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"Failed to save retroarch config file" whenrver trying to update settings when launching retroarch from LB


Hamburglin

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I'm actually seeing the same thing and I'm completely tearing my hair out trying to remap controls...

I've followed basically every guide on the internet and they either don't marry up as they're using an older version and controls are in a different place, things don't save, or everything seems to align yet the actual buttons seem to be something different! Just found this thread as I was going to post something similar

Take NES for example... 

Settings -> Input -> Port 1

image.thumb.png.0813829f85a8d256c924a882461681c0.png

Quick Menu -> Controls

image.thumb.png.60406d8ef842ac0a7855bd65f66b21f2.png

YET, in the game - 

Key A is doing Turbo something

Key D is doing something else! Key D isn't even mapped

And Key Z does nothing

It's all crazy

image.png

If I load the game fresh, then I do find a D remapped, but I have saved every core config override or everything else possible! 

 

And to confirm, nothing is set to run as administrator

Edited by vaderag
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34 minutes ago, vaderag said:

FWIW I've managed to resolve it by launching Retroarch direct and saving that way, or saving the independent config file and copying my changes into Retroarch.cfg - very painful, but works

Yeah that's what I've been doing as well.

Still can't figure out why LB can't write the retroarch config files. No admin usage and both directory's files have "full control" set for my non admin user running LB.

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38 minutes ago, Hamburglin said:

Yeah that's what I've been doing as well.

Still can't figure out why LB can't write the retroarch config files. No admin usage and both directory's files have "full control" set for my non admin user running LB.

No me neither... I see no obvious reason - the only difference is how it's launched

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Launchbox does not touch your emulator configs in any way, it simply passes the rom to the emulator. It has zero to do with saving or loading in the emulators either, the only time it even knows that a config even exists is when you specifically specify loading one via the comand line section in the edit emulator screen. Launchbox is a launcher, it has zero direct control over a emulator unless you specifically give it those commands to do so.

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34 minutes ago, Hamburglin said:

I wonder if procmon or sysmon can shed some light on either process.

Have you worked out which files store the overlays?

I have the cfg's that tell the overlay what to do (in RA -> Config -> Core -> Game.cfg) 

And they get used automatically, but outside of that I can only find the one set in Retroarch.cfg which seems to do everything

Have you worked out how to set one for a specific system?

 

1 minute ago, neil9000 said:

Launchbox does not touch your emulator configs in any way, it simply passes the rom to the emulator. It has zero to do with saving or loading in the emulators either, the only time it even knows that a config even exists is when you specifically specify loading one via the comand line section in the edit emulator screen. Launchbox is a launcher, it has zero direct control over a emulator unless you specifically give it those commands to do so.

We got sent down that path by a mod above... I would have assumed the same, but it works outside of LB and does not work when launched by LB

On 1/8/2023 at 12:32 PM, JoeViking245 said:

Check that you're not running either RetroArch or LaunchBox as admin.  (Neither of them should be running as admin)

 

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1 hour ago, neil9000 said:

Launchbox does not touch your emulator configs in any way, it simply passes the rom to the emulator. It has zero to do with saving or loading in the emulators either, the only time it even knows that a config even exists is when you specifically specify loading one via the comand line section in the edit emulator screen. Launchbox is a launcher, it has zero direct control over a emulator unless you specifically give it those commands to do so.

That's true but the way to trigger the issue is by using LB to start up retroarch. Not saying it's LB's fault but I can't figure out what else it is right now. My second guess is that it's a weird permissions issue within Windows but like we said, there's no admin password prompts.

 

1 hour ago, vaderag said:

Have you worked out which files store the overlays?

I have the cfg's that tell the overlay what to do (in RA -> Config -> Core -> Game.cfg) 

And they get used automatically, but outside of that I can only find the one set in Retroarch.cfg which seems to do everything

Have you worked out how to set one for a specific system?

 

We got sent down that path by a mod above... I would have assumed the same, but it works outside of LB and does not work when launched by LB

 

I'm not sure about overlays. That reminds me, I turned them off for games that have two screens that are extra wide and I think THAT actually saved at some point through LB -> Retroarch. But maybe I opened retroarch separately for that config change too...

But yeah, retroarch.cfg itself is failing to save for me.

Edited by Hamburglin
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  • 4 weeks later...

I just started seeing this exact issue too...configs save when launching retroarch directly and they do not when launching from launchbox.

...and I'm thinking it might be related to the overlay configs.  I removed the Beetle PSX file created when I added overlays via Launchbox...now that core's presets properly save and load.

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@Hamburglin @vaderag

I can recreate this error. At first I thought it was related to whether or not a game was running. In my "main" Retroarch instance that is used in LB/BB, if I am running a game and try to save the main config in Main Menu > Configuration File > Save Current Configuration this error happens every, damn, time! But if you try to save the config when NOT running a game, it works fine! This happens whether Retroarch is launched "normal" in Windows or from LB or BB. My Retroarch version is 1.9.3. So this suggests it has nothing to do with LB/BB, I can recreate the problem when LB/BB isn't even opened.

However I also have another version of Retroarch I setup to do some testing/troubleshooting on at one point. This is version 1.10.3 and this issue is NOT present on that version.....that is.....until I load up a config/overlay setting for the game being ran! AKA a configuration override!

At the very least this is the reason why the issue occurs for me. If there is an "Configuration override loaded" happening at game boot, it doesn't seem to allow me to save the main config when said game is running. I can close this game, and then it allows me to save the config. This behaves like this whether launched from Windows or LB/BB. For me this comes down to settings within Retroarch, and general confusion on how settings interact with each other. Now I'm wondering if this is intentional to prevent settings from being overwritten or potentially corrupted or if it's a legit bug.....so google time...."cannot save retroarch config when override is active" google search got me this answer.....which I now feel like an ass I didn't do this right away instead of spending 30mins dicking around with this lmao! This is intentional! And I quote...

when overrides are active you can't save the current config, it is by design so it doesn't get mixed up.
Save the core or game override instead or close content

https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/3605

 

So all this testing in the end does makes sense to me because basically every game that runs on Retroarch in my library has some sort of override so explains why it behaved the way it did in v1.9.3 which is my main install, but behaved different in my troubleshooting install v1.10.3 which is a "fresh" install with no user settings saved. To be clear when I removed the user made custom configs in my main Retroarch 1.9.3 it also worked fine saving the config file. I have no explanation as to why anyone was able to get it to work outside of LB/BB so therefore thought it was LB/BB fault, other than you may have tested it when a game wasn't running, therefore no config override active so the config save goes through fine. If you're still having issues after knowing this info then there must be some more funny business going on in your setup, but I wouldn't know what that is

 

6 hours ago, Brian221 said:

.and I'm thinking it might be related to the overlay configs.

we are on the same page! the overlay configs are a configuration override, which as far as I can tell prevents a user from saving the config while an override is active

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Just now, Hamburglin said:

Dare I say this is almost a bug with the override implementation then. 

It's an unintended consequence at best.

How does standalone retroarch implement overlays? Is this a LB issue + retroarch issue only?

All my testing was done with Retroarch instances I manually downloaded and unpacked myself, no LB automation involved. My assumption is there would be no difference with what gets automated within the frontend or else it would more or less be a fork of Retroarch. I assume the frontend downloads it from the same source anyone going to their website would, so it's still the exact same emulator, same files and all that in the end....at least that's my assumption lol

So I'm thinking LB needs to be taken out of the equation based on my troubleshooting. It's a Retroarch issue, rather than a LB + Retroarch issue in my opinion

And yes I agree the implementation is not ideal, there are shit ton of forum threads out there discussing this, but only that one github page did I find anyone who appears to be a dev on the program to provide a real technical answer. We are all clearly not the first to be confused by this, but at the same time, I think it makes sense from developer point of view, they are trying to prevent settings from unintentionally being overwritten or corrupted I think. On the other hand.....I'm sure there is some way to prevent whatever issue they did this for, while not confusing the user. To me, a simple change of the error message would be sufficient. If it detects an override is active, then the pop up on the OSD notification should be "Override currently detected - configuration will not be saved. Please remove override in order to save configuration or alternatively utilize the core, directory, or game overrides" The current one is super misleading, as I too would have immediately assumed it was a permissions issue if others weren't already sharing that didn't help them out

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