With Recalbox, you can store your data such as roms, bios, saves, themes, etc. from a network storage server, also known as NAS (Network Attached System).
We will see below how to configure the whole system on the network storage server side and on the Recalbox side, all with the Samba protocol.
The NAS and your Recalbox must be connected via Ethernet for better stability and throughput!
This has been tested on a Synology, but it works the same.
On the network storage server:
It is quite possible to do the same thing from the hard disk of your PC. From Windows :
The only drawback is that the PC serving as network storage server must be switched on permanently to access the roms from your Recalbox.
/boot/recalbox-boot.conf file with your favorite editor (nano, vi)``ini
;sharedevice=INTERNAL
* With the following line:
``ini
sharedevice=NETWORK
This is used to tell your Recalbox that the contents of the /recalbox/share folder should be mounted from a network share (not from the SD card).
Note the removal of the
;at the start of the line to make it active.
It is now necessary to specify, again in the recalbox-boot.conf file, the connection information to the network storage server. For this you have two options:
sharenetwork_<nfs|smb><[0-9]>=<SHARE|ROMS|SAVES|BIOS>@<NAS>:<shared directory>:<options>
sharenetwork_smb1=ROMS@192.168.0.1:recalbox/roms:username=recalbox,password=recalbox,vers=2.0
sharenetwork_smb2=SAVES@192.168.0.1:recalbox/saves:username=recalbox,password=recalbox,vers=2.0
The list of specifiable folders is at the bottom of this page.
sharenetwork_cmd<[0-9]>=<command to execute>
sharenetwork_cmd1=mount -o port=2049,nolock,proto=tcp 192.168.0.1:/Documents/recalbox /recalbox/share
The list of folders that can be specified is at the bottom of this page.
With SMB version 2 or higher, you must specify the protocol version to use. For example in version 2.0:
sharenetwork_smb1=ROMS@192.168.0.1:recalbox/roms:username=recalbox,password=recalbox,vers=2.0
sharenetwork_smb2=SAVES@192.168.0.1:recalbox/saves:username=recalbox,password=recalbox,vers=2.0
Here are the possible assemblies :
sharenetwork_<nfs|smb><[0-9]>=<SHARE|ROMS|SAVES|BIOS|MUSIC|OVERLAYS|SCREENSHOTS|SHADERS|SCRIPTS>@<NAS>:<shared directory>:<options>
sharedevice=NETWORK
sharewait=30
# THE ENTIRE SHARE FOLDER
sharenetwork_smb1=SHARE@<IP_DU_NAS>:<CHEMIN_NAS/SHARE>:username=<ICI_LOGIN>,password=<ICI_PASSWORD>,vers=3.0
As seen above, it is possible to select only the folder(s) from the list below:
sharedevice=NETWORK
sharewait=30
#UNIQUEMENT UNE SELECTION DES DOSSIER
sharenetwork_smb1=ROMS@<IP_DU_NAS>:<CHEMIN_NAS/ROMS>:username=<ICI_LOGIN>,password=<ICI_PASSWORD>,vers=3.0
sharenetwork_smb2=SAVES@<IP_DU_NAS>:<CHEMIN_NAS/SAVES>:username=<ICI_LOGIN>,password=<ICI_PASSWORD>,vers=3.0
sharenetwork_smb3=BIOS@<IP_DU_NAS>:<CHEMIN_NAS/BIOS>:username=<ICI_LOGIN>,password=<ICI_PASSWORD>,vers=3.0
sharenetwork_smb4=MUSIC@<IP_DU_NAS>:<CHEMIN_NAS/MUSIC>:username=<ICI_LOGIN>,password=<ICI_PASSWORD>,vers=3.0
sharenetwork_smb5=OVERLAYS@<IP_DU_NAS>:<CHEMIN_NAS/OVERLAYS>:username=<ICI_LOGIN>,password=<ICI_PASSWORD>,vers=3.0
sharenetwork_smb6=SCREENSHOTS@<IP_DU_NAS>:<CHEMIN_NAS/SCREENSHOTS>:username=<ICI_LOGIN>,password=<ICI_PASSWORD>,vers=3.0
sharenetwork_smb7=SHADERS@<IP_DU_NAS>:<CHEMIN_NAS/SHADERS>:username=<ICI_LOGIN>,password=<ICI_PASSWORD>,vers=3.0
sharenetwork_smb8=SCRIPTS@<IP_DU_NAS>:<CHEMIN_NAS/SCRIPTS>:username=<ICI_LOGIN>,password=<ICI_PASSWORD>,vers=3.0
If needed, here is another example. Each mount point can point to a specific network storage system.
For overlays, you have to choose according to the resolution of your screen.
sharedevice=NETWORK
sharewait=30
#FULL ROMS
sharenetwork_smb1=ROMS@192.168.1.112:C/RCB/romsfull:username=USER,password=PASS,vers=3.0
#ROMS SELECTION
#sharenetwork_smb1=ROMS@192.168.1.112:C/RCB/roms:username=USER,password=PASS,vers=3.0
#ROMS POUR TESTS
#sharenetwork_smb1=ROMS@192.168.1.110:TEST/roms:username=USER,password=PASS+,vers=3.0
sharenetwork_smb2=SAVES@192.168.1.112:C/RCB/saves:username=USER,password=PASS,vers=3.0
sharenetwork_smb3=BIOS@192.168.1.112:C/RCB/bios:username=USER,password=PASS,vers=3.0
sharenetwork_smb4=SCREENSHOTS@192.168.1.112:C/RCB/screenshots:username=USER,password=PASS,vers=3.0
#720p pour Pi0 Pi2 Pi3
#sharenetwork_smb5=OVERLAYS@192.168.1.112:C/RCB/overlays720:username=USER,password=PASS,vers=3.0
#1080p pour Pi4 XU4 et PC en 1080p
sharenetwork_smb5=OVERLAYS@192.168.1.112:C/RCB/overlays1080:username=USER,password=PASS,vers=3.0
It is strongly recommended to disable SMB v1 support on your Windows machine!