General questions and thoughts about RetroPie update procedure

TimZett

Suppose I perform the following upgrade path:

sudo apt-get update and then, sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Perform Update (second list item) from the RetroPi-Setup Script

Does point 2 make point 1 obsolete?
Is there a risk that point 2 makes functional changes or functional additions at some basic onfiguration files, e.g. retroarch.cfg or config.txt, so that I cannot restore my related configuration from a backup anymore because of potential incompatibilities?
Will point 2 also update the binary packages (core/main/optional) or would I still have to do this manually later?

As a side node, I am really scared about point 2 because I noticed that it messes with the BlueTooth stack on the Pi and hence, I pray that after I did it, I can still get my Shanwan PS3 controllers working at all.
One the other hand, I want to update and hence, benefit from improvements etc.

mitu

@TimZett A normal update will

update the RetroPie-Setup script
(optionally, you'll be asked) will update the OS packages (via apt-get)
update all installed packages - if a package has a binary upload, the binary will be downloaded and unpacked, otherwise the update will be from source.

Any configuration file is being written during the post-installation of phase of a package, however, to address your questions

The global retroarch.cfg is only written on the first installation, it's not modified during upgrades. The same applies to any system's retroarch.cfg files.
The /boot/config.txt is only modified by the xboxdrv.sh package to set dwc_otg.speed=1 (I wonder why). It used to be also modified by the emulationstation package to ensure enough VRAM is reserved for running the frontend, but not anymore.

About the BT stack - ironically the PS3 controllers are usually the main culprit for causing this, but I'm not sure if the BT stack is automatically updated if you don't have any specific driver installed (i.e. customhidsonly or the ps3 driver).

Generally, the update wouldn't try to touch any user configuration files and only update the binaries. If you're weary of a mishap because of the configuration, I'd say update your OS as you see fit (via apt-get) and update only the packages you're interested in or you know they provide bugfixes (emulators, emulationstation, etc.) and backup your image before making any full updates (which you can occasionally do).

TimZett

That's what I call an all-encompassing answer ;-)
Thanks a lot mitu.