--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.
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.
- 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.
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.
--check names why each flagged file is refused and where each core
opens it, and names a pack part missing from the folder from the
markers split_pack writes. --from-pack installs from a downloaded
pack or its parts with no network request, --manifest reads a saved
file list, both checking every hash. The end of a run names the
system or core that pulls most of the download when narrowing saves
over half.
Reading this project's own reports gets its own page. Checker code is linked at the revision each platform list was read from. Installer moves to Your setup, legal to Start here, build internals to Contribute, and Reference pages carry a group.
Platform guides, device groups, terminal tabs, pack README manuals and
logo credits move from Python tables to platforms/_guides.yml, checked
against the registry on load. A folder row without a path is the
registry's extract_to, written once.
Wiki pages place themselves in the navigation with order and nav_title
in their front matter. Generated docs/ and mkdocs.yml are unchanged.
The Start here pages ran 460 to 2,100 words and the first command of
Get your files sat 254 words down. Each page now opens on its action,
with short sentences and one fact per block. The facts a newcomer does
not act on moved one level down: the legal analysis to wiki/legal.md,
the project terms to wiki/reference-terms.md, the annotated run and the
installer failures to the installer page, collection figures to a new
Explore index.
tests/test_site_copy.py holds the budgets on the generated pages, and
the testing guide states them with their reasons.
Four statements the repository contradicts are rewritten: prboom.wad
is compiled into PrBoom (emulators/prboom.yml), Batocera reports a
mismatch as UNTESTED (batocera-systems checkBios), 13 hle_fallback
entries are required, and the gaps headline splits missing firmware
from game data and unread entries.
A BIOS folder can sit on a share other people write to. A retrobios-backup that is a link is no longer written through (the backup goes inside the BIOS folder instead), run folders are created for the user only and carry a marker, and --restore only takes a folder holding that marker, walking it without following links. Beginner pages label their links to the installer page as details.
A file in place whose contents differ (another revision, a personal
dump) was overwritten and lost. It is now moved to
retrobios-backup/<date-time>/ beside the folder written to, under the
same path, before the verified copy replaces it. Beside, not inside:
DuckStation, SwanStation and Rustation read every file of the BIOS
folder and BizHawk walks its firmware folder recursively.
Identical files are never kept. --dry-run counts what would be kept,
the summary and the summary event name the folder, files and bytes,
and --restore FOLDER puts the files back. Data trees and standalone
copies keep their replaced files the same way.
Five tabs from Start here to Contribute, a level on every page, a device picker on Get your files that lists every registered platform, and platform pages that open on where the files go, the command, the pack and how to check. FAQ and troubleshooting keep the questions asked before installing, the technical ones move to their own page, and getting started points to the pages that took its content.
install.py --no-game-data leaves out the files and omissions the manifest
marks game data, in an install, --check and --dry-run, and names them with
their category. The --events summary gains left_out, one group per
category with every destination. A list without categories is refused.
The installer page says how to get the port (PortMaster's catalog once
accepted, or RetroBIOS.zip in the autoinstall folder), what it shows and
needs, and why it carries install.py. The download page links to it
from the handheld table.
Abdessamad Derraz