Having a REALLY bad day

[picard999]

Oh boy. My mister arrived today. Thought I'd prepped well by preparing a large USB drive with a load of roms all in the game folder and subsequently correctly named folders within that...

I open the Mister box...Zero instructions. I mean nothing. Again, I prepped - not my 1st rodeo

But the Mister is rattling. And I can see a screw and a nut free inside the pre made turbo device. I sort that. I've bought the recommended power supply too

Turn it all on. Acquire the 'update all' script and run it. I've plugged in a wired Xbox controller that's working well. But suddenly it doesn't work?!

No worries, I revert to a tiny USB keyboard with USB dongle. That doesn't work at all. Nor do the other 2 spares, though I'm told they should just work with no config required...might try via the USBead I charge them with...

Thankfully I have a wired PS3 controller and that works via USB.

I rename the games folder on the SD card because I want to keep it as a spare but run off the external USB drive...

When the USB drive is turned on, the Mister gracefully recognises it...but when I click on the folders (arcade, console etc)...empty. nothing. The games are there but Mister doesn't see them

I've spent a couple of hours and have given up for the day. Quite the anticlimax...didn't get a single game to run...although I did install the screensaver and attract mode successfully....

Also, I have a 'nude' NFC reader, which I presumed would have been inside the case...can a case be bought for that? I also have 4 NFC PCB type things? I presume they are just fancy NFC cards if I ever get it working? But I've also got 6 small round stickers on a strip of paper. No idea what they are. They look too flimsy to be NFCs and I can't see a chip within them

I've also got a load of retro controllers and the relevant snacs, but first things first on getting games to run....

TLDR:

1: Why aren't my keyboards working?

2: Why did my USB Xbox controller work for a few minutes and then stop?

3: Do I just plug that NFC PCB in via a USB lead I have when the time is right?

4: Are the 4 NFC PCBs actually posh NFC cards?

5: What are the stickers?

Any other help gratefully received...

I'm tight for space and I see the inbuilt SD has 57Gig free...could I put arcade roms on that and my other games on USB?

It all a bit magic roundabout at that moment....

Oh and so should confess, registering here was a challenge...how many letters are in the forum logo?!?! Don't understand the question. If I'm the only one who struggled with that I'm having a really bad day...

Any help greatly appreciated

Today has made Retroarch look seamless and I HATE that program!

[picard999]

I'm wondering if I need anything in the folder with the games on my usb drive? An XML file or config file or similar?

[Xbytez]

If you are looking for documentation this is an excellent resource, follow the link and have a read.

https://mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_MiSTer/

[picard999]

Thanks, I've previously read all that and if things are working its great, but there's no answers there to my queries. A lot of stuff is keyboard dependant and with no keyboards working I'm snookered...

I'm gonna have 1 last go tomorrow, but it shouldn't be this hard. When stuff arrives rattling, I have to wonder about the build quality...

[rhester72]

Since MiSTer is an open-source framework and not a 'product', you're likely to get better answers directly from the company/individual that sold it to you. Everyone manufactures their stuff slightly differently.

[fogbank]

It sounds like you purchased a MiSTer Pi Turbo Pack from Retro Remake (Taki Pi). When I received mine (3rd batch) the top of the acrylic cover was not secured and the screws were loose in the box. Fortunately I found one of the tiny screws in the carpet after it fell out of the package.

You do not need to rename the "games" folder on the SD card if using an external USB drive. The MiSTer will mount the external USB drive over the "games" folder on the SD card. When attempting to load games the MiSTer will look in the "games" folder on the external USB drive before looking in the "games" folder on the SD card. I use both an external USB drive and the internal SD card at the same time for games/programs. I use the external USB drive for cores with large game/program collections and the internal SD card for cores with smaller game/program collections. Keep in mind that you must have the BIOS file(s) for any systems that require them in the system specific folder under the "games" folder, be it on the external USB drive or the internal SD card.

Example: \games\Jaguar\boot.rom

[picard999]

Thanks. I do have the Mister PI from RR and it came in similar condition to yours...I understood bioses were downloaded by update all, but also recall you had to push up somewhere in a menu to ensure bioses were downloaded...

I'm a bit gimped without a keyboard working. I'm sure that's not me...its a dongled USB keyboard and should just work

Useful re folder priority, thank you...I'll have another go tomorrow, but without a keyboard it's an uphill battle!

[fogbank]

When the USB drive is turned on, the Mister gracefully recognises it...but when I click on the folders (arcade, console etc)...empty. nothing. The games are there but Mister doesn't see them

The "Arcade", "Console" and "Computer" folders on the SD card normally contain the cores (.RBF files) and not the games. They may also contain .MGL files that point to individual games, however if you are just setting up your MiSTer then you probably don't have any .MGL files in those folders.

When viewed on a computer your SD card should have folders that start with an underscore:

_Arcade
_Console
_Computers
(etc)

Folders that start with an underscore are shown in the MiSTer menu.

Inside those folders you should have the cores (example: you would find the SNES core under _Console with the filename SNES_20241228.rbf).

Your games and program files go under the "games" folder on the SD card (example: your SNES games go in \games\SNES).

If you have SNES_20241228.rbf in the _Console folder and you have SNES roms in the \games\SNES folder then you would navigate to the _Console folder on your MiSTer and load the "SNES" core. Once the core loads you would use the OSD to select a SNES rom to load.

Regarding your USB devices not working I would try a fresh install if possible. Take a blank SD card, download and flash Mr. Fusion to the SD card, put it in the MiSTer and power it on. After it installs MiSTer try your USB devices. If they don't work on a fresh install then you may have issues with your USB board.

[picard999]

Hey,

Some really useful stuff there thanks. I've put some time by today to have another go.

Re the keyboard. It's one of those tiny Chinese ones with a tiny dongle that goes in the USB slot. I have a USB cable for charging, so will try that plugged on later.

I presume you have sold the game issue...
I had no idea you had to load the core first,despite having esthcrd numerous videos! I think I reverted to Retroarch mode, where you just clock on the game.

Will report back, but starting the day with fresh hope!

Appreciate your time!

[picard999]

Sincere thanks to fogbsnk for his steer yesterday. There's clearly something wrong with my usb slots, but I've found one that will work with my keyboard and that got me going. Running update all and pushing up let me access the menus for downloading beta cores, the arcade stuff and a few other bits and pieces. My usb drive was full, so that's why nothing was updating / working. I defuslted back to SD and all the updates streamed in and we have working games!

Even got SNAC working!

Will try NFC later

My only issue and it's a really basic one. How do I turn the mister pi off? Or leave one core to go to another? If I just load one core while in another it refuses to see the ROMs for the new core I've selected. And if I keep just pulling the plug my usb drive is going to die fairly soon

Other than that, this is a tinkerers dream!

[Bas]

Why are you worried about your USB drive dying?

[tdelage]

Sincere thanks to fogbsnk for his steer yesterday. There's clearly something wrong with my usb slots, but I've found one that will work with my keyboard and that got me going.

Just in case this is useful information, make sure the USB port you use to plug your peripherals is not one of the two marked PWR1 and PWR2 as those two are not intended for data transfer but only used to power exernal devices

[picard999]

Thanks. In this case, what is an 'external device'? I have a powered usb drive. Could I put that in one of these two usb slots and remove the power supply I normally use?

[tdelage]

Thanks. In this case, what is an 'external device'? I have a powered usb drive. Could I put that in one of these two usb slots and remove the power supply I normally use?

I guess yes, just as you can also plug a phone on those port to charge it or any type of device accepting to be powered through USB... . Those ports deliver a +5v signal but have no data lines connected to them. So if you plug a hard drive on one of those, the drive will be powered but won't be able to transfer data using them and thus will require a second USB port connection for data transfer.

[picard999]

I think I have a y splitter / cable that might do that job...as no power from the 1 USB slot as you predicted...

[fogbank]

My only issue and it's a really basic one. How do I turn the mister pi off? Or leave one core to go to another? If I just load one core while in another it refuses to see the ROMs for the new core I've selected. And if I keep just pulling the plug my usb drive is going to die fairly soon

The MiSTer Pi does not have a physical on/off switch like some other devices do (example: MiSTer Addons Analog and Digital IO Boards).
I use this power supply that has a physical switch: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097P2NLVH?re ... asin_title
If you don't have physical switch on your power supply you just unplug the USB-C power from the MiSTer Pi to turn it off.

Selecting a different core from the OSD while one core is running usually works correctly, however I usually do a soft reboot before changing cores anyway. A soft reboot takes seconds and does not affect the connected hardware, peripherals, or wired network connection, so it's an easy option. You can probably get away with a soft reboot instead of power cycling your MiSTer.

Two other things to note for accuracy: The _Console and _Computer folders normally contain core files (.RBF) but the _Arcade folder normally contains .MRA files. The actual arcade cores (.RBF) reside in a different folder. Also there are some cores where a mounted device (hard drive etc) will persist even after a reboot. Loading one of these cores will automatically mount the device that was previously mounted. To unmount you need to select the option to mount a device in the OSD and then press backspace. That is something you may run into if you get into the computer cores.