Can you do this with autostart.sh?

/opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh:

emulationstation #auto

As a quick test I added an "echo" command so the file now reads:

emulationstation #auto echo Are you there?

Then I pressed ctrl-D to start EmulationStation and quit with F4. The terminal asked "Are you there?" before displaying the retropie_welcome message and command prompt.

Note: this worked when using any of ctrl-D, exit, or logout to end the current bash login and call the autostart script. It did not work when just running the emulationstation command by itself.

So I think if, instead of an "echo" command, you used the startx (start the desktop) command, it might do what you want? Boots to EmulationStation on login and then, when ES quits, go to the desktop.

/opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh:

emulationstation #auto startx

@otello

Any suggestions?

You can check out the Keyboard Configuration File at /etc/default/keyboard.

Not sure if this will help but try this...

When you're remoted in, run the RPi Software Configuration Tool with sudo raspi-config and go to Localisation Options then Change Keyboard Layout and run through that to reset those settings.

@derebo pick one or the other. You can't do both

Try to run these commands separately:

sudo apt-get remove --purge lxde*

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get autoremove

reboot

The default virtual keyboard (matchbox-keyboard) has an issue where the desktop becomes unresponsive while the keyboard is open, so use xvkbd instead. I'll edit this post with instructions later

Many thanks for your reply, they have helped me a lot.

I still got this error in 2021 when I installed chromium in retropie using zerojay/RetroPie-Extra, so i thought i'd chime in with my fix that worked after looking at other's comments and suggestions.
I needed to set the /dev/tty* files/folders to be readable.
so in commandline;
cd /dev/
sudo chmod 666 tty*

hope this helps someone.

After I disabled the splashscreen the problem was solved. I tried both option autostart from raspi-config and the retropie-setup. The problem was the splashscreen. Thanks.

it's still in raspbian tools, under "Configuration / Tools" from the main menu.