MiSTer Super Attract Mode (SAM) is now available - the first game screensaver for your MiSTer!

[mrchrister]

Not having the same display settings is actually a major problem and can't be fixed with the current implementation.
I think I might go back to only mount individual volume config files since even with the setname feature we have to do a bunch of mount bind operations... I'll take a crack at it later.

[SmaMan]

Okay, new problem.

Now it's trying to play two songs at once while SAM is running. (Basically a stuttering mess where each song tries to take turns every half seconds.)

Once you press a button and the core reboots, I'm back to how it was, with the song still playing in place of the game audio.

Turns out it just needed to be rebooted... heh.

Seems to be working as it did before, but the game audio is still muted in the core once you press a button to end SAM. At least, you can still just raise it back up.

[mrchrister]

Just testing the new version, should be up soon. I've had this happen before where bgm would play songs twice, not sure why... with the new version we won't use a SAM core anymore. Hopefully this will work better when using mute function.

Edit: New version is up with some BGM improvements and new mute functions. SAM will now use default cores again so any BIOS troubles should be fixed hopefully.

[SmaMan]

Good News: BIOS are all working again!
The volume controls also seem to work great, turning back off when ending SAM and everything.

Bad News: When you reboot back to the menu, there is no BGM... until SAM triggers again and then you get that "two songs at once" problem I reported last night.
It seems you can avoid this issue by doing a Cold Reboot every time, but that isn't always ideal.

[mrchrister]

Ok that's progress.
Set bgmstop=No in MiSTer_SAM.ini to have BGM playing in the menu. Not sure why you have two songs playing. Maybe uninstall/reinstall BGM through SAM's menu. I don't seem to have this issue on my 2 test setups.

[SmaMan]

I was wanting it to play in Menus, but not during game while SAM is inactive. It used to work this way. Perhaps that wasn't intended...

So I tried going to the original BGM script I had before you integrated it into SAM, (it seemed to disappear from my list for a bit last night for some reason) it showed no song playing while one song was playing, and then when I would start it from there, it would be two songs.

I thought this original BGM script was at conflict. I tried to uninstall it, and unchecked its settings to do any playback or run at bootup or anything of that sort, and even deleted the script from my Scripts folder. I got a tiny bit of music when SAM says "Starting BGM service" and it immediately stops when it boots into the first core, leaving me with near-silence.

I went back into SAM, disabled BGM, ran it, rebooted, and then enabled BGM, and now we're back to where I was last night. (Silence until SAM starts, two songs when it does, and one song when it stops again.)

[mrchrister]

This might be a wizzo question in the bgm thread. I've not been able to get bgm to play twice with my setup.
If you paste the following command in ssh it should show one bgm.sh running.

Code: Select all

ps -o pid,args | grep '[b]gm' 

Maybe there are two bgm scripts running at once for you?

[SmaMan]

I've not done much with SSH, but I'll poke around with that when I get home.

Two scripts running is the only thing I can think of. I noticed the SAM script will say "BGM service is running" once the first song starts, but then the second the core launches is when the 2nd one starts.

EDIT: Okay! Got to poking around in it. Sure enough, it's only showing one while two are playing (I think the number in front was in the 800s, but I don't think that makes a difference in this case.)

Code: Select all

 3136 python /media/fat/Scripts/bgm.sh exec

But when two songs are playing, both songs are indeed listed elsewhere in the processes list:

Code: Select all

3149 mpg123 --no-control /media/fat/music/02 VISIONNERZ ~Hallucinated People~.mp3
 3150 mpg123 --no-control /media/fat/music/03 Attract.mp3

Intrestingly enough when the music is still playing after SAM is ended in this way, no bgm process comes up. Except for the mpg123 listing of the song as seen above.

I guess I'll go see if Wizzo knows any more about what's happening here.

EDIT2: Another thing I'll add that I found out is that the song that still plays after SAM ends plays to the end and does not cue up another track.

[mrchrister]

I talked to wizzo about your issue, hopefully he has a solution for you. If you want BGM in the menu you have to set bgmstop=No in MiSTer_SAM.ini.
It is currently set to yes, that's why bgm doesn't come up after SAM stops.

Not that this will help but you can manually kill one of the streams. The first number is the process id.
For your example, type:

Code: Select all

kill -9 3150

to stop one of the streams. The ID is always different so you will have to check which one it is.

What's in your bgm.ini? You can find it in /media/fat/Music

Sorry to not be more of a help here. I only use pls files in music dir because i use bgm to listen to internet radio. If I have some time I will try with mp3 files if I get it to play twice.

[SmaMan]

Sorry to not be more of a help here. I only use pls files in music dir because i use bgm to listen to internet radio. If I have some time I will try with mp3 files if I get it to play twice.

It's all good. I'm grateful you're helping me in the slightest.

Here's what's in my bgm.ini

Code: Select all

[bgm]
playback = random
playlist = none
startup = yes
playincore = no
corebootdelay = 0
debug = no

I tried your Kill thread command, and it did kill one of the songs... however, once the other song finishes, it will play two different songs at once again.

This would explain why .pls streams seem to work better in this case, since they don't actually "end," per se.

EDIT: One more observation, now that I've been SSH'ing my way through MiSTer scripts this evening and can copy/paste what I see now. (Real handy, btw!)

Here is what SAM says after a cold boot:

Code: Select all

 Stopping other running instances of mister_sam_on.sh... Done.
 BGM already running.
 Starting SAM in the background.

And here is what SAM says after a warm reboot:

Code: Select all

Stopping other running instances of mister_sam_on.sh... Done.
 Starting BGM service...
 Starting SAM in the background.

It might not mean anything, but it seems to me the fact SAM can't detect BGM after a reboot,(which makes it try to run it again,) is what's giving us two songs at once.

[wizzo]

...

It might not mean anything, but it seems to me the fact SAM can't detect BGM after a reboot,(which makes it try to run it again,) is what's giving us two songs at once.

Hi. Can you please try the new release I put up on github for bgm. I'm not sure if it will fix this but I want to try rule something out.

You think there is 2 instances of bgm running when this happens? Can you please give us the output of "ps ax" when the issue is occurring.

[mrchrister]

quick note: if you uninstall and reinstall bgm through the SAM menu, it will automatically pull the new release for you.

[SmaMan]

Hi Wizzo! Thanks for your help.

I downloaded the new script via the way that MrChrister mentioned, and it started playing two songs immediately.

Here is my ps ax from that moment:

Code: Select all

PID   USER     COMMAND
    1 root     init
    2 root     [kthreadd]
    3 root     [rcu_gp]
    4 root     [rcu_par_gp]
    5 root     [kworker/0:0-pm]
    6 root     [kworker/0:0H-kb]
    7 root     [kworker/u4:0-wr]
    8 root     [mm_percpu_wq]
    9 root     [rcu_tasks_rude_]
   10 root     [ksoftirqd/0]
   11 root     [rcu_sched]
   12 root     [migration/0]
   13 root     [cpuhp/0]
   14 root     [cpuhp/1]
   15 root     [migration/1]
   16 root     [ksoftirqd/1]
   17 root     [kworker/1:0-eve]
   18 root     [kworker/1:0H-ev]
   19 root     [kdevtmpfs]
   20 root     [netns]
   21 root     [inet_frag_wq]
   22 root     [kworker/1:1-rcu]
   23 root     [kworker/0:1-eve]
   24 root     [khungtaskd]
   25 root     [oom_reaper]
   26 root     [writeback]
   27 root     [kcompactd0]
   56 root     [kblockd]
   57 root     [watchdogd]
   58 root     [kworker/u4:1-ev]
   59 root     [kworker/1:1H-kb]
   81 root     [kswapd0]
   82 root     [cifsiod]
   83 root     [smb3decryptd]
   84 root     [cifsfileinfoput]
   85 root     [cifsoplockd]
   86 root     [deferredclose]
  150 root     [spi0]
  154 root     [spi1]
  195 root     [stmmac_wq]
  196 root     [kworker/u4:2-ev]
  235 root     [uas]
  263 root     [usbip_event]
  313 root     [kworker/u4:3-ev]
  415 root     [kworker/1:2-eve]
  421 root     [kworker/0:2-eve]
  427 root     [krfcommd]
  494 root     [mmc_complete]
  496 root     [kworker/0:1H-mm]
  506 root     [jbd2/loop8-8]
  507 root     [ext4-rsv-conver]
  509 root     [kworker/1:2H-kb]
  522 root     /media/fat/MiSTer /media/fat/_Console/SMS_20220620.rbf /tmp/SAM_game.mgl
  526 root     [kworker/0:2H-mm]
  546 root     {resync} /bin/sh /etc/resync
  565 root     /sbin/syslogd -n
  569 root     /sbin/klogd -n
  576 root     [scsi_eh_0]
  577 root     [scsi_tmf_0]
  578 root     [usb-storage]
  579 root     /sbin/udevd -d
  596 root     [kworker/1:3]
  676 root     [cfg80211]
  691 root     wpa_supplicant -s -B -P /run/wpa_supplicant.wlan0.pid -i wlan0 -D nl80211,wext -c /media/fat/linux/wpa_s
  711 root     [kworker/u5:0-hc]
  713 root     [kworker/u5:1-hc]
  714 root     [kworker/u5:2-hc]
  715 root     [RTW_CMD_THREAD]
  753 dbus     dbus-daemon --system
  779 dhcpcd   dhcpcd: [master] [ip4]
  780 root     dhcpcd: [privileged actioneer]
  781 dhcpcd   dhcpcd: [network proxy]
  782 dhcpcd   dhcpcd: [control proxy]
  796 root     [kworker/0:3-eve]
  810 dhcpcd   dhcpcd: [BPF ARP] wlan0 192.168.137.199
  836 root     [jbd2/loop0-8]
  837 root     [ext4-rsv-conver]
  841 root     /usr/libexec/bluetooth/bluetoothd -n -E -C
  846 root     /usr/sbin/ntpd -g -p /var/run/ntpd.pid
  861 root     proftpd: (accepting connections)
  867 root     sshd: /usr/sbin/sshd [listener] 0 of 10-100 startups
  886 root     /sbin/gpm -m /dev/input/mice -t imps2
  887 root     /sbin/agetty --nohostname -L console xterm
  889 root     /sbin/agetty --nohostname -L tty1 linux
  921 root     sshd: root@notty
  925 root     /usr/libexec/sftp-server
  928 root     sshd: root@pts/0
  932 root     -bash
  993 root     [kworker/0:3H-mm]
  996 root     python /media/fat/Scripts/bgm.sh exec
 1051 root     {tmux: server} tmux new-session -s MCP -d /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_MCP
 1052 root     {MiSTer_SAM_MCP} /bin/bash /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_MCP
 1066 root     inotifywait --quiet --monitor --event create --event delete /dev/input --include js --outfile /tmp/.SAM_
 1069 root     inotifywait -r --quiet --monitor --event create --event delete /dev/input/ --include by-path --outfile /
 1083 root     python /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_joy.py /dev/input/js0
 1084 root     python /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_joy.py /dev/input/js1
 1085 root     python /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_joy.py /dev/input/js2
 1100 root     python /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_keyboard.py /dev/hidraw0
 1117 root     {MiSTer_SAM_MCP} /bin/bash /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_MCP
 1131 root     {MiSTer_SAM_mous} /bin/bash /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_mouse.sh
 1134 root     {MiSTer_SAM_mous} /bin/bash /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_mouse.sh
 1135 root     hexdump -n 8 -ve 1/1 "%.2x" /dev/input/mice
 1136 root     cut -c1
 1147 root     {MiSTer_SAM_on.s} /bin/bash /media/fat/Scripts/MiSTer_SAM_on.sh start_real
 1148 root     mpg123 --no-control /media/fat/music/08 - chocobo village.mp3
 1149 root     mpg123 --no-control /media/fat/music/58 - BGM Domestic DISK Ver. 1 (Game BGM Domestic DISK Ver.).mp3
 1253 root     inotifywait -e modify /tmp/CORENAME
 1289 root     sleep 5
 1294 root     sleep 1
 1296 root     sleep 3
 1297 root     ps ax

[mrchrister]

Judging by your output you're using a pretty old version of SAM..
Please reset SAM, reinstall bgm and let's see if that helps. Not sure why you have those old mouse.sh scripts in your processes output, we've not been using them for a while

[SmaMan]

By "Reset SAM" do you mean delete it and get a fresh copy from your GitHub?

Not sure how it could be old, since it runs and downloads an update every time I launch it via the script.

[mrchrister]

quite puzzling why you have

Code: Select all

1134 root     {MiSTer_SAM_mous} /bin/bash /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_mouse.sh

in memory. That code is older than 6 months and obsolete. We switched to a python script a long time ago for mouse detection...

If you open the SAM menu (push up when the countdown shows) you will find the reset menu. This way you can start with a fresh copy of SAM. Hope this helps!

[SmaMan]

It's still doing it.

I reset SAM, uninstalled BGM, did a cold reboot, and double checked my directories to make sure all traces of both scripts were gone, then I ran mister_sam_on.sh and installed bgm.sh through that menu, and got my settings back how I wanted. Other than things running smoother, I'm still getting the same results, unfortunately. Whenever the BGM is not already playing in the menu, it will play two songs at once when SAM activates.

Here's my ps ax again in case. FWIW, the old mouse /bin /bash seems to be gone.

Code: Select all

PID   USER     COMMAND
    1 root     init
    2 root     [kthreadd]
    3 root     [rcu_gp]
    4 root     [rcu_par_gp]
    7 root     [kworker/u4:0-ev]
    8 root     [mm_percpu_wq]
    9 root     [rcu_tasks_rude_]
   10 root     [ksoftirqd/0]
   11 root     [rcu_sched]
   12 root     [migration/0]
   13 root     [cpuhp/0]
   14 root     [cpuhp/1]
   15 root     [migration/1]
   16 root     [ksoftirqd/1]
   19 root     [kdevtmpfs]
   20 root     [netns]
   21 root     [inet_frag_wq]
   22 root     [kworker/0:1-mm_]
   23 root     [kworker/1:1-mm_]
   24 root     [khungtaskd]
   25 root     [oom_reaper]
   26 root     [writeback]
   27 root     [kcompactd0]
   56 root     [kblockd]
   57 root     [watchdogd]
   58 root     [kworker/u4:1-ev]
   59 root     [kworker/0:1H-kb]
   81 root     [kswapd0]
   82 root     [cifsiod]
   83 root     [smb3decryptd]
   84 root     [cifsfileinfoput]
   85 root     [cifsoplockd]
   86 root     [deferredclose]
  150 root     [spi0]
  154 root     [spi1]
  199 root     [stmmac_wq]
  235 root     [uas]
  263 root     [usbip_event]
  414 root     [kworker/1:2-rcu]
  426 root     [krfcommd]
  493 root     [mmc_complete]
  500 root     [kworker/1:1H-kb]
  505 root     [jbd2/loop8-8]
  506 root     [ext4-rsv-conver]
  508 root     [kworker/1:2H]
  516 root     [kworker/0:2H-kb]
  523 root     /media/fat/MiSTer /media/fat/_Console/Gameboy_20220806.rbf /tmp/SAM_game.mgl
  527 root     {resync} /bin/sh /etc/resync
  565 root     /sbin/syslogd -n
  569 root     /sbin/klogd -n
  578 root     [scsi_eh_0]
  579 root     [scsi_tmf_0]
  580 root     [usb-storage]
  581 root     /sbin/udevd -d
  599 root     [kworker/0:3-pm]
  665 root     [cfg80211]
  685 root     wpa_supplicant -s -B -P /run/wpa_supplicant.wlan0.pid -i wlan0 -D nl80211,wext -c /media/fat/linux/wpa_s
  704 root     [kworker/u5:0-hc]
  707 root     [kworker/u5:2-hc]
  719 root     [RTW_CMD_THREAD]
  759 dbus     dbus-daemon --system
  785 dhcpcd   dhcpcd: [master] [ip4]
  786 root     dhcpcd: [privileged actioneer]
  787 dhcpcd   dhcpcd: [network proxy]
  788 dhcpcd   dhcpcd: [control proxy]
  813 dhcpcd   dhcpcd: [BPF ARP] wlan0 192.168.137.199
  839 root     [jbd2/loop0-8]
  840 root     [ext4-rsv-conver]
  844 root     /usr/libexec/bluetooth/bluetoothd -n -E -C
  849 root     /usr/sbin/ntpd -g -p /var/run/ntpd.pid
  864 root     proftpd: (accepting connections)
  870 root     sshd: /usr/sbin/sshd [listener] 0 of 10-100 startups
  891 root     [kworker/0:3H]
  928 root     /sbin/gpm -m /dev/input/mice -t imps2
  929 root     /sbin/agetty --nohostname -L console xterm
  930 root     /sbin/agetty --nohostname -L tty1 linux
  933 root     sshd: root@pts/0
  942 root     sshd: root@notty
  948 root     /usr/libexec/sftp-server
  951 root     -bash
 1204 root     {tmux: server} tmux new-session -s MCP -d /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_MCP
 1205 root     {MiSTer_SAM_MCP} /bin/bash /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_MCP
 1213 root     inotifywait --quiet --monitor --event create --event delete /dev/input --include js --outfile /tmp/.SAM_
 1216 root     inotifywait -r --quiet --monitor --event create --event delete /dev/input/ --include by-path --outfile /
 1230 root     python /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_joy.py /dev/input/js0
 1231 root     python /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_joy.py /dev/input/js1
 1232 root     python /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_joy.py /dev/input/js2
 1247 root     python /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_keyboard.py /dev/hidraw0
 1989 root     [kworker/0:0H]
 2054 root     [kworker/0:0-pm]
 2154 root     [kworker/1:0H-kb]
 2173 root     [kworker/u4:2-ev]
 2337 root     python /media/fat/Scripts/bgm.sh exec
 2354 root     {MiSTer_SAM_on.s} /bin/bash /media/fat/Scripts/MiSTer_SAM_on.sh start_real
 2355 root     mpg123 --no-control /media/fat/music/1-01 Morning Music.mp3
 2357 root     mpg123 --no-control http://server5.radio-streams.net:8001/live
 2466 root     inotifywait -e modify /tmp/CORENAME
 2474 root     sleep 3
 2477 root     sleep 5
 2478 root     sleep 1
 2479 root     ps ax

Since this seems to be something you all are having trouble replicating on your own sets, would it help if I recorded a video of what's actually happening?

[mrchrister]

Hey smaman, as you already know by now...that's a really strange issue you're having! I think a video is not necessary since you can see both streams are playing in your ps output. Unfortunately I can't offer any more help. For now, maybe just have one playlist in the music folder and see if wizzo can offer any more insight.

One other thing to check is /media/fat/linux/user-startup.sh. There should be one entry for BGM:

Code: Select all

# Startup BGM
[[ -e /media/fat/Scripts/bgm.sh ]] && /media/fat/Scripts/bgm.sh $1

[SmaMan]

Yup, this is all I got. :/

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

echo "***" $1 "***"











# Startup MiSTer_SAM - Super Attract Mode
[[ -e /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_init ]] && /media/fat/Scripts/.MiSTer_SAM/MiSTer_SAM_init $1 &

# Startup BGM
[[ -e /media/fat/Scripts/bgm.sh ]] && /media/fat/Scripts/bgm.sh $1

But hey, thanks to the both of you for troubleshooting this weird issue with me this week! I certainly learned a lot in the process. Guess I'll just only do cold reboots until I figure out another solution.

EDIT: ...And that solution didn't take long to find!

So I hope you don't mind, but I started poking around in your script. I deleted line 2218 (in your function bgm_start routine.)

Code: Select all

		echo -n "play" | socat - UNIX-CONNECT:/tmp/bgm.sock &>/dev/null

And now it works perfectly! No double-playing of songs after a reboot, just one now!

From my albeit limited coding knowledge it just looked weird that it was calling the bgm script, which already starts it, and then tells it to "play" again.

Though my guess is that since I'm seemingly the only one having this problem, this fix probably breaks something for everyone else. (I won't distribute this modified script or anything.)

Anyways, thanks again for your help!

[mrchrister]

Great stuff! I don't mind at all, it's open source for a reason
The play command gets ignored for me if BGM is already playing music, so not sure why this happens. Hopefully it helps wizzo tracking down the issue!

[SmaMan]

Well, the script seems to be totally fine without it, at least in my possibly fringe case.

Guess I'll just snuff out that line every time you update the script, lol. Maybe I'll figure out how to set something up in the .ini

[MikkyTee]

How do i disable sam permanently? I have used it for a while but now want to stop it loading. I have used the stop script, and that does the trick but it comes back after a reboot. Thanks for any help.

MT

[venice]

Use the SAM Menu to remove the Autostart.

[MikkyTee]

Use the SAM Menu to remove the Autostart.

Ahh thankyou! I didnt even realise it had a menu! Got it sorted, thanks again.

[mrchrister]

New version is up:

- SAM now creates gamelists in the background. That means you'll never have to wait for gamelists to be compiled before SAM starts playing games. SAM in general should be a lot more snappy now.
- Most settings are now configurable through the settings menu in SAM menu.
- Select alternative core selection mode from the menu where cores with larger libraries will be preferred. This way you won't see many repeats if one of your cores only has 5 games.
- Controller detection (still testing) - You can map the start button to play current games. Other buttons will stop SAM from running.

[LamerDeluxe]

Really great improvements! Very handy to be able to change the settings from the menu. And being able to use the start button to start a game is a great idea.

A thing I'm a bit worried about is the 'Next game in' text burning in. Maybe an idea would be to only have the counter numbers, moving from right to left, to avoid it burning in.

[mrchrister]

I was worried about that as well. Since the display gets cleared every time a new core comes up, i hope this will prevent burn in. At least I haven't noticed any problems yet with my units and I usually let it run all the time (even through the night) to test stability.

[SmaMan]

I quite like the new options. The Alternative core selection is nice too, which means I won't see Motocross Championship and Doom 32x nearly as often, and instead a ton of cool C64 Crack-tros!

The BGM doubleplay bug is still there, btw. But my "fix" still works too, lol.

[mrchrister]

Hey smaman, I'll add an option to disable play. Then you can update normally and in case it affects other users, we have this covered

Edit:
You can now disable play in the menu under settings -> Background Music Player

[SmaMan]

Aww, thanks! Works like a charm.