--offline (or RETROBIOS_INSTALL_OFFLINE=1, which the runs the
full-screen interface starts inherit) makes no network request. The
file list stops the run at once with an error event of reason
offline unless --manifest or --from-pack gives it, a file the run
would download fails at once with its own advice, and board detection
is skipped. --target and --list-targets refuse it. RETROBIOS_OFFLINE
is not reused: CI and the test suite set it for every process, and the
installer tests serve their files over loopback.
A connection now has 4 s to open, then the read keeps its 30 or 60 s
timeout: three tries that never connect end in about 15 s instead of
93, and a slow but open transfer is not cut.
A --dry-run prints its totals first. A plan taller than the screen
names the ten largest systems, and --verbose lists every system and
file. Events are unchanged.
--declared-only keeps the entries the platform's own list declares
(cores: null), each slot settled to the platform's copy with no core
alternative left behind. Install, --check, --dry-run, --events,
--list-systems, --system, --region, --emulator, --target,
--installed-cores, --manifest and --from-pack apply it. --core,
--list-cores, --list-emulators, --list-platforms, --list-targets,
--standalone-copies, --restore and --tui refuse it, and the interface
does not open by itself with it. On Batocera it gives 353 files of
14531, the list batocera-systems checks.
Event decision: no schema bump. A `declared` key on `file` would add a
key to an existing kind, which schema 1 forbids. A new kind, `declared`,
follows `check` with the same counts over the platform's own files and
their dests in file-event order. Readers already skip a kind they do
not know (rbevents.py and the interface reader were checked), so
EVENT_SCHEMA stays 1.
An unknown --system is answered with the systems the list files its
key file under: --platform retroarch --system snk-neogeo now suggests
arcade, which holds neogeo.zip, instead of snk-neogeo-cd. neogeo, mvs
and aes follow the same route. Never taken, only suggested. A system
title the manifest carries (SNK Neo Geo CD) is taken for its id when
no other system shares it and no platform name reads the same.
schemas/install-events.schema.json is written from EVENT_KEYS by
scripts/generate_event_schema.py. validate_schemas.py reports a stale
file, and tests compare it with EVENT_KEYS and validate a real run.
Bootstrap pins recomputed.
Every launcher exports RETROBIOS_PAD: gptokeyb, muxterm, evmapy or
miyoo, so the interface can name the buttons that reach it. The wiki
lists the values, and the tests check each launcher's.
Apps such as AetherSX2 named their user data folder only in prose, so
the site could neither print it nor show only the OS tabs that apply.
data_root keys android, ios, windows, macos and linux, each with the
path the user finds and the source_ref that builds it.
Release packs now exist for six platforms only, and install.py refuses a
pack named for another. build_port.py writes packs.txt from the
registry's release_pack groups. Offline, the launcher takes only a pack
spelling the detected system, names that pack, or says no release pack
serves it and gives Wi-Fi or the computer route.
The one-liner opens the full screen, and the page walked through the
line questions. It now shows the first screen, the keys and the
controller, Install, the copy from an old card and the result titles.
Troubleshooting no longer asks to move a nested bios folder by hand.
- A handheld card mounted on a computer is found by the files its
firmware writes there: muOS, Onion, spruceOS, CrossMix, Allium and
Koriki from their device rules read below the card root, KNULLI and
ROCKNIX from the share their first boot seeds. It is a setup of its
own ("muOS SD card (E:\)") with the folder that system reads, and
--dest <card root> writes there too. --platform muos with a folder
that is no muOS card is refused with the folder to name.
- Space (X on PortMaster, Y on muxterm) opens the confirm screen from
Install and never installs, closes or quits by itself.
- Short of space, Choose another folder comes first, and the result
says the card is full in words, with no log lines and no command
naming the interface's own copy of the list.
- The plan keeps the BIOS folder second, cut in its middle, a --from
folder by its name, and the config that named the folder.
- The result says how many files came from the old card, how many
were downloaded and how many are still missing, as the line mode.
- The "other" row is named and explained, files shared by several
systems are counted apart, and a file that cannot be supplied is
named with its system, only where it matters.
- A work folder left by SIGKILL is removed by the next run, a failed
run's log after a week. A full card keeps no log.
- Smaller: the sudo advice names the folder, removing a --from folder
says so, the preview counts its files only, a proxy is named, a list
that is no JSON and the clock error read as plain sentences.
The engine counts the bytes a copy, the pack or a resumed partial copy
supplied, and those the network brought. A transfer event carries both
after each progress event and once when the downloads end, so a screen
shows a download speed without guessing.
The archives ship with the next release, and build_port.py writes them
until then. muOS points to the muxapp and to /mnt/mmc, and the quit combo
reads Select first.
The walk no longer enters another drive mounted below the folder (it is
named instead), /proc, /sys, /dev or a Windows junction, and the root of
the system is refused. from_folder_problem() checks a folder without
reading it. A scanned event reports each folder read, cut short or not.
A file, ZIP member or folder below a --from folder that could not be
read was taken as no match. When its size is that of a file the run
still needs, or unknown, --check, --dry-run and an install now name it
with the reason, and an unreadable event carries it.
FAQ entry, the release_pack field and how to revisit it from download
counts, the get/ pages, and RetroPie 4.8 now installs from a computer with
the Pi's network folder as --dest. The start pages are back under their
word ceilings.
The plan offers the folder browser, mounted cards first and ZIPs listed,
to add --from (Options adds a second one, Left takes it back), checks the
folder again and says how many files it holds and how many are left to
download. Misplaced files are counted with a Show list of their reasons,
and a local copy no longer counts in the download speed. The found event
test now holds that the interface reads it after a check and an install.
Without a network, muOS and ArkOS launchers ask to copy the BIOS files from the card the system does not read (muOS bind.sh, dArkOS roms2), then install with --from and the pack. CI checks that shellcheck is present, and the test fails under CI without it.
The PortMaster port now starts install.py --tui on the console (or in
foot or xterm under a compositor), with gptokeyb in kill mode on the
installer's path, retrobios.gptk, TERM=linux and a Terminus font, and
puts the console, font and mapper back on exit. pugwash screens stay as
the fallback where no terminal can show, and start in no-check mode so
PortMaster's A/B fix applies. Without a network, every launcher installs
from a pack found on the card or names the pack and the folder.
Adds launchers for Batocera and Knulli (Ports, evmapy .keys), muOS
(.muxapp in muxterm with gptokeyb2) and the Tools menu of ArkOS,
dArkOS, ROCKNIX, JELOS and AmberELEC, built by build_port.py with the
pinned installer and tested on a simulated device.
A stop by SIGTERM (Start+Select under gptokeyb) reads the summary like
Ctrl-C and prints the count on disk. The systems filter keeps the ticks
and the focus. The bar names what A does on the focused row. Options
check the folder again, a missing network fails in 15 s with plain words,
an unwritable folder offers another one, a folder inside a card offers
its root, and only a failure keeps its log.
New event kind: checking, with files_done and files_total, while the
files in place are hashed. The exact event lists of the check and
install runs now carry two of them, for the two files in place.
The installer page gains a section on copying from an old card, the
found event, the error stage for a --from folder, and the reasons a
check gives for a Mac ._ file and a name in capitals. The first
install page says in a few lines how to copy the BIOS files from an
old card.
Control characters from names, folders and the installer's own text
are shown as ?, on screen and in the lines left after it. The terminal
mode and the signal handlers come back even when the last write fails
or a second signal arrives. A stop from outside hands the terminal
back, the second Ctrl-C is announced, speed reads the last seconds,
values are glued to their options, and counts read before a change of
options say so.
A bare install at a terminal of 40x12 or more opens a full screen that a
keyboard or a controller mapped to keys drives: setup, plan, install in
three presses, systems, regions, cores, game data, folder browser and a
dry-run preview one press away. The installer runs itself as a child with
--events for every check and install, the file list fetched once and
handed over with --manifest. --tui asks for it, --plain, RETROBIOS_PLAIN
and ACCESSIBLE keep the line questions.
--system nintendo-gba wrote system events for gb, gbc and ds, each made
of the few SkyEmu files the choice kept. With systems chosen, only those
are described.
The step for another folder now gives the command with --dest for each
system, the PowerShell one in its script block form. The check line that
means all good is shown whole, since an empty folder also reads 0 hash
mismatches. The port archive is said to come with releases cut after the
port, which v2026.10.10, the latest, predates.
An empty NO_COLOR turned colour off, which no-color.org reads as unset.
FORCE_COLOR and CLICOLOR_FORCE now paint a pipe. --check with several
platforms asks which to check rather than "Install for:", and
--list-platforms says when nothing is detected here.
Offline, the run printed "[Errno -2] Name or service not known". The
common failures now read as words, the raw text kept under --verbose.
A refused certificate under a clock set before the installer was written
is reported as reason clock, with the date it reads, and no trusted
certificate list on the machine as reason no_ca, naming SSL_CERT_FILE.
Neither is retried, and verification is never turned off.
--list-platforms said the MinUI layout was not written yet while
--from-pack and --dest wrote it. On the device the card root is now
found and its version.txt names the file list, and a card without one
gets the --platform and --dest to use. A core with no file of its own
says its files are the platform's, always kept, instead of 0 files.
--system gba, psx or ps1 was refused with no suggestion on RetroArch.
Short names now suggest the ids they stand for, never taken in their
place, and two aliases of one system name it once. --platform muos and
the other systems --list-platforms names stand for the file list they
get, and the run says which.
A folder typed in quotes at the BIOS folder question was used with its
quotes, and its missing parents were created without the question
--dest asks. The quotes go, ~ and variables expand on every system, and
a default folder that does not exist is named as such, not as found.
q at a menu now leaves with 130 like Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+C before anything
started no longer offers to carry on.
QEMU's 79 files go to QEMU/QEMU and Roland's four loose ROMs to MT-32
and CM-32L. The mt32-roms, soundcanvas-roms and sounddata trees stay as
the code addresses them. Chihiro joins Sega and the Oric joins
Tangerine, the names the site and libretro already use. No destination
held other bytes.
The three QEMU EDK2 images are release assets, and their .gitignore
lines follow them. Database and manifests are regenerated together.
verify --all and cross_reference give the same output once moved paths
are mapped.
Abdessamad Derraz