it saves the game list on the usb along with images and yours remain on the sd and just ignored.

Hopefully this helps and gives ideas.

Thanks

Luis

[/quote]

Guys, this is great idea to store all rooms on external USB storage!
I’m not a technical guy :) and for me it will be the best option after dual boot from smithers ofcorse :P

[mjfox]

[quote=103358]
So I have had a look into this and found that it is working fine, i.e. I am able to launch an .EXE file straight from the emulation station front-end and it works as it should. I tested this on Blood and Hexen and both booted straight up (however Hexen wouldn’t play on DOSBOX, only RPix86).

What happens when you try exactly, like do you get an error message or anything? And what game is it you are trying, I will see if I can re-create it at my end.

Also – have you tried running them in RPix86 instead? I found it to be more compatible for sound than DOSBOX (only tried those 2 games though!).
[/quote]

ok, I tested this again and I found the reason why it works for you and not for me: I put the game in a folder called “Star Control 2″… if I put the game in a folder called “StarControl2” it works, so it looks like you are not allowed to use spaces for it to work!

mystery solved :)

thanks for all your efforts!

MJFox

[smithers]

Ahh well spotted! Yes I wouldn’t have had those issues with my games – hexen and blood!

Do you happen to know any speed tweaks that can be gained in dosboox? I really really want Blood to run well on the Pi. :(

[mjfox]

[quote=103391]Ahh well spotted! Yes I wouldn’t have had those issues with my games – hexen and blood!

Do you happen to know any speed tweaks that can be gained in dosboox? I really really want Blood to run well on the Pi.

[/quote]

did you try to increase the frameskip? you can do this by pressing CTRL-F8

[smithers]

[quote=103380]

lozzajp wrote:

I was about to report the filedropper link would time out after about 10-50mb downloaded each time and had an unfinished corrupt zip file to show for it.

Sorry guys, this is my mestake
I didn’t expect such problems with filedropper anyway…
@fuzzylogic, thank you for right link.

[/quote]

No worries man – thanks for taking the time to upload in the first place! :)

So I think I may as well just upload v4 since there have been no calls for changes / improvements / bugs – what do you think?

Or is there a certain game port that you want to see on there as standard but can’t get it to build etc? I’m open to suggestions so fire away if you have any.

Also, my area has FINALLY got fibre broadband and mine is getting activated on the 6th of this month – Happy days! That means uploading builds will no longer be a chore and I may even make it a regular (ish) thing if and when I get any requests through. I really don’t mind tinkering with things in my spare time and I know not everyone has the time to do that so I’m happy to help out where I can.

All the best.
Steve

[Author]

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