Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on

Tango

I've been using RetroPie on a Pi3 for several years because I had my Pi4s in use on other projects (and then there was the supply issue...). I'm at a point now where I can use a Pi4 for RetroPie.

So if I install RetroPie on a new Pi, and want to keep all the settings for the games and emulations and for emulation station, plus high scores, and so on, what do I need to copy from the Pi3 to the Pi4? I know where the ROMs are and my thought is if I recursively copy the directory in /home, that should get everything: ROMs, high scores, any configuration settings, and so on.

I searched for info on this, but kept finding info about upgrading an existing system, so I'm not sure if i used the wrong terms in a search or if upgrading to a new Pi is done that much.

abj

You can backup Roms, Bios and configuration files, see: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/?h=back#making-a-backup

Tango

Option 3 is the most helpful, since that is the only one that does not focus on making a full drive image.

So those folders on the SMB share contain ALL the settings and high scores and so on? In other words, if I copy those, say, with rsync, from the current Pi3 to the new Pi4, then the new system will basically look like and behave like the current one?

I'm just double checking to make sure I have it straight before I do it and run into some unexpected issue.

abj

I don't know where the High scores are saved. I strongly recommend you to not delete your old setup until your are sure that everything is ok with the new one.

mitu

@Tango said in Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on:

So those folders on the SMB share contain ALL the settings and high scores and so on? In other words, if I copy those, say, with rsync, from the current Pi3 to the new Pi4, then the new system will basically look like and behave like the current one?

Yes, as long as you install the same emulators/ports/applications.

Tango

@mitu

@mitu said in Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on:

Yes, as long as you install the same emulators/ports/applications.

Is there some documentation somewhere about what emulators have been added or dropped over time? (I think I remember reading somewhere that AdvMame was dropped.)

mitu

@Tango said in Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on:

Is there some documentation somewhere about what emulators have been added or dropped over time? (I think I remember reading somewhere that AdvMame was dropped.)

You can take a look at the commit history in the git repository or in the changelog that's published when a new image is released.

Advmame wasn't 'dropped', it's just the old versions are not compatible with the Pi4, thus not installable on that system. The latest Advmame version (the only one that's still maintained) is still compatible with the Pi4.

Tango

@mitu

@mitu said in Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on:

Advmame wasn't 'dropped', it's just the old versions are not compatible with the Pi4, thus not installable on that system. The latest Advmame version (the only one that's still maintained) is still compatible with the Pi4.

Kind of sad to see that one go. I had one or two games that were a pain to use, in terms of control location, and it was easy to reprogram them on AdvMame. It's been a couple years since I had to do any configuration like that, but I would think the other MAME would have something similar - I'd just have to take time to map it out.

Tango

Now that I am ready to do this (I always ask about things like this before I start - you never know what kind of issues you'll have to deal with), it looks to me that if I can take the memory out of the original RetroPi system on a Pi3 and plug it into the new Pi4 system, I can just do something like this:

rsync -avz /media/usb1/home/pi/RetroPie/* /home/pi/RetroPie/

And that will just copy everything in that directory tree, which means the 4 folders specified in the backup instructions. Am I missing anything or is there a hidden issue with that?

(Considering that, in the past, I remember it taking over 12 hours on a Pi3 to copy all my ROMs from one USB stick to another, I'm thinking I'd rather do it all on the same system, to avoid tying up the LAN and because that'd be a lot faster.)

sleve_mcdichael

@Tango said in Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on:

And that will just copy everything in that directory tree, which means the 4 folders specified in the backup instructions. Am I missing anything or is there a hidden issue with that?

Of those "four folders," only three of them are under /home/pi/RetroPie; the last one (configs) points to /opt/retropie/configs instead.

(Considering that, in the past, I remember it taking over 12 hours on a Pi3 to copy all my ROMs from one USB stick to another, I'm thinking I'd rather do it all on the same system, to avoid tying up the LAN and because that'd be a lot faster.)

Are you booting it from the USB stick? If just the roms are on it (and you're booting from the microSD card), that part should swap out fine between one system and another. Just install RetroPie on the new hardware, plug in the USB rom storage and reboot, right? Then you'll only have to copy over the configs folder from the other system.

Tango

@sleve_mcdichael

@sleve_mcdichael said in Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on:

Of those "four folders," only three of them are under /home/pi/RetroPie; the last one (configs) points to /opt/retropie/configs instead.

D'oh! (And oops!)

I saw the path for 2 and checked and thought, "Okay, that's it. Easy." Thank you for catching my goof - I bet this also explains why, when I plugged it into the arcade cabinet controller, it didn't know what to do with the controllers. (Well, it didn't recognize them - wanted me to configure controllers.) Am I right in my guess about that?

@sleve_mcdichael said in Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on:

Are you booting it from the USB stick? If just the roms are on it (and you're booting from the microSD card), that part should swap out fine between one system and another.

A bit of history here - and I will try to make it super-brief! First, we're in a rural area. When I first set up my arcade cabinet, back during early 2020, during lockdowns and pandemic stuff, we were having issues with power flickering - not losing power, but just enough of a flicker that something like the Pi there would shut down. I was using a microSD card. Every time we had flickers, I had to put the card in another Linux computer and read it - that's all it took, just reading the disk structure on it - and it would fix it.

After 4 or 5 times of this, I finally got a UPS for this system, but it also told me the cards can be flakey, so I just put the entire system on a USB stick, which is much slower, but more robust. Since then I've learned about how to get better MicroSD cards that are more robust. But for the past 4 years, I've been running that same system on my Pi3B+, on the same USB stick. I didn't want to spend the time copying the OS to another medium until I finally was going to upgrade to a Pi4.

Now I have a 256GB MicroSD for software and ROMs - and I have a lot of ROMs! The problem is I know many are duplicates. I wiped out a lot of the dupes using diff recursively to delete identical files. But I still have games that I have 2-5 copies of. I know it's different versions, but it's not humanly possible to sort through that many of 'em!

sleve_mcdichael

@Tango said in Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on:

when I plugged it into the arcade cabinet controller, it didn't know what to do with the controllers. (Well, it didn't recognize them - wanted me to configure controllers.) Am I right in my guess about that?

Yeah, probably the controller profile was in this "configs" folder, which didn't get copied over with the other three.

so I just put the entire system on a USB stick

Aye, then yeah will have to copy them over the new system.

Tango

@sleve_mcdichael

@sleve_mcdichael said in Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on:

Yeah, probably the controller profile was in this "configs" folder, which didn't get copied over with the other three.

I did that - synced the config directory. I've run into a problem and, since I felt it really wasn't a part of this topic, I started another thread on it. In short, all the controls on my arcade cabinet work except the spinner. I'm hoping there isn't some timing issue or something with the Pi4 that doesn't get along with the spinner.

@sleve_mcdichael said in Going from Pi 3 to Pi 4 and keeping all settings, high scores, and so on:

Aye, then yeah will have to copy them over the new system.

One thing I just love about Pis is that you can do that. You can pull a card or USB stick out of one and plug it into the other and it'll work fine - or you can pull the "drive" out of one and easily plug it in another and copy all the data to the new system.