Scripting news

[Shaneus]

It's in beta stage. When this core will be stable, it will be moved to MiSTer-devel for general use.
There is no point to tweak update for this repository.
If you like to use unfinished cores, then update them by hands. They may not follow the general schema for automatic updates.

Understood, easily done. Thanks!

[Locutus73]

Scripting news:
===========================
Updater_script_MiSTer: 2020-01-13
- mister_updater.sh - Version 4.0 - 2020-01-13 - Added report/log of updated cores and additional files at the end of the script; added exit code 100 when there's an error downloading something; now PARALLEL_UPDATE="true" is the default value; added REPOSITORIES_NEGATIVE_FILTER parameter, like REPOSITORIES_FILTER but repository names and core categories must not match the filter, it is processed after REPOSITORIES_FILTER; now the updater only checks repositories which have been actually updated since the last successful update, edit your ini or delete /media/fat/Scripts/.mister_updater/*.last_successful_run files to reset this mechanism; changed MidiLink additional repository to the official MiSTer-devel one.
- updater-pc/updater-pc.zip - 2020-01-13 - Added cut.exe.
===========================
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Updater_script_MiSTer

Regards.

Locutus73

[evdberg]

Is it normal that the update script throws 'Transient errors' and is 'Throwing away bytes'?
I also got whole scrolling screens of timestamps. I have the feeling something is wrong.

[Chris23235]

Is it normal that the update script throws 'Transient errors' and is 'Throwing away bytes'?
I also got whole scrolling screens of timestamps. I have the feeling something is wrong.

Same here, after the updater ran I had a bunch of arcade core files in the folder, that should only contain the mra files.

[Locutus73]

Is it normal that the update script throws 'Transient errors' and is 'Throwing away bytes'?
I also got whole scrolling screens of timestamps. I have the feeling something is wrong.

Are you on Wi-Fi?
It’s not the first time I see people having problems with Wi-Fi (sometimes it’s a power issue).
Can you try with PARALLEL_UPDATE="false" which will stress less the network?
Anyway the script should be resilient, restoring files not updated correctly, reporting errors in the final log and not considering the update successful so that the next run will check again the current updated repos.

Let me know.

Regards.

Locutus73

[Locutus73]

Same here, after the updater ran I had a bunch of arcade core files in the folder, that should only contain the mra files.

Are you using MAME_ARCADE_ROMS="true" (and optionally MAME_ALT_ROMS="true") in your ini?

Regards.

Locutus73

[djsquare]

I also get transient errors every time now and I am not on wifi. I will try the above when I get home. Thank you

[Locutus73]

If PARALLEL_UPDATE="false" solves the transient network errors and you complete a successful update run, can you try PARALLEL_UPDATE="true" again?
In the next runs the updater will check only the repos which have been actually updated so it will check only few repos in parallel instead of 100+. Actually on the first run after you change the ini it will check all repos finding no updates and then will check only the updated ones, so:
1) run the updater with PARALLEL_UPDATE="false", it should update 100+ repos with no network problems.
2) run the updater with PARALLEL_UPDATE="true", it should check 100+ repos finding no update.
3) run the updater again with PARALLEL_UPDATE="true", it should skip all MiSTer-devel repos.

If you run again the updater the next day after 3), it should update in parallel only the few repos with actual updates and maybe you won’t have network transient errors even with PARALLEL_UPDATE="true"

Thank you in advance.

Regards.

[Chris23235]

Same here, after the updater ran I had a bunch of arcade core files in the folder, that should only contain the mra files.

Are you using MAME_ARCADE_ROMS="true" (and optionally MAME_ALT_ROMS="true") in your ini?

Regards.

Locutus73

Ah, I forgot I had to change MAME_ARACDE_ROMS to "true", did it before, but that was on the old card, my fault.

[djsquare]

If PARALLEL_UPDATE="false" solves the transient network errors and you complete a successful update run, can you try PARALLEL_UPDATE="true" again?
In the next runs the updater will check only the repos which have been actually updated so it will check only few repos in parallel instead of 100+. Actually on the first run after you change the ini it will check all repos finding no updates and then will check only the updated ones, so:
1) run the updater with PARALLEL_UPDATE="false", it should update 100+ repos with no network problems.
2) run the updater with PARALLEL_UPDATE="true", it should check 100+ repos finding no update.
3) run the updater again with PARALLEL_UPDATE="true", it should skip all MiSTer-devel repos.

If you run again the updater tomorrow, it should update in parallel only the few repos with actual updates and maybe you won’t have network transient errors even with PARALLEL_UPDATE="true"

Thank you in advance.

Regards.

Worked like a charm. Thank you again

[Locutus73]

Worked like a charm. Thank you again

Maybe the parallel update pushes something in your network too hard.
i.e. my DE10-Nano is connected through Ethernet to an Apple Airport Express which bridges it through Wi-Fi to an AirPort Extreme connected (Ethernet) to a low power x86 box with VMWare eSXI and pfSense (firewall) then to a VDSL2 modem (all routing functions disabled). I don’t have any transient error (maybe some really rare instances).
Anyway each and every network is different and disabling the parallel update eases the network life.
I’ll add a prompt in the final recap when there’s a downloading error.

Regards.

Locutus73

[evdberg]

Are you on Wi-Fi?
It’s not the first time I see people having problems with Wi-Fi (sometimes it’s a power issue).
Can you try with PARALLEL_UPDATE="false" which will stress less the network?
Anyway the script should be resilient, restoring files not updated correctly, reporting errors in the final log and not considering the update successful so that the next run will check again the current updated repos.

I am on wired LAN.

I added PARALLEL_UPDATE="false" after ALLOW_INSECURE_SSL="true" to the update.sh script, but that does not seem to make any difference.

[UPDATE}
Putting PARALLEL_UPDATE="false" in update.ini works much better ...

[Locutus73]

@Sorgelig
I see you renamed some old cores releases dirs to _releases, reworked the wiki in order to point some entries to the parent core and now you're deleting the bat files for generating old style ROMs... this leads me to think that MRA is not only the future of arcade cores, but it's the present and old rom files are deprecated. Am I right?
If this is true, what do you think about updater MAME_ARCADE_ROMS and MAME_ALT_ROMS default values?
Now it's "" which means the updater will behave like in the past, so downloading rbf files in the _Arcade dir and no MRA is processed.
When "true" the updater will move all rbf files under _Arcade/cores, update them there and download MRA files into _Arcade.
When "false" the original old style structure will be restored.

Maybe it's time for having MAME_ARCADE_ROMS="true" and MAME_ALT_ROMS="true" as default value: this would help new users, but it could harm some old user still using old style roms. Maybe I can display a disclaimer in the updater for a week or two and then change the default value to "true".

Please tell me what you think, suggestions are welcome.

Thank you in advance.
Regards.

[brunosilva]

my idea:
alternatives could be off because not everyone likes it...

but mra on by default

[Locutus73]

Scripting news:
===========================
Updater_script_MiSTer: 2020-01-13
- update.sh - Version 2.1.3 - 2020-01-18 - Improved script output.
- mister_updater.sh - Version 4.0.1 - 2020-01-18 - Improved script output.
===========================
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Updater_script_MiSTer

Regards.

Locutus73

[marra]

Hi, long time lurked and newb to mister.
Pretty much as the title says, I have retrodrivens script downloading roms and the update.sh that downloads rbf files but it doesn't create/download official mra files is there a option in update.ini im supposed to enable so it does? I've had help on a facebook group to get to this point but I just cant get any arcade cores to run even when I found some mra files and added them manually when I tried to run them it just took me back to the cores menu.
Any help would be great. Thanks.

[Locutus73]

Any help would be great. Thanks.

Hi,
please add MAME_ARCADE_ROMS="true" and MAME_ALT_ROMS="true" to your ini.
Please read https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Updater_script_MiSTer regarding the ini and stuff.

Regards.

Locutus73

[kublai]

Hi, long time lurked and newb to mister.
Pretty much as the title says, I have retrodrivens script downloading roms and the update.sh that downloads rbf files but it doesn't create/download official mra files is there a option in update.ini im supposed to enable so it does? I've had help on a facebook group to get to this point but I just cant get any arcade cores to run even when I found some mra files and added them manually when I tried to run them it just took me back to the cores menu.
Any help would be great. Thanks.

I had the same happen to me and I ended up formatting my SDCard and started from scratch. ran the update and update_retrodrivens script after and everything worked. Probably something with the old config that caused none of the Arcade cores to run. I was enevr able to figure out what it was but I'm glad I started from scratch as my dirs are now clean.

[marra]

Any help would be great. Thanks.

Hi,
please add MAME_ARCADE_ROMS="true" and MAME_ALT_ROMS="true" to your ini.
Please read https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Updater_script_MiSTer regarding the ini and stuff.

Regards.

Locutus73

Thanks for your help I double checked and I had already done that but it still wouldn't even try to download the mra files

Hi, long time lurked and newb to mister.
Pretty much as the title says, I have retrodrivens script downloading roms and the update.sh that downloads rbf files but it doesn't create/download official mra files is there a option in update.ini im supposed to enable so it does? I've had help on a facebook group to get to this point but I just cant get any arcade cores to run even when I found some mra files and added them manually when I tried to run them it just took me back to the cores menu.
Any help would be great. Thanks.

I had the same happen to me and I ended up formatting my SDCard and started from scratch. ran the update and update_retrodrivens script after and everything worked. Probably something with the old config that caused none of the Arcade cores to run. I was enevr able to figure out what it was but I'm glad I started from scratch as my dirs are now clean.

I decided to follow you advice and re do my sd it didnt work straightway but after I made another update.ini it worked so i could only imagine it was a formatting error on my part.

Although i got it to download the files it downloaded the mra and rbf files in the wrong place so I need to work that out.
when I manually put them in the right place every game i tried worked, the weird thing is i shutdown my laptop thinking i had cracked it and then went to load another game and none would boot I'm sure it was complaining about the rom files, it's strange because I hadn't changed anything if you have any ideas about the above any help would be great.

Thank you both for your help it's really appreciated I'm a lot further on than I was.

[Locutus73]

Thank you both for your help it's really appreciated I'm a lot further on than I was.

I honestly don't understad your issue very much... my advice is using Notepad++ for editing ini files.
Regarding target directories, when MAME_ARCADE_ROMS="true" MRA files will go into_Arcade, while RBF cores will go into _Arcade/cores; you have just to put your MAME ROM zips into _Arcade/mame.

Regards.

Locutus73

[marra]

Thanks for you help guys and i'm sorry for taking so long to reply. I managed to get everything to download to the correct place now it was me being a idiot and changing something I shouldn't in the folder structure in the script.
But since getting things to run by manually placing the files in the correct place which i mentioned earlier then for reasons I still haven't worked out they stopped working.
I went back to the script and now everything downloads in the right place with the arcade updater script and the roms are downloading with retrodrivens script but games are still not working when I try to boot the mra it says ****.bin not found, I'm at a loss now because everything is there

_Arcade --- .mra
_Arcade/cores --- .rbf
_Arcade/mame --- .zip

I've disabled hbmame on the retrodriven script for the time being.

thanks again and any help is appreciated.

[marra]

just posting incase anybody else has a brain fart like me.
I had another look at my problem today and realised after a pointer of someone else, I moved my mame zips to /games/mame and everything is working now. Sorry to put you through this and hopefully this helps someone else.

[trashuncle]

Does anyone know of GBA Cheats will be added to the updater script?

[Sorgelig]

@Sorgelig
I see you renamed some old cores releases dirs to _releases, reworked the wiki in order to point some entries to the parent core and now you're deleting the bat files for generating old style ROMs... this leads me to think that MRA is not only the future of arcade cores, but it's the present and old rom files are deprecated. Am I right?
If this is true, what do you think about updater MAME_ARCADE_ROMS and MAME_ALT_ROMS default values?
Now it's "" which means the updater will behave like in the past, so downloading rbf files in the _Arcade dir and no MRA is processed.
When "true" the updater will move all rbf files under _Arcade/cores, update them there and download MRA files into _Arcade.
When "false" the original old style structure will be restored.

Maybe it's time for having MAME_ARCADE_ROMS="true" and MAME_ALT_ROMS="true" as default value: this would help new users, but it could harm some old user still using old style roms. Maybe I can display a disclaimer in the updater for a week or two and then change the default value to "true".

Please tell me what you think, suggestions are welcome.

Thank you in advance.
Regards.

I think it's better not to touch the old Arcade structure - leave it as is. Current users will decide what to do - leave the old structure along with new one or delete - it's not hard to do - and it's one-time operation. But i would be angry if some script would delete the whole folder structure from my SD card.
But updater must be switched to MRA from now, as there won't be support for old pre-made ROMs. MRA includes additional important features like change the core ID, provide DIP and button settings. So old way is definitely obsolete and there is no way back. New milti-arcade cores cannot support it anyway.

[djsquare]

I just noticed that the new Chip8 core downloads into the _Console folder rather than the _Computer folder