LaunchBox for Android 0.6 Beta Released!

[Jason Carr]

5 hours ago, bri0528 said:

Im having issues on Shield TV.  I've exported some platforms from PC and moved then to the Launchbox folder on the Shield (under Android ... etc).  Nothing is shown in the platforms screen.

Okay, make sure that the file structure looks like this:

/Android/data/com.unbrokensoftware.launchbox/files/LaunchBox/Data/(xml files)

Also, you can check to see if there is another /Android/data/com.unbrokensoftware.launchbox folder on your internal storage as well as your SD card storage. If there is, delete the one that does not contain the platforms that you exported. That might work. I am going to simplify all of this as best I can here soon though, so I'll get it easier to work with soon enough.

5 hours ago, outlaw said:

The link does not work Has there been a change

Not sure exactly what you mean; the link appears to be working fine. Let me know what you're seeing.

5 hours ago, MesonW said:

Mine's found nothing. The Platforms screen is empty :s

See my above response here to bri0528.

[Jason Carr]

5 hours ago, outlaw said:

I am trying to install on a Nvidia Shield al i get is download pending

 

That would be an issue with the Play Store or your connection. I haven't seen any issues there, but unfortunately that's out of my control.

3 hours ago, Alerum68 said:

Getting Unexpected Error when trying to install it from The Google Play Store.  Using my PC via Chrome to send to Nvidia Shield TV as it's not listed in Google Play directly on my Shield.  The option to install isn't grayed out so I should be able to install directly from there instead of having to sideload.  Any suggestions?

 

 

 

I'm guessing that might just be an issue with the Play Store due to the fact that it's a beta? I'm not sure, but I can't really do anything about that. One thing that does always work to get it installed is this:

1. Log into your Google account that you use on your Android device and then click the link at the beginning of this topic
2. Press the button to opt in
3. Go to your Android device and search for com.unbrokensoftware.launchbox
4. LaunchBox should show up in the list so you can install it

Of course it's easier just to click the link in this forums topic on your actual device, and then follow the links on through.

3 hours ago, dunnster said:

neil9000  are you aware of being able to write to sd card yet? or still to be implemented?

cheers

I've been able to use the SD card successfully on all the devices I've tested myself, but it does appear that some people are having issues with it.

1 hour ago, mushmash said:

Thought i'd leave a comment, as i couldn't get any of the games to launch after clicking the boxart, it would just quit back to the shield launcher, I have a ssd set to internal storage, and my retroarch was using my ssd's shared storage, moving retroarch back into the shield's internal storage fixed the problem.

That's interesting...good to know.

39 minutes ago, GonjaT said:

@Jason Carrno need to add the ability to support 64bit retroarch. 

This is in the app notes of the original retroarch app. It says the 64bit app is now redundant. 

https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-1-7-8-important-changes-for-people-using-the-google-play-build/

Thanks; I had a hunch that would be the case.

[Jason Carr]

21 minutes ago, tarbear123 said:

help, the luanchbox app won't open after moved to external harddrive from computer, anybody got suggestions?

Please see the previous posts I've made. I'll need more details though in order to help further for this specific case. Thanks!

[Skidda420]

5 hours ago, GonjaT said:

Did you export games to an android folder from launchbox pc and copy it to the shield? Not sure if you need the games or not but I have my exported folder transferred and it works fine after 0.10 update. 

yes, I have the exported folder sitting on the root of the external drive and launchbox itself installed on the internal drive.

[TRS1977]

7 hours ago, TRS1977 said:

OK. I did notice that it requires root permission . Can this be a factor? 

No, the apk requires root permission. I did try deleting that folder, no go. 

[DOS76]

58 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

It goes platform-by-platform. So if you export SNES, and then export more SNES, the previous SNES will be overwritten, so you have to export entire platforms. However, after exporting SNES, you can then go and add in NES (for example) at any time. It just has to be a complete platform at a time.

Lol glad I saw this I just did this with my NES set as I had 3 problematic ROMs that I had to exclude then I replaced them with different files and imported them. Then I saw this post and was disappointed to see that I now only had 3 NES ROMs added.

[bri0528]

50 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Okay, make sure that the file structure looks like this:

/Android/data/com.unbrokensoftware.launchbox/files/LaunchBox/Data/(xml files)

Also, you can check to see if there is another /Android/data/com.unbrokensoftware.launchbox folder on your internal storage as well as your SD card storage. If there is, delete the one that does not contain the platforms that you exported. That might work. I am going to simplify all of this as best I can here soon though, so I'll get it easier to work with soon enough.

This was it, the xml files were under a "Platforms" folder.  Moving them directly in "Data" made them show up. 

Another issue I ran into:  After setting up retroarch for a particular platform, when clicking on the game to start it's not finding the game but going to the retroarch menu.  Is there a step somewhere to link the rom location to retroarch?

Thanks!

 

 

 

[tarbear123]

1 hour ago, Jason Carr said:

Please see the previous posts I've made. I'll need more details though in order to help further for this specific case. Thanks!

launchbox runs from the folder but not on the desktop and that's what I want

[tarbear123]

16 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Please see the previous posts I've made. I'll need more details though in order to help further for this specific case. Thanks!

what details do you need from me in order to help? and I installed it on my laptop not a android

[TRS1977]

I cleared data, uninstalled, unplugged external memory, reinstalled, plugged in external memory, then restarted Nvidia shield. Now app will launch and seems stable. I just need the option to select a source then will be ready to rock. 

[Duckman]

purchased and installed.  Thank you for all your work on this.  My favorite frontend ever.  Can't wait to see how this all develops

 

[Jason Carr]

8 hours ago, TRS1977 said:

No, the apk requires root permission. I did try deleting that folder, no go. 

Not sure what you mean here; the APK does not require root permissions.

7 hours ago, bri0528 said:

This was it, the xml files were under a "Platforms" folder.  Moving them directly in "Data" made them show up. 

Another issue I ran into:  After setting up retroarch for a particular platform, when clicking on the game to start it's not finding the game but going to the retroarch menu.  Is there a step somewhere to link the rom location to retroarch?

Thanks!

Retroarch shouldn't need the ROM location specified, but this could be caused by a missing core or a missing BIOS file, or an invalid ROM file. Also, try completely closing Retroarch via the task switcher to see if that makes any difference.

7 hours ago, tarbear123 said:

launchbox runs from the folder but not on the desktop and that's what I want

 

7 hours ago, tarbear123 said:

what details do you need from me in order to help? and I installed it on my laptop not a android

I see; this thread is for Android, so we should troubleshoot that elsewhere in a different thread.

 

[dirtybeagles]

On 8/24/2019 at 3:10 PM, Soxbrother said:

I've managed to get it working from my SD card, by copying the app to my SD card from within Android Settings.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't forget to copy the "LaunchBox" folder from the internal storage to your SD card ( in the right location, you know where !! ) !!!!!!!!!!!

(this is because the settings app only copies the app over to the SD card, not our LaunchBox package)

Don't forget to delete the LaunchBox folder from your internal storage after you've copied it over to your SD card,

otherwise you have 2 packages in 2 locations, we don't want that do we ? LOL

 

After a new installation of the Android app :

Step 1 : Move the app to your SD card from within the Android settings app

Step 2 : Create your package from within the windows app of Launchbox

Step 3 : Copy the newly created "Android" folder on your pc to the root of your SD Card

When it says the folder already exist, just continue, don't worry about that.

Step 4 : Start LaunchBox on Android and enjoy !!!

I have it downloaded and exported my database to a USB drive, but not sure what to do next. Inserting the USB drive in the shield and opening LaunchBox doesn't see the data. I was trying to move the launchbox app to the USB drive, but couldn't figure that out. There was not an open in app settings to move app to USB drive. I have developer options enabled.

[edinhosp]

I installed LB Android and was working fine.

Yesterday Retroarch updates the 32bit version on Play Store (something related to be 32/64 bit on same application) and LBA stopped working. Was going to a black screen.

I got the previous version of Retroarch on apkmirror and LBA started working again.

Another issue for me on SNK NGP. NGP.emu opens the roms normally, but launching the games in LBA will cause the application to crash and exit.

[bri0528]

8 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

Retroarch shouldn't need the ROM location specified, but this could be caused by a missing core or a missing BIOS file, or an invalid ROM file. Also, try completely closing Retroarch via the task switcher to see if that makes any difference.

 

Thanks, restarting Retroarch fixed that issue.  I've tried Genesis, NES, SNES and all those roms start successfully from LBA.  For some reason, N64 games dont start, the screen blinks and is back at the game list menu.  I can go into retroarch and run N64 games there using either GLES2 or GLE3 of MuPen64PlusNext cores. so not sure what's going on there.  I've tried selecting the different cores in the emulator setup with the same result.

Edited August 26, 2019 by bri0528

[Jason Carr]

4 hours ago, dirtybeagles said:

I have it downloaded and exported my database to a USB drive, but not sure what to do next. Inserting the USB drive in the shield and opening LaunchBox doesn't see the data. I was trying to move the launchbox app to the USB drive, but couldn't figure that out. There was not an open in app settings to move app to USB drive. I have developer options enabled.

I'm not yet clear on using USB drives on the Shield. Android permissions have been an absolute wreck to work with, so I'm not sure how easy that's going to be. Feel free to experiment with it, but I would not expect USB drives on the Shield to work correctly just yet.

1 hour ago, edinhosp said:

I installed LB Android and was working fine.

Yesterday Retroarch updates the 32bit version on Play Store (something related to be 32/64 bit on same application) and LBA stopped working. Was going to a black screen.

I got the previous version of Retroarch on apkmirror and LBA started working again.

Another issue for me on SNK NGP. NGP.emu opens the roms normally, but launching the games in LBA will cause the application to crash and exit.

It was my understanding that Retroarch was changing things up to release both the 32-bit version and the 64-bit version in one app, but I have yet to research all of that. I'll get Retroarch all fixed up here soon though. Good to know about NGP.emu; I'll take a look.

12 minutes ago, bri0528 said:

Thanks, restarting Retroarch fixed that issue.  I've tried Genesis, NES, SNES and all those roms start successfully from LBA.  For some reason, N64 games dont start, the screen blinks and is back at the game list menu.  I can go into retroarch and run N64 games there using either GLES2 or GLE3 of MuPen64PlusNext cores. so not sure what's going on there.  I've tried selecting the different cores in the emulator setup with the same result.

Perhaps are your N64 ROMs zipped up?

[bri0528]

8 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Perhaps are your N64 ROMs zipped up?

They are in z64 format and not zipped.....

[PiperCalls]

The Boy's Got No Control...

Installed LBA on my Shield TV (2nd Gen). As a test case I exported 1 platform (Sega 32x) over. Everything exported fine and I can see all my 32x games in LBA. I can launch the games fine from LBA. Here's the problem, there is something wrong with the controller in LBA. The first/top game is highlighted and if I try to scroll down to the next game the highlight immediately jumps back to the first game. It's almost like someone is pressing Up on the controller continuously. I can press Y on my controller and get the settings menu but there doesn't seem to be anything in there about controller settings. I am using the stock Shield TV Controller that came with the unit and the controller works fine in all other apps including RA.

As a side note, RA 1.7.8 dropped last night (at least on my Shield TV) and as indicated in the PSA (https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-1-7-8-important-changes-for-people-using-the-google-play-build/) the cores no longer work. You either have to reset the core URL or just uninstall and re-install RA (and redown the cores)...which is what I did and it is working fine now with RA.

Thanks...Piper

PS: I can record a video of the offending event if needed.

[GonjaT]

Would be nice to have an "exit" button or a close button. Back button only brings up the side menu/ exits side menu, I have to launch recent apps screen and swipe away launchbox. This is on my phone and shield TV. 

I would even be fine with the back button from the root of the app to have a pop up asking "are you sure you want to exit" with yes or no buttons. 

Thanks. 

Edited August 26, 2019 by GonjaT

[bundangdon]

9 hours ago, edinhosp said:

I installed LB Android and was working fine.

Yesterday Retroarch updates the 32bit version on Play Store (something related to be 32/64 bit on same application) and LBA stopped working. Was going to a black screen.

I got the previous version of Retroarch on apkmirror and LBA started working again.

Another issue for me on SNK NGP. NGP.emu opens the roms normally, but launching the games in LBA will cause the application to crash and exit.

Just a little advice because I had that same issue. With the latest version, you'll need to backup any important stuff within retroarch first (saves, custom borders, etc.) if you have them and then clear the data/cache for the retroarch app within Android's settings. It fixed the problem here