EmulationStation Desktop Edition 2.0 is out now

Aww there is no snap for it or a flatpak

Aww there is no snap for it or a flatpak

An AppImage is not good for you I assume?
I installed it from the AUR on my side.

Integrates with Steam nicely as well, definitely the best UI for a Linux couch PC right now.

I've just been using Lutris for the few emulators I have and it works well. EmulationStation looks like it has a bit nicer of an interface so I might give it a shot.

I discovered this retrogaming frontend recently, it corresponds exactly to what I expected from a frontend for all my emulation needs.
The scraping feature is just perfect and there are a lot of themes choice. My current preferred theme is Alekfull NX (Revisited).
I subscribed to their reddit page and last time I asked for help, they were very reactive and they gladly answer your questions.
Now I no more use Retroarch GUI at all.

Aww there is no snap for it or a flatpak

An AppImage is not good for you I assume?
I installed it from the AUR on my side.

It is not available on Manjaro repositories, only the old project called emulationstation (without -DE, be careful, it is not the same project, it is an old one and is no more maintained).
But if you enable aur packages in Manjaro, you can install it.


Last edited by legluondunet on 21 March 2023 at 6:36 pm UTC

Is there a way to update from 1.2.6 without losing all my custom configurations? Like the re-routing I did for a couple of emulators or the game info from scrapping.

Aww there is no snap for it or a flatpak

An AppImage is not good for you I assume?
I installed it from the AUR on my side.

downloaded it now but it didnt open when clicking for some reason appimages never worked forme

Aww there is no snap for it or a flatpak

An AppImage is not good for you I assume?
I installed it from the AUR on my side.

It is not available on Manjaro repositories, only the old project called emulationstation (without -DE, be careful, it is not the same project, it is an old one and is no more maintained).
But if you enable aur packages in Manjaro, you can install it.

see dat hassle again? why cant there be a simple snap or flatpak fo normal ppl

Aww there is no snap for it or a flatpak

An AppImage is not good for you I assume?
I installed it from the AUR on my side.

downloaded it now but it didnt open when clicking for some reason appimages never worked forme

Appimage are made to greatly facilitate Linux users desktop experience, how it is possible this do not work for you? Do you use an exotic Linux Distribution with minimal libraries installed? i just tested emulationstation-de appimage and it just work (after a little chmod +x command).


Last edited by legluondunet on 22 March 2023 at 11:29 am UTC

Aww there is no snap for it or a flatpak

An AppImage is not good for you I assume?
I installed it from the AUR on my side.

downloaded it now but it didnt open when clicking for some reason appimages never worked forme

Appimage are made to greatly facilitate Linux users desktop experience, how it is possible this do not work for you? Do you use an exotic Linux Distribution with minimal libraries installed? i just tested emulationstation-de appimage and it just work (after a little chmod +x command).

I'd highly advise to use appimagelauncher, should be in most distributions community repos and does a great job with handling appimages (semi installing them, creating shortcuts...)

Aww there is no snap for it or a flatpak

An AppImage is not good for you I assume?
I installed it from the AUR on my side.

downloaded it now but it didnt open when clicking for some reason appimages never worked forme

Appimage are made to greatly facilitate Linux users desktop experience, how it is possible this do not work for you? Do you use an exotic Linux Distribution with minimal libraries installed? i just tested emulationstation-de appimage and it just work (after a little chmod +x command).

I'd highly advise to use appimagelauncher, should be in most distributions community repos and does a great job with handling appimages (semi installing them, creating shortcuts...)

The main appimage I use is Cura (as repositories generally don't have the latest, and it pesters to upgrade every time it launches). Would be nice if appimages had a more integrated way to manage new versions, etc, like Flatpak does.

downloaded it now but it didnt open when clicking for some reason appimages never worked forme

did you right click the icon and make it executable ?

Im trying out EmulationStation Desktop right now instead of vanilla retroarch, the one issue im having is that i can't directly exit a game back to ES ? The idea is to click the analogs down at the same time i believe but this does nothing. i can press the home key on my 8bitdopro2 and bring retroarch menu up though and then manually exit the game then retro arch.. seems clunky.

is there a way to bring up some sort of ES UI and exit directly back ? i did do some searching but didn't find anything other than the aforementioned analogue clicks.

Im trying out EmulationStation Desktop right now instead of vanilla retroarch, the one issue im having is that i can't directly exit a game back to ES ? The idea is to click the analogs down at the same time i believe but this does nothing. i can press the home key on my 8bitdopro2 and bring retroarch menu up though and then manually exit the game then retro arch.. seems clunky.

is there a way to bring up some sort of ES UI and exit directly back ? i did do some searching but didn't find anything other than the aforementioned analogue clicks.

It is clunky, but is actually just how the Playstation works... always irritated me.

Aww there is no snap for it or a flatpak

An AppImage is not good for you I assume?
I installed it from the AUR on my side.

I honestly prefer something with better integration to my system and easier updating.

Though thankfully, there IS Bauh which makes installing and updating AppImage easier. And they maintain a database of extra AppImage sources on top of AppImageHub, so maybe someone can ask for this to be added ther (I personally doubt I'll ever use this, since it doesn't seem like ith as Switch emulation integrated yet).

Im trying out EmulationStation Desktop right now instead of vanilla retroarch, the one issue im having is that i can't directly exit a game back to ES ? The idea is to click the analogs down at the same time i believe but this does nothing. i can press the home key on my 8bitdopro2 and bring retroarch menu up though and then manually exit the game then retro arch.. seems clunky.

is there a way to bring up some sort of ES UI and exit directly back ? i did do some searching but didn't find anything other than the aforementioned analogue clicks.

Iirc, start+select should do the trick. At least they do with EmuDeck

Aww there is no snap for it or a flatpak

An AppImage is not good for you I assume?
I installed it from the AUR on my side.

I honestly prefer something with better integration to my system and easier updating.

Though thankfully, there IS Bauh which makes installing and updating AppImage easier. And they maintain a database of extra AppImage sources on top of AppImageHub, so maybe someone can ask for this to be added ther (I personally doubt I'll ever use this, since it doesn't seem like ith as Switch emulation integrated yet).

What's annoying is we're ending up with the same nonsense we did before. Oh, we have RPM, tar.gz, deb... oh wait, now you're saying .deb between Ubuntu and Debian aren't compatible; and rpm between Suse and RH aren't compatible...

Now come along Flatpak, universal package management! Except now there is Snap and AppImage, which are also universal package management! Though AppImage is kind of lacking in the management department! I haven't heard of Bauh, I'll have to check that out, as I do use a few AppImages. But at least we're not like Windows, where you pretty much always have to go to a site, hope it's the manufacturer's site, and download an installer that may or may not have been tampered with, etc.

I honestly prefer something with better integration to my system and easier updating.

Though thankfully, there IS Bauh which makes installing and updating AppImage easier. And they maintain a database of extra AppImage sources on top of AppImageHub, so maybe someone can ask for this to be added ther (I personally doubt I'll ever use this, since it doesn't seem like ith as Switch emulation integrated yet).

What's annoying is we're ending up with the same nonsense we did before. Oh, we have RPM, tar.gz, deb... oh wait, now you're saying .deb between Ubuntu and Debian aren't compatible; and rpm between Suse and RH aren't compatible...

Now come along Flatpak, universal package management! Except now there is Snap and AppImage, which are also universal package management! Though AppImage is kind of lacking in the management department! I haven't heard of Bauh, I'll have to check that out, as I do use a few AppImages. But at least we're not like Windows, where you pretty much always have to go to a site, hope it's the manufacturer's site, and download an installer that may or may not have been tampered with, etc.

Eh, Flatpak is basically universal except in Ubuntu-land, and even in Ubuntu it's just a matter of installing. The only people who wouldn't install it are the ones who don't mind Snap or just don't know about flatpak (unlikely, unless they're just using Ubuntu for college classes).

AppImage is a very different thing, they're closer to portable apps and I don't see anyone on Windows complaining about portable apps vs .exe/.msi installed apps.

Snaps itself has a place in CLI/server environment, it's just Canonical insisting on using it for everything and in such an in-your-face kind of way that makes people annoyed.

I don't think it's as much a problem as some make it out to be, just use whichever has most of your apps. They're just tools in the end.

I honestly prefer something with better integration to my system and easier updating.

Though thankfully, there IS Bauh which makes installing and updating AppImage easier. And they maintain a database of extra AppImage sources on top of AppImageHub, so maybe someone can ask for this to be added ther (I personally doubt I'll ever use this, since it doesn't seem like ith as Switch emulation integrated yet).

What's annoying is we're ending up with the same nonsense we did before. Oh, we have RPM, tar.gz, deb... oh wait, now you're saying .deb between Ubuntu and Debian aren't compatible; and rpm between Suse and RH aren't compatible...

Now come along Flatpak, universal package management! Except now there is Snap and AppImage, which are also universal package management! Though AppImage is kind of lacking in the management department! I haven't heard of Bauh, I'll have to check that out, as I do use a few AppImages. But at least we're not like Windows, where you pretty much always have to go to a site, hope it's the manufacturer's site, and download an installer that may or may not have been tampered with, etc.

Eh, Flatpak is basically universal except in Ubuntu-land, and even in Ubuntu it's just a matter of installing. The only people who wouldn't install it are the ones who don't mind Snap or just don't know about flatpak (unlikely, unless they're just using Ubuntu for college classes).

AppImage is a very different thing, they're closer to portable apps and I don't see anyone on Windows complaining about portable apps vs .exe/.msi installed apps.

Snaps itself has a place in CLI/server environment, it's just Canonical insisting on using it for everything and in such an in-your-face kind of way that makes people annoyed.

I don't think it's as much a problem as some make it out to be, just use whichever has most of your apps. They're just tools in the end.

The difference, I'd say, is that pretty much all apps on Windows have been in the past an exe/msi file, and installs on your system. The only difference with portable ones, is that it doesn't install it, it's just... there. AppImages are similar. At least with the integration stuff, it creates a launcher, etc.
I've recently started doing a lot of resin 3D printing, and my printer came with Chitubox 1.9.4. But it's just a tar ball, and I have to execute it either via CLI or Nautilus... and that's a crappy user experience (it also uses Qt file-chooser on Gnome...