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Running LaunchBox and Big Box on Linux


Jason Carr

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On 11/19/2020 at 10:00 PM, jedigu said:

I haven't been able to update to version 11.8 on Linux, because it always gives me an error at the end (log attached); reinstalling 11.7 makes LB / BB work again.

Anyone managed to get it working?

backtrace.txt 13.92 kB · 2 downloads

I'm seeing the same error on both my Mint virtual and my main Manjaro box.  I tried both an update through the software and a fresh install of 11.5 with upgrade through software.  I haven't tried using the 11.8 install with a fresh install on Mint, which will likely be the next step just to cover our bases, though I don't think that will work.  For fun I upgraded Wine to 5.22 and tried again to no avail.  Tried the same with Staging with same results. 

After that (or more accurately, when I can pull myself from playing San Andreas) I'm going to run the update on my Windows machine so I can see if anything new has installed.  Maybe that is it.

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20 hours ago, bombatomba77 said:

I'm seeing the same error on both my Mint virtual and my main Manjaro box.  I tried both an update through the software and a fresh install of 11.5 with upgrade through software.  I haven't tried using the 11.8 install with a fresh install on Mint, which will likely be the next step just to cover our bases, though I don't think that will work.  For fun I upgraded Wine to 5.22 and tried again to no avail.  Tried the same with Staging with same results. 

After that (or more accurately, when I can pull myself from playing San Andreas) I'm going to run the update on my Windows machine so I can see if anything new has installed.  Maybe that is it.

I wonder what would happen if you use the install script on the first page like normal then just copy over 1.8 from your Windows install? I don't see why that wouldn't work. I might try it myself as well. Figured I'd throw that out there.

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No dice with installing the 11.8 exe directly.  I don't know how to properly read the debugs of Wine, so I'm afraid I will be of little help as to why though.

For fun I installed 11.8 on a fresh VM Windows 10 and while it does list the base requirements as the same (Core, VC2015) apparently if the software sees your VC installs lacking it will install the VC 2015-2019 package.  I don't think that would affect anything, but who knows.

 

EDIT (like a minute after posting):  As an afterthought I am including the preamble info that you get if you start LB from command line:

002e:err:eventlog:ReportEvent@ L"Application: LaunchBox.exe\nCoreCLR Version 4.700.20.26981\n.Net Core Version: 3.1.6\nDescription: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.\nException Info: System.TypeIniliaizationException: The type initializer for '<Module>' threw an exception.\r\n ---> System.Except:...
wine: Unhandled exception 0xe0434352 in thread 2e at address 000000007B02DAE6 9thread 0002e), staring debugger...

Like I wrote, I don't really know how to read these debugs, but I do recognize one thing, that being the exception error code (0xe0434352), which in Windows is a .Net error (possible corruption).  No idea about Wine though.  This error likely isn't actual corruption, but Wine's tenuous (at best) relationship with .Net.  Not sure where that leaves us, but at least with 11.7 LB starts up SO FAST!

Edited by bombatomba77
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I've got a post in the WineHQ forum with our Wine debug files, trying to get some help.  It's a little slow right now, but hopefully we'll understand we can get some of the pros to help out.  I really think that the issue is related to .NET (due to preamble to the debug that always shows up) but I lack the knowledge.  Curious to see what the next update will bring, too.

Not related, but I got LB Premium and am LOVING IT!  In the past for a "BB" alternative I used Pegasus FE, which is a serviceable but ultimately maddening "Ten Foot" emulator frontend, which I never got working the way I wanted.  Now everything works so well, and I feel like I could spend years working on filling out the corners (like working on my own video "snap" files for the games), and I really love sifting through the themes and playing with them.  The only issue is that now I don't feel I need a Raspberry Pi 4 for Christmas (running Retropie) and my wife isn't too happy.  I think she thought it would be easy, but the second I took that RP4 stuff out of the Amazon cart there where questions...

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Hi guys, I'll get back to this here soon. It's not abandoned. I will admit though that I am very surprised how few users we've had interested (I thought we'd have a lot more users who would be excited about it). That said, I'm very grateful for you guys and the work you've put in to improve LaunchBox on Linux. I can't devote as much time to it as I had hoped, because of the apparently extremely small audience, but we will keep it going.

I'll look to get the script updated to 11.7 or 11.8 here soon.

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@Jason Carr Good to see you!  I didn't think you would abandon this thread, though it is so quiet I guess I couldn't blame you. I am also pretty sad to see the response, though I think deep down nobody wants to really use Lutris or Retroarch proper to manage large game collections, Pegasus and GameHub just don't give enough control to the user, and Nostlan is just too green (and the title scrolling gives me a headache).  I think if you build it they will come :).

If I could be allowed a small bit of criticism, I think the main issue is simply that it isn't a native solution.  A lot of people end up in the Linux camp because of their extreme dislike of everything Microsoft, and I think that bleeds through many aspects of the online community.  Not everyone is like that, though, as I have observed many are those that just wanted something different and got addicted to the endless and everchanging parade of available distros.  I myself maintain several computers, about three-quarters of them a variety of Linux (or pre-2012 Apple).  That being said, I think a lot of people at least want some form of native support in their software.  Reading through the threads I noticed that several posters tried to get native emulators working, as well as launching of Steam games.  I think if at least that could work, we could get more Linux folken on board.  I am not a programmer or software designer of any sort, but after trying for an hour to get native PCSX2 running I have to conclude that the issue lies in between the difference in directory separation (that is, \ and /) between OS types.  I don't think it couldn't be that easy, but could it?  PCSX2 Linux starts, but is unable to actually boot a game using LB.  I don't know, just thinking.

On another note, I'm not getting any help with the current error running 11.8 on WineHQ, but giving the issue is another "Unhandled exception 0xe0434352" error (which seems pretty generic) I'm not terribly surprised.  With my own testing I've tried about every permutation of change I could think of with no luck.  I've even tried the new wine-devel and winetricks that dropped recently.  Something has changed between 11.7 and 11.8, and for some reason wine just doesn't want to play ball.  I'm hoping that the next LB update will fix the mystery issue.  In the meantime I'm going to keep trucking along.  I think my family is getting me one of those 8bitdo arcade sticks, and I can't wait to put some miles on that puppy ?

 

Edited by bombatomba77
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Just wanted to add to the "few users interested" comments.

I'm completely new to MAME. Decided to use Ubuntu Server as my initial playground and am VERY interested in following along with this. I've not installed any frontend yet as LB/BB would be my 1st choice and didn't want to confuse myself even more by bothering with frontend stuffs until I'm more comfortable. I'm getting there though.
So you can add me to the list of people interested :)

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On 12/3/2020 at 9:18 AM, The_Keeper86 said:

@Jason Carr Glad to help. I'm surprised as well at how little this has gained attention. Glad it isn't abandoned though. I'm still looking for a reason why Steam games won't launch without any success.

Yeah, that is still on my list as well.

On 12/8/2020 at 12:51 PM, bombatomba77 said:

If I could be allowed a small bit of criticism, I think the main issue is simply that it isn't a native solution.  A lot of people end up in the Linux camp because of their extreme dislike of everything Microsoft, and I think that bleeds through many aspects of the online community.  Not everyone is like that, though, as I have observed many are those that just wanted something different and got addicted to the endless and everchanging parade of available distros.  I myself maintain several computers, about three-quarters of them a variety of Linux (or pre-2012 Apple).  That being said, I think a lot of people at least want some form of native support in their software.  Reading through the threads I noticed that several posters tried to get native emulators working, as well as launching of Steam games.  I think if at least that could work, we could get more Linux folken on board.  I am not a programmer or software designer of any sort, but after trying for an hour to get native PCSX2 running I have to conclude that the issue lies in between the difference in directory separation (that is, \ and /) between OS types.  I don't think it couldn't be that easy, but could it?  PCSX2 Linux starts, but is unable to actually boot a game using LB.  I don't know, just thinking.

Yes, I'm sure native Linux support would be better received. Unfortunately, though, the number of users that have even tried the Linux version is extremely small, and on top of that, building a native Linux version would require a complete rewrite of the software, which would likely take years. So unfortunately, we really don't have that option at all, especially considering the small number of users.

On 12/8/2020 at 12:51 PM, bombatomba77 said:

On another note, I'm not getting any help with the current error running 11.8 on WineHQ, but giving the issue is another "Unhandled exception 0xe0434352" error (which seems pretty generic) I'm not terribly surprised.  With my own testing I've tried about every permutation of change I could think of with no luck.  I've even tried the new wine-devel and winetricks that dropped recently.  Something has changed between 11.7 and 11.8, and for some reason wine just doesn't want to play ball.  I'm hoping that the next LB update will fix the mystery issue.  In the meantime I'm going to keep trucking along.  I think my family is getting me one of those 8bitdo arcade sticks, and I can't wait to put some miles on that puppy ?

This issue is plaguing me as well, and as of yet, I haven't been able to figure it out. It's a weird one and it's currently throwing me for a loop.

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1 hour ago, Jason Carr said:

Yes, I'm sure native Linux support would be better received. Unfortunately, though, the number of users that have even tried the Linux version is extremely small, and on top of that, building a native Linux version would require a complete rewrite of the software, which would likely take years. So unfortunately, we really don't have that option at all, especially considering the small number of users.

Well I didn't really mean a Linux native binary, rather a way to tell LaunchBox to pander to a Linux OS instead of Windows.  For example, getting PCSX2 to use Linux directory separators for calling locating ROMS instead of Windows (like a checkbox in Emulator setup or something like that).  Once again I am not a programmer or designer of any variety so I could be way off the mark (or worse, that functionality exists but I've not figured out how to use it yet), but would that at least fix some issues, at least in relation to emulator usage that Wine doesn't do well with (the afore mentioned PCSX2 and Dolphin)?  I don't know, maybe I have spent too much time goofing around in the Edit Emulator screen clicking on things.

Once again thank you for your continued support.  I've already gotten a massive amount of fun out of Launchbox Premium and Big Box, if nothing else from the configuration and themes.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Anyone tried the new update yet?  I've tried briefly (with no luck) on a laptop I am hoping to buy (Manjaro Mate), but it was through upgrade.  There is something funky in this Linux installation that makes BigBox crash, so I'll make sure to bring my Mint laptop home with me so I can do a proper fresh reload and upgrade of 11.9.

Hope everyone's year is going okay so far.   Super weird year so far (especially if you are in the USA; man if I see another Bernie meme I will snap lol).

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On 12/3/2020 at 9:05 AM, Jason Carr said:

Hi guys, I'll get back to this here soon. It's not abandoned. I will admit though that I am very surprised how few users we've had interested (I thought we'd have a lot more users who would be excited about it). That said, I'm very grateful for you guys and the work you've put in to improve LaunchBox on Linux. I can't devote as much time to it as I had hoped, because of the apparently extremely small audience, but we will keep it going.

I'll look to get the script updated to 11.7 or 11.8 here soon.

Looking forward to it.  If you don't mind me posting on gamingonlinux.com I bet there will be more interest if Linux users even knew the software existed and that there was an effort to get it working in Wine.  Or even the r/gamingonlinux reddit.

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On 1/29/2021 at 10:57 AM, bombatomba77 said:

Anyone tried the new update yet?  I've tried briefly (with no luck) on a laptop I am hoping to buy (Manjaro Mate), but it was through upgrade.  There is something funky in this Linux installation that makes BigBox crash, so I'll make sure to bring my Mint laptop home with me so I can do a proper fresh reload and upgrade of 11.9.

Hope everyone's year is going okay so far.   Super weird year so far (especially if you are in the USA; man if I see another Bernie meme I will snap lol).

I've been trying 11.9 with no luck.  I sent a message to gamingonlinux.com to bring some more attention and possibly some more skills to get it to work better.

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12 hours ago, slaapliedje said:

I mean I know scripting, my problem is I don't know wine error fixing.  Also, I'm only guessing that some of the weirdness comes with wine being picky about 32bit vs 64bit

 

I'm more of an enthusiast and can use Linux semi-professionally, but as my Systems Designer says, with brute force methods instead of elegance.

I actually tried forcing 32-bit with no success.  For this I downloaded the specific 32-bit components (.NET Desktop Core 3.1.6, C++ 2015) and changed the script slightly to force the architecture.  It did get to the LaunchBox installer, but prompts me to install .NET Core and C++ 2015.  I should have just let it do this but I admit I got frustrated and quit for the night (I had been at it for about two hours).  Kind of wish I had let it run all the way through though.

End result was the same for 11.9 on my end, that being what appears to be the same error (.NET 4.8 related).  While installing I always notice that Wine kindly informs me that .NET does not fully work and states, "Caveat emptor" lol

 

Edited by bombatomba77
Grammer
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