⚠️Recalbox 8.x on RPi3 ⚠️

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Ladies and gentlemen,

Since version 8.0, Raspberry Pi3 suffer from several problems. Unfortunately, neither the development team nor the beta testers have encountered the concerns raised.
However, the RPi3 still accounts for 30% of installed recalbox, so rest assured that we are taking the issue seriously.

THINGS NOT TO DO

Open a topic or reply to a topic (sometimes unrelated) with a bang of "Ahhhh it doesn't work! Everything crashes, nothing works!!!".
In addition to being totally unproductive, it gives us no real information, nor any indication or lead on the problem(s) encountered.
To be able to correct them, we must be able to understand them, or better still reproduce them in order to analyze them.

A lot of people think that their problems are general and that everyone has them. As a result, we are entitled to "You do anything!", "But it's not possible to have so many bugs!" and other "I work in the dev, it's is the first time I've seen that!" (yes, we had one...).

So, let's put things in context:

• We have an extremely rigid beta, tracking and validation system to let as little hassle as possible
• Developers use Recalbox every day
• The 30 beta testers use the betas every day, even outside of "official tests".
• Some features or some corrections pass through many beta versions before being really validated.

If your problem was really general, it would be known and therefore corrected.

THE ISSUES IN QUESTION

Here is a possibly non-exhaustive list of the issues encountered:

• Problem of black screens (no image) when starting Recalbox and even after: This problem was introduced by a Raspberry firmware update of June 2021. We are working with the Raspberry Foundation to resolve it. All distributions that have updated Raspberry firmware have the issue, including the official Raspberry OS.
• Crash when exiting Retroarch menus
• Slowness and/or crashes when browsing in EmulationStation
• Other? Feel free to reply to this topic.

AVAILABLE SOLUTIONS (WORKAROUNDS)

Black screen

For this problem, we released an emergency 8.0.1, which followed the recommendations of the foundation. Unfortunately, "the solution was worse than the disease", and we quickly rectified this with 8.0.2. Of course, the initial problem is still present.
You can, in the meantime, add video=HDMI-A-1:D video=HDMI-A-2:D in the cmdline.txt file of the BOOT partition of your SD card/USB key/Hard Disk.
But beware! This modification is not without consequences: It will "free" Recalbox from any resolution limit and depending on the TV used, FHD or 4K resolutions will have other harmful consequences, detailed below.

Retroarch menus crash

We still don't know what can cause this problem on Pi3 (and only on Pi3), but tests have been carried out on the latest version of Retroarch (1.10.0) and the problem has disappeared.

Slowness/Crashes in EmulationStation

So here, several possible causes, but no miracle solution, and here is why:

• The Raspberry Pi3 has a RAM that is starting to become limited for Recalbox.
• Recalbox evolves. There are more and more systems, more and more things added, and inevitably, it consumes more RAM.
• In some cases, Recalbox's starting resolution is higher than 720p, which is strongly discouraged! Since versions 8.x, Recalbox uses the new video drivers for Raspberry, which if they provide some more performance, but are a little more delicate when it comes to resolutions.
  Make sure you are in 720p maximum on your TV. Check that the key global.videomode contains the value 1280x720 in the file \\RECALBOX\share\system\recalbox.conf
  If despite everything you want to switch to 1080, make sure you have fewer active systems (about twenty maximum), and not to fill your Pi3 with tons of fullsets which will consume enormous RAM.
  Also ensure the quality and proper functioning of your SD card or USB key. In many cases, the SD is the center of the worries. Try buying another and testing with the new one, see if the issues are the same.

Other?

If you find other anomalies, give us ALL the information!

• Model of Pi
• Television model (and resolution used, often the TV gives it)
• Power supply
• Joysticks, type and number
• Where are the games? SD? USB key? Hard disk?
• How many games in all? (Enable "ALL GAMES" virtual system, it will give you the total number if you don't know it)

If the problems are localized to Emulationstation or on certain emulators:
-Add the emulationstation.debuglogs=1 key anywhere in the \\RECALBOX\share\system\recalbox.conf file.

• Use Emulationstation, run games...
• Get the files \\RECALBOX\share\system\logs\es_log.txt and \\RECALBOX\share\system\logs\es_log.txt.backup and post them here.

Be specific and give as much information as possible. Too much is always better than not enough. If we don't give enough, we waste time asking you questions behind.

What has already been done

• Fixes are already tested for black screen issues
• A Retroarch update has been made and works correctly on Pi3

What's still in progress

• Investigations are still in progress on the problems of resolutions on pi3 and even pi4
• We await any information likely to help us flush out other concerns about the Pi3.

What we fix, how and by when

• A version 8.0.3 is already on the way with only the fixes, and should be released quickly, as soon as we have tested and validated everything. Given the adventure of 8.0.1, we obviously remain very cautious.
• A version 8.1 is also on the way, with many new features and of course fixes, but it will arrive later.

Thank you for your attention!

And of course, use this topic to provide us with as much information as possible about the problems you are having
Depending on the case, we may have you do some tests, or even possibly have you test special versions of Recalbox.

This is a translation of the original French topic:
https://forum.recalbox.com/topic/26323/recalbox-8-x-sur-pi3

Please reply in the original thread to centralize the information.