search

libretro / RetroArch

Cross-platform, sophisticated frontend for the libretro API. Licensed GPLv3.
http://www.libretro.com
GNU General Public License v3.0
10.07k stars 1.81k forks source link

[Wii U] RetroArch on the Wii U does not install correctly #10377

Open BoldWarriorHS opened 4 years ago

BoldWarriorHS commented 4 years ago

Description

When downloading RetroArch from the Homebrew App Launcher onto my Wii U, the install breaks and does not function at all.

Expected behavior

After installing, RetroArch is added to the Homebrew App Launcher as retroarch.elf. cores are stored in their own folder and can be installed and launched from RetroArch itself.

Actual behavior

In addition to retroarch.elf, all cores were added to the Homebrew App Launcher. Launching any of those cores causes the Homebrew App Launcher to return the error "not enough memory". Launching retroarch.elf results in a black screen lasting a few seconds, and then the program crashes back to the homebrew app launcher.

Steps to reproduce the bug

  1. Get a Wii U with Homebrew App Store and Homebrew Launcher installed and at their newest versions.
  2. In the Homebrew App Store, download Retroarch.
  3. After the install has completed, exit the Homebrew App Store to the Homebrew Launcher.

Bisect Results

Seems to have happeded during the latest update to the Homebrew App Store (v 1.8.5, ULed 22/03/2020) but the problem could have been present in previous versions as I have not updated in a while.

Version/Commit

Environment information

vaguerant commented 4 years ago

I'm not sure how the Homebrew App Store is managed or whether Team Libretro has any involvement in the packages it serves, but I noticed this same problem and the solution was just to download the RetroArch Wii U package (RPX version) directly from the buildbot.

I think the ELF package is currently nonfunctional on Wii U (whether downloaded from the buildbot or the App Store), and the problem is that that's what the App Store is offering. Instead, you need to download and run the RPX package.

As of the date of this comment, if you're looking for the latest Stable version, you'd want this: https://buildbot.libretro.com/stable/1.8.5/nintendo/wiiu/RetroArch_rpx.7z

Install should be pretty straightforward, the archive already has the directory structure you need to copy onto your SD card.. There are a couple of things you need to know specific to the Wii U build:

  1. Updating and extracting assets.zip, which includes all the menu icons and things, is nonworking on Wii U. You can download it on the Wii U, but the file won't be extracted, so you'll need to extract the contents into sd:/retroarch/assets/ on like a functioning PC or something else with the ability to read an SD card. If you have absolutely no PC-side way to do this, you can upload the contents of assets.zip to the Wii U via FTP, but I promise it will suck because it's like, hundreds or maybe thousands of tiny files. It will take forever.
  2. Icon alignment actually completely broken on Wii U currently anyway, if you're going to run a current build you should switch the menu driver to the basic rgui. You can technically get the icons to be positioned correctly by setting the aspect ratio to 16:9 in the video options, but this aspect ratio is also used to display all the content, so all your games will look absolutely awful.
compucat commented 4 years ago

CompuCat from 4TU (HBAS team) here - @QuarkTheAwesome saw this and is working on switching our package over to the rpx version. Frankly, I'm not sure why we're still shipping ELFs at all!

vaguerant commented 4 years ago

Glad to hear that, @compucat. It's worth mentioning that the icon alignment issue I mentioned above (#10476) was actually just fixed in yesterday's nightly build. While it would usually seem more sensible for the App Store to serve the current stable (1.8.5), maybe right now it would make sense to break with tradition and serve a fully-functioning nightly rather than a problematic stable?

vgmoose commented 4 years ago

I've just now updated hb-appstore to the latest wiiu rpx nightly per your last comment, my only concern is the install size is too big (~1GB of installed cores). On Switch, we only include a few cores and suggest using the in-app core downloader to get more. This doesn't seem to work yet on the Wii U build however.

If the ELF files are foobar, it may also be time to move the primary RA Wii U distribution focus to the RPX cores, including potentially removing the ELF ones from the RA download page.

hizzlekizzle commented 4 years ago

Since the cores are statically linked, you could also do themed packs that wouldn't depend on one another. For example, a consoles pack, an arcade pack, a classic computers pack, etc. However, since I suspect most of the size is in the arcades pack and the RA assets, just splitting the arcade cores off would probably go a long way.