(Topic ID: 176792)

Pinbox(nucore) has anyone tried this recently

By hocuslocus

7 years ago


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#1 7 years ago

Just curious to see if anyone has successfully installed pinbox lately within the past 6 months or so. The only stuff I can find on the web is over 3 years old now.
The version of Ubuntu that was being used is no longer supported. I've been messing around with it on and off for about a week now. I know Bigguys are still in the process of getting their licenses, but who knows how long that is going to take.

I've tried this program with 4 different computers and it usually makes it to the blue table select screen but then dies after because it is unable to load samples. Guessing that is sound.wav or something in the rom files. Since I'm using a newer computer I had to update ubutu (version 13.something) which is the last version I could get to work that was supported.

Found two different sources for the pinbox files they are pretty much the same, the first one has the rom files already in a designated directory and the second one you have to install the roms when prompted, but it also has an update directory. Think I'm going to keep messing with the rom files since that seems to be where it is getting hung up. Thinking there might be something that was named wrong or something that was installed in a wrong directory.

I also have a dual core from around that time period, I'm just waiting on a parallel to pci adapter to come in. Probably just wasted money and time on this project, but figured it was worth a shot.

#2 7 years ago

Wasn't Nucore supposed to comeback in 2016? Haven't heard a peep from those guys.

#3 7 years ago
Quoted from TigerLaw:

Wasn't Nucore supposed to comeback in 2016? Haven't heard a peep from those guys.

Probably only come back to fend off the "non official" release of the product, then back to silence... :/ Love to see this kick back off.

#4 7 years ago
Quoted from hocuslocus:

Just curious to see if anyone has successfully installed pinbox lately within the past 6 months or so. The only stuff I can find on the web is over 3 years old now.
The version of Ubuntu that was being used is no longer supported. I've been messing around with it on and off for about a week now. I know Bigguys are still in the process of getting their licenses, but who knows how long that is going to take.
I've tried this program with 4 different computers and it usually makes it to the blue table select screen but then dies after because it is unable to load samples. Guessing that is sound.wav or something in the rom files. Since I'm using a newer computer I had to update ubutu (version 13.something) which is the last version I could get to work that was supported.
Found two different sources for the pinbox files they are pretty much the same, the first one has the rom files already in a designated directory and the second one you have to install the roms when prompted, but it also has an update directory. Think I'm going to keep messing with the rom files since that seems to be where it is getting hung up. Thinking there might be something that was named wrong or something that was installed in a wrong directory.
I also have a dual core from around that time period, I'm just waiting on a parallel to pci adapter to come in. Probably just wasted money and time on this project, but figured it was worth a shot.

You make it to the table select screen, But you don't have a parallel hooked up for the game. I don't think it will allow you to select the table if one is not plugged in. You must change it to what table you want it to boot to rfm or swep1 and not to detect what playfield is in the machine.. This can be changed in Linux. Once the parallel port is hook up to the machine then it will allow the selection/detection of what game is in.

#6 7 years ago

I don't know anything about how the Pin2k stuff works, but if I had to run an obsolete operating system on modern hardware I'd look into using virtualization such as VirtualBox or VMware. Typically the virtualized environments are compatible with almost anything.

#7 7 years ago

I was able to do it about 18 months or so ago (ish) .
I used a Dell Optiplex 760 and after installing Pinbox and running these commands

sudo su
apt-get purge lxdm
mv /etc/lxdm /etc/lxdm.orig
apt-get install lxdm
cp /root/pinbox/scripts/pinbox.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart
reboot

I was able to get it to work.

This thread was very helpful. I am not a Linux expert so I cannot really troubleshoot but the above commands got mine working.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/nucore-and-pinbox#post-3437347

#8 7 years ago

What would be cool is if someone could get this running off a raspberry pi.

#9 7 years ago

Or just make me an aggressive offer on my RFM that comes with a SWE1 kit and the last Nucore NIB kit sold by Pinball Life.

#10 7 years ago

To make this work now you must change the repo address to reinstall lxdm

sudo su
"sudo sed - i -re 's/([a-z]{2}\.)?archive.ubuntu.com|security.ubuntu.com/old-releases.ubuntu.com/g' /etc/apt/sources.list" (all on same line remove "")
sudo apt-get update
apt-get purge lxdm
mv /etc/lxdm /etc/lxdm.orig
apt-get install lxdm
cp /root/pinbox/scripts/pinbox.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart
rm /etc/init.d/pinbox
reboot

#11 7 years ago

ahhh.... yeah I've used virtual box, but the only thing you can do with that is get to the select screen.

I have the parallel port hooked up to the actual game and selected RFM. regardless it keeps failing after saying it's unable to load samples. I've gotten a few different errors and this one is the one I can't seem to get past.

Quoted from thepita007:

To make this work now you must change the repo address to reinstall lxdm
sudo su
"sudo sed - i -re 's/([a-z]{2}\.)?archive.ubuntu.com|security.ubuntu.com/old-releases.ubuntu.com/g' /etc/apt/sources.list" (all on same line remove "")
sudo apt-get update
apt-get purge lxdm
mv /etc/lxdm /etc/lxdm.orig
apt-get install lxdm
cp /root/pinbox/scripts/pinbox.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart
rm /etc/init.d/pinbox
reboot

I've tried
sudo su
apt-get purge lxdm
mv /etc/lxdm /etc/lxdm.orig
apt-get install lxdm
cp /root/pinbox/scripts/pinbox.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart
reboot

but of course it comes back with 404 not found for most things. I always figured this fix might of worked three years ago but the URLs are not longer viable. I will definitely try that pita, thank you.

#12 7 years ago

ok, finally got it working. I'm using a q1900b-itx it's a brand new quadcore mini ITX motherboard. cost 60 bucks with cpu installed. think I bought 2 or 4 gb of ram. had to use the Ubuntu that came with the pinbox software. the reason it wasn't booting was because it didn't have the sound drivers for the motherboard. The integrated sound was an ALC662. Had to install a few different dependencies to be able to make the drivers. I reinstalled arcade vga to use the original CRT. The pictures colors are off (the saucers are purple and yellow) and the sound is working but has some crackling.

The screen won't go all the way to the left when using the crt adjustment knobs. has anyone else had issues like this?
I had to get a pciex1 to pciex16 converter in order to install the arcade vga video card. the picture looks fine everywhere else except the game. white is white, green is green, red is red it's only when combinations of these colors happen that it looks like ass.
If I ever get this fully working I'll post the steps, every time I get a little further more road blocks keep popping up. Nothing is ever easy

#13 7 years ago
Quoted from badbilly27:

Or just make me an aggressive offer on my RFM that comes with a SWE1 kit and the last Nucore NIB kit sold by Pinball Life.

500 bucks!

Oh......too aggressive?

#14 7 years ago
Quoted from Frax:

500 bucks!
Oh......too aggressive?

Probably need another zero in there!

#15 7 years ago
Quoted from hocuslocus:

ok, finally got it working. I'm using a q1900b-itx it's a brand new quadcore mini ITX motherboard. cost 60 bucks with cpu installed. think I bought 2 or 4 gb of ram. had to use the Ubuntu that came with the pinbox software. the reason it wasn't booting was because it didn't have the sound drivers for the motherboard. The integrated sound was an ALC662. Had to install a few different dependencies to be able to make the drivers. I reinstalled arcade vga to use the original CRT. The pictures colors are off (the saucers are purple and yellow) and the sound is working but has some crackling.
The screen won't go all the way to the left when using the crt adjustment knobs. has anyone else had issues like this?
I had to get a pciex1 to pciex16 converter in order to install the arcade vga video card. the picture looks fine everywhere else except the game. white is white, green is green, red is red it's only when combinations of these colors happen that it looks like ass.
If I ever get this fully working I'll post the steps, every time I get a little further more road blocks keep popping up. Nothing is ever easy

OMG dude. One of the best benefits of the upgrade is ditching the old shitty CRT monitor and putting in an LCD.

#16 7 years ago
Quoted from markmon:

OMG dude. One of the best benefits of the upgrade is ditching the old shitty CRT monitor and putting in an LCD.

I'm leaning toward that honestly, I've found mixed reviews. I even bought the mount for it from lockwhenlit.com. I just recently replaced the flyback and caps on the monitor.

finally got the color working right, you have to set it in '/etc/default' and then run 'vi grub' to be able to edit the grub config file.
the hex address is different for all video cards but if your getting an SDL display error you need to set the correct resolution in this file

I only have 3 things left to get this working at 100%
- find out why the sound keeps clipping and sounding like crap
- either swap to led display or find out why the sync is off on the crt
- get an ardunio board to shut off the computer when switching on/off.( to save high scores) don't know if this last one is true or not.

almost there! I hope...

6 months later
#17 6 years ago
Quoted from hocuslocus:

The integrated sound was an ALC662. Had to install a few different dependencies to be able to make the drivers.

Did you ever get this fully working? If so, how did you get the sound drivers installed? I am trying with a Q1900B-ITX as well and I don't think the version of ubuntu that pinbox uses likes the chipset of this motherboard (or doesn't have the included drivers).

#18 6 years ago
Quoted from hocuslocus:

I'm leaning toward that honestly, I've found mixed reviews. I even bought the mount for it from lockwhenlit.com. I just recently replaced the flyback and caps on the monitor.
finally got the color working right, you have to set it in '/etc/default' and then run 'vi grub' to be able to edit the grub config file.
the hex address is different for all video cards but if your getting an SDL display error you need to set the correct resolution in this file
I only have 3 things left to get this working at 100%
- find out why the sound keeps clipping and sounding like crap
- either swap to led display or find out why the sync is off on the crt
- get an ardunio board to shut off the computer when switching on/off.( to save high scores) don't know if this last one is true or not.
almost there! I hope...

Ugh Linux...

For the sound are there other drivers or an older version you can test with?

Monitor. Can you verify with another crt?

Mmmm they make power strips that can power down equipment, you could also have a script that could sleep it or power it down after X inactivity. Hmmm otherwise an addition can almost do anything so possibilities are endless

2 weeks later
#19 6 years ago

Hi,

recently installed a nucore(shh..box) on a RFM to resurrect it. Everything is working but the high score saving.
I actually shutdown the pinball which is delivering power to the computer, without issue for now..
soft is running on a SSD.

do you think scores are saved when you switch off via command ?

1 month later
#20 6 years ago
Quoted from erak:

What would be cool is if someone could get this running off a raspberry pi.

Yeah, but I don't think it would have the processing power to emulate the games. the only way would be to run custom code on the RPi but that opens up loads of possibilities of writing new games to run on the same hardware and PF layout. Imagine a version of Wizard blocks running on an RFM playfield.

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