@Dr_Goggles

I'm about to try the same thing you went through. I tried to update a pi which hasn't seen any updates for the better part of like 5 years, and got errors saying I need to update from stretch. The update finished (with failures) and now the pi boots up the retropie screen, then powers down. So I have to update or else I can't even use the pi.

I have another pi in the house which is basically identical, so I'll be attempting a clean install of buster with the hopes that I don't lose functionality of my very- simplistic use of it. Mostly just watching video files in kodi from an external hdd, and a bunch of roms I can copy from the other pi.

I'll probably make copies of the config and rom folders before I download and flash the new retropie software. But I haven't done this for a few years and I hope it's as easy as it used to be. Any roadblocks you overcame that might help me would be appreciated. I didn't see you make a 'success!' post so I can only assume you got it figured out and are back in business.

@lister-of-smeg I was halfway through another process on resolving the issue when I saw this post, so I didn't get a chance to try it myself. I appreciate your help and the knowledge you shared though!

This whole mess was a lesson learned for me, so I'm on the same page with backing files up now. Copying that RetroPie-Setup folder was my first priority before running git reset --hard. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like anything broke.

Can your run

ls -la /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads/

and post the output ?

I would like to note that on another RPI 4 unit running 4.7.11 that the gamepad configurations do not save and when you exit a rom the controller is unresponsive.

This means the configuration of the gamepad is not saved in the EmulationStation's configuration file. Can you post the contents of $HOME/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg ?

@Faye alright you are using Raspbian/ Debian Jessie. Jessie is the older version as everyone stated. You want to Stretch and that will mean you need to start from scratch with new image. That is no problem at all and good way to learn :) .

BEFORE you start with fresh image i'd highly suggest you copy to your computer the roms, bios, configs folders connecting through your computers network. Now you said wifi isn't connected?

This video below by ETA Prime will walk you through the whole setup of a fresh install of RetroPie. But skip to 6:13 mark in the video there he shows how to setup wifi on the Pi.

Setup your wifi when done back out to the selection screen click '' show my ip '' write down the ip address. And now go to your computer and go to file explorer. Find and click network and give it few secs to show up '' RETROPIE '' .

Now if you don't see RETROPIE when you click network this is where the ip address comes into play. At 7:31 of the video where he puts RETROPIE in you replace that with your ip address you grabbed from the Pi.

Click Retropie and now copy to your computer roms, bios, configs folders.

Once you have copied the folders i asked you to copy from the Retropie image you are using now.

You will now have to get erase the RetroPie image you have now in order to install the new RetroPie image. Follow this video on how to do so.

After you have erased your micro sd card you will need to download a image here https://retropie.org.uk/download/.

Now watch that first video from start to finish and everything should be good.

Sorry if this makes no sense. I'm just trying to help.