01/16 UltraSlim = Retro/Gaming/Q3|XBMC 12/13|Desktop + more!

[Takenover83]

This is just something I have been tinkering with in my spare time. It comes with very little support. Feel free to give it a whirl if it sounds like something you are interested in. Base was Raspbian. Fits on any SD card 2GB and up (install size is ~1.2GB), which is pretty amazing for everything it contains.

You boot into EmulationStation. From there you can choose what you want to do. Media? Load up XBMC or use omxplayer. Want to switch to something else? Just quit out of it and you are thrown back into EmulationStation. Want to surf the web? Load up LXDE. Logout and you are thrown back into EmulationStation. Q3A? Get your frag on. Exit, that and go retro. It's all very seemless for the most part. Details below.

• LXDE (minimal desktop with just a file manager, netsurf, terminal, etc..)
• XBMC - 12.3 Frodo or Gotham 13 (Frodo installed by default, can switch out with my xbmc update script)
• Omxplayer w/theme (for emulationstation)
• Lots of little tweaks for less memory usage.
• EmulationStation (boots to this, where you can launch other stuff, like emulators, LXDE, XBMC, etc..)
  
• Quake III Arena (just copy pak files to correct directory)
• Overclocked to 900/450/450/2 (can edit config.txt if you do not want the overclock)
• Retroarch... with cores for
  • Stella (Atari 2600)
  • Picodrive (Sega - Megadrive / Genesis / Sega CD / Mega CD)
  • Fceu-Next (Nes)
  • Pocketsnes (Snes)
  • iMame4all (MAME)
  • Pcsx Rearmed (PSX)
  • Nxengine (Cave Story)
  • Prboom (Doom)
  • Dinothawr
• Muppen64plus (N64) - (very much alpha and none retroarch core).
• piFBA (CPS1/2) (none retroarch core)
• mame4all-pi (Mame) (non retroarch core) uncomment in es_systems.cfg [mame section] to enable in emulationstation

I know this does not contain every emulator out there, but I was going for a slim build, so I picked what I thought were the popular ones.

Misc info:
Samba is installed and user pi's home directory is shared. Makes copying rom's or other large files a breeze.
Lirc (remote support) is installed and enabled. Just copy your lircd.conf to /etc/lirc.
SSH = pi/raspberry
You can put your own scripts in ~/Roms/apps/ and it will show in EmulationStation.
Key location/files:

• Roms location = ~/Roms/
• Retroarch main config = ~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch.cfg
• Retroarch core configs = ~/Emulators/Retroarch/configs/[emu]/retroarch.cfg
• emulationstation config = ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg
• emulationstation mappings = ~/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg

How to update XBMC or switch to Gotham:
I might release updates to xbmc every now and again. I build the updates myself on my pc and upload to dropbox. Frodo is installed by default. Gotham is alpha and under heavy developement. You have been warned. But has several speed patches for a better xbmc experience on raspberry pi. The source I am currently using is here for frodo and here for Gotham. Do not try to run the command via sudo it will not work. The script will backup your current xbmc in opt just incase something goes wrong. There is no error checking, it's just a simple script. So proceed at your own risk.

1: Download: Frodo (last updated 01/15/14) or Gotham (last updated 05/04/14)
2: Copy that file to your home directory (/home/pi)
3: Run the commands below.

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sudo su
updatexbmc

Instructions:

#1: Flash image with something like windisk32imager or dd.
#2: "raspi-config" will run on the first boot. Make sure to resize your file system, set regional settings, time-zone, etc..
#3: Do not reboot from raspi-config. Instead select No if it ask to reboot. This allows the first boot script to finish. (which will reboot for you)

UltraSlim Guide by Rionoskae
User Rionoskae has created a excellent guide for using UltraSlim here.
The Complete Guide To The UltraSlim Raspberry Pi Image


Download v1.6:
7zip MD5 = 913e4fb35b0f32caf20afaa0d1622c2f ~288MB

Changes

Version 1.1

• Changed the name from UltimateSlim to UltraSlim
• Better directory structure
• Compiled all the cores myself, retroarch should be faster
• Disabled rewind by default in retroarch.
• Default hostname changed to UltraSlim

Version 1.2

• 11/1: Now includes a basic script for updating the emu's. Use at your own risk (;p)
• 11/1: Added preload. Should help with responsiveness
• 11/1: Smaller image, file system still 1.2GB once installed. Misc changes.
• 11/1: Fixed XBMC not showing exit option

Version 1.3

• 11/5: Added runcommand.sh script, enabled by default
• 11/5: Updated the update script. You can now choose what to update.
• 11/5: Fixed startup script error on ssh connection
• 11/5: Reduced install size another ~100MB. Install size is now 1.1GB
• 11/5: Download size decreased by 30MB (from 279MB to 249MB)
• 11/5: Added Cave Story and Doom cores.
• 11/5: Updated Emulators and cores

Version 1.3.1

• 11/9: Added ES scraper.py (scan for box art)
• 11/9: Added a script for easy access to scraper.py
• 11/9: BLANK_TIME=0 (fixes emulationstation bug)
• 11/9: POWERDOWN_TIME=0 (fixes emulationstation bug)
• 11/9: Added piFBA
• 11/9: Updated update script to include piFBA.
• 11/9: Added "quiet" option to cmdline.txt. Speeds up boot time.
• 11:9: Added sounds directory to .emulationstation (fixes emulationstation sound errors) in console.
• 11:9: Created generic theme (rpi colors) for Apps/Scripts. Got tired of looking at the white screen ;p

Version 1.4

• 11/19: Kernel, 3.10.18 via rpi-update.
• 11/19: Disabled zram (new kernel does not include support for it).
• 11/19: Applied this fix (helps with stability when overclocking).
• 11/19: Enabled auto fsck on boot.
• 11/19: gcc/g++/cpp 4.7 installed and set as default via system links.
• 11/19: Added Dinothawr w/theme for emulationstation.
• 11/19: Memory split set to 110 (I think thats all xbmc needs)
• 11/19: Added omxplayer w/theme for emulationstation.
• 11/19: Startup script now checks if raspi-config has ran before running emulationstation.

Version 1.4.1

• 11/21: Fixed dinothawr missing retroarch cfg/directory
• 11/21: Deleted my dinothawr save
• 11/21: dino_timer = "disabled" in retroarch core options (for Dinothawr)
• 11/21: Added intro video on bootup. Removed sample media I had on there before (bunny)
• 11/21: Updated omxplayer to 0.3.3
• 11/21: Tweaked piFBA emulationstation theme to differentiate between mame/fba.
• 11/21: Added imame4all-pi (not set as default. uncomment to enable in es_systems.cfg)

Version 1.5

• 11/25: Updated kernel via rpi-update from 3.10.18 to 3.10.19.
• 11/25: Removed VNC. Not sure anyone was really making use of it. If you need it, re-install it via apt-get
• 11/25: Newer build of xbmc Frodo 12.2 via this git. Based on changes from 12.3 from what I understand.
• 11/25: Removed some more stuff that was not needed. (~100MB)
• 11/25: Updated emulators (built 11/24/13)
• 11/25: Left some free space this time around.
• 11/25: Raspi-config set to only boot on the very 1st boot.
• 11/25: Added xbmc update script. See instructions above.
• 11/25: Edited first boot script. Hopefully prevents looping. See instructions above.

Version 1.6

• 01/16: Added couple missing packages
• 01/16: Updated xbmc.sh
• 01/16: Emulators updated
• 01/16: rpi-update for newest kernel fixes 3.10.26
• 01/16: accelerated X driver (click here for info)
• 01/16: Updated XBMC frodo to 12.3 built on 01/15/14
• 01/16: omxplayer update to 1/06/2014
• 01/16: Added a general info screen to EmulationStation (can be removed)

Like UltraSlim? Want to show your thank's? Buy me a drink.

[welshy]

Takenover83
From a quick test, that's a pretty sweet Image! (I particularly like the 'Zoom' transitions on the Menu Selection). Would you mind if I add it the 'Emulation on the Raspberry Pi' Sticky Thread (Link Here - http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 78&t=54357) as another 'SD CARD IMAGES - Pre Packaged SD Card Image' along with Chameleon Remix, PiMAME and RetroPie? I feel it would be a good addition as it also offers easy access to Emulation/XBMC/XLDE in a single package!

Just one suggestion, it may be advisable to add the Pcsx_ReARMed Binary rather than the RetroArch Core, its performance is better...

[Takenover83]

Yes, feel free. Thanks for the suggestions.

[welshy]

Takenover83
Thanks, just two point's, the SNES Core just says 'snes', is it the pocketsnes Core? Also, Mega/Sega CD emulation seems slow with PicoDrive, do you know of any reason why?

[Takenover83]

Yes, I renamed it for my own purposes. I am at the moment though, manually compiling all the cores I use (I used Vanfanel's guide for a faster retroarch), so maybe that will help with speed? Here soon, I can give you a zip with the cores I compiled, to see if that makes any difference? picodrive is already done.

Edit: All I ever tested with pico was Sonic. Speed seemed ok?

[welshy]

Edit: All I ever tested with pico was Sonic. Speed seemed ok?

Yes the ROM's were fine, it was just the CD titles that seemed slow (compared to my own RetroArch version). It could be if you used a 'pre compiled' Core it may not have been CPU specific (platform=armv6e), which may result in better performance. If you are 'optimising' let me know when completed, I will then add to the Thread.

[Takenover83]

Just have mame/atari-2600 cores left to compile, and then I will give a CD rom a whirl.

Edit: Yes, I see the slowdown but I do know why. Disable rewind in retroarch settings, and the fps goes up to around 45-47fps for me (Mortal Kombat). I did notice showing FPS some how effects the fps :/.Please report back if that help's for you. Once the game is loaded, hit F1 on the keyboard, then go to Settings. Hit "X" on Rewind and set it to "Off". Hit F1 to go back to the game. Should be a big improvement, audio less studdery, etc.. You can add these settings to "~/Emulators/RetroArch/cores/configs/megadrive/retroarch.cfg".

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# Enable rewinding. This will take a performance hit when playing, so it is disabled by default.
rewind_enable = false

Note, I tested with "iso" and not "zip".

Here are the new cores I compiled. Some of them need to be renamed if you do not want to edit your .emulationstation/es_systems.cfg. If/when I release a update to the image, they will be included.

Edit: Building updated image now.
So far the only changes will be the updated cores, plus a couple layout changes. Maybe include a basic script to update emulators, cores, etc.. from their git repositores, so people always have the latest versions.

[welshy]

Takenover83
Further Testing -
Confirmed, it was just the 'Rewind' option being set to 'NO' causing the issue, titles play at correct speeds with Rewind: OFF.

Edit: Added to Emulation on the Raspberry Pi: SD CARD IMAGES - Pre Packaged SD Card Images

[Takenover83]

Here is a copy of the runcommand.sh (from RetroPie I believe?). What is runcommand.sh? It set's your resolution to VGA before launching the game for better performance/compatibility. If this is something you want to to/try/test etc.. then do the following.

Create ~/.emulationstation/runcommand.sh

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nano ~/.emulationstation/runcommand.sh

Paste in the following contents.

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#!/bin/bash

# starttype==1: set video mode to VGA ONLY IF tvservice is in HDMI mode, and run command
# starttype==2: keep existing video mode and run command
# starttype==3: set video mode to VGA and run command

starttype=$1
shift

if [[ $starttype -eq 1 && ! -z `tvservice --status | egrep -w "HDMI|DVI"` ]] || [[ $starttype -eq 3 ]]; then
	tvservice -e "CEA 1"
   	fbset -depth 8 && fbset -depth 16
    eval $@
    tvservice -p
    fbset -depth 8 && fbset -depth 16
elif [[ $starttype -eq 2 ]]; then
    eval $@
else
	eval $@
fi

Ctrl+X to save, hit Y for yes.
Make sure it executable.

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chmod +x ~/.emulationstation/runcommand.sh

You also need to update your ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

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mv ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg.bak
nano ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

Paste in the follwing, then ctrl+c to save, hit Y for yes.

Code: Select all

DESCNAME=Atari 2600
NAME=atari2600
PATH=~/Roms/atari2600
EXTENSION=.a26 .A26 .bin .BIN .rom .ROM .zip .ZIP .gz .GZ
COMMAND=~/.emulationstation/runcommand.sh 1 "~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch -L ~/Emulators/Retroarch/cores/stella_libretro.so --config ~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch.cfg --appendconfig ~/Emulators/Retroarch/configs/atari2600/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
PLATFORMID=22

DESCNAME=MAME
NAME=mame
PATH=~/Roms/mame
EXTENSION=.zip .ZIP
COMMAND=~/.emulationstation/runcommand.sh 1 "~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch -L ~/Emulators/Retroarch/cores/libretro-imame4all.so --config ~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch.cfg --appendconfig ~/Emulators/Retroarch/configs/mame/retroarch.cfg %ROM%" 
PLATFORMID=23

DESCNAME=Megadrive/Genesis/Sega CD/Mega CD
NAME=genesis
PATH=~/Roms/sega
EXTENSION=.smd .SMD .bin .BIN .zip .ZIP .iso .ISO
COMMAND=~/.emulationstation/runcommand.sh 1 "~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch -L ~/Emulators/Retroarch/cores/picodrive_libretro.so --config ~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch.cfg --appendconfig ~/Emulators/Retroarch/configs/sega/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
PLATFORMID=18

DESCNAME=Nintendo Entertainment System
NAME=nes
PATH=~/Roms/nes
EXTENSION=.nes .NES .zip .ZIP
COMMAND=~/.emulationstation/runcommand.sh 1 "~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch -L ~/Emulators/Retroarch/cores/fceumm_libretro.so --config ~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch.cfg --appendconfig ~/Emulators/Retroarch/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
PLATFORMID=7

DESCNAME=Sony Playstation 1
NAME=psx
PATH=~/Roms/psx
EXTENSION=.img .IMG .pbp .PBP .bin .BIN
COMMAND=~/.emulationstation/runcommand.sh 1 "~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch -L ~/Emulators/Retroarch/cores/libretro-psx.so --config ~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch.cfg --appendconfig ~/Emulators/Retroarch/configs/psx/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
PLATFORMID=10

DESCNAME=Super Nintendo
NAME=snes
PATH=~/Roms/snes
EXTENSION=.smc .sfc .fig .swc .SMC .SFC .FIG .SWC .zip .ZIP
COMMAND=~/.emulationstation/runcommand.sh 1 "~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch -L ~/Emulators/Retroarch/cores/libretro-pocketsnes.so --config ~/Emulators/Retroarch/retroarch.cfg --appendconfig ~/Emulators/Retroarch/configs/snes/retroarch.cfg %ROM%"
PLATFORMID=6

DESCNAME=Applications
NAME=apps
PATH=~/Roms/apps
EXTENSION=.sh
COMMAND=bash %ROM%

DESCNAME=Nintendo 64
NAME=n64
PATH=~/Roms/n64
EXTENSION=.n64 .z64 .N64 .Z64 .rom .ROM
COMMAND=cd ~/Emulators/n64/ && ./mupen64plus %ROM% && cd ~/

[noob]

is it still possible to use terminal? and maybe launch pi store apps from emulation station?

[Takenover83]

Yes, just hit F4 to close emulationstation, will put you at the terminal. Or you can open up a terminal in LXDE. Once you have downloaded pi store, and and downloaded your app's, just manually add them to ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg.

[Takenover83]

Bump.
Updated to 1.3. Check notes in post #1.

[welshy]

Takenover83
I've edited the Emulation on the Raspberry Pi Thread RE:1.3 Update.

[christom]

Question about Emulationstation booting into XBMC, (mind you i have not tested the image yet) is this doing a clean shutdown of Emulationstation before starting xbmc or is it starting xbmc on top? I'm just curious about performance issues.

I'm really glad I found this thread by the way, I was about to do a complicated setup with NOOBS and dualboot EmulationStation and XBMC (with launchers in each to set the other as default at bootup for NOOBS and then do a soft reboot) after experimenting with Rom collection browser and launching retropie stuff from there which required a lot of voodoo of shutting down xbmc temporarily so as to not affect performance. I just wanted to ensure this solution does clean shut downs of each and has optimized cores for the rpi

[Takenover83]

Currently emulationstation stays running in the background. But IMO, it does not effect performance in xbmc. Video's play fine, and have no problems moving between menu's, etc.. But if you wanted to change this, it would be easy enough to edit the xbmc script that is started from emulationstation.

1: quit/exit emulation station
2: start xbmc
3: wait for xbmc to exit/quit
4: restart emulationstation.

Another option would be to exit emulationstation after launching xbmc, and have xbmc run a script (to restart emulationstation) after exiting/quiting. I have been thinking of doing this myself to see if it helps with xbmc randomly freezing on exit/quit. (leaving you with a white screen with a little dot in the middle). This seem's to only happen if xbmc has been running for several hours.

Currently my XBMC.sh that is started from emulationstation only contains the following.
~/Roms/apps/XBMC.sh

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#!/bin/bash
clear
xbmc-standalone

[christom]

Currently emulationstation stays running in the background. But IMO, it does not effect performance in xbmc. Video's play fine, and have no problems moving between menu's, etc.. But if you wanted to change this, it would be easy enough to edit the xbmc script that is started from emulationstation.

1: quit/exit emulation station
2: start xbmc
3: wait for xbmc to exit/quit
4: restart emulationstation.

Another option would be to exit emulationstation after launching xbmc, and have xbmc run a script (to restart emulationstation) after exiting/quiting. I have been thinking of doing this myself to see if it helps with xbmc randomly freezing on exit/quit. (leaving you with a white screen with a little dot in the middle). This seem's to only happen if xbmc has been running for several hours.

Currently my XBMC.sh that is started from emulationstation only contains the following.
~/Roms/apps/XBMC.sh

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#!/bin/bash
clear
xbmc-standalone

Odd, I'm getting that same dot in the middle issue except i have a black screen with a white dot. I've read on the petrock's site that this could be because of inadequate power source. So I hooked up a 5V 1A source and the same issue occurs. I'm not sure if XBMC has fully relinquished the display before emulation station is running again. I noticed for example, if I change XBMC to run in 720p, when i return to emulation station, it is also in 720p and cropping the menus. I'll look into this further as rebooting from xbmc everytime to play Emu's is very annoying.

EDIT: Looks like this has come up before: https://github.com/Aloshi/EmulationStation/issues/116

[Takenover83]

I have had it happen but not everytime. It's rare. Usually when I exit XBMC, emulationstation load's up just fine afterwords. If you are having it happen everytime, then I suspect something else is wrong. It will also show that problem if no roms at all are detected. But if you are using the setup I created, you should atleast have a App's menu. with all the sh script's showing as "roms".

[christom]

It's happening everytime, unless I exit XBMC a reasonably short period of time after launching it. I will try and do more debugging when I get home. I've also emailed the emulationstation developer about it in hopes that he takes a peek at this thread and notices a configuration issue or something.

[Aloshi]

Check out this issue: https://github.com/Aloshi/EmulationStation/issues/99

tl;dr: it was caused by some bug with (I think) the display going to sleep during inactivity. RetroPie does apply the fix though, as of two months ago.

The next version of EmulationStation (in the unstable branch) uses the official SDL2 Raspberry Pi renderer instead of the original hack (the white dot is actually a normal 1x1px SDL window, opened so ES can receive input events - the rendering is done "on top of it" with OpenGL). It might be fixed there, but you'll have to rewrite your es_systems.cfg and probably compile SDL2 yourself to even try it (and existing themes will be breaking eventually).

Also to anyone concerned about the performance issues of leaving ES running, EmulationStation actually calls SDL_Quit() and closes all its rendering stuff when you launch anything. While you're running something, execution is blocked, waiting for that something to terminate. So the only performance hit it should have is using a little bit of non-GPU RAM (I don't have numbers, sorry - I'd be interested to know though).

[christom]

Thanks for the reply Aloshi, going to try @alexbleks: "Open /etc/kbd/config and set BLANK_TIME=0 and POWERDOWN_TIME=0". Made the changes and launched XBMC, I'm going to watch a few movies and see if this remedies the issue.

[Takenover83]

Thank's for that. I will include those changes in the next version.

Code: Select all

sudo sed -i 's/BLANK_TIME=30/BLANK_TIME=0/g' /etc/kbd/config
sudo sed -i 's/POWERDOWN_TIME=30/POWERDOWN_TIME=0/g' /etc/kbd/config

[Takenover83]

Added a "Pending Changes" to post #1. This is what I have so far. I always upload and then couple hours later find something else I wanted to do/change. So this time, I am holding off ;p

Pending changes (not yet uploaded)
11/9: Added ES scraper.py (scan for box art)
11/9: Added a script for easy access to scraper.py
11/9: BLANK_TIME=0 (fixes emulationstation bug)
11/9: POWERDOWN_TIME=0 (fixes emulationstation bug)
11/9: Added piFBA
11/9: Updated update script to include piFBA.
11/9: Added "quiet" option to cmdline.txt. Speeds up boot time.

[welshy]

Takenover83
Edit: Emulation on the Raspberry Pi Thread as -
• PiFBA - Arcade (Pending, not yet uploaded)

Post when its completed/uploaded and I will edit to -
• PiFBA - Arcade

[Takenover83]

1.3.1 uploaded. Tested. Boot's fine.

If you run one of the script's from emulationstation and it throw's you back to emulationstation, then exit emulationstation with [F4] and try again. Should work fine after that.

[christom]

I'm assuming theres no way to do incremental updates is there? I'll just grab piFBA along with the scraper etc from the image I guess?