RetroDECK/wiki-rtd/Development:-General-notes.md

Cooker

Cooker, differently from the main (stable) branch, is what it's boiling in the pot now: the bleeding edge of the software development. Every time a commit or a PR is done, a GitHub action automatically compiles the snapshot with the latest changes and publish them on the cooker repository. This can be publicly tested and if it's stable will be merged in the main branch creating a new release.

Useless to say that this channel is not suggested for the end user but it's developer / alpha tester oriented. Expect major bugs and data loss: be warned.

Build instructions

If you want to build the RetroDECK flatpak on your machine for developing or just testing purposes:

cd ~
git clone --recursive https://github.com/XargonWan/RetroDECK.git
cd RetroDECK
git submodule init
git submodule update

install flatpak flatpak-builder p7zip-full with your distro's package manager, then:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install --user -y org.kde.Sdk//5.15-21.08 org.kde.Platform//5.15-21.08 io.qt.qtwebengine.BaseApp/x86_64/5.15-21.08 org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.llvm13 org.freedesktop.Platform.ffmpeg-full/x86_64/21.08

To build the stable release:

flatpak-builder --user --install --install-deps-from=flathub --install-deps-from=flathub-beta --force-clean --repo=local ~/RetroDECK/retrodeck-main ~/RetroDECK/net.retrodeck.retrodeck.yml
flatpak build-bundle local ~/RetroDECK.flatpak net.retrodeck.retrodeck

Or alternatively, to build the cooker (experimental) release:

git checkout cooker
flatpak-builder --user --install --force-clean --repo=local ~/RetroDECK/retrodeck-cooker ~/RetroDECK/net.retrodeck.retrodeck.yml
flatpak build-bundle local ~/RetroDECK.flatpak net.retrodeck.retrodeck

Debug Mode

It's possible to enter in a sort of debug mode, it's actually the flatpak shell.

Enter in the flatpak shell:

flatpak run --command=bash net.retrodeck.retrodeck

Launch ES-DE in debug mode:

emulationstation --debug --home /var/config/emulationstation

Launch an emulator in debug mode:

ls /app/bin

To get the list of the available binaries to launch, then just write the command, such as yuzu or retroarch

This is useful when for example a game is not starting and you want the output printed in the terminal.

Manual installation instructions

This method is usually for the beta/cooker testers:

• Download the RetroDECK.flatpak from the release page or from the cooker release page (be sure to download the correct version, check the date as they're not ordered unfortunately).
• cd where the downloded file is located
• flatpak install RetroDECK.flatpak or whatever the filename is

If this doesn´t work:

• cd into your download location
• flatpak install RetroDECK.flatpak
• Run it from the start menu or, alternatively, from the terminal by typing flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck
• Then the first setup will guide you in the first steps, please read all the messages carefully as the rom directory must not be edited in EmulationStation

Updating instructions

• uninstall the previous version with flatpak uninstall net.retrodeck.retrodeck
• follow installation instructions
• [OPTIONAL] In case of issues it's suggested to remove ~/.var/app/net.retrodeck.retrodeck and run flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck --reset, but this will reset the application configs, please backup your data. NOTE: this will not be needed after v0.4.0b.

Managing RetroDECK flatpak file

Install RetroDECK from flatpak file:

flatpak install RetroDECK.flatpak

Run RetroDECK:

flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck

Uninstall RetroDECK:

flatpak uninstall net.retrodeck.retrodeck

CLI - (Command Line interface)

There are some functions that can be called via CLI, for a comprehensive list type: flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck --help or flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck -h

Some useful ones: Resets the whole RetroDECK at factory defaults:

flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck --reset

Resets RetroArch configs at factory defaults:

flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck --reset-ra

Resets all the standalone emulators configs at factory defaults:

flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck --reset-sa

Making your own ES-DE theme

Please check the following link link over ES-DE (this is still in development)
Theme Development