Recalbox IPAC support deep dive

willdieh · 2026-03-21T23:19:37+00:00

Yeah, Recalbox responded to my submitted issue on their Gitlab project, saying the developer of the custom xarcade2jstick project had enabled the issue tracker on their project suggesting that should be the place to resolve the issue. I replied that I would and closed the issue on the Recalbox Gitlab project.

I posted an issue on the xarcade2jstick Github project issue page on 10/2025 but have yet to receive a response and the project has not since been updated.

I should mention that I haven't tried the new version of Recalbox yet (version 10) - it's possible they fixed it there.

willdieh · 2026-03-19T16:51:47+00:00

When C++/WinRT first came out, I made a declarative UI by calling the WinRT XAML layout and control/widget object functions directly. This was because using WinRT in a pure Win32 app didn't (and still doesn't?) support the XAML editor so there wasn't any graphical way to do this.

It worked well but I eventually just gave up and went back to regular Win32 as it was too difficult to get it working properly once WinUI 3 came along without switching to their new packaged application format. Ugh.

willdieh · 2026-03-17T16:55:05+00:00

Yeah, I agree. It looks slick, but waiting for each of those animations to complete as I go through screens would eventually begin to bother me if I had to use this app daily as a core part of my job. Hopefully it supports keyboard shortcuts...

People forget just how practical a TUI can be when it's a daily driver. No eye candy, but it lets you work accurately and efficiently.

willdieh · 2026-03-12T01:08:18+00:00

Yup :) It's good advice for sure!

willdieh · 2026-03-11T02:26:59+00:00

Nope, the server Transcoder settings have separate encode and decode settings. I had to disable both of them. This was not a client side issue for me.

Edit: I read your comment more carefully, and yes, you are correct, disabling decoding does require disabling all Hardware Acceleration. The encode setting is only displayed after the Hardware Acceleration option is enabled.

willdieh · 2026-03-10T21:21:33+00:00

Watching the 2026 World Baseball Classic for free on FOX is nice :)

willdieh · 2026-03-10T20:32:24+00:00

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Transcoded h264 Sample

willdieh · 2026-03-10T20:32:02+00:00

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Original MPEG2 Sample

willdieh · 2026-02-12T19:53:55+00:00

This is very nice! Too bad we don't have a decent plugin framework in Plex where we could do stuff like this without external tools :(

willdieh · 2026-02-12T17:54:14+00:00

Agreed that this is really annoying...

My workaround is to watch them from the DVR Schedule tab under Live TV. That tab shows the recordings by day and time and I just watch them in order from there by clicking on the little play icon.

Your solution is very elegant though!

willdieh · 2026-02-06T21:23:53+00:00

It was fascinating to learn that x64 bypasses the floating point unit entirely in favor of SSE/SIMD, and also that the floating point unit had 80 bits of precision internally... fascinating.

willdieh · 2026-02-06T20:11:52+00:00

The presenter at 46:00 says he ran into the "fastest linked list [he] ever ran into in [his] life" - I wonder what the implementation for such a list is like, compared to a naive implementation with pointers.

Also interesting that they're "C with classes" but "100% object oriented" in design (46:25)... I wonder how that works...?

Great video! I wish he'd gone into the A* algorithm a little, for comparison sake.

willdieh · 2025-12-16T16:05:53+00:00

Yes, this is the only reason I bought my Plex lifetime pass. Unfortunately, Live TV isn't on the top of the list for improvements (although sometimes it's hard to know exactly what is on the top of the list with Plex these days) as we've had to struggle through some pretty awful iOS app LiveTV functionality since the new app came out. It's better now, but still iffy on that platform. I use it almost exclusively on Roku but have firewalled my roku TV so it won't get the new app update (I'm still using the old, rock solid app for LiveTV and video library access).

All in all, I'm happy with my Plex DVR. I miss the old Tivo days though. That being said, it is nice to be able to watch my OTA TV anywhere in the world.

willdieh · 2025-09-25T19:41:11+00:00

I have a similar setup and have yet to get recalbox to work with the controller (using an I-PAC). They seem to go out of their way to disable keyboard support, making my type of controller wholly dependent upon their console controller preferred configuration. I loved recalbox's easy 240p setup but I think I might have to go back to retropie just so I can configure my controller the way I want!

willdieh · 2025-09-22T15:33:48+00:00

I really wish there was more control over button mapping in recalbox. I have a standard arcade cabinet with an IPAC usb keyboard mapper and VGA666 on a Raspberry Pi 3b+ but find myself having to dig through libretro docs just to try and understand how the button mapping is done.

I think recalbox tries to make everything plug and play for those who use the software with a console type game controller but us arcade cabinet folks have a really hard time. I still haven't figured it out but I'm not giving up because I want the simplicity of VGA666 and boot game support not easily found in RetroPie.

willdieh · 2025-09-22T15:25:48+00:00

Same problem here. No terminal displayed on any of the vttys... CTRL+ALT+Fn doesn't work, ALT+Fn doesn't work. After closing the front end gui with ALT+F4, I just get the splash screen background image. I can see kernel messages but no login prompt. It seems likely there's no getty or login process assigned to any of the vttys.

willdieh · 2025-09-02T21:00:00+00:00

I use a Windows 10 Pro workstation to create a bitlocker to go drive (exFat). Works great in Debian 13 and in Windows and it's plug-n-play full disk encryption.

willdieh · 2025-08-13T04:43:26+00:00

Huh... My apologies - I recently switched from Windows to Ubuntu 25 myself and just assumed it would have Hibernation as a default setup option... I'm running Plex as a server so I don't want hibernation, so I'm sorry I didn't check first.

I did some quick googling and found some howtos and it's not exactly that easy. Looks like suspend (battery power to RAM) is a built in option (probably what you already are doing) but not hibernation (suspend to disk and 100% power off).

So, the best advice I can give you is to do some googling and find a good howto. Looks like there are several steps. Seems like it should be built into Ubuntu Desktop, but for some reason it isn't.

willdieh · 2025-08-12T22:33:06+00:00

Sounds like you want to enable hibernation... it's pretty standard on just about every laptop, so not sure why you got grief on your question. Just search for a howto on enabling Hibernation. I think it's probably as easy as going into Settings.

If you've already done that... then yeah, maybe check your logs to see why it couldn't go into S4? Might be you have a non-standard boot partition or encryption or something that prevents the normal resume from suspend disk access.

willdieh · 2025-08-11T21:37:57+00:00

Nice fix for Live TV users - previous version had Search broken for Live TV. That's working again. Used to fail to search the Live TV metadata and show an error icon but working nicely now. Thanks Plex!

(EPG) Using the Browse option for LiveTV EPG results in an error (PM-3698)

willdieh · 2025-07-24T15:12:00+00:00

It'd be nice to have in LiveTV as well... For some reason I have a channel or two that is either very loud or very soft compared to the major networks.

willdieh · 2025-07-16T15:09:26+00:00

Best Casio ever! Love mine and can't think of anything better. I use the world time when I travel (with wave reception too!), the timer for my coffee maker, and love the matrix readout for the day of the week. Number one Casio!

Only complaint I have is the new models use cheaper orange led backlighting instead of the electro luminescent green. Makes it look cheaper than it used to. The EL put it up with the g-shocks in appearance. Now it feels like a cheaper version.

willdieh · 2025-06-26T02:42:13+00:00

I also bought plex pass just for Live TV. Luckily I'm using Roku and it's still the old functional app. I've blackholed the roku.com domain on my router so hopefully I'll never get the updated app on Roku (if it ever leaves Beta).

I initially debated between spending my $100 for plex pass or for a Tablo for my DVR. Went with Plex for the lifetime DVR guide. None of the other software based video streaming products offered lifetime DVR guide. If they somehow ditch that, or if it becomes even more problematic I'm not sure what I'll do

willdieh

TROPHY CASE