Troubleshooting

Controller not working

Symptom: Controller is connected but Ember does not respond to input.

1. Check that your user is in the input group:

   groups $USER

   If input is missing:

   sudo usermod -aG input $USER

   Then log out and back in.

2. Verify the controller is visible to the system:

   ls /dev/input/event*

3. Some Bluetooth controllers need to be paired in “gamepad mode” (not keyboard/mouse mode).

Dolphin does not launch fullscreen

Symptom: Dolphin opens in windowed mode.

1. Open Dolphin manually once:

   flatpak run org.DolphinEmu.dolphin-emu

2. Go to Options → Interface → Start in Fullscreen
3. Close Dolphin

This setting is saved in Dolphin’s config and will apply to all future launches.

Video thumbnails not generating

Symptom: Movie and TV show covers are blank.

1. Verify ffmpeg is installed:

   ffmpeg -version

2. Check that Ember has read access to your media directories.

Native video decoder not loading

Symptom: MKV / HEVC files do not play.

1. Check that libavcodec and related libraries are installed:

   # Debian / Ubuntu
   sudo apt install libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev

2. If you are on a system without FFmpeg libraries, Ember will try the GStreamer backend automatically. Ensure GStreamer is installed:

   # Debian / Ubuntu
   sudo apt install libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev

AppImage will not run

Symptom: Double-clicking the AppImage does nothing.

1. Make it executable:

   chmod +x ember-*.AppImage

2. Run from terminal to see errors:

   ./ember-*.AppImage

3. Some distributions require FUSE for AppImage. If missing:

   # Debian / Ubuntu
   sudo apt install libfuse2