First boot up of retropie comes up with a command line.

[slomo0077]

So I've successfully placed retropie on my micro sd card and I've set up my controllers and it brings me to a black screen. It has a picture of a raspberry on it. Can somebody tell me how to start playing roms? Thanks.

Retropie version: 2.8.1
Raspberry pi 3.

[rbaker]

@slomo0077 Read this:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

then this:

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki

Also, Retropie is currently on V4.0 Beta! Does version 2.8 even run on a Pi 3? It might but why run it?

[slomo0077]

@rbaker Ow sorry, I was saying the wrong version. I'm currently using 3.8.2. Also, the link you sent me doesn't cover the command line/terminal I'm experiencing.

[rbaker]

@slomo0077 What is the rest of the setup? Power supply? Based on the limited info you provide, I would guess insufficient power to boot the device properly. SD card? http://elinux.org/RPi_SD_cards. In order to give further assistance:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

[slomo0077]

@rbaker Here's what it looks like: https://www.element14.com/community/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-19125-218172/Command-Line.jpg

[slomo0077]

@rbaker The official raspberry pi 3 power supply (https://thepihut.com/products/official-raspberry-pi-universal-power-supply)
A 128gb SD card from SanDisk
A standard HDMI cable

[BuZz]

If that is your screenshot - That is an ancient version of RetroPie - it's not 3.8 (There is no version 3.8.2 of the RetroPie-Setup script)

[slomo0077]

@BuZz I just found it on google images and it looks nearly identical to mine.

[slomo0077]

@BuZz it just doesn't have the white text on top.

[BuZz]

Please post a picture of your screen - a "similar" one from someone else isn't much use.

I suspect the image was not written correctly, or you have a faulty/incompatible sd card. Are any errors displayed ?

[rbaker]

@slomo0077 Are you using Noobs? It's not compatible with 128GB cards as I understand it.

[slomo0077]

https://imgur.com/a/BmoM3
I'm also not using NOOBS but the direct install from the retropie website.

[BuZz]

I would try writing the image again - I can only think the startup script has somehow been lost/broken.

what is the output of cat /etc/profile.d/10-emulationstation.sh

Did you do anything else apart from setup a controller ?

[slomo0077]

It comes up with:

# launch emulationstation (if we are on the correct tty)
[ "'tty'" = "/dev/tty1" ] && emulationstation

And no, I have only connected my keyboard to it and nothing else.

[BuZz]

and what happens if you type emulationstation ?

[slomo0077]

@BuZz It gives me the welcome screen and it tells me to configure a gamepad.

[BuZz]

Something has gone wrong with the autostarting - not sure what, but i would write a fresh image (might be some filesystem corruption or something).

[slomo0077]

@BuZz Ow, thank you. I'll update you if it works. Again, thanks. also thank you @rbaker for trying to help me as well.

[slomo0077]

Yay, it worked after a fresh install and a SD format. Again, thank you for everyone helping in this thread and somehow surviving helping a newbie.

[UrWelcomeGoogler]

Apologies for the bump but this thread is the top result on Google so hopefully this answer will help a lot of people.

If you're having this problem, try running sudo ./RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh then going to Configuration / tools > splashscreen and set Enable splashscreen on boot to disabled.