mame creates folders cfg and nvram in the home dir

[sergiobenrocha2]

It's quite annoying, this mame core creates cfg and nvram folders in your ~/ or in the folder you launch RA in the terminal.

[markwkidd]

@sergiobenrocha2 is this still the case with mame2010?

[sergiobenrocha2]

yup

[raelgc]

I've found the reason for this issue: mame.ini is located at /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame2010/, but EmulationStation is launching from home folder. I.e., /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame2010/mame.ini is ignored.

So, I made the following:

1. Moved mame.ini to my home folder.

2. Changed, in mame.ini, values from cfg and nvram paths to match mame2003.

I.e., change from this:

#
# CORE OUTPUT DIRECTORY OPTIONS
#
cfg_directory             cfg
nvram_directory           nvram

to this:

#
# CORE OUTPUT DIRECTORY OPTIONS
#
cfg_directory             RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro/mame2010/cfg
nvram_directory           RetroPie/roms/mame-libretro/mame2010/nvram

[markwkidd]

It does seem like this should work by default like mame2003, which handles this more gracefully and in a cross-platform manner.

[raelgc]

mame2003 takes, by default, the current rom folder to create the mame2003 folder (with cfg, nvram and all related subfolders).

So, if you're using mame under roms/arcade, you'll get roms/arcade/mame2003/, if you're using mame under roms/libretro-mame, you'll get roms/libretro-mame/mame2003/.

[movisman]

@raelgc

Hi there,

Thanks for posting this workaround. So just to confirm, until the core is changed so the paths are more graceful, with your workaround, ultimately you end up with a mame.ini in your home folder, and then the other cfg and nvram paths in the more conventional place? And MAME no longer ignores the .ini for games like Operation Thunderbolt?

Thanks!

[raelgc]

Hi @movisman!

Yes, with the mame.ini in my home folder and the proper values for paths, it stopped to create the subdirs at home (i.e., it started to use the ini paths).

[movisman]

@raelgc

Perfect! Thanks a lot for the clarification. I will do this with my MAME 2010 instance to tidy things up a tad, until such a time comes where the paths are properly tidied up.

Thanks again!

[markwkidd]

@sergiobenrocha2 or others in this discussion, I've submitted a PR that I hope addresses this issue and others caused by the way mame2010 handles paths: #83

I wound up touching several different source files. It all seems to work on my system but if you have the ability to test it out and confirm I'd appreciate it.

[markwkidd]

@sergiobenrocha2 the PRs have been merged and I am hoping that this issue is now fully resolved. Please let me know if you notice other problems.