Loading retroarch.cfg Crashes RetroArch | Settings Don't Stick

[TheRhysWyrill]

Description

When loading a retroarch.cfg file using the Load Configuration option RetroArch crashes, when the config file does load the settings don't appear to stick after restarting RetroArch.

Expected behavior

For RetroArch to load the .cfg file correctly and for the settings to remain changed after restarting RetroArch.

Actual behavior

RetroArch freezes then eventually crashes a few moments later, appears to be due to a menu driver conflict.

Steps to reproduce the bug

For the crash:

1. Create a config file with a menu driver different to the one you're using.
2. Load said config file.

For the settings:

1. Create a config file with the same menu driver as the one you're using as well as an obvious change you could check has stuck such as the FPS counter.
2. Load said config file.
3. Restart RetroArch.

Bisect Results

It's been happening for as long as I can recall, seems to happen regardless of platform too.

Version/Commit

• RetroArch: [1.10.3/8addb08]

Environment information

• OS: Windows 11 21H2 | Xbox Series X

[LibretroAdmin]

Got a stack trace or can none be reproduced?

[TheRhysWyrill]

When debugging and loading the cfg with a differing driver (I was using Ozone and the cfg used xmb) I get a read access violation on Line 67 of stdstring.h with an error of xmb->bg_file_path was 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF, this seems to happen regardless of where the .cfg file is loaded from.

When doing it the other way around (using XMB and the cfg used Ozone) I get another read access violation but for a completely different file, this time it's Line 272 or rhmap.h with an error of hdr was 0x3F7FFFD8, again this happens regardless of where the cfg file is loaded from.

[LibretroAdmin]

Can you maybe hang out on Discord? Try to join our Discord and talk to a person named hunterk. He will then direct you to one of our admins.

[drjackyl]

I came here because I made the same experience. I'm using RetroArch on a Steam Deck via EmuDeck.

Any news on it? Will you update the thread here from eventual discussions on Discord?

[jayare5]

You know, I made an issue that could probably be combined with this.

Issue: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/13548

But the way I suggest it there is that you load a cfg first, and then click something to rewrite the default retroarch.cfg. However, seeing your problem considering the video driver thing causing it to crash, MAYBE what we need is an option that rewrites the default retroarch.cfg with the contents of a cfg you choose, but without loading it, so that THEN you could restart safely with the changed video driver or any other settings!

But Im not sure if it will attempt to rewrite again when you manually hit restart, because I think RA writes to the currently loaded cfg upon exiting or something.

Any ideas?