Retropie: Upgrading Raspbian Jessie to Stretch

[Lodan-Zark]

Upgrade as your risk, make a sd card backup before procedure with upgrade just in case.

1. Update Retropie-Setup script:
   sudo ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh then go to "Update Retropie-Setup script"

2. Edit Sources:
   Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list and replace the keyword "jessie" to "stretch" in every single field.
   You can use WinSCP or sudo nano to edit it those.

3. Reboot
   sudo shutdown -r now

4. Upgrade OS and installed packages:
   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade && sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge && sudo apt-get -y autoclean

5. Reboot
   sudo shutdown -r now

6. Install retropie related packages from source:
   sudo ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh and install everything from source (Retroarch, emulationstation, libretrocores, etc)
   Update: the stretch binary's are now available, there is no need to install from source anymore.

7. Reboot
   sudo shutdown -r now

Optional: Upgrading firmware to the latest (nightly) version:
sudo apt-get install rpi-update && sudo rpi-update followed by a reboot
If you wish to restore the firmware to the stable version you can use this command:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall libraspberrypi-bin libraspberrypi-dev libraspberrypi-doc libraspberrypi0 raspberrypi-bootloader raspberrypi-kernel

[mitu]

@lodan-zark Is there something new you know ? RetroPie is not yet supported on Stretch - in fact there is an ongoing PR on the project page for adding support for it. Your instructions will break a RetroPie set-up on Jessie.

[Lodan-Zark]

@mitu
The Strech support was pushed already in the github: click

I am using it right now and i have no issues so far

[mitu]

@lodan-zark Good to know.

[BuZz]

It's not complete. Upgrade at your own risk.

[Darksavior]

ES wouldn't load for me. It says it needs libboost_system.so. ES also complained it couldn't install vlc. I use the Pegasus frontend anyways, and that was missing libopenVG.so but installing the nightly fixed that. The gamecon driver won't build so I'll be going back to my jessie backup. Something about kernel headers not being installed. I did try an emulator and that did work.
Update: here we go..reverted to stable and gamecon driver installs.

[Lodan-Zark]

I found my first issue with stretch build, for some reason I am not able to connect 8bitdo sfc30 gamepad via bluetooth.

[herb_fargus]

@lodan-zark I have the same controller but I haven't tried connecting it yet. When I find time I'll try to see if I can reproduce

[lilbud]

@lodan-zark Any benefits to using Stretch over Jessie?

[Lodan-Zark]

@herb_fargus

PS: I'm using firmware 4.02 so I have the 8bitdo mapping hack set to OFF

• I entered the RetroPie-Setup,
• went to "Configuration / tools" -> "bluetooth - Configure Bluetooth Devices",
• pressed select on the gamepad for 3 seconds until blue light starts blinking,
• went to "Register and Connect to Bluetooth Device" and the gamepad was detected, so I registered it,
• went to "Set up udev rule for Joypad, and the data it was stored sucessfully,
• rebooted the system and with gamepad turned on and couldn't be detected by the emulationstation via bluetooth, but I can still use it via USB.

Just in case i went to "Connect to now to all registered devices"
and it shows up the follow message "Unit sixad.service could not be found."

[Lodan-Zark]

@lilbud
you can find the answear here:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspbian-stretch/

[Swampy]

Someone tested the upgrade?

Cause Retropie stretch is very advanced for now.

[Stivi]

Hello,

i´ve tested the upgrade and it´s working fine!
I also upgraded the raspberry pi hardware from a PI 3 B to the new PI 3 B+ in the same step with success.

Everything i´ve tested is working.

[steeeb]

Works great on 3b+

[Alturis]

So wait, is the best practice to upgrade to stretch prior to swapping out to a B+ with that same SD card?

Meaning follow these procedures on your B, then swap that microSD over to your new B+?

[Alturis]

@lodan-zark said in Retropie: Upgrading Raspbian Jessie to Stretch:

Install retropie related packages from source:
sudo ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh and install everything from source (Retroarch, emulationstation, libretrocores, etc)
Update: the stretch binary's are now available, there is no need to install from source anymore.

So does that also mean that we can just do an "Update Installed Packages" operation once we have changed all the setup script sources from jessie to stretch?

[BuZz]

I recommend you don't upgrade and instead start from the Stretch image.

But you would need to update all packages if you have updated a Jessie install to Stretch or the RetroPie packages won't work (due to dependency/library changes).

[Nowun]

@lodan-zark Thanks for this guide! I am doing the final updates for step 7 now. Is this going to leave the old files from my installations while using the previous version? Do I have any manual clean up to do?

[Nowun]

Just wanted to report in that after following these steps I have a successful migration to stretch on my 3B+ with no loss of configurations! You may want to put in a note about having to hit space to scroll during upgrade, because it doesn't really prompt you and as a noob it took me some poking around to figure out. Also hitting Q was needed to escape some notes that come up during the process.

Quite painless, and I am right where I left off on my 3b. I completed these steps on my 3b, and then my 3B+ simply works with it right where I left off on my 3b!

Great guide!

[Nowun]

@alturis I completed these steps on my 3b, and simply moved the sd card to my 3b+. I did this much later on than the original posting mind you so with newer updates this process may have been simplified since.