Slag-O-Matic

Okay, experiments complete. No success anywhere; I get the same error every time. Here's what I tried: I created a new admin-level user on my server with the same username and password as the one I'm using on my LaunchBox machine, with full access to the sharepoint where my ROMs are stored. Same as above, but I also unmapped/remapped the Z drive on my LaunchBox machine using those new credentials. Same as above, but I unmapped the Z drive completely and accessed the sharepoint directly through its IP address using those new credentials. Any other ideas?

I don't see how this could possibly be the cause of the problem but in the interest of science I'm willing to experiment. I'll try this out when I have a bit of time to spend on it and let you know. Though if it actually solves the problem then I'll have more and different questions. 🙂 Thanks.

I'm sorry, I must be dense. If I'm logged into the local machine as UserX and I map my server's drive using credentials for UserY (which doesn't exist on the local machine, but does exist on the server), then Windows accepts the permissions restrictions on the server for UserY. Windows itself, as well as literally every program and process running under Windows, honors those permissions restrictions when accessing the mapped drive. So why doesn't LaunchBox?

But that's what I mean: Why would LaunchBox need to authenticate at all? I could see this happening maybe if I haven't mapped the drive and instead I'm just forcing a connection to my server's IP address directly. LaunchBox might attempt a connection to w.x.y.z using the active Windows user; okay, plausible, but weird. But the drive is mapped. I'm not telling LaunchBox to go to w.x.y.z, I'm telling it to go to the Z: drive. All it knows, all it should have to know, is the Z: drive. And if what you're positing is actually what's happening then that becomes a little more concerning from a security standpoint: Why is LaunchBox trying to login to a sharepoint without actually telling me it's trying to do so?

I haven't tried that but I will. However, I don't think it's the Mac's invisible files (.DS_Store, among others) because when I copy ROM folders from my server to my LaunchBox machine those invisible files are copied over with it. When I subsequently import the ROMs into LaunchBox the file listing comes up and LaunchBox does see those files but (of course) doesn't do anything with them. So if the problem was around those Mac-specific files then it should also error out when I copy those files to my local LaunchBox drive and import from there.

The username I'm using on my LaunchBox machine is not the same username I'm logging into my server with, that's true. But, why should that make a difference if I have the drive mapped using the proper credentials? I'm already successfully logged into the server so why would LaunchBox specifically make a request to connect using different credentials?

Nobody? Nothing?

I should also add that this is not a new issue. I've been running LaunchBox for about a year and a half and this has always been an issue.

My LaunchBox machine is a Late 2012 Mac mini (Core i7 @ 2.7GHz, 16GB, 256GB SSD boot drive, 4TB SSD LaunchBox drive) running Windows 10 Pro, fully updated. LaunchBox is at version 13.8. I have a home server based off a 2020 Mac mini (Apple M1, 8GB, 256GB SSD, 64GB Thunderbolt RAID5 (8x8TB, 56TB useful)) running macOS 12 (Monterey), fully updated. My LaunchBox machine has the RAID mapped as the Z drive using administrator credentials. I can access it from File Explorer or anywhere else without incident. I go into LaunchBox, TOOLS -> IMPORT -> ROM Files. Click NEXT, Add Folder, select a folder from the Z drive, NEXT, select the platform, NEXT, select an emulator, NEXT, select "Copy the files into my LaunchBox games folder" (where it correctly identifies the location), NEXT, NEXT, wait a few seconds to retrieve the info from EmuMovies, NEXT, NEXT, and NEXT again. At this point it should start copying the files into my LaunchBox folder but it does not. I get an error: Clicking OK ends LaunchBox with nothing imported. Things I've tried: Making sure everything was properly updated. Running DISM and sfc on the LaunchBox machine (all clean). No malware found. Changing the location of the LaunchBox folder. Starting fresh with a clean installation of LaunchBox. Changing the location of the ROMs folder on my server to root level. Selecting just a single file rather than a folder. None of these have worked. The only workaround I've found is to copy the files twice: Manually copy the folder from my server to my LaunchBox machine, then run through the import process again but pointing to the local copy of the folder. This works 100% of the time. Why can't I import ROMs directly from my server?

Thanks for the help. You're right, it's very confusing. Am I correct in believing: A given emulation platform/engine (e.g., Atari 2600 under Stella) has its own default controller configuration. When a game is added to that platform/engine, that default controller configuration is then copied and applied to that game. If I play that game and access RetroArch's menus and change the controller configuration, it will only affect the game that I'm playing and will not change the default controller configuration for the platform/engine. So if (after changing the configuration for that game) I then add a second game, that second game will NOT have the changes I just made to the game I was previously playing, but rather make a copy of the platorm/engine's default controller configuration. The only way to affect that platorm/engine's default controller configuration is to manually launch RetroArch, go into its menus, load the appropriate core, change the controller settings, and save those settings. From that point forward any additional game I add to that platform/engine will have that revised controller configuration, and games which were installed prior to me making the change to the platform/engine default will NOT be revised. Or more simply: I can make a change to the platform/engine and those changes only apply to newly-added games going forward. I can make a change while playing a game on that platform/engine and that change is only reflected in the game that I'm playing and won't affect anything else going forward. Is this correct?

Just a small update... I completely deleted the 2600 and all games and media from LaunchBox, then created a new 2600 and reimported everything. The issue remains. I'm aware that RetroArch puts its settings inside a file called retroarch.cfg and I considered deleting it and having RetroArch create a new one, but I'm afraid if I do that then I'll lose settings in other emulators I've set up (Atari 5200, etc). Someone just confirm (or not) for me: When you let LaunchBox set up an emulator in RetroArch, does LaunchBox "preconfigure" controller settings in RetroArch? If so, how does one re-apply those preconfigured settings? Going to RetroArch and telling it to reset controller settings to default is not (I believe) the same thing, right? IOW, RetroArch's default settings are not the same thing as the default settings that LaunchBox applies to RetroArch on setup, is it? Or, am I not thinking about this correctly?

I'm setting up LaunchBox for a friend and we've run into a wall. Originally I had set up LaunchBox on her PC and added a bunch of Atari 2600 games under RetroArch. This worked. Later on I bought her an 8BitDo Pro 2 wired controller. I plugged it in and gave it a go. When I launched a 2600 game LaunchBox gave me a "Controller not configured" message and (of course) the controller did nothing in the game. I went to RetroArch's input configuration and everything seemed correct; it saw the controller (under "Device Index") and everything was mapped to appropriate buttons on the controller. But it still didn't work. I looked around and tried a few things. I updated the controller's firmware; there were no issues there but it didn't solve the problem. All of the YouTube videos I watched were done with much earlier versions of RetroArch and important-seeming menus and such were no longer where the videos said they would be. I did a fair amount of experimentation and the controller still doesn't work. Worse, I think I "reset" the mappings that (I'm guessing) LaunchBox put into RetroArch. As I said, when I started this RetroArch saw the controller and everything was mapped to appropriate buttons on the controller. Now RetroArch still sees the controller under "Device Index" but all of the mappings now say things like "Auto: 1 (N/A, (Key: x)". I don't remember exactly what it said before but it seemed like there were specific call-outs to the controller buttons which aren't there now. I think (not sure) that when LaunchBox installs and configures RetroArch for the 2600 it includes some default controller mappings which apparently I've now wiped out and don't know how to recover from. And when RetroArch launches I get "Not saving. Overrides active" and "Configuration override loaded" in addition to "Controller not configured" so I think I f**ked up a few things. So basically what I need is for (a) those controller mappings to come back and (b) this controller to work. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I've been running LaunchBox/BigBox for several months (started at version 12.something) with great success and just recently applied the 13.2 update. In addition to the LB/BB updates, are there other things that I should be doing to keep my system/collection up-to-date and otherwise looking/working good? I have about 20 consoles (+MAME) set up with large collections of games in each and it works well for the most part. Should I be "refreshing" these consoles for whatever reason? Like at one point I remember an update that gave my MAME collection "screen graphics" (not sure of the correct terminology; the graphics that are normally printed on the plexiglass on either side of the screen at the arcade). After I apply a LB/BB update, should I be running any kind of "refresh metadata" or something? And/or doing an update process to the console emulators I have set up?

Yes. The folks at 8BitDo helped me out. Download and install 8BitDo Ultimate Software: https://support.8bitdo.com/ultimate-software.html Using that software, map the SELECT and START buttons to P1 and P2, respectively: Once they're mapped, click the "sync to device" button to send the new mapping to the controller. Quit the software, launch MAME, and go to Input (general) -> Other Controls. Once there, map "Coin 1" to P1 and "1 Player Start" to P2. From that point the SELECT button on the Arcade Stick will function as COIN 1 and the START button will function as PLAYER 1 START. (I went a step further and remapped the "quit game" function as P1+P2, so when I want to quit a MAME title I press both SELECT and START together. This works.) If you have multiple controllers you can repeat the process with the second (third, etc) controller, changing to "Coin 2" and "2 Player Start" and such. There's a bit of weirdness happening though, something I don't fully understand. After I mapped the buttons on my controllers P1 and P2 also functioned as SELECT/COIN1 and START/1 PLAYER START — which I fully expected to happen. Nothing weird there. But after I got it to work, just for giggles I went back into Ultimate Software, unmapped the P1 and P2 buttons from SELECT and START, and synced it to the controller. I fully expected this to break the new mappings I made in MAME — but they didn't. SELECT and START still function as expected, and P1 and P2 do nothing. I don't know why but... (shrug)

Ah, got it — but it's Tools -> Manage -> Emulators. Thanks!