ZSNES 1.43 on Linux - Everything is CHOPPY-Now mouse problem

bLUEbYTE · Post by **bLUEbYTE** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:10 am

Hi,
Tried searching this but nothing found.
My system is a Linux box running latest Gentoo on AMD64... Running kernel 2.6.17. Using latest NVidia binary drivers. ZSNES 1.43 was compiled from source and installed. Everything seems OK, except this massive issue:
The mouse movement, button click detection, GUI response, game speed, sound everything is runs choppy. Different settings, turning sound on/off, different video options&modes didn't help. It is as if some other process is completely hogging the CPU.
But please note that I am quite confident that this is ZSNES-specific. My machine is fine, many programs, games, multimedi apps running properly.

Also, I tried compiling without opengl support but it was the same.
Any help appreciated.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:15 am

Did you compile for a 32-bit target? If not, you will have problems.

The only other thing that could possibly be is that you did not delete the .cfg+.dat files in your ~/.zsnes folder.

bLUEbYTE · Post by **bLUEbYTE** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:29 am

Gentoo's package manager (portage) installed 32-bit general compatibility and 32-bit compatibility X libraries before compiling ZSNES. So, my guess is that yes, it was targeted for 32-bit platform. It was not a manual compile by hand.

I had an 32 bit Slackware installation before this, and if I remember correctly, I experienced exactly the same problem. Also the problem was ZSNES specific.

I always compile my kernels preemptible and timer frequency 1000, do you think this could be the issue? If I am too much delving into details, apologies.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:35 am

Compiling from source? Do you mean from Bountysource or Sourceforge or Gentoo's repositories (or somewhere else)?

Last I checked, there have been a lot of issues trying to compile anything from Gentoo's repositories (in other words: it's the Gentoo maintainer's fault).

Read this for some relevent info:
http://board.zsnes.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7371
Ideally, you want to compile ZSNES from SVN.

bLUEbYTE · Post by **bLUEbYTE** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:39 am

Yes, I compiled (emerged) it from Gentoo's repositories. I try to avoid custom compilations for the sake of long time system maintenance (updates, dependencies etc)

But I guess I'll try SVN tomorrow. Will post afterwards. Thanks

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:46 am

Ok. Well, whoever is responsible for Gentoo's repositories... they are doing a grave disservice here.

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:11 am

I know Aerdan made an ebuild of ZSNES..

if only I can learn how to make ebuilds, I'd make one. D:

Post by **Nach** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:55 am

There is no v1.43

bLUEbYTE · Post by **bLUEbYTE** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:33 am

Sorry, it was 1.42
Now I'll try SVN

bLUEbYTE · Post by **bLUEbYTE** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:13 am

So here I am, compiled the latest from SVN

Code: Select all

 $ zsnes
ZSNES vPre 1.43, (c) 1997-2006, ZSNES Team
Be sure to check http://www.zsnes.com/ for the latest version.

ZSNES is written by the ZSNES Team (See AUTHORS.TXT)
ZSNES comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  This is free software,
and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions;
please read 'LICENSE.TXT' thoroughly before doing so.

Use ZSNES -? for command line definitions.

This is a work in progress build. It contains code which
May or may not be complete
Starting Mouse detection.
Unable to poll /dev/input/event1. Make sure you have read permissions to it.
Unable to poll /dev/input/event0. Make sure you have read permissions to it.
ManyMouse: 0 mice detected.
Segmentation fault

Code: Select all

zsnes -j
ZSNES vPre 1.43, (c) 1997-2006, ZSNES Team
Be sure to check http://www.zsnes.com/ for the latest version.

ZSNES is written by the ZSNES Team (See AUTHORS.TXT)
ZSNES comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  This is free software,
and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions;
please read 'LICENSE.TXT' thoroughly before doing so.

Use ZSNES -? for command line definitions.

This is a work in progress build. It contains code which
May or may not be complete
Starting Mouse detection.
Unable to poll /dev/input/event1. Make sure you have read permissions to it.
Unable to poll /dev/input/event0. Make sure you have read permissions to it.
ManyMouse: 0 mice detected.
Segmentation fault

my mouse is at "/dev/input/mouse0"
any way to make zsnes look for it there? As the last resort I may edit code for it.

Edit:

Code: Select all

crw-------  1 root root 13, 64 Sep  5 09:18 event0
crw-------  1 root root 13, 65 Sep  5 09:18 event1
crw-r--r--  1 root root 13, 63 Sep  5 09:18 mice
crw-r--r--  1 root root 13, 32 Sep  5 09:18 mouse0

But I don't want to run as root.

bLUEbYTE · Post by **bLUEbYTE** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:43 am

OK I edited the code, now it opens the right mouse device but this "ManyMouse" thing doesn't see it.

In ui.c, line ~610 I changed it as follows:

Code: Select all

    while ((ent = readdir(input_dir)))
    {
      if (strncmp(ent->d_name, "mouse", 5) == 0)
      {
        if (access_dir("/dev/input/", ent->d_name, R_OK))
        {
          printf("Unable to poll /dev/input/%s. Make sure you have read permissions to it.\n", ent->d_name);
        }
	else
	{
	  printf("/dev/input/%s was successfully opened for reading\n", ent->d_name);
	}
      }
    }

Code: Select all

$ zsnes
ZSNES vPre 1.43, (c) 1997-2006, ZSNES Team
Be sure to check http://www.zsnes.com/ for the latest version.

ZSNES is written by the ZSNES Team (See AUTHORS.TXT)
ZSNES comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  This is free software,
and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions;
please read 'LICENSE.TXT' thoroughly before doing so.

Use ZSNES -? for command line definitions.

This is a work in progress build. It contains code which
May or may not be complete
Starting Mouse detection.
/dev/input/mouse0 was successfully opened for reading
ManyMouse: 0 mice detected.
Segmentation fault

Post by **Nach** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 4:33 pm

ManyMouse is completely unrelated to your crashing problem. It's crashing after ManyMouse tries to load. If you don't want to use dual mice, ManyMouse is meaningless for you. If you want Dual Mouse, set read permissions for everyone on /dev/input/event*

If you want to find out why it's segfaulting, clean out files, rerun configure in debug mode, rebuild, run gdb zsnesd, then when it crashes hit bt, and paste all output here.

StandardBlueCaboose · Post by **StandardBlueCaboose** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:39 pm

I get segfaults when I don't run as root. Why don't you want to run as root?

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:44 pm

Well, because root has all access to the computer, and because of this, gremlins can attack your system.

Almost in the same manner as how windows PC's get attacked, because people are logged in as the administrator.

StandardBlueCaboose · Post by **StandardBlueCaboose** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 3:45 am

That makes sense, I guess. I don't want my linux box to end up like windows...

bLUEbYTE · Post by **bLUEbYTE** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:27 am

After many hours of struggling with ZSNES and other emulators, I found the solution. Note that this is all based on the ability to run different emulators, and also I'm not a Linux newbie.
1) Don't use a 64-bit OS. Performance simply sucks. Compatibility sucks. And many different problems.
2) Use Windows. Sorry, but enough struggling with each and every emulator I try to run, the only emulators I didn't have a problem with are AdvanceMAME and AdvanceMESS by Andrea Mazzoleni. Hell, Most of them even can't be run in FULLSCREEN no matter what I try! Is it that hard?
At least with Windows we have a standard technology behind video/audio/input (Directx).
Damnit I had ENOUGH of it. Svgalib doesn't work with X, DirectFB can't run as normal user, and stuff like that... Nothing but problems mostly.

Thanks for any help. I'm happy now as ZSNES runs well on Windows.

StandardBlueCaboose · Post by **StandardBlueCaboose** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:54 pm

You don't want to run as root, but you'll run windows...

To each his own, I suppose.

Echoecho · Post by **Echoecho** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:20 am

bLUEbYTE wrote:After many hours of struggling with ZSNES and other emulators, I found the solution. Note that this is all based on the ability to run different emulators, and also I'm not a Linux newbie.
1) Don't use a 64-bit OS. Performance simply sucks. Compatibility sucks. And many different problems.
2) Use Windows. Sorry, but enough struggling with each and every emulator I try to run, the only emulators I didn't have a problem with are AdvanceMAME and AdvanceMESS by Andrea Mazzoleni. Hell, Most of them even can't be run in FULLSCREEN no matter what I try! Is it that hard?
At least with Windows we have a standard technology behind video/audio/input (Directx).
Damnit I had ENOUGH of it. Svgalib doesn't work with X, DirectFB can't run as normal user, and stuff like that... Nothing but problems mostly.

Thanks for any help. I'm happy now as ZSNES runs well on Windows.

Opengl is the closest thing to a standard for 2d fullscreen on linux. Though only a handful of emulators use it. Xmame uses "Xv", and that is your best choice for that, although that mode fails at life if you try to switch around between resolutions. If you're not a newbie you're not a seasoned user either. I've been a few months on linux and run almost every emulated system that I used to run on windows in fullscreen and at comparable speed. Psx emulation seems to run even faster here. The exception is the n64, you need a powerful system for that. Games of any kind aren't that important to me anymore on a PC, so I just think it's 'neat' to run emulators on linux that's the only reason I bother with it. But I agree about your statement about a 64 bit OS. There is no point in using one other than saying you use it. They are inferior and needs a lot of work at this point. And I'm not just talking about linux. (anyone ever try that ridiculous windows xp 64 version?)

StandardBlueCaboose · Post by **StandardBlueCaboose** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:08 pm

Yeah, I tried the 64-bit windows. It was terrible, the drivers it used were extremely buggy. It crashed on me about every 20 minutes.

(This is off-topic, but whatever, this thread is pretty much done with.)

darklegion · Post by **darklegion** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 2:02 pm

For the record, Gentoo's ZSNES 1.42 works fine under my AMD64 bit system (in 64-bit mode).

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 2:38 pm

darklegion wrote:For the record, Gentoo's ZSNES 1.42 works fine under my AMD64 bit system (in 64-bit mode).

I'm pretty sure it is actually a 32-bit version you compiled and you just don't realize it.