I'm trying to run pico-8 on an older raspi (model b rev 1). Tried on fresh installs of both buster and bullseye, but i used lite versions because this raspi is very old and wouldn't run a desktop environment very well. The problem is: I execute the program, but it doesn't show video, even though I can hear the boot chirp of pico-8. Do I need something else to run pico-8 from text mode on a raspi without a desktop environment.

what kind of display do you have?

can you see your virtual console when the OS boots?

@chatoalbert Do you happen to be running the latest version of PICO-8? A few of us have encountered the same issue running the latest Raspberry Pi PICO-8 on various handheld consoles. It's possible the same issue affects actual Raspberry Pis as well. If you download 0.2.5c and use that instead, you should be able to get up and running.

The thread I started related to this: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=50653

@merwok sorry, i should have said that. it's an hdmi display. and yes, virtual console is visible.

@2bitchuck i'll take a look at it, thanks. yes, i've installed 0.2.5e. i'll downgrade it to c and let you know

@2bitchuck

tried to run the 0.2.5c version but then i got this error

SDL Error: Could not initialize OpenGL / GLES library

** FATAL ERROR: Unable to create window

Segmentation fault

which is I assume a lack of SDL drivers. I'm installing them right now. Unfortunately gen 1 raspis are really slow, so it'll take a few hours.

pico8_dyn also complains about the lack of libSDL2.

you should try both pico8_dyn (dynamically linked with libsdl2 from the OS) and pico8 (statically linked, so you don’t get fixes when updating the OS, but you benefit from whatever options zep chose when he built sdl)

I don’t remember which one I used for my raspi, but it worked with zero config from virtual terminal to hdmi screen, sound included

@merwok independently of the version of pico8_dyn that i try to execute, i get this error

./pico8_dyn: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL2-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

which i imagine is being caused by a lack of the SDL2 library installed. i'm compiling it right now.

Now SDL is installed and I've tried to execute both 0.2.5c and 0.2.5e.
The problems so far:

pico8 (0.2.5c) - "FATAL ERROR: Unable to create window" posted above
pico8_dyn (0.2.5c) - only audio, no video (can hear pico8 boot, but still on the command screen)
pico8 (0.2.5e) - only audio, no video (can hear pico8 boot, but still on the command screen)
pico8_dyn (0.2.5e) - only audio, no video (can hear pico8 boot, but still on the command screen)

i am kinda lost here. should this work out of the box on either buster or bullseye versions of RaspberryPiOS? am i missing something critical? do any steps of the setup that can have this effect?

> which i imagine is being caused by a lack of the SDL2 library installed.

yes the error message means that

> i'm compiling it right now.

why?! the simple way is to install it from the repository

@merwok my lazy ass couldn't find the name of the package online lol, and looking for it i could only find instructions on how to compile it so i was pretty sure compiling it myself was the only way lol.

ok, so after my dumb ass discovered the name of the goddamn package for the SDL2 library on the repository, i did a clean install of bullseye, updated, upgraded and installed the sdl library from the repository. after that, i started testing with the two versions here (0.2.5c and e). here are the results

0.2.5c, pico8:

SDL Error: Could not initialize EGL

** FATAL ERROR: Unable to create window

Segmentation fault

0.2.5c, pico8_dyn:

The path /dev/dri/ cannot be opened or is not available
The path /dev/dri/ cannot be opened or is not available
SDL Error: No available video device

** FATAL ERROR: Unable to initialize SDL

0.2.5e, pico8

boots, but only sound no video

0.2.5e, pico8_dyn

The path /dev/dri/ cannot be opened or is not available
The path /dev/dri/ cannot be opened or is not available
SDL Error: No available video device

** FATAL ERROR: Unable to initialize SDL

i'll try buster next

ok, so on buster after i install the SDL libraries i can run 0.2.5c perfectly! 0.2.5e is broken though, sound but no video. should i report it as a bug?

@chatoalbert My guess is that this is the same bug as the one I reported in the thread I linked above since the symptoms are identical. I'd say chime in on that thread rather than file a new bug report & include your Pi hardware/OS info and maybe send your ~/.lexaloffle/pico-8/log.txt file to hey at lexaloffle dot com for zep to have a look at (I sent him the one from my Gameforce Chi).