RetroPie 6.12.y for uConsole and DevTerm CM4

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Features: ClockworkPi-RetroPie-6.12.y

  • Image built using Pi-Gen.
  • Sane charging defaults applied.
  • External WiFi antenna already set in config.txt.
  • linux-headers included with kernel
  • Works with both DevTerm CM4/5 and uConsole CM3/4/5.
  • Auto-expanding file system
    • On first boot system will boot expand FS then reboot.
  • Updated driver overlays - easier config.txt management.
    • Just follow the instructions at the bottom of the config.txt
  • After account creation please run command sudo retropie-device DEVICE_HERE to finish setup.
    • Device choices are uconsole or devterm
  • If you are using the QMK keyboard firmware then you need to delete the controller configs here.
    • /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_input.cfg
    • /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig/*

Issues:

  • Volume button works but is not working with alsa with the CM5.

Raspberry Pi Imager will cause image not to boot if you apply custom settings.

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I have added a few working/testing images and kernels with the *.deb files to install in the mega folder if you want for different OSs. I will be adding updated images with CM5 support soon. If it doesn’t have CM4 in the image name it’ll work on the CM5.

Google Drive link for the main image if Mega doesn’t work for you.


Here’s my Github with the rpi-6.12.y branch if you’d like to compile yourself. All the ClockworkPi drivers are pre-marked to compile in bcm2711_defconfig or bcm2712_defconfig. Also the APT repo with kernels and hardware scripts for ClockworkPi devices


Support my work and buy me a coffee here.

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Thank you for giving me a chance to test this Rex! I didn’t think I’d be into a dedicated Retropie image but I actually see a lot of potential here.

While it’s annoying that Retroarch doesn’t have options to rotate its menu while drawing to the framebuffer (I checked, it’s a whole thing), I was blown away by the performance. I wouldn’t have thought the overhead would matter so much but it’s so much faster than Retroarch in a desktop environment — especially when playing with shaders applied.

I’d expect the CM4 to handle every 8 and 16-bit system perfectly, with the added bonus of many of the N64 and Dreamcast games being playable (preferably with an external controller). A handful of low-end GameCube games might run but I’d see that as more of a bonus than a feature.

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@mikeschnier Thanks for the review. I really appreciate your help and feedback. I played some psx Tony Hawk 2 it ran great better then I would have expected, reminded me of being back in college.

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Do yourself a favour and drop this into your shaders folder. Scanlines don’t do much for me, but this has a slot mask CRT setting that looks like how I remember the TV I grew up with: glsl-shaders/crt/shaders/fakelottes.glsl at master · libretro/glsl-shaders · GitHub

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Will do. 20 characters…

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Oh wait, you currently have the DevTerm. I’d recommend waiting until you have a uConsole or are using an external display. I suspect you need at least 720p for the effect. It’s good but at 480p I think you’d mostly just see a moiré pattern.

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I just use the DevTerm by itself. Hopefully I’ll get my uConsole sooner than later. I’ll wait til I get it to try that out.

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It should be possible to use the triggerhappy daemon to get the brightness and volume keys working. I’m transferring a bunch of files over to my install but when I’m done I’ll give it a try and share my config.

Documentation here:

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It took quite a bit of fiddling but I was able to get it to work. Following along with a post from the Retropie forum, I think what actually worked for me was editing rc.local to launch thd as the current user. Just add the following line above exit 0:

nohup /usr/sbin/thd --triggers /etc/triggerhappy/triggers.d/ --user USERNAMEHERE --deviceglob /dev/input/event* &

Install brightnessctl. Then tell thd which keys to monitor and what commands to run. The format is “KEY_CODE TAB 1(press)/2(hold) TAB Command”. I’ll update this post with the conf I’m using when I have a sec. Edit: Updated.

sudo nano /etc/triggerhappy/triggers.d/uconsole.conf

KEY_BRIGHTNESSUP        1       brightnessctl set +10%
KEY_BRIGHTNESSDOWN      1       brightnessctl set 10%-
KEY_VOLUMEUP    1       /usr/bin/amixer sset PCM,0 2db+
KEY_VOLUMEDOWN  1       /usr/bin/amixer sset PCM,0 2db-
KEY_BRIGHTNESSUP        2       brightnessctl set +10%
KEY_BRIGHTNESSDOWN      2       brightnessctl set 10%-
KEY_VOLUMEUP    2       /usr/bin/amixer sset PCM,0 2db+
KEY_VOLUMEDOWN  2       /usr/bin/amixer sset PCM,0 2db-

I’m not sure if I’m entirely happy with these defaults but it’s a start.

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Nice work, I’ll check it out here in a bit on my system.

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Oh! One other thing. I wasn’t able to persist themes in EmulationStation until I changed permissions: sudo chown -R USERNAME:USERNAME /opt/retropie/configs

Next thing I’m going to look into is getting the mouse buttons recognized. Also the Super Nintendo theme looks very good.

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For whatever reason my preferred shader doesn’t look the same as on my other 720p screen, but it still looks pretty good.

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An S-Video filter, a little bit of curvature and a slot mask.

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Has anyone had any luck running games in MAME? I’ve tried running R-Type in lr-mame2003 and lr-mame2003-plus and it crashed back to EmulationStation. Same files I’ve used in the exact same core.

Update: I suspect MAME doesn’t work in 64-bit Retropie. Instead I am now using the FBNeo core with an appropriate romset and everything works.

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I’m going to build a new image tonight with your suggestions. Volume key works now but no visual feedback but you can hear it. I changed it to 5db+/- instead of 2. Theming is persistent now too. I’m also going to precompile Dreamcast and PSP so they just work out the box. Anymore suggestions?

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I’d like to get the mouse buttons recognized. I’ll take a stab at it tonight.

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Updated image available check out the op!

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wondering how to map l1-r1 and l2-r2 button to custom keys? as d-pad detects as keyboard, and abxy as controller. and i cannot do this via wizard at start(

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Thank you again for all of the useful distros you’ve been porting, Rex! I’ve been messing about with the lr-dosbox-pure core.

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Didn’t think Dungeon Keeper would run so well! I’ve been very impressed by the performance.

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Omg please let this work i’ve waited 7 month for my uconsole to arrive just to find out updates are blocked retroarch has no cores and i cant get any to download right someone suggested this and here i am there are tons of people who are like got my uconsole and installed retropi and here we are ZERO like negative people explaining or showing how they did it. TY so much idc you get a banana sticker just for effort even if it doesnt work. Im not alone there’s a whole community of sad folks that just gave up on trying to get it to work on there uconsole. ty= so much can’t wait to try it.

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Give it a spin and report back your experience. Everything should just work for the basic cores and any extras you can compile from the retropie menu. extra controllers should be the only thing you need to configure.