Create custom retropie Image

[A Former User]

I have made a lot of tweaks to my retropie 3.7 configs + added a few experimental packages, removed and added some emulators & roms, and altogether done just over an hours work setting things up the way I like it.

I was just wondering can I create a custom image as a backup which I can always flash to an SD Card to continue where I got to should I mess up my setup in the future? I also have a few friends looking at buying a raspberry who would be interested in using the setup I have, so it would be easier to flash my config straight onto an SD card for them rather than getting a stock 3.7 image and spending 1hr+ each time setting it up...

[meleu]

@KiloPIE
maybe you should spend some minutes reading about the power of the dd command! ;)

I think this have enough information for what you want:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/disk_cloning

[batman]

There is also a dedicated page on the retropie wiki's on this very topic:

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/updating-retropie

Under "Making a Backup".

[Rion]

If you are for example running any Ubuntu distro you can use gdiskdump GUI for DD

[A Former User]

Thanks guys, I did google a couple of phrases but just couldnt find the info on this...

[Meneer Jansen]

@meleu said in Create custom retropie Image:

@KiloPIE
maybe you should spend some minutes reading about the power of the dd command! ;)

I think this have enough information for what you want:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/disk_cloning

One word of warning: some people say that dd stands for disk destroy. Dd is a very dangerous command in the wrong (inexperienced) hands. Anyway, I'm gonna have to do this too. My SD cards tend to crach and then I have to -re-install RetroPie and OpenElec. Command in Linux (beware: if you're using Windows (and you most probable are!) you need to someting else) if your SD card is /dev/sdb:

dd bs=4M if=/dev/sdb

Restore bacup to /dev/sdb (beware: if your external backup 1 TB hard disk or the hard disk on your PC is /dev/sdb then all your data is gone forever and ever!):

dd bs=4M of=/dev/sdb

Link: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=46911

Can you backup the Pi's SD card to an image from the Pi itself? AFaIK: no! You need to boot the Pi from another SD card containing Linux (i.e. Raspbian) and connect the SD card via an USB SD-card reader to your Pi. Then you'll have to determine the SD's cards device name (i.e. /dev/sdX). Dd cannot be used on a drive that is in use (i.e. that is mounted).

Anyway, maybe there is some Windows utility that's safer than dd.

[Floob]

FWIW I tend to shrink the image then grab it with Win32Disk Imager
http://smartretro.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=58

[wetriner]

@Meneer-Jansen It my just be my paranoia, but I tend to only use dd with more specific device terms. I typically use dd if=/dev/disk/by-id/mmc-[TAB], which will only ever give me the ID of a currently plugged in SD card. The ID also contains the file system size. So I can't ever mix it up with my hard drive or usb drives. I would imagine mixing up sda and sdb would be much easier.

[Meneer Jansen]

@wetriner said in Create custom retropie Image:

@Meneer-Jansen It my just be my paranoia, but I tend to only use dd with more specific device terms. I typically use dd if=/dev/disk/by-id/mmc-[TAB], which will only ever give me the ID of a currently plugged in SD card. The ID also contains the file system size. So I can't ever mix it up with my hard drive or usb drives. I would imagine mixing up sda and sdb would be much easier.

Very safe method! Recommended.

[meleu]

When using dd you must allways remember the classic uncle Ben's quotation. ;)