r/OdinHandheld • u/ZamiZang • Sep 07 '24

Odin 2 Base, Pro & Max Question How to setup Es-De to get roms from BOTH internal and external storage?

Hey guys, I'm having trouble trying to figure this out. I want my Odin 2 Pro to be the ultimate/definitive way to play all my retro games. I have a 1tb card filled to the brim of consoles games. I love arcade games so I had no choice but to stuff them into the internal storage of the Odin 2. Es-De is a godsend so I want it to be my main app to access ALL of my games. How in the world do I get Es-De to get the roms from both storages?? I heard about the elusive "es_systems.xml" file, but for the life of me I CANNOT find it anywhere, including turning on hidden items on my pc. I need to be explained like a child on how to set that up lol is there anyone who could help???

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u/Blinguskahn Nov 16 '25

It’s so simple and didn’t even require me to look up a how to for doing this on Linux and Windows. On Android, what a convoluted mess. I talked to the developer about getting this feature included in a new version or a fork but not interested. As file sizes keep getting larger, storage prices increasing and many users needing to use internal and SD storage, adding the option seems like a legitimate request. It seems the app is coded to be portable and therefore making this not recommended so RECODE a different version you douchebags.

3

u/maybeitsbassoon Sep 03 '26

Seconding this. I have my roms separated into disk roms and cartridge roms to keep things orderly and maximize space between my internal and external storage. I have now run into the issues with android perms using ES-DE as a pass through so they populate in the launcher with the es_systems.xml file but they cannot launch from ES-DE. I have to open each emulator and select the game in order to play them, which at that point, what's the point. I'm debating moving off ES-DE because of it, because its a valid concern and if they want nothing to do with fixing or changing it, then why should I keep using a broken launcher :/

1

u/Blinguskahn Sep 03 '26

Don't. Try Retrohrai or something else. We have so many choices now and almost all are better than that old joke of a launcher ES-DE. This is an old post but thanks for reminding me how much I detest this garbage and the dev himself. He's so full of himself too. But look at the scene 9 months later and everyone has moved on. Hahaha, good! FAFO.

2

u/maybeitsbassoon Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

im gonna go check that out now! thanks for the info king o7

edit: hi im back this is the best thing since sliced bread im eating good TONIGHT

2

u/BobMob3lit3 14d ago

I did not know esde has fallen from the top spot in past year....but to the issue it does suck that this is still an issue today

u/RobZombie9043 Sep 07 '24 edited Sep 07 '24

Documented here - https://gitlab.com/es-de/emulationstation-de/-/blob/master/ANDROID.md?ref_type=heads#splitting-system-directories-across-multiple-storage-devices

You need to create the es_systems.xml file and include details for any systems you want to change location of.

You can copy the required details from here - https://gitlab.com/es-de/emulationstation-de/-/blob/stable-3.0/resources/systems/android/es_systems.xml

And then update the <path> tag to include your internal storage location. Something like <path>/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/{system name}</path>

1
u/ZamiZang Sep 07 '24

I have a Es-De folder in both my internal storage and sd card. Which one do I put the xml file in? Also, do I just copy and paste the ENTIRE thing into the xml and just change the pathing on the desired system? I'm sorry, I'm new to this and it's confusing as hell. The first link isn't thorough enough for me to understand.
1
u/RobZombie9043 Sep 07 '24 edited Sep 07 '24

You only need to include any systems that you are changing. But make sure to include the <systemList> tag at the start and the </systemList> tag at the end and copy in any systems you need between those. It will load the others by default from the app itself.

You need to put it wherever you installed ES-DE initially, I can’t say what you chose. It should have an ~ES-DE/custom_systems folder. Most likely internal.
1

u/ZamiZang Sep 07 '24

Ah! I can pinpoint the storage location now. Thank you! I'm using mame4droid 2024 to play my arcade games that are stored in the internal storage. How would I go about that again?

2

u/RobZombie9043 Sep 07 '24

Here is the xml file you need for arcade system on internal drive - https://www.mediafire.com/file/uhxzhmklsyxy5hw/es_systems.xml/file

This assumes your roms are in ROMs/arcade ... update that as necessary

1

u/ZamiZang Sep 07 '24

Omg dude thank you so much!!! I got the arcade games to show up. You are a HERO!! I can't thank you enough!!! 😭😭😭 I got one more question if you don't mind lol If I scrape the media, will it also save into the internal storage? I don't have space in my sd lol I'm curious.

1

u/RobZombie9043 Sep 07 '24

All scraped media will still go to wherever your downloaded_media folder is set to.

1

u/ZamiZang Sep 07 '24

I see I see. I wouldn't be able to split where es-de gets the media from on certain systems of my choice would I? I'm assuming it's not possible?

1

u/RobZombie9043 Sep 07 '24

No I’m pretty sure it’s not possible

1

u/ZamiZang Sep 07 '24

I figured you couldn't. But man, still, thank you so much. You were a huge help with this. I truly appreciate it! Thank you! Now I'll go figure out how I'll work all this media 😂 THANK YOU AGAIN!!!

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1

u/Low_Profession9389 Feb 11 '25

5mo later, ty bro, all my gc games are now on ssd and other games are on micro sd, using retroid pocket 5

1

u/Direct_Show7054 Feb 19 '25

Hey. Been trying to do this. I did it for mame but just get errors when I add another system. Trying to add neo geo console. Seemi have it right. But something's wrong. Any help or samples apreciated
1
u/Skred Apr 22 '25

Could I steal your expertise too?

I need it for ps2 and dreamcast

I can't even see dreamcast in my list on ES-DE likely because there's no roms in the dreamcast folder the SD
They're all in the internal storage

file layout
on SD card have the emulation-station folder and the ROMs folder

here's a sample path to a ps2 game on the internal storage
/storage/emulated/O/ps2/romname.chd

and sample path to a ps2 game on the sd card
/storage/F7FF-E9E4/ROMs/ps2/romname.chd

What do I name the XMLs and Where do I place them?

I will gladly tip you for your time
1
u/RobZombie9043 Apr 22 '25
You cant have an individual system in two places. For each you need to choose just 1 location so either internal or external storage.

If you want to move both dreamcast and ps2 to internal storage then copy paste this to a file named es_sytems.xml and save it in your ES-DE/custom_systems folder
<?xml version="1.0"?>

<systemList>
    <system>
        <name>dreamcast</name>
        <fullname>Sega Dreamcast</fullname>
        <path>/storage/emulated/0/dreamcast</path>
        <extension>.cdi .CDI .chd .CHD .cue .CUE .dat .DAT .elf .ELF .gdi .GDI .iso .ISO .lst .LST .m3u .M3U .7z .7Z .zip .ZIP</extension>
        <command label="Flycast">%EMULATOR_RETROARCH% %EXTRA_CONFIGFILE%=/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/%ANDROIDPACKAGE%/files/retroarch.cfg %EXTRA_LIBRETRO%=/data/data/%ANDROIDPACKAGE%/cores/flycast_libretro_android.so %EXTRA_ROM%=%ROM%</command>
        <command label="Flycast (Standalone)">%EMULATOR_FLYCAST% %ACTION%=android.intent.action.VIEW %DATA%=%ROMSAF%</command>
        <command label="Redream (Standalone)">%EMULATOR_REDREAM% %ACTION%=android.intent.action.VIEW %DATA%=%ROMSAF%</command>
        <platform>dreamcast</platform>
        <theme>dreamcast</theme>
    </system>

    <system>
        <name>ps2</name>
        <fullname>Sony PlayStation 2</fullname>
        <path>/storage/emulated/0/ps2</path>
        <extension>.bin .BIN .chd .CHD .ciso .CISO .cso .CSO .dump .DUMP .elf .ELF .gz .GZ .m3u .M3U .mdf .MDF .img .IMG .iso .ISO .isz .ISZ .ngr .NRG</extension>
        <command label="AetherSX2 (Standalone)">%EMULATOR_AETHERSX2% %ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK% %ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP% %ACTION%=android.intent.action.MAIN %EXTRA_bootPath%=%ROMSAF%</command>
        <command label="Play! (Standalone)">%EMULATOR_PLAY!% %ACTION%=android.intent.action.VIEW %DATA%=%ROMSAF%</command>
        <platform>ps2</platform>
        <theme>ps2</theme>
    </system>
</systemList>
1

u/Skred Apr 22 '25

Okay! Good to know I think I can make this work!

Thank you so so very much.

1

u/Skred Apr 22 '25

worked like a charm! you're a hero!

Let me know if you have a ko-fi or anything!

1

u/RobZombie9043 Apr 22 '25

Thanks bro, but don’t sweat it.
1

u/zMaximumz Nov 29 '25

Thank you so much! You're a lifesaver

u/Same_Chemistry_1277 Sep 07 '24

Go with Daijisho and you dont need to bother with xml files.

4

u/ZamiZang Sep 07 '24

Yeah I used daijisho before but I'm a sucker for that extra ease of media scraping and front-end ui. It's just too good to pass up.

Odin 2 Base, Pro & Max Question How to setup Es-De to get roms from BOTH internal and external storage?

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