Converting RetroPie (RPI3) image to RPI4 8GB

[crazyleo]

Hi all,

Just got my RPI4 8GB RAM model and I'm wondering if it is possible to convert my existing RPI3 images to RPI4 so I don't have to work hard to setup everything.

Thanks

[Gamesman]

Have you tried just taking the card from the RPi3 and putting it in the RPi4? I would think this would work. But it might depend on what version you have on it.

[BuZz]

@Gamesman that won't work as the rpi4 uses different drivers.

@crazyleo
But if you took a rpi3 buster image (installed from 4.6), let it boot (ES will fail), then SSH in or from terminal run RetroPie-Setup (sudo ~/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh) and then update all packages, you will have a mostly working system, although some configs will need changing. And the emulator selection available is also different, so.some won't be available and won't update, leaving old non working binaries behind.

Unless you're happy comfortable with fixing things, and command line etc, I recommend a fresh install.

[crazyleo]

@Gamesman
No haven't tried it. I was afraid I might loose data on SD card.

[crazyleo]

@BuZz
Thanks. I'll try this tonight. I thought the 8GB version needed a kernel update as it's 64bit only.
I wasn't aware that some systems are not yet compatible.

[dankcushions]

@crazyleo it's not 64-bit only. you can use the 32-bit OS as usual

[crazyleo]

@dankcushions
Thanks for the info.

[crazyleo]

@BuZz
Ok, so I tried it last night with my existing Pi3 image. It didn't make it past the 1st boot (kernel) screen. I got a number of error messages such as these:

• Recovery4.dat not found

• Recover.dat not found

• startup4.dat not found

• Error: 000044

Then there was another message stating that this Pi needs an updated version of the software.

Is there a way to do the update of SD card offline by mounting it?