EmulationStation installation in Ubuntu/Debian

by Wintermute0110

Installation of EmulationStation (compile from source)
Setting up EmulationStation
- Installing a theme
- Create a basic es_systems XML for testing
Running EmulationStation for the first time
Running EmulationStation automatically at boot
Updating EmulationStation files
What to do next?

In this chapter I cover the installation of EmulationStation as a front-end for your games in your HTPC. You will need a working HTPC with Ubuntu Linux installed as described in Linux installation and initial configuration.

Installation of EmulationStation (compile from source)

First clone a repository I made to simplify the installation of the Retropie fork of EmulationStation:

$ cd /home/kodi/
$ git clone https://github.com/Wintermute0110/EmulationStation-Install.git

Install the required software and libraries required to build EmulationStation:

$ cd /home/kodi/EmulationStation-Install
$ sudo install-build-dependencies.sh

Get the EmulationStation source code:

$ cd /home/kodi/EmulationStation-Install
$ git clone https://github.com/RetroPie/EmulationStation.git retropie-ES
$ cd retropie-ES
$ git submodule update --init --recursive

Before compilation it is necessary to change a couple of lines of C++ code. Use nano es-core/src/platform.cpp and in the function void processQuitMode() comment the following lines by adding a //. The final result must look like this:

       case QuitMode::REBOOT:
                LOG(LogInfo) << "Rebooting system";
                touch("/tmp/es-sysrestart");
                // runRestartCommand();
                break;
        case QuitMode::SHUTDOWN:
                LOG(LogInfo) << "Shutting system down";
                touch("/tmp/es-shutdown");
                // runShutdownCommand();
                break;

Now build the EmulationStation executable with:

$ cd /home/kodi/EmulationStation-Install/retropie-ES
$ cmake .
$ make -j8

Finally, create a soft link to the EmulationStation executable and copy a helper script required to reset/power off your HTPC using D-Bus. The emulation station executable emulationstation must be in the same directory as the script emulationstation.sh, that’s why we create the soft link:

$ cd /home/kodi/EmulationStation-Install
$ mkdir /home/kodi/bin
$ cp emulationstation.sh /home/kodi/bin/emulationstation.sh
$ chmod 755 /home/kodi/bin/emulationstation.sh
$ ln -s /home/kodi/EmulationStation-Install/retropie-ES/emulationstation /home/kodi/bin/emulationstation

Setting up EmulationStation

Now you need to configure your /home/kodi/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg, install some EmulationStation themes and configure your keyboard and gamepad to control EmulationStation.

Installing a theme

The recommended EmulationStation theme is the default Batocera theme or the default Retropie Carbon theme. To download a theme from Github click on the Clone or download green button and then in Download ZIP. Themes must be placed in /home/kodi/.emulationstation/themes/, each theme on its own subdirectory. Theme directory names are irrelevant. When started, EmulationStation scans this directory for themes automatically.

If you download the Batocera default theme from Github, place the contents of the directory themes/batocera into /home/kodi/.emulationstation/batocera/. When downloading from Github, inside the ZIP file the contents of the repository are placed inside a directory named batocera-themes-master where master is the master branch of the repository.
If you download the Retropie Carbon theme move the directory es-theme-carbon-master into /home/kodi/.emulationstation/themes/.

In Linux you can use Filezilla or use SSHFS to mount the remote /home/kodi/ HTPC directory into a local directory. In Windows you can use WinSCP (or any other SFTP application) to copy files and create directories from/to your HTPC. Once you have updated your themes you must restart EmulationStation to see the changes.

To make things cristal clear this is an example of the layout after both themes are installed:

/home/kodi/.emulationstation/themes/batocera/main.xml
...
/home/kodi/.emulationstation/themes/batocera/3do/theme.xml
/home/kodi/.emulationstation/themes/batocera/3do/_data/
...
/home/kodi/.emulationstation/themes/es-theme-carbon-master/theme.xml
...
/home/kodi/.emulationstation/themes/es-theme-carbon-master/3ds/theme.xml
/home/kodi/.emulationstation/themes/es-theme-carbon-master/3ds/art/
...

Create a basic es_systems XML for testing

Create a fake /home/kodi/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg file.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- File /home/kodi/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg -->
<systemList>
  <system>
    <name>megadrive</name>
    <fullname>Sega Mega Drive</fullname>
    <path>/home/kodi/roms/megadrive</path>
    <extension>.smd .bin .gen .md .zip</extension>
    <command>ls %ROM%</command>
    <platform>megadrive</platform>
    <theme>megadrive</theme>
  </system>
  </system>
</systemList>

Create a directory for your MegaDrive ROMs and create one fake ROM:

$ mkdir -p /home/kodi/roms/megadrive
$ touch "/home/kodi/roms/megadrive/Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (World).zip"

This is just for testing, nothing will launch when you click in your ROM. Later you can replace es_systems.cfg with a real one and place real ROMs.

Running EmulationStation for the first time

The first time you run EmulationStation you need to configure an input device which may be a keyboard or a gamepad. I recommend you always configure the keyboard first and then configure as many gamepads as you want. You can control EmulationStation with any of the configured devices, however if you do not configure any control device you cannot control ES at all!

If your system is configured to boot in the X server then open a lxterminal and execute $ /home/kodi/bin/emulationstation.sh.
If you system is configure to boot in the text console you can start EmulationStation with $ startx.

Press F4 on the keyboard to exit EmulationStation at any time. Once you have finished setting up the controls in EmulationStation reboot your HTPC and EmulationStation should start automatically.

Running EmulationStation automatically at boot

Edit the file /home/kodi/.config/openbox/autostart and at the end append:

# File /home/kodi/.config/openbox/autostart

# Other configuration you may have in autostart...

# Launchg a terminal emulator
# lxterminal &

# Start EmulationStation
/home/kodi/bin/emulationstation.sh
openbox --exit

Note that compared with the default autostart file created in the Linux-installation-and-configuration section here we disable the execution of xlterminal and instead execute EmulationStation.

Updating EmulationStation files

When updating EmulationStation files, for example ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg, EmulationStation must be not running. If you need to stop EmulationStation use the following command:

$ sudo systemctl stop display-manager.service

You can start EmulationStation again with:

$ sudo systemctl start display-manager.service

It is fine to use these commands from the text console in your HTPC with a keyboard connected or using a remote terminal with SSH.

What to do next?

If you want to use EmulationStation as your frontend you need to setup some real emulators as backends, for example Retroarch, MAME or Mednafen. Once you setup and test your emulator you need to create a real es_systems.cfg.

Wintermute0110.github.io

AEL, AML, ADL documentation and emulation guides.