Moving the Cores to the USB Storage in 2023

[tms9918]

I already read
viewtopic.php?t=1270
viewtopic.php?t=3073
but I still cannot move the cores to usb storage

/media/fat contains only

Code: Select all

config  linux  menu.rbf  MiSTer  MiSTer_example.ini  Scripts

while /media/usb0 contains (I verified it is currently mounted by ssh-ing in and listing)

Code: Select all

_Arcade    docs   font   _Other   _Utility Cheats   downloader.ini             

games  menu.rbf    Presets   yc.txt _Computer  Filters                    

Gamma  MiSTer  Scripts _Console  Filters_Audio  linux  names.txt   

Shadow_Masks

but the "Switch to USB" option is grayed out and the Cores menu shows only "No files!"
I know I could put the cores on the SD and the games folder on the USB, but I would love have anything on the USB. Is it possible?

[Longtime4321]

It's not advised to move cores to USB. It breaks scripts. You can probably fit them all on the sd card included with the DE-10 Nano and just store your games on USB.
If you're dead-set on storing your cores on USB, you can use symlinks, It's a Linux feature, so you'll have to look outside of the forum for information on how to do that.
If you want to store your cores on USB for the convenience of usb over the micro sd card, you can just use the MiSTer's built in FTP or Samba to move them remotely. Learn how to do so here:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Wiki_Mi ... ork-access
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Wiki_MiSTer/wiki/Samba

[C-R-T]

Why are you actively trying to make your mister experience worse and more complicated than it needs to be?
Sorry if I’m being harsh, but I just cannot comprehend it.

[tms9918]

Why are you actively trying to make your mister experience worse and more complicated than it needs to be?
Sorry if I’m being harsh, but I just cannot comprehend it.

I understand that using the SD is feasible. But I do not see any drawbacks in having anything (except the things necessary for uboot, of course) on the USB storage. Everything in one place, less writes to the SD card, a more reliable file system, better or at least not worse (it's USB2) speeds, ...

[tms9918]

If you're dead-set on storing your cores on USB, you can use symlinks, It's a Linux feature, so you'll have to look outside of the forum for information on how to do that.

aren't symlinks not supported by FAT?
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... port-links

[Longtime4321]

Why are you actively trying to make your mister experience worse and more complicated than it needs to be?
Sorry if I’m being harsh, but I just cannot comprehend it.

I I do not see any drawbacks in having anything (except the things necessary for uboot, of course) on the USB storage.

Every time you try to run update all it will download new cores to the sd card.

aren't symlinks not supported by FAT?
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... port-links

format it as NTFS. Problem solved.

[zakk4223]

If you're dead-set on storing your cores on USB, you can use symlinks, It's a Linux feature, so you'll have to look outside of the forum for information on how to do that.

aren't symlinks not supported by FAT?
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... port-links

Mister uses a slightly modified exFAT implementation that supports symlinks

[softtest9]

Cores on USB work fine out of the box. No scripts or symlinks necessary.

[grizzly]

If your going for read/write speed then network (Cable) is the way to go with quite a large margin too.
Between sd vs usb, then usb is faster read but sd is faster on write but only with a small step.

https://misteraddons.com/blogs/news/mis ... d-shootout

[tms9918]

Cores on USB work fine out of the box. No scripts or symlinks necessary.

How do you do that? As by my first post I tried with a fresh install of Mr fusion but I had no success. is there something wrong in the directory structure listed above?

[tms9918]

If your going for read/write speed then network (Cable) is the way to go with quite a large margin too.
Between sd vs usb, then usb is faster read but sd is faster on write but only with a small step.

https://misteraddons.com/blogs/news/mis ... d-shootout

Thanks I saw that amazing article, I am indeed considering attaching an rpi4 as a nas

[aberu]

For RPi4 as a NAS, I would suggest checking this out:

https://github.com/danmons/retronas

I use it at home and it works great.

https://github.com/danmons/retronas/wiki/MiSTer-FPGA

I use it with a cheap Western Digital external 14 TB hard drive.

Do note that if you use WiFi it could introduce latency that might cause some issues in CD cores.

[Annata23]

If your going for read/write speed then network (Cable) is the way to go with quite a large margin too.
Between sd vs usb, then usb is faster read but sd is faster on write but only with a small step.

Both have their own advantages, I quite like SD