This guide is to have a working RetroPie setup whilst also using PS2SMB network share to play PlayStation 2 games via ethernet. This guide also requires your PS2 to have a memory card flashed with FreeMCBoot and OPL.
Firstly, download the latest image of RetroPie and extract the iso file.
Format your micro SD card to FAT32. If it's larger than 32GB, you'll have to use a tool like guiformat to do this.
After formatting, use Balena Etcher and select the RetroPie iso you downloaded earlier with the micro SD card. This will take a couple minutes. It's recommended to have an 8GB or larger micro SD card.
After this is done, you've set up the SD card!
Slot the micro SD card into the Raspberry Pi 4 and connect the display, power and a controller. For HDMI audio, only one of the ports supports this. Turn the power on and you should see 4 raspberries appear in the top corner.
After the initial boot, the device will restart by itself. It will be ready when it prompts for controller mapping. Perform the manual controller mapping and you're good to go.
On a seperate usb, create a folder named "retropie" in the root directory. Plug this into the Raspberry Pi and when it has finished flashing, eject the USB. the "retropie" folder on the usb should now contain folders for roms, which you can add to their respective folder. A bios folder is also present if you're using an emulator that requires a bios, such as PS1 or Dreamcast.
For some small optimisations, if your screen has black borders around the edges, you can modify this by
exiting EmulationStation (Start Button -> Quit -> Quit EmulationStation -> Yes), which will leave you in
the terminal. Type:
sudo nano /boot/config.txt"
And find the line "disable_overscan=0". The number may be different, but experiment with adjusting this
value (changing this to 1 fixed any black borders for my setup) and rebooting by typing:
reboot
For this, you'll need a fairly large USB formatted to NTFS format. As PS2 games tend to be around the 4GB mark, a larger USB helps store more games. Technically you could do this with a FAT32 usb, but games larger than 4GB will need to be split into parts. This USB needs folders in the root directory that are specified here. You can do this by plugging the USB into the PS2 and launching OPL to create the directory paths or manually.
After this, plug the USB into your Raspberry Pi and enter the terminal by quitting EmulationStation.
Once in the terminal, type:
sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf
and find the eth0 setting. These should be commented out by default. Uncomment the following lines to look
something like this:
interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.20.10/24
static routers=192.168.20.1
static domain_name_servers=192.168.20.1
To exit, press Ctrl+X -> Y -> Enter
Do note that the specific numbers will be different for your case. Ensure that ip_address is a unique number.
After this, reboot the system with:
reboot
After this, we need to enter the terminal again. Once in, we need to find our USB. Type:
sudo fdisk -l
Multiple entries will appear. Generally the last one is the USB. Looking at the Device boot column, you'll see
the path to the device, in most cases being /dev/sda1.
Next we need to create a folder to mount the drive which can done with a command like:
sudo mkdir /media/PS2SMB
We also need to modify the stab config file which can be done with the command:
sudo nano /etc/fstab
Then after the last entry, add a newline and add the following line:
/dev/sda1 /media/PS2SMB ntfs default,nofail 0 0
To exit, press Ctrl+X -> Y -> Enter.
After this, reboot the system with:
reboot
We need to do one last thing, which is to setup the Samba server to make our Raspberry Pi act as a server.
Samba is already installed in RetroPie, and we need to simply add some lines to the config. To do this, in the terminal type:
sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
Under the [global] header, add the lines:
lanman auth = yes
keepalive = 0
and at the very bottom add the following chunk:
[PS2SMB]
comment = PS2 folder
path = /media/PS2SMB
browseable = yes
writeable = yes
only guest = no
guest ok = yes
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
public = yes
To exit, press Ctrl+X -> Y -> Enter. After editing, you can check whether your syntax is correct using command:
testparm
After this, restart the samba server using command:
sudo service smbd restart
Connect your Raspberry Pi 4 and PS2 together using an ethernet cable and turn on the PS2. With the Free McBoot memory card, open OPL and open up Network config. From here change the settings to the following:
PS2
IP Address Type: Static
IP Address: 192.168.20.xx
Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.20.10
DNS: 192.168.20.10
SMB Server
Address Type: IP
IP Address: 192.168.20.10
Share: PS2SMB
User: guest
For the PS2's IP Address, the last numbers can be any unique number. As long as it doesn't share the same IP with another device on your network, anything goes.
After this, press connect and exit. In the settings menu, you can also select ETH device start mode to Auto and Default menu to ETH games to automatically open up the games shared over ethernet. After this select Save changes.
After this, you should be done! There is potentially lots that can be improved here and maybe some inefficiencies are present. I have left out some explanations for the sake of a straight-forward clean guide, but may of missed some logic and reason. Enjoy your PS2 games on accurate hardware and with no noticable downsides in load times or accuracy.
Is USB auto mount neccessary?