The Idiot Guide to DragonMindeds Naomi Multi

[nam9]

Hi!

So if, like me, you are interested in testing out @DragonMindeds Naomi Netboot Menu but require a little more support to get things up and running, I present the following guide.
Some basic know-how is still necessary, but I will try and document all steps that got me to a functional result.

You will need:

1x Raspberry Pi (I am using a Pi4 & Pi 3B+ No, I am not really sure how low this goes...)
1x SD card (32Gb is the standard size if you want to dump all Naomi roms onboard. Less will of course work if you are more selective).
1x ethernet cable
1x Netbootable Naomi setup (Tons of relevant details here)

Basic Raspberry Pi OS install

Head over to raspberrypi.com/software/ and download their Raspberry Pi Imager software.
For OS, I chose 'Raspberry Pi OS (other)', and then 'Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32-bit):

For Storage, choose your SD card.
Before you hit 'Write', first press Ctrl-Shift-X to enter the advanced Menu:

Here you should set the hostname, enable SSH, add a password for your Pi, configure your WiFi & locale info etc. Click 'Save'.
You can now hit 'Write' and burn your SD card.

Configuring your Pi

Insert your SD card to the Raspberry Pi and connect to power. You now want to SSH into your Pi.
I use 'Terminus' on my iPhone, or PuTTY from Windows. Mac and Linux should work from the command line.
Assuming mDNS is working, you should be able to connect to your Pi with the <hostname>.local you set earlier:

And connected:

If mDNS is not working for you, you can either check any network admin tools you have access to in order to find the IP address of your Pi.
Another solution is to plug the Pi into a HDMI capable screen (TV, computer monitor, anything) and when it boots up it will print "My IP address is x.x.x.x" close to the bottom of the screen (thanks DragonMinded).

You can use that IP to connect with PuTTY.

Software Install

Best to start with a standard package update (run each line in turn):

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo reboot

Now we add support for GitHub & PIP:

sudo apt install python3-pip git
sudo reboot

This was enough to allow me to follow the steps from @DragonMindeds Netboot Naomi With EEPROM Presets! post

Download the Tools

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/DragonMinded/netboot.git

Install Tool Dependencies

cd netboot
sudo python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
sudo reboot

 

[nam9]

Setting up for Netbooting

Adding Roms

I make use of WinSCP for file transfer:

Navigate to 'netboot' and then 'roms'.
Select your roms to transfer and the click 'Upload'.

Ethernet Settings

While we're in WinSCP, its a good time to decide which IP range you want your Raspberry Pi/Naomi to run on.
While 192.168.1.X is pretty standard, many other Naomi/R.Pi setups use 10.0.0.X for reasons.

Navigate to /home/pi/netboot/services and double click menu.sh to open the text editor and edit the following line:

/home/pi/netboot/netdimm_menu 192.168.1.2 /boot/roms/ --menu-settings-file /boot/netdimm_menu_settings.yaml --persistent

For 192.168.1.2 (IP address of your Naomi NetDimm), just edit /boot/roms to /home/pi/netboot/roms/ :

/home/pi/netboot/netdimm_menu 192.168.1.2 /home/pi/netboot/roms/ --menu-settings-file /boot/netdimm_menu_settings.yaml --persistent

For 10.0.0.2 (IP address of your Naomi NetDimm), edit the IP address as well as /boot/roms to /home/pi/netboot/roms/ :

/home/pi/netboot/netdimm_menu 10.0.0.2 /home/pi/netboot/roms/ --menu-settings-file /boot/netdimm_menu_settings.yaml --persistent

Save and exit.

Back to the PuTTY command line,

sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

Scroll down to interface eth0 and edit as follows (remove comment hashes (#) at the start of each line).
(Here we are setting the IP address of the Raspberry Pi).

For 192.168.1.X:

For 10.0.0.X:

Press Shift+X to exit and Y to save changes.

 

[nam9]

How to autorun Netboot Menu on startup

cd netboot/services
sudo cp menu.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl enable menu
sudo reboot

That should be it.

Wiring everything up

Connect your Raspberry Pi to the Naomi NetDimm via ethernet cable. (Patch cable or regular - should not matter).
(I will assume you have the NetDimm set up for NetBooting as per the @twistedsymphony start-up guide).
Switch everything on! Naomi should boot to Checking Network screen, and if everything is working, the new OSD menu should auto boot!

DragonMinded Test Menu

Hitting the Test button while viewing the menu with open an options screen.
Here you can set the menu to read game titles from file name or from file header.
Reboot to apply.

What about Updates?!?

Fancy new features released? You can pull them into your Raspberry Pi:

cd netboot
git pull --rebase --autostash
sudo python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt --upgrade

Disclaimer!

I am no programming whizz (that would be @DragonMinded ). This guide is based on my trial and error process.
Yes, I have skipped the 'why'. Please see the original post for details.
Yes, there are ways to streamline the process, other tools to use etc. I wanted a fairly fool proof approach.

If anything above isn't clear, let me know. Constructive feedback welcome!

Lastly, thanks again @DragonMinded for all your support - I love this entire concept and it is amazing what you have achieved in such a short space of time!

 

[djsheep]

Great guide. Will get this setup at some point for sure. Having a on screen menu is next level! Thanks @DragonMinded

 

[Aurich]

1x Raspberry Pi (I am using a Pi4 & Pi 3B+ No, I am not really sure how low this goes...)

I'm actually very curious about this. Will the new Pi Zero 2 work for instance? A 4 has got to be crazy overkill.

In these days of shortages be nice to know what works and what doesn't, but also the PZ2 is cheap!

Also, great guide. I don't have a Naomi setup, but love seeing all this recent work on it.

 

[hyp36rmax]

This is great thank you! Will try this out soon.

 

[nam9]

@Aurich I don’t know enough about the R.Pis to give a definitive answer on what will work and why, but I have a PiZero running some IOT/web services without issue…
Main issue would be the lack of ethernet I guess!

 

[Aurich]

Main issue would be the lack of ethernet I guess!

Oh yeah, good call, hadn't considered that. No point in saving a little cash just to end up spending $15 on a USB to ethernet adapter lol. I just know it's getting a bit harder to find basic Pi 3s these days. I just ordered one for a wireless bridge for my laser cutter the other day, and when I went back later to get the store link for someone I noticed they're restricting how many people can buy to try and keep them available for more people.

 

[Nooka King]

Hello everyone! sorry to resurrect a old thread but im hoping you guys can help me resolve an issue with this step in the process of getting my PI 4 set up.

sudo python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

when i use this line in the putty it gives me an error as if these files dont exist anymore. any insight would be super helpful. thanks in advance.

 

[nam9]

Can you share the error message perhaps?

 

[Nooka King]

Here is the error message I am getting, following the instructions to get the Pi 4 working for this application everything has gone well so far till reaching this point.

 

[notsonic]

It probably makes more sense to use the all in one WiPi image https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/naomi-pi-wipi-netbooter-compatible-with-pi-3-4.14019/

The error you're running into is because python is ass and the community cant ever decide how to manage and version control packages. What you're doing is attempting to install the packages in requirements.txt system wide via pip. You should be using a virtual environment, but I don't know if everything you want to do was designed to run in a venv.

If you don't want to use the WiPi image, you can probably proceed fine with --break-system-packages since this is pretty isolated already being on a standalone Pi. The alternative would be to create a venv and install the packages locally.