Arch Linux

Tromzy

Member

Registered: 2015-02-15

Posts: 166

[DRM/KMS] No input in Emulationstation if launched from GDM

Hi everyone,

I use EmulationStation on my Archlinux PC, which is a graphical frontend for the Retroach emulator. I appreciate  being able to launch ES and RA in DRM/KMS mode, which means without any graphical server (X.org or Wayland). It works perfectly if I run them by switching to a tty from GDM, log in and type "retroarch" or "emulationstation".

Then, I thought it would be even nicer to be able to create a custom GDM session that would run ES or RA from GDM, by selecting them like I select Gnome or Plasma. For that, I created two files in /usr/share/xsessions :

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Retroarch
Comment=Start Retroarch (KMS)
Exec=retroarch
Icon=
Type=Application

And :

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Emulationstation
Comment=Start Emulationstation (KMS)
Exec=emulationstation
Icon=
Type=Application

And it works for Retroarch, but not for Emulationstation. ES launches, but then I get no input from keyboard. Which is weird because keyboard works if launched from a tty in KMS mode, plus keyboard driver is loaded because I can still switch to another tty with Ctrl + Alt + F3.

Any idea ?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,657

Re: [DRM/KMS] No input in Emulationstation if launched from GDM

Look at the journal log for the relevant session. Also why do you think you are in a KMS/DRM context when launching an xsession? I'd assume that GDM will set up an X session for, well, an xsession.

Tromzy

Member

Registered: 2015-02-15

Posts: 166

Re: [DRM/KMS] No input in Emulationstation if launched from GDM

Well, I don't know. Maybe GDM creates an Xsession anyway.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,657

Re: [DRM/KMS] No input in Emulationstation if launched from GDM

This could also be due to misconfiguration, if EmulationStation is hardcoded/configured to try and aquire a raw input device but has to go over xorg/wayland now, so you will want to check your configuration (if this is even possible, as afaik EmulationStation's goal is explicitly to run in a KMS raw input context.

Tromzy

Member

Registered: 2015-02-15

Posts: 166

Re: [DRM/KMS] No input in Emulationstation if launched from GDM

Well, maybe I'll continue launching it via a tty after logging in manually. But I thought it would be cool to be able to launch it from GDM without an X server...

Tromzy

Member

Registered: 2015-02-15

Posts: 166

Re: [DRM/KMS] No input in Emulationstation if launched from GDM

Is there no way at all to launch a program in DRM/KMS mode from GDM ?