CM3 sitting on my shelf

[baher4ever]

My freeplaytech GBA CM3 has been sitting on the shelf for a long time, i thought it is time to give it a chance and update its system.
Is it capable of running batocera?
Where can I find a ready to burn image (any size) customized and ready to run all the capable systems with all the covers and box arts?
What are your recommendations to do a fresh start and begin using it again
I’ve enjoyed building but never started gaming using it.
At time I finished Anbernic released RG351m ?

[baher4ever]

What happened to the forum
Did all people give up using it?
Is it time to sell?

[baher4ever]

Still not a single replay

[Lanium]

My freeplaytech GBA CM3 has been sitting on the shelf for a long time, i thought it is time to give it a chance and update its system.
Is it capable of running batocera?
Where can I find a ready to burn image (any size) customized and ready to run all the capable systems with all the covers and box arts?
What are your recommendations to do a fresh start and begin using it again
I’ve enjoyed building but never started gaming using it.
At time I finished Anbernic released RG351m ?

I just did the same.

I grabbed the newest test image for CM3 (Freeplay_CM3-and-Zero2_Test_22061501.img.gz) and used the Raspberry Pi Imager (https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/) to write it to a new micro sd card (keep your original or a backup for reverting). the imager allows for enabling ssh and configuring your wifi.

Once the new sd card is in the device it will turn on and then do stuff and automatically turn off three times (3x).

[optionally] You may be presented with a bash prompt after it auto logged in. This means that the emulation station autostart didn't work.
Login via ssh or attach a keyboard and montior. Then using the Retropie setup (sudo ./RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh) there is an option to configure autostart and I selected Emulation Station.

I updated RetroPie using the RetroPie setup script (sudo ./RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh) and also updated the underlying OS packages.

In the retropie setup I turned on samba shares which allows for file uploads over a trusted network (turn off wifi / samba shares after setup).

Then using the Freeplay setup (sudo ./Freeplay/Freeplay-Support/Full_Install.sh) update the scripts.

[optionally] At boot you may be presented with a white screen at boot. This means that your screens driver didn't get loaded.
Login via ssh or attach a keyboard and montior. Then using the Freeplay lcd screen setup (sudo ./Freeplay/FreeplayILI9341/installCM3.sh) install the driver configured as desired. Note: there is a generic install and one specific for the zero.

That seems to have gotten me a working CM3 system.

Then place any other files as needed and you are good.

[baher4ever]

My freeplaytech GBA CM3 has been sitting on the shelf for a long time, i thought it is time to give it a chance and update its system.
Is it capable of running batocera?
Where can I find a ready to burn image (any size) customized and ready to run all the capable systems with all the covers and box arts?
What are your recommendations to do a fresh start and begin using it again
I’ve enjoyed building but never started gaming using it.
At time I finished Anbernic released RG351m ?

I just did the same.

I grabbed the newest test image for CM3 (Freeplay_CM3-and-Zero2_Test_22061501.img.gz) and used the Raspberry Pi Imager (https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/) to write it to a new micro sd card (keep your original or a backup for reverting). the imager allows for enabling ssh and configuring your wifi.

Once the new sd card is in the device it will turn on and then do stuff and automatically turn off three times (3x).

[optionally] You may be presented with a bash prompt after it auto logged in. This means that the emulation station autostart didn't work.
Login via ssh or attach a keyboard and montior. Then using the Retropie setup (sudo ./RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh) there is an option to configure autostart and I selected Emulation Station.

I updated RetroPie using the RetroPie setup script (sudo ./RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh) and also updated the underlying OS packages.

In the retropie setup I turned on samba shares which allows for file uploads over a trusted network (turn off wifi / samba shares after setup).

Then using the Freeplay setup (sudo ./Freeplay/Freeplay-Support/Full_Install.sh) update the scripts.

[optionally] At boot you may be presented with a white screen at boot. This means that your screens driver didn't get loaded.
Login via ssh or attach a keyboard and montior. Then using the Freeplay lcd screen setup (sudo ./Freeplay/FreeplayILI9341/installCM3.sh) install the driver configured as desired. Note: there is a generic install and one specific for the zero.

That seems to have gotten me a working CM3 system.

Then place any other files as needed and you are good.

[Lanium]

I would avoid the manual setup of wifi. This requires using a keyboard and monitor.

Preferably, if you use the raspberry pi imager there is a settings cog that appears where the wifi settings can be entered (country, wifi ssid, and security key). By entering your information in the imager it automatically creates the needed files to preconfigure the image.  If you enable ssh at the same time you can verify connectivity pretty easy(can i connect via ssh client to my device?).

one thing that i noticed and will restate, on the initial startup, it will do configuration and shutdown twice. So you will end up starting the device 3 times total.

[baher4ever]

Well..
The screen now works and not getting the white screen.
I have a dlink usb flash dongle for the wifi
This used to work on the old image.
Just adding the wifikeyfile.txt on the root used to do the job.
Now what i get is a non working wifi!
When i try to configure wifi it gives an error no port or no device wlan0
Is there a way to make it work again

[Lanium]

I am glad that your image and CM3 device is now working.

For wifi, you will need to ensure that the driver is available and working with your hardware.

Please see some other posts on how to do that on these devices specifically or research adding your wifi dongle to linux.

Some forum posts that had steps to troubleshoot:

https://forum.freeplaytech.com/showthread.php?tid=5165

https://forum.freeplaytech.com/showthread.php?tid=5298

[baher4ever]

I installed the latest test image
Everything works perfectly now
Wifi is running like a charm
I have some questions
What is the best theme that fits this small screen and yet gives a sharp text?
Also the option screen looks so washed up and barely seen , i have to tilt my device to read the text. Is this normal?
Also regarding the shaders and filters, i have retroarch installed on another android system, shaders are more and better . How can I add all retroarch shader noting that I cannot find update shader options!

[Lanium]

Glad to hear it is working.

I use the freeplay theme.

Please see the retropie documentation for shaders:
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Shaders-and-Smoothing/

For text size of notifications see the bottom of this page:
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/RetroAchievements/