PS5_RetroArch/docs/ACTIVE.md

Active work

Volatile by design. Rewrite this file in place and keep it under about 120 lines. Specifications belong in docs/PLAN.md, and run results belong in docs/PHASE_LOG.md. This is the only file that carries a date: the line below is the last thing read, so changing it costs nothing.

Updated: 2026-09-18

Now

The menu is on screen and the title runs; the pad does not work yet. An unattended bash tools/run-title.sh --watch 12 runs the title, shows the RGUI menu and is closed by the script with no fatal signal. bash tools/verify.sh passes all five gates and the host suite is 13 tests.

A complete input driver for this console exists and is registered. It is src/input_ps5.cpp: the DualSense is read with scePadInit/scePadOpen/scePadRead and the 120-byte sample layout ../ProsperoLight verified on hardware, its button words are mapped onto RetroArch's numbering (CIRCLE is RetroArch's A, so CIRCLE confirms a menu entry), and sticks and triggers are reported as axes. tests/test_frontend.py pins both the registration and the pairing. What is missing is that the frontend never gets as far as calling it.

Two faults stood in front of it, and both are fixed.

1. RetroArch's built-in test input driver was on (HAVE_TEST_DRIVERS=yes by default), and while it is on video_driver_init_input returns before initialising any real input driver. --disable-test_drivers is now in tools/retroarch-sources.sh.
2. The title's -c never reached RetroArch. Content loading rebuilds argv from the frontend's environment and kept only ["retroarch", "--menu"], so the config file was never read and the title ran on compiled defaults - probe config_parse_file: path="(null)". A guarded fix restores the path.

That fix is parked, because it exposes a crash that is not yet understood. With the config actually read, the title dies on launch: SIGSEGV, rip=0, a call through a null function pointer - with input_driver="ps5" and equally with "null". Markers show the whole video path completing, so the fault is after driver initialisation. The change and its reasoning are in parked/config-path.patch.py; config/retroarch.cfg keeps input_driver = "null" so the title keeps running.

Next

1. Fix the config-path crash, then turn the pad on. The driver is written, registered and tested; the only thing between it and a working controller is that crash. Instrument runloop_iterate and the content task, not the driver: the driver is never entered.
2. Then answer the frozen-frame question. The menu redraws only when something changes, which is why it looks still today; ps5_frame ... menu commits=N changes=M in the trace is the instrument that will say whether input makes it redraw, and the commit/change counters are already in the driver.
3. Then the menu's size. RGUI renders 320x240 into a 1920x1080 frame and the driver scales it up whole.

Working notes

• bash tools/run-title.sh is the only way to run the title. It owns the whole sequence and prints the title's own trace. Do not hand-deploy.
• Trace files are append-only and grow without bound. One session took /app0/trace.txt past 70,000 lines. Read the tail, or slice from the last main() entered.
• A probe is not gone until build/ra/obj is deleted too. Reconfiguring alone reuses stale objects and ships old probes into eboot.bin.
• Do not patch the configured tree with multi-line scripted replacements. Two rounds were lost to a replaced brace that produced undefined symbol: input_config_reset at link time. Single-line insertions, verified by brace count, are safe; blocks are not.
• The console's signal block prints rip. rip=0 is a call through a null function pointer, not a bad data read, and reading it first saves a round.
• src/ must be compiled with the frontend's -D flags, which tools/build-title.sh does by asking tools/retroarch-flags.sh; a bare make app produces a driver table the frontend reads at the wrong offsets.
• Compile from build/ra-conf, never from vendor/retroarch; upstream is never edited and patches/series is the only record of this port's changes.
• -DHAVE_MAIN must never be defined: it compiles the frontend's main loop out.
• The console's address and credentials come from the ignored .env; console captures stay in the ignored klog/ tree.

Last verified

Check	Result
bash tools/run-title.sh --watch 12	PASS: title runs, RGUI menu visible, no fatal signal, closed by the script
bash tools/verify.sh (all gates)	PASS (format unit build integration evidence)
python3 -m unittest discover -s tests	PASS: 13 tests, including the input driver's registration and button map
nm -S build/obj/src_input_ps5.cpp.o	PASS: input_ps5 is 0x58 bytes, the frontend's sizeof(input_driver_t)
nm -u build/ra/obj/input_input_driver.c.o	PASS: the frontend references input_ps5
Input driver selected on the console	FAILS: SIGSEGV, rip=0, before ps5_input_init; parked

Open findings

• The config-path crash above is the blocker for input, and therefore for the frozen-frame question. It happens with any input driver selected, so it is the config being read - not the driver - that exposes it.
• The console's FTP will not replace sce_module/libc.prx; the title runs against the console's copy. A release has to solve this.
• RGUI's assets: the fonts are bundled under assets/rgui/font/; whether the rest of RetroArch's asset tree should ship is undecided.
• A pad-driven build cannot be verified unattended yet: the trace reports the first press, but nothing in the pipeline exercises a button.

Working notes

• bash tools/run-title.sh is the only way to run the title. It owns the whole sequence, including starting the klog listener before the launch and closing the title itself, and it prints the title's own trace. Do not hand-deploy.
• Nothing this project's src/ compiles may be built without the frontend's defines. tools/build-title.sh is the only correct way to build the title: it asks tools/retroarch-flags.sh for the flags the archive uses and passes them through APP_DEFINITIONS. A bare make app produces a driver table the frontend reads at the wrong offsets, and the only symptom is a menu that never appears.
• A probe is not gone until the object is. Deleting build/ra-conf and reconfiguring is not enough: tools/build-retroarch.sh reuses build/ra/obj/*.o and will archive a stale object carrying yesterday's probes into eboot.bin. Delete build/ra/obj as well when a probe must really go.
• /app0/trace.txt is append-only and is never rotated. Every run adds to it; one session took it to 72,904 lines. Read the tail, or slice from the last main() entered, rather than reading it whole.
• Compile from build/ra-conf, never from vendor/retroarch. The configured tree is rebuilt from upstream plus the four patches in patches/series; upstream is never edited.
• -DHAVE_MAIN must never be defined: it compiles the frontend's main loop out.
• The console's address and credentials come from the ignored .env; anything read from the console stays in the ignored klog/ tree.

Last verified

Check	Result
bash tools/run-title.sh --watch 20	PASS: no fatal signal, menu on screen, ps5_frame 1: menu 320x240 pitch=640 present=1, display: flip 1200 of buffer 1, status=0 marker=1
bash tools/verify.sh (all gates)	PASS (format unit build integration evidence)
python3 -m unittest discover -s tests	PASS: 11 tests
tests/test_frontend.py ABI check, built without the defines	FAILS as it must: video_ps5 is 136 bytes ... video_driver_t is 144
nm -S build/obj/src_video_ps5.cpp.o	PASS: video_ps5 is 0x90 bytes, the frontend's sizeof(video_driver_t)
diff -rq build/ra-conf vendor/retroarch	PASS: only the four files patches/series names differ; no probes
python3 tools/evidence.py compare evidence/	PASS: 3 captures replayed, 0 failed

Open findings

• The console's FTP will not replace sce_module/libc.prx: four uploads, a fresh filename and a full listing all served the console's own 1,335,962-byte file. tools/deploy-title.py reports it and carries on, so the title runs against the console's copy. It has to be solved before anything ships.
• RGUI's assets: the menu reads ASSETS_DIR, compiled as /app0/assets, and the RGUI fonts are bundled under assets/rgui/font/. Whether the rest of RetroArch's asset tree should ship with the title is still undecided.
• The blit is nearest-neighbour for both formats and converts RGB565 per source pixel. If a core ever presents a 1080p frame, the line-by-line scale is the part to look at first.