Wiki/wiki-rtd/docs/wiki_development/testing/general-testing.md

Testing RetroDECK

There are two ways help us to test features in RetroDECK.
The first one is our bleeding edge RetroDECK Cooker channel.
The second one is the Experimental Features inside the stable version inside the Developer Options Menu.

Can I help you with testing?

Yes, do follow the instructions on this page and tell in Discord channel i-want-to-help that you are interested in testing out RetroDECK Cooker builds or want to give feedback on Experimental Features. You will get some instructions from one of the mods and be promoted to a BetaTester role.

Before you begin!

Backup before testing! 🛑

These builds and features can make you loose all data including ROMS, BIOS and Scraped Data etc..
We recommend that you don't run any experimental features or cooker builds on your main gaming machine.

Expect bugs and issues! 🛑

These builds and experimental features can contain several bugs and be unstable.

How do I take a backup?

Backup your /retrodeck/ and it's content and /.var/app/net.retrodeck.retrodeck/. You could copy the entire folders to a secure location or for a quick test you could just rename both of the folders into something else. Then RetroDECK will think it's a fresh install.

Example of renaming:
OLDnet.retrodeck.retrodeck/
OLDretrodeck/

What is RetroDECK Cooker?

RetroDECK Cooker are the bleeding edge development builds of RetroDECK. These builds are only for development and testing purposes.

How do I install cooker builds?

You can download the latest .flatpak releases from the above link and install them via CLI or from the desktop.

NOTE:

• You need to have set up a sudo password if you want to test on a Steam Deck.
• If you have RetroDECK the stable release on your system RetroDECK-Cooker will be installed separately since it is a different branch. We do not recommend running cooker on a system where you have a running RetroDECK stable.

Desktop

You should just be able to double click on the .flatpak file and what ever application manager/installer (like Discover) you have installed should be able to install it. If that does not work use the CLI method.

CLI

Run the following command from where you have downloaded the .flatpak file.
flatpak install RetroDECK.flatpak

How do I uninstall RetroDECK Cooker?

Desktop

Just go into your application manager/installer (like Discover), find RetroDECK and press uninstall.

CLI

Run the following command:
flatpak remove RetroDECK

Why does the cooker release have strange names?

The names are randomly generated to make it easy to see what build you are running.

What are RetroDECK experimental features?

Experimental features are a showcase of what proof-of-concepts we are trying out or working on that you can try out even on stable releases and we would like feedback on them. All these features are just conceptual and we hope them release ready in an later major update or scrap them if the don't work out. Standard backup procedures apply as written above.

How do I enable them?

From CLI run:

flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck uuddlrlrstart

The Developer Options Menu should show up inside the Configurator.

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

NOTE: on wayland in some cases it's needed to enter with the command above otherwise some emulators will not run:

flatpak run --command=sh --nosocket=fallback-x11 --socket=x11 net.retrodeck.retrodeck

Launch ES-DE in Debug Mode:

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

Launch a component in Debug Mode:

To get the list of the available binaries to launch, then just write the command:

ls /app/bin

retrodeck for the whole application or certain components like ryujinx or retroarch. This is useful when for example a game is not starting and you want the output printed in the terminal.