Trying to transfer to larger SD card

sremick

So I'm trying to transfer everything to a different/larger SD card.

The original was on Stretch I think. I imaged the new card using Raspberry Pi Imager on Windows. I then mounted the card in Linux in order to read the ext4 partitions, and used "sudo cp -R" commands to copy over the following folders:

~/RetroPie/roms
~/RetroPie/BIOS
~/RetroPie/splashscreens
/opt/retropie/configs

But it still boots to the default command line prompt and not the GUI as I had it before. What did I miss copying over?

mitu

@sremick said in Trying to transfer to larger SD card:

The original was on Stretch I think. I imaged the new card using Raspberry Pi Imager on Windows

Imaged with which image ? The RetroPie image or a plain Rapbian image ?

sremick

@mitu said in Trying to transfer to larger SD card:

Imaged with which image ? The RetroPie image or a plain Rapbian image ?

The RetroPie "image" resulting from using the "Raspberry Pi Imager" tool.

mitu

Does EmulationStation run if you start it manually ?
If yes, run the RetroPie-Setup script and re-configure autostart settings (set EmulationStation to auto-start).

Ashpool

@sremick Out of curiosity, had you started the fresh image at least once, so that it runs through the initial boot/startup (expansion of filesystem, ?is there anything else?)? I really don't know if meddling with the content of the filesystem before that could do any harm, from the OS side I am inclined to say no, though personaly I wouldn't do it, just in case I am wrong here.

Edit: 2nd thoughts, I am inclined to say no under certain conditions: as long as the before-resize image-partition is large enough to hold the modifications. And as most images are shrinked to bare minimum (block size), that could be problematic.

pscotto1234

Try to:

Image your SD Card;
Write image to new sd card;
Boot retropie and expand file system;
Enjoy

sremick

@mitu said in Trying to transfer to larger SD card:

Does EmulationStation run if you start it manually ?

It does not. I get the same blue ES logo and progress bar as I get on boot, but then it just drops me to the CLI: https://imgur.com/a/Cd1a29C

sremick

@Ashpool said in Trying to transfer to larger SD card:

Out of curiosity, had you started the fresh image at least once, so that it runs through the initial boot/startup (expansion of filesystem, ?is there anything else?)?

Yes, that worked fine and I saw the full capacity of the 64GB card after.

I really don't know if meddling with the content of the filesystem before that could do any harm, from the OS side I am inclined to say no, though personaly I wouldn't do it, just in case I am wrong here.

I wasn't able to anyway since there's only like 15MB free before it expands.

Ashpool

@sremick As said, just out of curiosity... but if mitus advice wasn't solving the problem. ... maybe time to pinpoint the problematic part and doing it step by step?
As you went through the initial start of the new media: If you went through the 2nd boot and gone all the way through the controller config and such (Wifi/Lan/etc. in raspi-config) I would take an image as a fallback (if it takes more than one or two tries, the time invested in this, is time saved later on). If we skip the configuration, the plain approach with a fresh image each time sounds equally suited... :
Just copying roms and bios should be safe in one go, does the boot is ok afterwards? Is it ok after splashscreens? ... you see what I try to say? After what step in transfering your old data the problem does happen/occur?

sremick

@Ashpool said in Trying to transfer to larger SD card:

As said, just out of curiosity... but if mitus advice wasn't solving the problem. ... maybe time to pinpoint the problematic part and doing it step by step?
As you went through the initial start of the new media: If you went through the 2nd boot and gone all the way through the controller config and such (Wifi/Lan/etc. in raspi-config) I would take an image as a fallback (if it takes more than one or two tries, the time invested in this, is time saved later on). If we skip the configuration, the plain approach with a fresh image each time sounds equally suited... :
Just copying roms and bios should be safe in one go, does the boot is ok afterwards? Is it ok after splashscreens? ... you see what I try to say? After what step in transfering your old data the problem does happen/occur?

Well, I've been trying to pin it down. I have tried:

multiple imaging tools
multiple SD cards
multiple TVs
multiple HDMI cords
multiple power adapters for the RasPi3

I have also confirmed the MD5 hash of the file I downloaded.

The 2nd boot immediately after imaging (after it expands the partition) tries to load EmulationStation, asks about controllers but I just hit [F4] then it drops me to this prompt: https://imgur.com/a/Cd1a29C
I can launch the util from the command line to configure wifi but in my head, way back I got to that util from the EmulationStation GUI. And people keep telling me that it should by default boot into the ES GUI. So it's not behaving correctly even before I try to copy my data from the old card. I'm left scratching my head as to what is wrong.

mitu

@sremick said in Trying to transfer to larger SD card:

I can launch the util from the command line to configure wifi but in my head, way back I got to that util from the EmulationStation GUI. And people keep telling me that it should by default boot into the ES GUI.

It does boot into ES - you just said earlier that it prompted you to configure the controller but you just exited to the command prompt with F4. You can configure the keyboard as a controller if you wish and you'll not be prompted anymore. After configuring the WiFi, you can then proceed to transfer your files over the network.

EDIT: it's now also possible to configure WiFi automatically, by adding a configuration file on the boot partition with the relevant info. The OS will import the configuration at the next boot and the WiFi will be configured. More info here.

sremick

@mitu Problem solved. As I suspected, it was something stupid that I was doing that simply wasn't making its way across in communication.

I thought pressing [F4] just quit the controller config and would take me to ES. I didn't realize it was that which was kicking me to the CLI. facepalm

Everything is good now. Thanks for your willingness to help.