[yimyom]

Hi,

I have a problem with joystick (and to some extent keyboard) focus when launching mame from Kodi. My setup is an Odroid XU4, Kodi, mame installed (almost by the book). You can read on how I did my setup on this page I wrote https://github.com/yimyom/odroid-xu4-setup.

The problem is the following: when I launch any game, my joystick doesn't work at all. If I start X with a regular session and run mame in fullscreen, it perfectly works. If I run mame in window mode, and put the focus on another window, well... of course the joystick doesn't work. I suspect I have something similar with my Kodi/AML installation but I can't find anything so far.

I went through Kodi's logs, AML logs (in debug mode) and couldn't find anything suspicious.

So far my impression is that the MAME windows doesn't take the focus and so the joystick events are not sent to MAME.

Any idea ?

Hi, very nice tutorial!

The problem is that Kodi must be run using a Window Manager. I recommend you use OpenBox. Google a bit, also in this forum there are many old posts about that. If you need further help, I'm preparing my own tutorial about Linux + Kodi + Emulators configuration but that will take me some time to finish.

EDIT: Sorry, OpenBox is used, see point 17, the contents of the file /etc/systemd/system/kodi.service

Can you please give more information about the joystick? Can you try with an alternative joystick? 

This is exactly the answer I was looking for. So, indeed, the windows focus seems to be the problem. I think for some reasons, the new fullscreen window was not getting the focus and therefore none of the keyboard and joystick events were passed to MAME. After adding openbox, it just works !!! Thanks a lot for your help.

So, I've update my tutorial and, thanks to that last piece, it's in version 1.0 now !
For the record, here is my tutorial on how to build a Kodi with Mame, a USB hard drive, put a joystick and plenty other niceties on a ODroid XU4, including OpenGL and OpenGL ES: https://github.com/yimyom/odroid-xu4-setup

[Wintermute0110]

This is exactly the answer I was looking for. So, indeed, the windows focus seems to be the problem. I think for some reasons, the new fullscreen window was not getting the focus and therefore none of the keyboard and joystick events were passed to MAME. After adding openbox, it just works !!! Thanks a lot for your help.

So, I've update my tutorial and, thanks to that last piece, it's in version 1.0 now !
For the record, here is my tutorial on how to build a Kodi with Mame, a USB hard drive, put a joystick and plenty other niceties on a ODroid XU4, including OpenGL and OpenGL ES: https://github.com/yimyom/odroid-xu4-setup

OK... I saw the first version and OpenBox was not there, then I saw the new version and OpenBox was there and I got confused

Your tutorial is very nice, if you don't mind I will advertise it on the first thread of the post. Also, if you don't mind I will canibalise some parts for my tutorial (installing Linux on a NUC/standard PC with the ROMs and assets in a NAS as opposed to a USB hard disk). Of course you will be credited.

[yimyom]

Hi,

I've made a tutorial on how to install Kodi, Mame and use AML on ODroid XU4. It takes you from the basics of installing Linux through all the steps to get a complete and operational media center.
You can find it here: https://github.com/yimyom/odroid-xu4-setup

Don't hesitate to comment, fork, contribute and even donate :-D
It's up to date with the latest version. Following my guide you will be able to watch movies and play games from your sofa. :-D

[Muchaco]

Is someone using Emulators for playing Mame Rom's? I'm still playing Metal Slug 3 and after finishing I will download Metal Slug X. Share some games that someone is playing now or maybe in the past.

[Muchaco]

Is someone using Emulators for playing MAME Rom's? I'm still playing Metal Slug 3 and after finishing I will download Metal Slug X. Share some games that someone is playing now or maybe in the past.

[Wintermute0110]

New AML release 0.9.10

The main new feature in AML 0.9.10 is the generation of 3D Boxes for both MAME machines and Software Lists:



Note that if you have a full artwork collection the generation of all MAME and SL 3D Boxes will take 15/20 hours each. AML is now able to export DAT XML files in Logiqx format that you can use on ClrMamePro, but this needs a bit more testing specially for non-split sets. MAME custom filters now check for errors, for example, if you define a Genre or Control which doesn't exists AML will trigger a warning.

AML has now preliminary support for the Retroarch MAME 2003 Plus core. The idea will be to support all Retroarch MAME cores capable of producing an XML file. This is a required step to support Kodi Retroplayer MAME cores in AML.

Note that it will take a few days until AML 0.9.10 gets into the Kodi official addon repository and updated automatically in your Kodi box.

Upgrading AML to release 0.9.10

1) Download AML 0.9.10 from the Kodi addon repository. AML is under the category Program add-ons and Game add-ons, Game providers.

2) Before generating the database and scanning your assets, go to "Utilities" and select "Check AML configuration". Make sure every feature you want is OK and green, otherwise check the AML addon settings.

3) Open the context menu in any root window row, select "Setup Plugin" and then "All in one step". This will extract MAME XML, rebuild all the databases and rescan ZIP/CHD files and assets. You will need to update the Custom filters as well.

4) In the root window, go to "Utilities" and select "Check/Update all Favourite objects." This will bring your MAME Favourites, MAME Most Played, etc. up to date with the last version of the database.

Note that some files in AML data directory have changed. If you want to delete all cruft, then completely wipe out the AML data directory and start from scratch. If you want to keep your MAME Favourites and SL Favourites, then make a backup of the files Favourite_Machines.json and Favourite_SL_ROMs.json, and restore these files after the upgrade.

Advanced MAME Launcher | version 0.9.10 | 10 May 2019

Code:

FEATURE  Option to disable Software Lists at all in Vanilla MAME mode.

FEATURE  Management of MAME Favourite objects (delete missing, delete single).

FEATURE  Management of SL Favourite objects (delete missing, delete single).

FEATURE  Initial support for Retroarch MAME 2003 Plus core.

FEATURE  [CORE] Ability to export DAT files in Logiqx format for MAME ROMs and MAME CHDs.

FEATURE  [CORE] Differentiate between Non-merged and Fully non-merged MAME ROM sets.
         Non-merged sets do not include BIOS and device ROMs.
         Fully non-merged sets include BIOS and devices ROMs (every ROM required to run each
         machine). Pleasuredome ROM sets are Fully non-merged.
         This needs more testing.

FEATURE  [FILTERING] Test the filters for errors. For example, test that all the drivers
         defined in <Driver> exist. Another example, test that the genres defined in
         <Genre> and the controls defined in <Controls> exist.

FEATURE  [FILTERING] Warn the user if errors found in the XML filter definition, maybe in
         a report the user can read later.

FEATURE  [FILTERING] Make a filter report the user can read. Now, only the number of machines
         after filtering is reported.

FEATURE  [GRAPHICS] Generate MAME machines and SL items 3D Boxes.

FEATURE  [GRAPHICS] Refactoring of the Fanart and 3D Box code generation. Creation of graphics.py.

FEATURE  [GRAPHICS] Only generate 3D Boxes if both Fyler and Clearlogo (MAME) or Boxfront (SL)
         are present. Avoid having empty 3D boxes.

FEATURE  [CORE] Improved filter "Machines by Display Type" and removed filter
         "Machines by Display Rotation."

FEATURE  [CORE] New catalog filter "Machines by Display VSync freq." Inspired by
         MASH's MAMEINFO Vsync.ini.

FEATURE  [CORE] New catalog filter "Machines by Display Resolution" Inspired by
         MASH's MAMEINFO Screen.ini.

FEATURE  [CORE] New catalog filter "Machines by CPU" Inspired by
         MASH's MAMEINFO CPU.ini.

FEATURE  [CORE] Rewrite the INI loading engine.
         See comments in header of function mame_load_INI_datfile().

FEATURE  [CORE] New INI file Artwork.ini (produced by MASH's MAMEINFO).
         Catalog filter "Machines by Artwork".
         Note that Artwork.ini places the same machine in different categories. Maybe other
         INIs do the same and currently AML does not support this. This requires
         some changes in AML engine.

FEATURE  New catalog "Version added"

FEATURE  [CORE] New INI file Category.ini (produced by MASH's MAMEINFO).
         Catalog filter "Machines by Category".

FEATURE  [CORE] New "All in one (Extract, Build and Scan)" options:
         1) Delete current to "All in one (Extract, Build, Scan)"
         2) Add "All in one (Extract, Build, Scan, Filters)"
         3) Add "All in one (Extract, Build, Scan, Filters, Audit)"

FEATURE  [CORE] By request of Rufoo, support MAME 3dboxes.

FIX      Fixed a couple of crashes when executing context menus, thanks to Dax9.
         See https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=304186&pid=2838180#pid2838180

FIX      Fix the render_skin_*() functions. These are called by skins to get a list of
         filters.

[Dr.No.pt]

Hello all,
I'm trying to config  "Advanced MAME Launcher" in kodi 18.2 (on a Minix U9-H) but cannot find where is the MAME executable and MAME Roms path.

https://postimg.cc/ZB2wQJTK

Can someone share the path please ? ( i cannot find the /home/kodi/AML-assets/ path )

Thank you. 

[Wintermute0110]

Hello all,
I'm trying to config  "Advanced MAME Launcher" in kodi 18.2 (on a Minix U9-H) but cannot find where is the MAME executable and MAME Roms path.

https://postimg.cc/ZB2wQJTK

Can someone share the path please ? ( i cannot find the /home/kodi/AML-assets/ path )

Thank you. 

What operating system are you using? Linux (what distro?), LibreELEC, etc.

The MAME executable path is typically /usr/games/bin/mame (at least in Debian). Before using AML, MAME must be correctly installed and working. The rest of the paths (ROMs, CHDs, assets, DATs, ...) you have to create them yourself.

[Dr.No.pt]

I'm using Android 7.1.1 on my MINIX

[Wintermute0110]

I'm using Android 7.1.1 on my MINIX

Android is not supported at the moment because there is no an official MAME application. I'm working on giving support to the MAME Retroarch cores, please stay tuned for future version.

[publicENEMY]

How do I setup to play with retroarch(i have mame 2003 plus roms)? I on windows. How do set libretro path?

[publicENEMY]

Gave up on setting up retroarch mame 2003 plus, i tried with vanilla mame. What should i put for "Software Lists hash path"?

[Wintermute0110]

Gave up on setting up retroarch mame 2003 plus, i tried with vanilla mame. What should i put for "Software Lists hash path"?

The hash path is a directory in the MAME installation named "hash", it contains a lot of XML files. It's optional.

[Wintermute0110]

Gave up on setting up retroarch mame 2003 plus, i tried with vanilla mame. What should i put for "Software Lists hash path"?

Back in Japan and in front of my computer now I can give you a proper answer.

MAME 2003 Plus support is still preliminary and in development. Only recent versions of MAME support software lists and not MAME 2003 Plus. When using MAME 2003 Plus you need to provide the XML file with MAME information. When using vanilla MAME, AML is able to extract this file from MAME executable automatically but this is not available in MAME 2003 Plus.

If you are using windows I recommend for now to use vanilla MAME with AML. MAME 2003 Plus still needs some polishing and when it's ready I will update the docs.

[Mince]

Im running Libreelec but i cant seem to find the excutable path can anyone help please