Trying to install Retropie for the first time

KevinSheedy

Hi,
Apologies as I suspect this is a trivial ask but it's driving me mad.
I'm trying to install Retropie but it just isn't working.
I'm using the image from the Retropie website (retropie-4.5.1-rpi2_rpi3.img), on a 32GB SD card from a CanaKit Pi 3B+.
I format the card, I use Pi Imager to add the image and I get a black screen when I put the SD in.
It's not the system itself as I can add and remove Raspian and Berryboot also worked.
Is there something obvious I'm missing here?
Many thanks.

mitu

Did you unpack/unzipped the image before writing it ?

KevinSheedy

@mitu I did not. It was an .img file rather than .gz which I loaded.

I read this and spent a while trying to unpack it and even used Etcher as I thought this then didn't require unpacking?

mitu

Etcher should be able to write it even if it's zipped. Is the green led blinking/on after you've put the SD card and plugged in the power ?

KevinSheedy

@mitu Nope, just the red light

mitu

Then it probably means the image is not written correctly (explained at https://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting#Red_power_LED_is_on.2C_green_LED_does_not_flash.2C_nothing_on_display).

Try to re-download the image from retropie.org.uk/download and verify it has been downloaded correctly. There's a checksum next to the image, you can use 7Zip to verify the checksum.

KevinSheedy

@mitu Thanks, I'm using a mac tho, is 7Zip windows only?

mitu

@KevinSheedy On macOS, you have the native md5 checksum utility, which you can run from the terminal:

md5 <path/to/retropie-4.5.1-rpi2_rpi3.img.gz>

KevinSheedy

@mitu said in Trying to install Retropie for the first time:

md5 <path/to/retropie-4.5.1-rpi2_rpi3.img.gz>

Right, it's not downloading properly to my mac, how do I fix this?

mitu

@KevinSheedy said in Trying to install Retropie for the first time:

Right, it's not downloading properly to my mac, how do I fix this?

What do you mean by that ? You get an error trying to download it or why is not downloading properly ?

KevinSheedy

@mitu I may have misunderstood but I get two different checksum results so I'm assuming the file I have downloaded is not what I should have. It wasn't a .gz tho, it's an .img file.

mitu

How did you download the file ? Using a browser or other program ?

KevinSheedy

@mitu I clicked on it in Safari, then dragged in into a folder from downloads

mitu

Strange, if I download from Safari, I get prompted to save an .img.gz file

What size is the file ?

KevinSheedy

@mitu Ah, I was just clicking on the button rather than right clicking..... let me try that instead

mitu

@KevinSheedy said in Trying to install Retropie for the first time:

Ah, I was just clicking on the button rather than right clicking.

That's exactly what I did.

KevinSheedy

@mitu That's very odd..... I'm trying with the .gz file in etcher now

mitu

On macOS, I use Apple Pi Baker to write images on the sdcard.

KevinSheedy

@mitu Thank you for all your help, it seems to be working now!