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Access Batocera Linux via ssh

First, make sure that SSH is enabled on your box — by default, on a fresh install, it is enabled. Check your /userdata/system/batocera.conf file and make sure you have:

system.ssh.enabled=1

When SSH is enabled, the only Linux user on a Batocera system is root:

ssh root@batocera.local
  • user is always root
  • the default password is linux
  • if you enabled SYSTEM SETTINGS SECURITY, the root password is visible from this menu.

For passwordless authentication, you can add your public SSH keys (from ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub on your client machine) to the list of authorized keys on your Batocera box into the file /userdata/system/.ssh/authorized_keys.

Windows users are advised to use Putty to connect through ssh: https://www.putty.org
Linux and MacOSX users can use command line ssh from a terminal.

Once you are connected to batocera, you can use the command-line to operate on the system.

Know that upon connecting, you will be put into the HOME folder of Batocera, this folder is called ~ and is located at /userdata/system.

Some command-line tools have an --help option describing how to use the program, for exemple, typing cp --help will print how the command is used in the command-line interface.

BusyBox v1.31.1 (2020-11-28 14:11:54 CET) multi-call binary.

Usage: cp [OPTIONS] SOURCE... DEST

Copy SOURCE(s) to DEST

	-a	Same as -dpR
	-R,-r	Recurse
	-d,-P	Preserve symlinks (default if -R)
	-L	Follow all symlinks
	-H	Follow symlinks on command line
	-p	Preserve file attributes if possible
	-f	Overwrite
	-i	Prompt before overwrite
	-l,-s	Create (sym)links
	-T	Treat DEST as a normal file
	-u	Copy only newer files

Most command-line tools have a similar syntax: CommandName -Option Parameter_of_the_option path/to/input/file path/to/output/file

Using the command line with paths of files can be confusing at first, there are two types of paths:

  • Absolute paths : they will always be the same ones regardless of the current directory you are in, and they start with a / character, for exemple /userdata/saves
  • Relative paths : they are relative to you current position, for exemple, if you are in the /userdata directory, and you use nano system/batocera.conf, you will execute the command nano on the file batocera.conf located in the /userdata/system folder.

If a path, or a filename, contains special characters or spaces, you will need to put either single quotes ' or double quotes " around it.

If a command needs to be manually closed, doing Ctrl+C will end it.

Here is a subset of the commands you might want to know:

A tool included into Batocera is Midnight commander, it is a powerful command-line file explorer, it should be enough for most users :

  • mc : starts the command-line file explorer Midnight Commander, this tool can be used to move, copy, delete, rename, and edit files, as well as create folders, make symbolic links, and change individual file permissions. This utility also supports a mouse input.

You can also use the followings command to manipulate files :

  • pwd : tells you the current directory you are in, for exemple, using cd /userdata then pwd will write /userdata
  • cd : changes the current working directory [Change Directory], for exemple cd /userdata/roms puts you in the /userdata/roms folder
  • cp : copies a given file or folder to another path [CoPy], for exemple cp /userdata/system/batocera.conf /userdata/batocera.conf will create a copy of batocera.conf in the /userdata folder.
  • du -sh : gives you the size of the specified element [Disk Usage, Specified, Human-readeable], for exemple du -sh /userdata/roms/snes gives you the size of the snes roms folder (If you use batocera on a PC, and access it from a windows computer with the file manager, the size of some elements may not be accurate, especially for .wine games, so this command lets you see the actual size)
  • ls : lists the files and folders present in the current directory [LiSt].
  • mkdir : creates a directory [MaKe DIRectory], for exemple mkdir content will create a directory called content in the current working directory.
  • mv : moves a given file to another path [MoVe], for exemple mv /userdata/roms/gb/game.zip /userdata/roms/gbc will move the file game.zip from gb to gbc; the mv command can also be used to rename files, for exemple, mv /userdata/roms/gb/game.zip /userdata/roms/gbc/gb_game.zip would rename the file when moving it.
  • nano : opens a command-line text editor for the specified file, for exemple nano /userdata/system/batocera.conf opens the file batocera.conf to edit it, for more infos see this link (external).
  • rmdir : deletes a directory if it is empty [ReMove DIRectory], for exemple rmdir content will delete the directory content if it is empty.
  • rm : deletes a specified file [ReMove], for exemple rm invaders-201226-124223.png will erase the file invaders-201226-124223.png in the current working directory.
  • rm -r : deletes a directory and all the files it contains [ReMove, Recursive], use with caution!
  • unzip : decompresses a given .zip file in the working directory, for exemple unzip file.zip will extract all the data in file.zip in the current working directory. You can ask to extract it elsewhere using the -d option [Directory], for exemple, unzip file.zip -d uncompressed will extract all the data in file.zip inside a subdirectory called uncompressed.

The following commands can be used to debug Batocera, some of them are part of the batocera-es-swissknife command

  • aplay -l : returns the list of playback hardware devices [Audio PLAYer, List] (can be used to debug audio issues on PC).
  • batocera-es-swissknife --arch : prints the current ARCHitecture running.
  • batocera-es-swissknife --emukill : KILLs any EMUlator running.
  • batocera-es-swissknife --restart : RESTARTs EmulationStation.
  • batocera-es-swissknife --reboot : REBOOTs the entire system.
  • batocera-es-swissknife --shutdown : SHUTDOWNs the entire system.
  • emulationstation : starts emulationstation.
  • kill : kills a process with a given PID, for exemple if pidof retroarch returned 640, then doing kill 640 will terminate the retroarch process.
  • pidof : gives a list of processes identifyiers (PID) for a running process name [Process IDentification OF], for exemple pidof retroarch returns a number when a retroarch-based emulator is running.
  • raspi2png : Exclusive to raspberry pi, saves a screenshot of batocera in the current working directory, to a .png file.
  • batocera-upgrade : let's you update batocera using the command-line with the correct URL, see Manual upgrades/downgrades for more details
  • pacman -Ss : let's you search through the pacman packages using the command-line [PACkage MANager, Sync], see Batocera Package Manager (pacman) for more infos.
  • pacman -S : let's you install a package using it's name [PACkage MANager, Sync, Search], see Batocera Package Manager (pacman) for more infos.
  • pacman -Rsd : let's you remove a package using it's name [PACkage MANager, Remove, recurSive, skip Dependancies checks], see Batocera Package Manager (pacman) for more infos.
  • pacman -Scc : clears the entire cache of the pacman manager [PACkage MANager, Sync, clear Cache (extra c forces a complete clear)], see Batocera Package Manager (pacman) for more infos.
  • pacman -Sy : Updates the pacman database [PACkage MANager, Sync (extra y refreshes the database)], see Batocera Package Manager (pacman) for more infos.

Sometimes, you might prefer having the output of a command inside a separated text file instead of reading through the command line interface. to do that you can use the > and >> symbols followed by the path of a filename.

for exemple, the command ls gives you the list of all files and folders in your current working directory, if you want to gather this inside a text file named list-files.txt at /userdata/system, you simply need to use:

  • ls > /userdata/system/list-files.txt, the command will return nothing, and instead the files will be listed inside a new file called list-files.txt located in /userdata/system. Running the command again will replace the content of list-files.txt.
  • ls >> /userdata/system/list-files.txt however will add the output of the command to the existing file, without removing the previous infos.

While not mandatory, it is good to know you can create aliases of commands, they let you launch a command with a simple keyword. One way to do this can be done by creating a text file in /userdata/system, that file must be named .profile : it will contain aliases commands and will execute them when Batocera is launched, so be careful of what you do.

The alias command syntax is as follow:

alias customname='du -sh /userdata/system/batocera.conf'

In this example, once batocera has been restarted, entering customname in the command line will do the same as entering du -sh /userdata/system/batocera.conf (in this example, it basically returns the size of the batocera.conf file in the command-line interface)

a more useful, yet complicated example, would be to try and use ffmpeg to save a screenshot of Batocera in the screenshots folder for x86_64 devices, as devices other than raspberry pies don't have an equivalent of raspi2png, in this example I call the custom alias “pc2jpeg”.

alias pc2jpeg='ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel error -f x11grab -i :0.0 -frames:v 1 /userdata/screenshots/$(date +%y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S).jpg'

This commands does the following :

  • ffmpeg : an command-line encoder included inside batocera.
  • -hide_banner : prevents ffmpeg from printing the copyright notice when running this command.
  • -loglevel error : will only alert in the command-line if there is an actual error preventing the command from working.
  • -f x11grab -i :0.0 : uses x11grab to capture the screen 0 (this lets you use the screen as the source).
  • -frames:v 1 : the number of video frames to capture.
  • /userdata/screenshots/$(date +%y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S).jpg : the full path to the file we want to save.
    • $(date +%y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S) : executes the date +%y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S command and reurns its result in the command line (for exemple, it will return 20-12-31_21-52-19 the 31st december of 2020 at 21h52m19s), so the path before would be read as /userdata/screenshots/20-12-31_21-52-19.jpg.

So by using the pc2jpeg custom command, a .jpeg file will be created with a filename based off the date of the screenshot.

Whenever you are using a command-line, try to understand what you are doing, even if it doesn't seem like it, some of them can be used in harmful ways. for exemple, putting simply > empty.txt without any command will create an empty file called empty.txt in the current working directory, however if you already had a useful file with this name, it'll be empty after this command.

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