Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
250 lines (192 loc) · 8.61 KB

manual_install_pc.md

File metadata and controls

250 lines (192 loc) · 8.61 KB
Raw

dynquee: dynamic marquee for Recalbox
Manual Installation of dynquee on Recalbox PC

If you prefer to install dynquee manually, follow these steps.

Notes

  1. These instructions are for installing dynquee on Recalbox PC.
    If you're installing on Recalbox on Raspberry Pi, see the Raspberry Pi manual install guide.
    If you're installing on a separate machine, see the guide for running on a separate device.

  2. These steps involve editing config files which probably means you need to be comfortable using the linux command-line and editing files with either nano or vi.

    If you edit config files on Windows and transfer them to your Recalbox, please remember to transfer the files in TEXT mode.

    Stray Windows CRLF line-endings can cause problems that are hard to diagnose.

Contents

Download dynquee

  1. Log in to recalbox as user root either via ssh or via the console.

  2. Create the dynquee directory:

    mkdir -p /recalbox/share/dynquee

  3. Change to that directory:

    cd /recalbox/share/dynquee

  4. Download the latest dynquee release, unzip it and tidy up:

    wget -O dynquee.zip https://github.com/poppadum/dynquee/releases/latest/download/dynquee.zip
unzip dynquee.zip
rm dynquee.zip

Identify Video Outputs

If you don't want to do the next step manually, run

bash install/find_marquee_output.sh > xrandr_cmd.txt

which will walk you through the process and generate the xrandr command for you. Then skip on to the next section.

Otherwise, type xrandr to get a list of available video outputs. Look at the list and identify which output you want to be the primary for Recalbox, and which output you want to use for your marquee.

Example 1: Samsung NP305VC laptop

This laptop has a built-in display and both HDMI and VGA outputs. I connected my marquee display via HDMI:

# xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 16384 x 16384
LVDS-1 connected primary 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 193mm
   1366x768      60.06*+
…
VGA-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1920x1080i    60.00 +  50.00    59.94  
…
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

In this case LVDS-1 is the primary (Recalbox) display and HDMI-1 is the marquee.

Example 2: Intel Atom net-top PC

This PC has HDMI and VGA outputs. I connected my primary display via HDMI and my marquee display via VGA:

# xrandr          
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192
HDMI-1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 16mm x 9mm
   1920x1080i    60.00*+  50.00    59.94  
…
VGA-1 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1920x1080     60.00 +
…

In this case HDMI-1 is the primary (Recalbox) display and VGA-1 is the marquee.

Set Up Screen Layout

If you used the find_marquee_output.sh script to generate your xrandr command, enter that command now (copy & paste is easiest).

Otherwise, test your screen layout by entering:

xrandr --output $PRIMARY --auto --primary --output $MARQUEE --auto --right-of $PRIMARY

replacing $PRIMARY and $MARQUEE above with the names of your primary and marquee displays that you just discovered.

Your marquee display should turn on and show a blank screen.

Double-check by entering xrandr again (with no arguments this time). The output should show the marquee display's resolution and offset, for example: HDMI-1 connected 1920x1080+1366+0 …

Make a note of your xrandr command for later. The install script records this command in the file xrandr_cmd.txt, so I suggest doing the same. It will be useful if a later Recalbox upgrade removes your startup script.

Example 1: Samsung NP305VC laptop

# xrandr --output LDVS-1 --auto --primary --output HDMI-1 --auto --right-of LVDS-1
# xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1848, maximum 16384 x 16384
LVDS-1 connected primary 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 193mm
   1366x768      60.06*+
…
HDMI-1 connected 1920x1080+1366+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 16mm x 9mm
   1920x1080i    60.00*+  50.00    59.94
…

Example 2: Intel Atom net-top PC

# xrandr --output HDMI-1 --auto --primary --output VGA-1 --auto --right-of HDMI-1
# xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3841 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192
HDMI-1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 16mm x 9mm
   1920x1080i    60.00*+  50.00    59.94  
…
VGA-1 connected 1920x1080+1921+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
…

Test The Marquee Screen

Check that we can get an image to display on the marquee screen:

mpv --screen=2 --alpha=blend --loop media/system/zxspectrum.logo.png

You should see the Sinclair ZX Spectrum logo on the marquee screen. Press Q to exit mpv.

Set Screen Layout At Startup

First, remount the root filesystem read/write:

mount -o rw,remount /

Now edit the file /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc; find the line /usr/bin/externalscreen.sh and insert the xrandr command you noted earlier immediately after it so that it looks similar to:

/usr/bin/externalscreen.sh
xrandr --output … --auto --primary --output … --auto --right-of …

Again, copy & paste is easiest.

Run dynquee At Startup

I tested various methods of auto-starting dynquee on PC, but this is the only method I could find that works.

While you're editing the file /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc, find the line that reads:
openbox --config-file /etc/openbox/rc.xml --startup "emulationstation --windowed"
(probably the last line of the file).

Change that line to read:
openbox --config-file /etc/openbox/rc.xml --startup "bash /recalbox/share/dynquee/startup_pc.sh"

Install The PC Startup Script

Copy the PC startup script to the program directory:

cp -vf install/startup_pc.sh ./

Install The PC Config File

Copy the PC version of the dynquee config file to the program directory:

cp -vf install/dynquee-pc.ini ./dynquee.ini

Optional: if you have a video card that supports hardware acceleration, you could add the mpv --hwdec option to the video_player_opts setting in dynquee.ini e.g. --hwdec nvdec for nVidia GPUs or --hwdec vaapi for AMD or Intel GPUs. This may take some load off the CPU if you are using video marquees.

Configure Openbox

With default settings, mpv grabs the application focus when it is launched, so that keypresses are sent to mpv rather than Emulation Station or a game emulator.

To prevent this, edit the Openbox config file /etc/openbox/rc.xml and add the following lines after the line which reads </application> (indentation is not important):

<application class="EmulationStation">
    <focus>yes</focus>
</application>
<application class="mpv">
    <focus>no</focus>
</application>

This tells Openbox to give Emulation Station the focus when it launches, but never to give mpv (which displays the marquee images and videos) the focus.

Final Check

Do a final check that dynquee starts when Emulation Station starts:

es stop
es start

Once it's working as expected, reboot your Recalbox and test everything.

Then you can move on to configuring your marquee and adding media.

Help

Please see the help section in the README.