New image/save configurations

[vir_mu]

Hello. I'm currently running Retropie 3.5 on a Pi 2. I've spent many hours tweaking it just perfectly for my needs. I'd like to upgrade to the latest version of Retropie, but that's running on Raspbian Jessie and I'm still running Wheezy. Instead of upgrading Wheezy to Jessie, it's suggested just to start with a brand new image.

Is there any way to easily save and/or port my configurations (Emulation Station look and feel, controller configs, scraping, etc.) over to the new image or will I have to set everything up all over again?

[mediamogul]

@vir_mu

I use a script for this purpose that makes a backup of everything I've changed to be prepared for such a future update. I have it to where it can be activated from the RetroPie menu and I use it after I make any big changes. It's also set to keep only my past two backups and delete anything older.

If you like, you can take a look at what I'm backing up and use it as a guide, adding what is important to you and removing what is not. If you don't feel comfortable using a script, you can just pull everything over manually using ssh, ftp or even smb. Restoring everything is pretty much as simple as putting the files back on a new install, or using them as reference.

Edit: If you used the script, you would also need to change both mentions of /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/ to wherever it is you want the backups to go. Just make sure that nothing else goes in whatever folder you choose, as the script will delete anything in there older than the past two backups.

#!/bin/sh
# Change the numeral in "head -n -*" to however many backups are to be kept.

foldername=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M) && \
mkdir -p /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/"$foldername" && \
sudo cp -rfv \
	/boot/config.txt \
	/etc/fstab \
	/etc/udev/rules.d \
	/etc/rc.local \
	/opt/retropie/configs \
	/home/pi/.config \
	/home/pi/.openMSX \
	/home/pi/.stella \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/Joystick\ Mappings \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/RetroPie\ Backup \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS \
	/media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/"$foldername"/
cd /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/ && \
ls -1tr | head -n -2 | xargs -d '\n' rm -rfv --

[vir_mu]

Thanks! This looks like a great start. Do you know which folder(s) stores cover art and descriptions for games? I've had to do a lot of corrections from initial scrapings and wanted to make sure I don't lose that.

[herb_fargus]

@vir_mu you can rescrape them with sselphs scraper with the setting to scrape into rom folders so in the future the images will stay with your roms. The default location should be /home/pi/. emulationstation/

[vir_mu]

Thank you. I wasn't aware of Sselphs scraper until now and just used the built-in ones which...weren't great.

In any case, I think I feel confident enough to be able to maintain my tweaks when setting up a new retropie image. Thanks to you both.