SYNOLOGY NAS OWNERS: At the moment, there's no official support, but we're looking for anyone in the Linux community who'd be willing to create a docker. Check out the github and see what you can do.
Is there support for QNAP NAS that I've missed? I'm going to keep reading and set this up just so I can learn why this is better than just shared folders on an existing NAS
Great project and video. For existing NAS owners, Rather than create a docker, would it be possible to use a raspberry pi 4 to run retronas but simply map a network drive to the RPi and let retronas do its thing?
Making a virtual USB drives would be a perfect for RetroNAS. Being able to share a virtual drive to PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, XboxOne, Wii, & WiiU virtual USB drives from one big RetroNAS build would solve a lot setup problems. There was a guy got it working. His name was Matt Olan, he called it a piSCSI. I have read about people using even cheaper hardware such as the RockPiS.
As a person who does a lot of homelabbing and works professionally as a server admin anyway, this has got me very excited. I may get involved in the building of container images for this.
This sounded very good for the MISTer support, but good grief that PS1/2 iso storage capability is AWESOME! I'm putting together a basic network share for media files rn, but this is definitely next on my list. Thanks for the great video!! :)
RetroNAS is built on Debian 11, which in theory can run on a 686 (Pentium II) CPU. Likewise I think they still support PowerPC G3/7XX (Apple Mac G3) CPUs too. Anyone who gets it working on very old computers, please message me.
Excellent. Glad Dan got it all figured out. I didn't know anything about him when he first announced it on twitter so I was skeptical (there's a lot of hustlers in the retro gaming space and overpromisers) but when he explained it in detail to me I knew he had major sysadmin chops and could pull it off. I'm glad to see his vision come to fruition!
I've been running this sort of config on an arcade simulation setup I have for a few months now, and it's been a game changer! Might try and get this running as a VM on my server just to check it out - glad the barrier to entry is dropping! I truly believe this will be a game changer, on the same level as going from modchips and brined discs to an SD based ODE.
@@RetroRGB Will check it out. As one IT nerd to another, thank you so much for everything you do! Really admire your tact and dedication to making this hobby as great as the tools allow :)
I finally found it! (I think) I thought there would have been a video that directly said it was going to show how to stream games to the ps2. Now to dig for more videos on the subject!
The first thing I thought about after seeing the WiFi Game Boy cart. You can play a game on your NES, continue it on your MiSTer and then on your portable Android or Pi device.
While I don't think I need a good chunk of what this is clearly built for (and super cool that it is!), I love the idea itself. I went the VM route mixed with NFS mounting my Synology within Debian. While I have zero problems with the install, I double checked with the VM install video to make sure I didn't miss any pre-requisites. It's a well produced video that gets you all the way there. Mixed with the initial setup of the actual RetroNAS project, it is a very painless install. My rom storage layout was dated so I opted to copy the folder structure from this project onto my NAS share before I mounted it, which avoided any need to fix symlinks on the mister directory layout this can prepare. With the roms quickly moved into place under the new folder structure, I mounted it in Debian via Cockpit which I'm pleased to see install+config included among the various extras. Pretty sure I saw ansible at play which should keep maintenance reasonable simple! A few minutes later, quickly updated the cifs_mount script and my mister is now loading from the network. I'll also likely toys with the folders for 3ds and PS3 on some rainy days and eventually goof with some of the more retro protocol stuff. Shout out to the vt100 option for the config script. As far as issues I ran into? Well just one really and it didn't stop anything and is more in the category of "I don't like seeing errors". The Install Cockpit option installs a number of packages including hfsprogs however it can fail due to the non-free repository not being enabled. I quickly just added it and installed the package after the fact. I'm not doing anything with Apple around this at the moment so I doubt I ever would have noticed a problem.
Thank you for testing, and the feedback. I'll make note of the bugs mentioned and try to fix these up. If you're willing, please consider reporting any future bugs to the GitHub issues page, as I can track them easier there, but all the same this is very helpful.
Cool, I've been banging my head against TrueNAS trying to get SMB to work with PS2 OPL off and on for a few months now. Something about OPL only supporting SMBv1 and TrueNAS not allowing me to push different shares out with different versions of SMB, idk. Anyway, I'm glad to see a project like this. Will spin up a Linux VM and try it out!
For years now I’ve been hoping flashcart developers would allow loading from network shares so I could just keep all my games in one place on my file server. Looks like we’re getting closer.
But the function needs to be built into the hardware. And if they will, it'll work with a regular NAS, I don't see the need of this retro nas other than communicating with old PC or computers like maybe the Amiga or the Atari ST
@@souljastation5463 Right, but it sounds like interest is being generated so hopefully it will happen now. Edit: Alternatively, if those Wifi-enabled SD cards could be modified/redesigned to act as a client and connect to a network share, we wouldn't even need new flash carts.
I didn't really understand the purpose of the project, over a standard NAS, after watching the video (non native english speaker here), but i red the RetroNas Wiki If i understand correctly, the project is not so much about the NAS part, but to make roms on a NAS accessible to old computer / game console, with older and different protocol than the CIFS/SMB that we have now. Am i correct?
That makes sense! I was wondering what the advantage was over existing nas software. It would be really cool to have this available as a docker container, something you could use within unraid.
Very cool. I've been running a Windows file server under the stairs for years hosting the artwork and roms for all the hyperspin arcade cabinets in the games room. Will be great to bring this type of service to ode's and flash carts. I wonder will krikzz make a USB to lan adapter for those with developer everdrives? (The ones with USB port on top).
Thats so cool, i ran it on a vm on my main computer and it work really well, really impressive for a new project like that, the only concern i have, is that it runs smb2 which is really not safe. But in a home network its not that problematic, but bear it in mind.
The Terraonion MODE functionality had me reeling. God damn I'd love to have all my Dreamcast, Saturn, and MiSTer roms stored on one place, that's beautiful
I'm hoping RetroNAS will be compatible with Terraonion MODE for Sega Dreamcast with DreamPi method to transfer new Dreamcast games to SSD/HDD the easy way without open Dreamcast apart and remove SSD/HDD just to transfer new files over.
Huh... now I have an idea about what RMC uses in his cave to load the files anywhere. Would probably install this on top of my OMV setup too... if I had any consoles to load games for from the network.
I've got quite a few features planned for RMC type setups with real hardware too, not just MiSTer. I hope to support all sorts of retro enthusiasts as the project grows.
Me too! At the moment, you can just create a Debian VM and map it to a share on your UnRAID array called "RetroNAS". Then once a docker is created, you can delete the VM and switch to that.
Would this work with save-games/states? I have a really varied way of running old games, it could be Mister or Emustation or anything. I would love to be able to pick up and continue my Super-Mario World save game from anywhere!?
Older internet protocols supported, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 network loading, custom software for 3DS QR codes...definitely check out the github, as there's far too many reasons to list here.
This is great! It's exactly what I've been looking for. I was already searching for a solution so my MiSTer could load ROMs from my NAS since I already have 300+ TiB and don't wanna manage slowly copying a billion ROM files over to a large SD card. It's also not portable if I have multiple devices (like you said in the video). My only question is how I can setup RetroNAS with TrueNAS. Half-way through the video, and trying to see if this will even work for me.
Unfortunately, there's no installer for TrueNAS yet. It'll take someone porting each individual piece for that to happen. It's open source though, so maybe someone will?
@@RetroRGB After watching the interview and finding the right search terms, I realized the MiSTer already supports loading ROMs over the network. That's all I need it for. And this way, I get data integrity and resiliency. It's great! RetroNAS is simple on a Raspberry Pi with a single drive, but that's not for me since I already have a setup at home. Still, I like that RetroNAS might run in a Docker container because that will provide more compatibility in the future without having to make my current NAS insecure.
Zero latency - Loading speeds over a network are much faster than a CDROM bus and ROMs are so small, they're completely loaded into memory. I showed this a bit when I talked about MiSTer loading and how it's much faster from RetroNAS than a MicroSD.
OMG, I jumped head first into unraid after spaceinvaderone interview. More geeking ahead ! You see, I buid an ultra cool unraid server, now I will wait for a docker which will free a 512Mb sd card from my mister, that I could use in an upcoming saturn ode which leads me to spend another lot of money ^^ Evil !
Well, I'm hoping someone will make an UnRAID container, but until then, you can create a Debian VM via Dan's guide: ruclips.net/video/i5VgHflLHNE/видео.html
New to NAS storage - am I able to install Retronas on one of the off the shelf NAS setups like the WD My Cloud devices (you had those up for a minute in video), QNap or TerraMaster? (I saw the note about Synology)
Cool project! For Mister use only I guess any NAS with smb support is sufficient and this doesn't really add something. If there was some support to host all WHDLoad slaves centrally that would be awesome, but I guess that needs some WHDLoad updating as well..
Is it possible that the RetroNAS software could be packaged into a Docker image or Synology DSM application? I have a Synology NAS, and I would really love to be able to use this!
No. First, if you're using UnRAID, you'll want to install RetroNAS on a Debian VM and THEN mount it to a share on your array. A docker should be coming out soon to make this much easier. Next - and we discuss this in the launch video, interview and github: If you're JUST using it as a MiSTer ROM host, yes, all you need is an SMB share. If you're using it for anything more than that, this ads protocols and the folder structure is already created. The PS2 is the best example: It requires SMB1, plus folders in a sepcific structure. To install with RetroNAS = one button install. Good luck getting SMB1 to run on Windows 10. Please check out all the info we put out there for more info.
Maybe I'm missing something, but is the MiSTer directory setup just symlinks to a common system specific ROM directory or is there some extra magic going on? I use a Samba share for this today but I've been thinking about other solutions like a FUSE file system that generates the MiSTer file structure using hashes like the Smoke Monster Packs. That way you could have things like a patched ROM for your SD2SNES in case it doesn't support a chip but an unpatched one for your MiSTer that does, or something. Maybe the SD2SNES (FX Pak?) supports everything now but you get the point, maybe a flash cart doesn't have RTC support so you need patched Pokémon games but someone with a MiSTer doesn't. Maybe RetroNAS already does this and I just haven't figured that out yet but that would be super useful and cool. I do think the other features of RetroNAS are really great. I'm totally gonna use at least those.
If your only need for storage is MiSTer, then yes, the only bonus of RetroNAS is symlinks. I think most retro nerds might use more than one functionality of it, which is why I'm so pumped.
You shouldn't need to unmount CIFS to use ROMs on your SD card/other drives. I have some roms on my SD and some on my NAS and it 'merges' them in the presented folders.
Are there any plans on integrating the everdrives? The only thing I can come up with for existing hardware would be faking a file system with a device pretending to be an sd card or, for the pro/x7 level carts that include USB ports, use some sort of custom firmware/communication with the host to send a rom image and save the save data back to the host somehow.
This looks quite cool, even if I don't completely get the advantage os using regular networks shares. I dabbled in this kind of setup before, but since I currently only play retrogames on my pc, I lost interest in keeping my roms in accessible from different devices
At the moment, the difference are protocols and symlinks...but your scenario (respectfully) is one of the few that RetroNAS doesn't matter: If all your ROMS are already stored on the PC you game on, this probably won't add any advantage.
@@RetroRGB I tried something similar when I used to set up RetroArch on a notebook and was thinking about getting an Android/google tv device where I would also set it up, was going to use open media vault as it's what I already have my rpi set up with together with Plex server. That is what I meant. The file structure with preconfigured symlinks is cool, plus the seamless integration with mister
This looks pretty sweet! I assume this is primarily for non-NAS owners looking to get started vs. synology folks who want to be able to share roms over the network to a mister?
???? I've been doing this for a very long time with my mister and roms just with my normal 100TB server, how is this different? (I know the retro PC part is different but I'm just talking about the file sharing)
@@RetroRGB I've have it setup with my PS2 and PS3 as well. Also my RetroArch on all 3 Nvidia shields throughout my house,and my Wii's NES, and snes emulators. I knew a long time ago I didn't want to maintain all those seperate libraries, lol. Simple samba sharing accomplishes most of this. I'm not trying to knock this. It's very cool, it's just when I saw the video I was like. I think I already do this.
I love the idea of this project! I've been doing something similar to this for a while now using truenas/unraid/openmediavault... but I'm wondering, legitimately, what does this project offer that they don't? Is the idea to make it a more simple, easy-to-use setup? I'm really just curious. I'm sure future videos will make this clear!
Protocols and symlinks are the biggest difference. Even if you run an UnRAID server, implementing this will still add features. You can install it as a Debian VM right now and hopefully someone will make an official UnRAID docker too.
I 'am' an IT nerd and I don't understand this. It's a HDD, connected to a computer running linux, connected to your home router? Does it really have to be linux?
If you're just talking about sharing a folder on your network, no. If you want Symlinks to have multiple folder structures for the same roms, old network protocol support, tools designed to help get roms on devices and the countless other features RetroNAS offers, then yes.
I already have an old Netgear ReadyNAS for my roms/iso's, and while this is very cool, one issue is you have to likely unpack ISO's to load them, which takes a lot more disk space up. I wouldn't mind seeing an Xlink Kai or DreamPi implementation as Bob said, so that I could run consoles through that rather than a Pie or laptop as I do now. The ps2 OPL is a great idea, although I wind up just copying iso's to the PS2 fat HDD. Yes it's a huge pain in the butt, but again I don't know if you can copy from the NAS to PS2 HDD.
You could probably do some PC games as well. But not modern ones. Load times would be really bad. Old roms and such are so small they transfer the entire game in split seconds
I hope this translates to a centralized NAS (and more importantly, cloud) savestate solution, this way one can continue playing across multiple devices
@@RetroRGB I looked around RUclips, and all comments and videos say "1 year ago". That's why I thought maybe this was abandoned or the community lost interest.
Ive been doing that on my own for years. I just setup a RPI with ubuntu server as a nas. Maybe I'm missing the point, but I don't see what this brings to the table... isn't this just a nas?
I'll keep an eye on this project, but after trying to load my games off my NAS I ended up giving up and now stick to having everything on the device, even if that means having to buy a bunch of high capacity SD cards for everything. It seems to be the issue isn't on the NAS/storage end, but on the console end. Most ODE's don't support loading games over wifi, although I am all in favor of having that feature added to future ODEs. Using OpenPS2 loader to load games off the network was a poor experience. It will be EXTREMELY slow to load the menu if you have a large collection. I got a SATA adapter for my PS2 and load the games off HDD now. It's much faster and I can now take the PS2 elsewhere if I want to.
I can't see the benefits of using this if you already have a Linux fileserver hosting roms for ps2, emulators etc. It's nice and easy solution for noobs though. I like this project and I wish all the best for it but it's not for me.
NOT ALL external drives have removable USB 3.0 to SATA converters built-in in the caddy, the droves themselves have a USB 3.0 connector on them. I would be very careful with your advice on that.
I've shucked about 50 over the years, from all different brands, for all different types of projects. All were SATA drives inside. Can you provide any proof for your claim?
@@RetroRGB It's less of an issue on 3.5 inch drives and more likely to occur on the more mobile based external drives. I've tried shucking a few of these and noticed that more and more have the sata interface replaced with USB directly soldered on the drive. Toshiba was the brand I saw it on most but I know others brands are guilty of this as well.
Not really sure what the point of this is to be honest. I like that its on a Pi, but there is still a ton of heavy lifting here from OS install to configuration that really should be twiddled down to a single web UI setup. Maybe look at what FreeNAS/TrueNAS and rework the OS to be centered in Library Repos. 1) Select Library plugin you want to add. 2) Options for pulling art and other information for ROMs you add with a scrapper. 3) Make OS and services easy to install without all the hackery. Even the CL is a bit much and I'm someone who does headless installs with an RPi for a variety of projects. 4) I watched the instruction video for setup if you hadn't already guessed, no mention of setting up stating IPs or possibly running or configuring a DNS. Some routers have configurable DNS, I run one myself off an RPI and everything on my network just points ot the names I assign devices and my dhcp server takes care of the rest of the mess of ip handling. I'm sure if people were aware that they could go look on their own, they would. 5) Backup options: That's a lot of data to be shoving into one place. SSD's and HDD's are fun and all, but a utility that takes two drives and clones them regularly. rsync script shouldn't be to hard and easy to setup with a custom interface. 6) Talk to the RetroPi projects etc. Native harwdare is fantastic and exciting prospect, but not something that is honestly unable to be done without RetroNAS. There are a lot of emulator setups like with retropi, handhelds and more than can also benefit. 7) Talk to the hardware moders and software front end groups about service discovery and adding that to RetroNAS. That'll help take a lot of the guess work out as well. Would be even better to do a setup on say Open PS2 Loader or Fenrir and have it just discover RetroNAS on its own and set it up. Service discovery is not new and even predates the PS2. I like the core concept, I just think it can go further. So please don't be discouraged by anything I've said thus far.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
SYNOLOGY NAS OWNERS: At the moment, there's no official support, but we're looking for anyone in the Linux community who'd be willing to create a docker. Check out the github and see what you can do.
So no support for older synology NAS?
I think my DS214+ doesn't support Docker. :-(
But really cool project!
Is there support for QNAP NAS that I've missed? I'm going to keep reading and set this up just so I can learn why this is better than just shared folders on an existing NAS
Must have Synology support.
@@mcmarco I believe only x86 Synology NAS systems support Docker.
Great project and video. For existing NAS owners, Rather than create a docker, would it be possible to use a raspberry pi 4 to run retronas but simply map a network drive to the RPi and let retronas do its thing?
Making a virtual USB drives would be a perfect for RetroNAS.
Being able to share a virtual drive to PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, XboxOne, Wii, & WiiU virtual USB drives from one big RetroNAS build would solve a lot setup problems.
There was a guy got it working. His name was Matt Olan, he called it a piSCSI. I have read about people using even cheaper hardware such as the RockPiS.
Holy cow, this will solve so many headaches in my setup! Great video, and thank you to Dan and Bob for your work!
As a person who does a lot of homelabbing and works professionally as a server admin anyway, this has got me very excited. I may get involved in the building of container images for this.
I’ve been thinking about this concept for years, it’s awesome that someone made it real !
Hopefully all future rom carts will implement this too
"But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's skip to the end." Doesn't get much more ahead than that. Love it.
This sounded very good for the MISTer support, but good grief that PS1/2 iso storage capability is AWESOME! I'm putting together a basic network share for media files rn, but this is definitely next on my list. Thanks for the great video!! :)
Bob, this has me genuinely excited for all its possibilities. I salute you sir
This looks awesome Bob!
Thank you, but all credit goes to Dan.
...except the thumbnail. That was Mason, as usual.
Your introduction and time spent testing are still awesome. That said, has Dan made any way to support him for this work?
This is a great project with so much potential.
I will post this and the RPI4 video on my Dutch website.
Thanks!
Its a good new age for good old games
Whoa 😳😍 very cool! Thanks for sharing Bob!
Remember: Its not an authentic experience if you don't store your ROMs on period-correct hard drives
LOL...just for this comment, I'm gonna build a RetroNAS using a computer with an AGP graphics card and an IDE HDD ;p
@@RetroRGB Perhaps in 2025 when graphics cards become available, then I can upgrade my circa 2001 gaming rig from an AGP to a PCI Express GPU.
RetroNAS is built on Debian 11, which in theory can run on a 686 (Pentium II) CPU. Likewise I think they still support PowerPC G3/7XX (Apple Mac G3) CPUs too. Anyone who gets it working on very old computers, please message me.
@Dan Mons That sounds like a challenge. @Shank Mods - Which of us is gonna build a Pentium II version first!?!?!
@@RetroRGB pfft build an extension on the house to house a 100MB HDD!
This is the Holy Grail !!! 😍 Thank you sooo much. Will promote this to my corporate work.
Excellent. Glad Dan got it all figured out. I didn't know anything about him when he first announced it on twitter so I was skeptical (there's a lot of hustlers in the retro gaming space and overpromisers) but when he explained it in detail to me I knew he had major sysadmin chops and could pull it off. I'm glad to see his vision come to fruition!
I had no clue who he was either but since its a open source project I wasn't to concerned about him being grifter or a shill.
I've been looking for something like this for a long time. I'll check it out, thanks!
I've been running this sort of config on an arcade simulation setup I have for a few months now, and it's been a game changer! Might try and get this running as a VM on my server just to check it out - glad the barrier to entry is dropping! I truly believe this will be a game changer, on the same level as going from modchips and brined discs to an SD based ODE.
Edit - BURNED discs, not brined! Imagine keeping your discs in salt water for 24 hours before playing!! Hahaha
A VM is perfect - Just use Debian and follow Dan's guide: ruclips.net/video/i5VgHflLHNE/видео.html
@@RetroRGB Will check it out. As one IT nerd to another, thank you so much for everything you do! Really admire your tact and dedication to making this hobby as great as the tools allow :)
Thanks for watching and being fun to talk to in the comments! :)
Really nice! I've always wanted something like this, retro gaming on the network. I'll check out what posibilites it has.
I finally found it! (I think) I thought there would have been a video that directly said it was going to show how to stream games to the ps2. Now to dig for more videos on the subject!
Check Dan's RUclips account linked in the description...he's got a TON of info.
This is brilliant, and a game changer as you noted.
I did this to some degree with my NAS, but this was limited to Android emulators.
Thanks!
Thank YOU! :)
This is awesome! I have a Raspberry Pi 3 that's not being used so will try this out.
This is such good timing, I got two Synology NASes and an Unraid server and I was thinking of doing exactly this on my own.
The UnRAID server might have a docker soon, but for now you can just create a Debian VM: ruclips.net/video/i5VgHflLHNE/видео.html
Oh, I can see a project coming on. I've never touched Linux, sounds like a good time to start.
Well, you sold me. Just bought (well, ordered) a Pi and external HDD. This looks great.
Aaand 1 year later - the Pi has finally arrived!
Now imagine the everdrives would get wifi boards from now on and can also get their roms through this
Are WIFI SD Cards viable?
The first thing I thought about after seeing the WiFi Game Boy cart. You can play a game on your NES, continue it on your MiSTer and then on your portable Android or Pi device.
Wow .. declare a configuration that is simple a SMB-Share for all variants.
Just about to be hyped.
While I don't think I need a good chunk of what this is clearly built for (and super cool that it is!), I love the idea itself. I went the VM route mixed with NFS mounting my Synology within Debian. While I have zero problems with the install, I double checked with the VM install video to make sure I didn't miss any pre-requisites. It's a well produced video that gets you all the way there. Mixed with the initial setup of the actual RetroNAS project, it is a very painless install.
My rom storage layout was dated so I opted to copy the folder structure from this project onto my NAS share before I mounted it, which avoided any need to fix symlinks on the mister directory layout this can prepare. With the roms quickly moved into place under the new folder structure, I mounted it in Debian via Cockpit which I'm pleased to see install+config included among the various extras. Pretty sure I saw ansible at play which should keep maintenance reasonable simple! A few minutes later, quickly updated the cifs_mount script and my mister is now loading from the network. I'll also likely toys with the folders for 3ds and PS3 on some rainy days and eventually goof with some of the more retro protocol stuff. Shout out to the vt100 option for the config script.
As far as issues I ran into? Well just one really and it didn't stop anything and is more in the category of "I don't like seeing errors". The Install Cockpit option installs a number of packages including hfsprogs however it can fail due to the non-free repository not being enabled. I quickly just added it and installed the package after the fact. I'm not doing anything with Apple around this at the moment so I doubt I ever would have noticed a problem.
Thank you for testing, and the feedback. I'll make note of the bugs mentioned and try to fix these up. If you're willing, please consider reporting any future bugs to the GitHub issues page, as I can track them easier there, but all the same this is very helpful.
It's good to know you're not shilling for Big RetroNAS
I haven't seen Bob this excited in a video in a long time. This is legit.
It's genuine. And there's zero guilt, cause it's totally free. Even if I'm wrong, you lose nothing :)
This is pretty cool! Thanks Bob!
This sounds incredible.
Cool, I've been banging my head against TrueNAS trying to get SMB to work with PS2 OPL off and on for a few months now. Something about OPL only supporting SMBv1 and TrueNAS not allowing me to push different shares out with different versions of SMB, idk. Anyway, I'm glad to see a project like this. Will spin up a Linux VM and try it out!
Right, exactly why this project is more than "just a file share" :) Hope it helps your setup!
For years now I’ve been hoping flashcart developers would allow loading from network shares so I could just keep all my games in one place on my file server. Looks like we’re getting closer.
But the function needs to be built into the hardware. And if they will, it'll work with a regular NAS, I don't see the need of this retro nas other than communicating with old PC or computers like maybe the Amiga or the Atari ST
@@souljastation5463 Right, but it sounds like interest is being generated so hopefully it will happen now.
Edit: Alternatively, if those Wifi-enabled SD cards could be modified/redesigned to act as a client and connect to a network share, we wouldn't even need new flash carts.
I didn't really understand the purpose of the project, over a standard NAS, after watching the video (non native english speaker here), but i red the RetroNas Wiki
If i understand correctly, the project is not so much about the NAS part, but to make roms on a NAS accessible to old computer / game console, with older and different protocol than the CIFS/SMB that we have now.
Am i correct?
Yes, exactly. It's not *just* about creating a share, it's about symlinks, protocols and a proxy for old PC's.
That makes sense! I was wondering what the advantage was over existing nas software. It would be really cool to have this available as a docker container, something you could use within unraid.
Agreed. Hopefully more people will help create ports for different NAS'
Awesome, thank you Bob!
Very cool. I've been running a Windows file server under the stairs for years hosting the artwork and roms for all the hyperspin arcade cabinets in the games room. Will be great to bring this type of service to ode's and flash carts. I wonder will krikzz make a USB to lan adapter for those with developer everdrives? (The ones with USB port on top).
Thats so cool, i ran it on a vm on my main computer and it work really well, really impressive for a new project like that, the only concern i have, is that it runs smb2 which is really not safe. But in a home network its not that problematic, but bear it in mind.
The Terraonion MODE functionality had me reeling. God damn I'd love to have all my Dreamcast, Saturn, and MiSTer roms stored on one place, that's beautiful
I have hardware en-route to test this personally. This might be a thing very soon :)
@@RetroRGB has this ever become a thing? If so could you provide us any project updates or where we could build one myself? Much Thanks!
I'm hoping RetroNAS will be compatible with Terraonion MODE for Sega Dreamcast with DreamPi method to transfer new Dreamcast games to SSD/HDD the easy way without open Dreamcast apart and remove SSD/HDD just to transfer new files over.
Love the video can't wait to test with my ps2
Very nice project, and LOL for the nudz that sneaked in :D :D
Huh... now I have an idea about what RMC uses in his cave to load the files anywhere.
Would probably install this on top of my OMV setup too... if I had any consoles to load games for from the network.
I've got quite a few features planned for RMC type setups with real hardware too, not just MiSTer. I hope to support all sorts of retro enthusiasts as the project grows.
Looking forward to a docker implementation to integrate into Unraid.
Me too! At the moment, you can just create a Debian VM and map it to a share on your UnRAID array called "RetroNAS". Then once a docker is created, you can delete the VM and switch to that.
@@RetroRGB I just did exactly that. Glad I was thinking along the right path. Works great!
Someone should reach out to Krikzz and talk him into releasing wifi Everdrives that can connect to RetroNAS, Lol
Would this work with save-games/states?
I have a really varied way of running old games, it could be Mister or Emustation or anything.
I would love to be able to pick up and continue my Super-Mario World save game from anywhere!?
Not at the moment, but that's definitely on the list.
A Synology build would be great.
good shit bob!
This sounds like my current NAS setup without anything extra. Why do I need the retroNAS software
Older internet protocols supported, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 network loading, custom software for 3DS QR codes...definitely check out the github, as there's far too many reasons to list here.
for the shown consoles/computer you doesn't need anything other than an simple SMB-Share.
Would be great to have dns server functionality added for all the update blocks and so on.
This is great! It's exactly what I've been looking for. I was already searching for a solution so my MiSTer could load ROMs from my NAS since I already have 300+ TiB and don't wanna manage slowly copying a billion ROM files over to a large SD card. It's also not portable if I have multiple devices (like you said in the video).
My only question is how I can setup RetroNAS with TrueNAS. Half-way through the video, and trying to see if this will even work for me.
Unfortunately, there's no installer for TrueNAS yet. It'll take someone porting each individual piece for that to happen. It's open source though, so maybe someone will?
@@RetroRGB After watching the interview and finding the right search terms, I realized the MiSTer already supports loading ROMs over the network. That's all I need it for. And this way, I get data integrity and resiliency. It's great!
RetroNAS is simple on a Raspberry Pi with a single drive, but that's not for me since I already have a setup at home.
Still, I like that RetroNAS might run in a Docker container because that will provide more compatibility in the future without having to make my current NAS insecure.
@@Saturn2888 _"without having to make my current NAS insecure."_ it is an simple SMB-Share at local secured network .. keep calm
This sounds awesome but what's the latency gonna be like running games off a server instead of directly?
Zero latency - Loading speeds over a network are much faster than a CDROM bus and ROMs are so small, they're completely loaded into memory. I showed this a bit when I talked about MiSTer loading and how it's much faster from RetroNAS than a MicroSD.
QNAP owner standing by, waiting for someone smarter to figure it out for me :) I imagine something you run in container station?
I feel the same way :) And yes, someone would have to write a docker.
Voultar Nudez on teh NAS?
Doesn´t everyone have a Voultar nudez 1TB+ folder on their NAS?
@@therealgrizzly only 1TB? /the 8TB WD Reds are cheap :)
OMG, I jumped head first into unraid after spaceinvaderone interview. More geeking ahead ! You see, I buid an ultra cool unraid server, now I will wait for a docker which will free a 512Mb sd card from my mister, that I could use in an upcoming saturn ode which leads me to spend another lot of money ^^ Evil !
Well, I'm hoping someone will make an UnRAID container, but until then, you can create a Debian VM via Dan's guide: ruclips.net/video/i5VgHflLHNE/видео.html
New to NAS storage - am I able to install Retronas on one of the off the shelf NAS setups like the WD My Cloud devices (you had those up for a minute in video), QNap or TerraMaster? (I saw the note about Synology)
Not yet, but people are looking into it.
Cool project! For Mister use only I guess any NAS with smb support is sufficient and this doesn't really add something. If there was some support to host all WHDLoad slaves centrally that would be awesome, but I guess that needs some WHDLoad updating as well..
Is it possible that the RetroNAS software could be packaged into a Docker image or Synology DSM application? I have a Synology NAS, and I would really love to be able to use this!
That's our hope! We need help porting it though.
If you've used Unraid, simply create an SMB share and mount away. Easy!
No. First, if you're using UnRAID, you'll want to install RetroNAS on a Debian VM and THEN mount it to a share on your array. A docker should be coming out soon to make this much easier.
Next - and we discuss this in the launch video, interview and github: If you're JUST using it as a MiSTer ROM host, yes, all you need is an SMB share. If you're using it for anything more than that, this ads protocols and the folder structure is already created. The PS2 is the best example: It requires SMB1, plus folders in a sepcific structure. To install with RetroNAS = one button install. Good luck getting SMB1 to run on Windows 10.
Please check out all the info we put out there for more info.
Maybe I'm missing something, but is the MiSTer directory setup just symlinks to a common system specific ROM directory or is there some extra magic going on? I use a Samba share for this today but I've been thinking about other solutions like a FUSE file system that generates the MiSTer file structure using hashes like the Smoke Monster Packs. That way you could have things like a patched ROM for your SD2SNES in case it doesn't support a chip but an unpatched one for your MiSTer that does, or something. Maybe the SD2SNES (FX Pak?) supports everything now but you get the point, maybe a flash cart doesn't have RTC support so you need patched Pokémon games but someone with a MiSTer doesn't. Maybe RetroNAS already does this and I just haven't figured that out yet but that would be super useful and cool.
I do think the other features of RetroNAS are really great. I'm totally gonna use at least those.
If your only need for storage is MiSTer, then yes, the only bonus of RetroNAS is symlinks. I think most retro nerds might use more than one functionality of it, which is why I'm so pumped.
You shouldn't need to unmount CIFS to use ROMs on your SD card/other drives. I have some roms on my SD and some on my NAS and it 'merges' them in the presented folders.
Great vid thanks rgb bob
Nice idea.
Hoping for Gamecube (FSP support) soon.
I’ve tried so much to get an FSP server up and running for Swiss. Basically Linux required afaik😩
Thanks for mentioning this. I wasn't familiar with what Swiss supported. I'll add FSP to the ideas page and look into it soon.
Are there any plans on integrating the everdrives? The only thing I can come up with for existing hardware would be faking a file system with a device pretending to be an sd card or, for the pro/x7 level carts that include USB ports, use some sort of custom firmware/communication with the host to send a rom image and save the save data back to the host somehow.
There would need to be some kind of wifi on the everdrive. Check out the interview with Dan going live tomorrow where we talk about this.
@@RetroRGB Aren't there a few wifi connected SD cards for cameras? Or are those only for copying from the card to a nearby phone or computer?
This looks quite cool, even if I don't completely get the advantage os using regular networks shares. I dabbled in this kind of setup before, but since I currently only play retrogames on my pc, I lost interest in keeping my roms in accessible from different devices
At the moment, the difference are protocols and symlinks...but your scenario (respectfully) is one of the few that RetroNAS doesn't matter: If all your ROMS are already stored on the PC you game on, this probably won't add any advantage.
@@RetroRGB I tried something similar when I used to set up RetroArch on a notebook and was thinking about getting an Android/google tv device where I would also set it up, was going to use open media vault as it's what I already have my rpi set up with together with Plex server. That is what I meant. The file structure with preconfigured symlinks is cool, plus the seamless integration with mister
@@RetroRGB ultimately I settled on keeping saves on the cloud for syncing with my phone, which reminds me, does retronas handles saves as well?
Not yet, but hopefully someone will add them to the project.
This looks pretty sweet! I assume this is primarily for non-NAS owners looking to get started vs. synology folks who want to be able to share roms over the network to a mister?
Looks like cifs would do the trick but this is still super cool.
Yes, BUT, there's a lot more to it than just file sharing. Hopefully, people in the Synology community can help create a docker.
Hey that's pretty cool if you ask me
batocera can also read ROMs from nas. I wonder what is the advantage of retronas over batocera
Watch the video
I'm a server noob who went with FreeNAS. I believe it's based off Unix, so would this be easy to install?
Also, this can sync saves too right?
simply create an SMB-Share and link it to your ROM/ISO-Folders .. that's it.
No need to create an Pi-Collection.
???? I've been doing this for a very long time with my mister and roms just with my normal 100TB server, how is this different? (I know the retro PC part is different but I'm just talking about the file sharing)
If you're only syncing with the MiSTer, there won't be much difference. Read the github for more info on other platforms...or multiple platforms.
@@RetroRGB I've have it setup with my PS2 and PS3 as well. Also my RetroArch on all 3 Nvidia shields throughout my house,and my Wii's NES, and snes emulators. I knew a long time ago I didn't want to maintain all those seperate libraries, lol. Simple samba sharing accomplishes most of this. I'm not trying to knock this. It's very cool, it's just when I saw the video I was like. I think I already do this.
I love the idea of this project! I've been doing something similar to this for a while now using truenas/unraid/openmediavault... but I'm wondering, legitimately, what does this project offer that they don't? Is the idea to make it a more simple, easy-to-use setup? I'm really just curious. I'm sure future videos will make this clear!
Protocols and symlinks are the biggest difference. Even if you run an UnRAID server, implementing this will still add features. You can install it as a Debian VM right now and hopefully someone will make an official UnRAID docker too.
@@RetroRGB Your original interview caused me to dive into researching the world of unraid. Still trying to swim back to the surface.
Im new, And I am wondering if PS3 Images can be hosted and can be accessed on a PS3.
Yup, check out Dan's wiki for that, linked in the description.
Very cool!
I 'am' an IT nerd and I don't understand this.
It's a HDD, connected to a computer running linux, connected to your home router?
Does it really have to be linux?
If you're just talking about sharing a folder on your network, no. If you want Symlinks to have multiple folder structures for the same roms, old network protocol support, tools designed to help get roms on devices and the countless other features RetroNAS offers, then yes.
Raspberry pi 4 with 2gb of ram fine or should I wait if I can get something with more?
Any Pi4 would be great for this. Good question though.
If you boot to CLI (no GUI), 2GB is fine. You don't need to uninstall the GUI. Just use raspi-config to disable it from auto starting.
I wonder if this would work for og xbox ? Any clue ????
Someone would have to create a homebrew app on the Xbox itself that loaded games over the ethernet port. If so, then yes.
wii soon?
Time to slim the Plex library
I wonder if it'll have ZFS support via TrueNAS, since that's what I currently have set up.
Sounds like something that needs a docker and be on the unraid app store.
Agreed. Would you like to create one?
@@RetroRGB I wish I knew how :(
I already have an old Netgear ReadyNAS for my roms/iso's, and while this is very cool, one issue is you have to likely unpack ISO's to load them, which takes a lot more disk space up. I wouldn't mind seeing an Xlink Kai or DreamPi implementation as Bob said, so that I could run consoles through that rather than a Pie or laptop as I do now. The ps2 OPL is a great idea, although I wind up just copying iso's to the PS2 fat HDD. Yes it's a huge pain in the butt, but again I don't know if you can copy from the NAS to PS2 HDD.
For the cifs mount you just need a samba server running.
But this isn't "RetroCIFS". You're missing the point.
2:17 I see a spicy folder in there.... woo... XD
Hmmm looks like I have something to make a containerd image of.
Maybe even a helm chart and I could split the different services up
So is this like for emulators? I'd like to know if it's also for PC gaming.
You could probably do some PC games as well. But not modern ones. Load times would be really bad.
Old roms and such are so small they transfer the entire game in split seconds
I hope this translates to a centralized NAS (and more importantly, cloud) savestate solution, this way one can continue playing across multiple devices
Fan.FN.tastic!!!
was this forgotten about?
No, there's been tons of updates. It's also been remarkably stable - I load all my roms from RetroNAS and is hasn't crashed once.
@@RetroRGB I looked around RUclips, and all comments and videos say "1 year ago". That's why I thought maybe this was abandoned or the community lost interest.
😎
Ive been doing that on my own for years. I just setup a RPI with ubuntu server as a nas. Maybe I'm missing the point, but I don't see what this brings to the table... isn't this just a nas?
Respectfully, you're completely missing the point. Maybe try reading the githib page for a better idea? I thought I addressed it in the video...
I'll keep an eye on this project, but after trying to load my games off my NAS I ended up giving up and now stick to having everything on the device, even if that means having to buy a bunch of high capacity SD cards for everything. It seems to be the issue isn't on the NAS/storage end, but on the console end. Most ODE's don't support loading games over wifi, although I am all in favor of having that feature added to future ODEs. Using OpenPS2 loader to load games off the network was a poor experience. It will be EXTREMELY slow to load the menu if you have a large collection. I got a SATA adapter for my PS2 and load the games off HDD now. It's much faster and I can now take the PS2 elsewhere if I want to.
I'm gonna need you to mediafire that folder on your desktop that starts with a V. For research purposes of course..........
oh man freenas plugin with this would be so cool
I can't see the benefits of using this if you already have a Linux fileserver hosting roms for ps2, emulators etc. It's nice and easy solution for noobs though. I like this project and I wish all the best for it but it's not for me.
Totally fair. It's more than a NAS though, so maybe read through the github. LOL, still might not be something you need though!
Then, why did you bother to post? I can't see the benefit of you posting! lol
@@squirlmy Thank you for the words of wisdom. I will cherish this for the rest of my life. LOL to you sir.
NOT ALL external drives have removable USB 3.0 to SATA converters built-in in the caddy, the droves themselves have a USB 3.0 connector on them. I would be very careful with your advice on that.
I've shucked about 50 over the years, from all different brands, for all different types of projects. All were SATA drives inside. Can you provide any proof for your claim?
@@RetroRGB It's less of an issue on 3.5 inch drives and more likely to occur on the more mobile based external drives. I've tried shucking a few of these and noticed that more and more have the sata interface replaced with USB directly soldered on the drive. Toshiba was the brand I saw it on most but I know others brands are guilty of this as well.
Not really sure what the point of this is to be honest. I like that its on a Pi, but there is still a ton of heavy lifting here from OS install to configuration that really should be twiddled down to a single web UI setup. Maybe look at what FreeNAS/TrueNAS and rework the OS to be centered in Library Repos.
1) Select Library plugin you want to add.
2) Options for pulling art and other information for ROMs you add with a scrapper.
3) Make OS and services easy to install without all the hackery. Even the CL is a bit much and I'm someone who does headless installs with an RPi for a variety of projects.
4) I watched the instruction video for setup if you hadn't already guessed, no mention of setting up stating IPs or possibly running or configuring a DNS. Some routers have configurable DNS, I run one myself off an RPI and everything on my network just points ot the names I assign devices and my dhcp server takes care of the rest of the mess of ip handling. I'm sure if people were aware that they could go look on their own, they would.
5) Backup options: That's a lot of data to be shoving into one place. SSD's and HDD's are fun and all, but a utility that takes two drives and clones them regularly. rsync script shouldn't be to hard and easy to setup with a custom interface.
6) Talk to the RetroPi projects etc. Native harwdare is fantastic and exciting prospect, but not something that is honestly unable to be done without RetroNAS. There are a lot of emulator setups like with retropi, handhelds and more than can also benefit.
7) Talk to the hardware moders and software front end groups about service discovery and adding that to RetroNAS. That'll help take a lot of the guess work out as well. Would be even better to do a setup on say Open PS2 Loader or Fenrir and have it just discover RetroNAS on its own and set it up. Service discovery is not new and even predates the PS2.
I like the core concept, I just think it can go further. So please don't be discouraged by anything I've said thus far.
Man you need to get with Plex. Plex Arcade was a joke and I’m glad they cancelled it. This is what Plex needs.
Ehhh, I prefer to keep all my consoles away from any type networking thank you.