Retroarch: Retroarch 1.8.4 for PS3 freezes during any attempt at scanning for rom's.

[zombiebrains]

Retroarch 1.8.4 for PS3 (newest jan 2020 version from brewology) on CFW 4.5.1 Rebug Lite (cobra 8.2 i think).

First off thanks for reading this and your time.

So Retroarch PS3 freezes during any attempt at scanning for rom's. If I use the scan tool and point it to the main directory it starts to scan the first file and freezes the system with 0% showing at the bottom left and the file name of the first rom. It does the same if I point it to the game system folder the roms are in (eg Sega - Genesis), and again even if I scan for a single file and point it directly to a game rom. By freeze I mean the screen freezes, all movement stops, buttons are all unresponsive and I must shut down the PS3 manually. I can load the roms through load content and they work fine but when I try to scan the same rom I just played, it does not work. The only way i found to not freeze it is to do a manual scan. It does not freeze but it does go to 0% and does not progress further than that. I have attempted to scan working roms from a usb stick and the PS3 hard drive as well to rule out a usb error of some kind. I have also uninstalled RetroArch and reinstalled it. Then updated the data base and info files before trying again but I get the same issue. My folder structure on my usb is GAME ROMS/ (then sep folders for each system eg) Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System/ (then the files). I've spent hours reading through forums with no luck. Should I try to install an older version? It seems like it hangs when first going to query the database, maybe there it a way to point it in the right direction? Or a tool that I could use to scan and make a playlist and manually place it into a specific folder on the PS3 RetroArch directory.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

[i30817]

Try to vary the setting 'threaded tasks' in settings->user interface after activating 'show advanced settings'.

Rationale: it sounds like a problem of a thread fucking up on the scan.
Possible consequence: your savestates might become extremely slow.

[zombiebrains]

Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it. I will try that now.

[zombiebrains]

I tried -threaded tasks- toggled on and toggled off. Unfortunately I get the same result. Do I need to save or apply the toggle change? (it resets to on after reboot). A regular scan of any kind locks up the screen (background movement stops) forcing a hard off, and If I search manually it does not freeze the app but the search goes nowhere. This is the case even if I try to scan for a single rom that I put in the usb root and in a folder on the hdd of the PS3. Any other suggestions?

Thanks again

[i30817]

Nope.

[floppyD]

Same here.

[i30817]

Uh, btw, you aren't trying to scan or run 'large' games on a zip or a rar or 7z btw? Non-specialized compressed formats are total crap for RA and imo, should not even be supported - a opinion that is unpopular, but avoids problems like this...

If it's that, it's likely because the scanner screws up when trying to decompress and the machine doesn't have enough available RAM or disc space for it, and 'crashes' but the ps3 is hiding that crash as a 'freeze'.

That would explain why the 'manual' scan with the redump dat file works, because that 'manual' scan doesn't attempt to decompress (the automatic attempts it to check serials), just check the names, which only requires reading headers (the previous method, CRC checking, also only required headers but people complained it was 'slow outside zips', so you got a false positive filled method instead that works worse with zips ahaha).

(it's also possible there is a memory leak on RA disposal operation of the memory used by whatever library it uses to decompress that contributes to the crash).

In short, don't attempt to use a compression type that can't support random-access / streaming, which are all the 'popular' windows formats, because windows doesn't have a way to mount them easily and they're all oriented to size optimization not runtime/memory used optimization; or just give up on using 'automatic' scan; because it's that terrible.

[floppyD]

Not him but there's just 4 .sfc files on the directory I'm trying to scan. The crash only happens at the first time you want to run that ROM or when you try to scan for files, after that you can open RA again and find the ROM you tried to load on recents and launch it just fine.

[i30817]

Yeah, that's weird. I don't know how people debug the ps3 - or have one - otherwise i'd try to help you; because 4 bare .sfc files shouldn't provoke a crash. The bad part of multitudinous ports is always their terrible debugging support and the devs not even trying because they don't have the device.

[zombiebrains]

Thanks again,

I have unpacked all of the files with WinRAR except for the arcade mame files. I have tried to scan my super nintendo folder which has only unpacked SFC files in it. It still freezes. I have tried to put a single unpacked NES file in a folder all by itself, one I loaded and played just before so I know it's a working file, and when I scan that folder it still freezes. Must be a ps3 thing.

[SummonedEgar]

If you are still experiencing issues you can roll back to any version prior to 1.7.8, scanning works flawlessly, I'm on 1.7.7 right now and it's scanning my folders without any problem

[floppyD]

@SummonedEgar
Was 1.7.8 the build that introduced this issue? I was using some old version and it was working just fine. After updating I started having issues with scanning and shaders. The shader thing I already managed to fix with the help of someone in another issue, though.

[SummonedEgar]

I've found this thread on reddit, when trying to figure out why scanning froze my ps3, I installed 1.7.7 and voilà it worked. I haven't read the code, but it seems that 1.7.8 introduced this issue.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PS3/comments/dko5le/retroarch_178_and_up_crashes_during_rom_scanning/
Here you can find all previous versions of Retroarch for PS3:
https://xbins.org/libretro/stable/

[floppyD]

Thanks, I think I'll keep this version installed until they fix these issues.

[zombiebrains]

I installed some older versions but the interface was not as slick. Thanks for the tip. I'll take a look at 1.7.7

[IllMethods]

Anyone tried downgrading for the scans then upgrading once all the playlists are made?

[kuczi55]

Yeah, playlists are made after update, but you cannot scan new files (after update of course)

[ZyHead]

Try to vary the setting 'threaded tasks' in settings->user interface after activating 'show advanced settings'.

Rationale: it sounds like a problem of a thread fucking up on the scan.
Possible consequence: your savestates might become extremely slow.

I did this and it works ! Thanks Man.
Just reload retroarch when you change the setting to save it.

[SiegSama]

Try to vary the setting 'threaded tasks' in settings->user interface after activating 'show advanced settings'.

Rationale: it sounds like a problem of a thread fucking up on the scan.
Possible consequence: your savestates might become extremely slow.

Indeed it worked on my dual nand 4.85 cfw phat. RA version 1.8.5, thanks!

[Daguri]

Try to vary the setting 'threaded tasks' in settings->user interface after activating 'show advanced settings'.

Rationale: it sounds like a problem of a thread fucking up on the scan.
Possible consequence: your savestates might become extremely slow.

Thanks so much! Still works with - HFW v4.86.1. > RA v1.8.5. > MultiMan v04.85.01

[bfalese-navent]

Worked on 1.8.8 HFW 4.86.1. Disabled threaded tasks.
Thanks!!

[i30817]

Seems like two different problems for multiple people. Or possibly the same problem but the first few people didn't restart retroarch before trying the scan (that's a bug too ofc).

[bfalese-navent]

I also switched from ozone to xmb as default UI.