Rainbow screen stuck raspberry pi 3b+

ray3d

I have a raspberry pi 3b+ and I have a big image made in a raspberry 3. The point is I formatted a 400gb memory se in the OSX with the SD formatter then with etcher Imload the image to that memory sd card. The problem is a Inhave a large screen with a rainbow colors. I read here there is a beta but just installing the new OS could work. But how can I upgrade the card I have without loading the image? Why? This backup took several years to make and configure and I heard that just making upgrades via commands mabe could work but like I have rainbow color and no wifi configured I don’t know what to do?

Any idea to fix or what could be the problem?

mitu

@ray3d said in Rainbow screen stuck raspberry pi 3b+:

Any idea to fix or what could be the problem?

Support for the 3B+ model has been added to Raspbian last year, that' s why your old system doesn't boot. Either upgrade to Raspbian Strech and update the kernel or use a 4.4 RetroPie image.

ray3d

@mitu How can I update considering I don’t have the old raspberry pi 3? Or I need to find one? Why?Because if it is stuck how you can access and configure wifi and upgrade in the same pi 3b+? I need to fix or upgrade, because download the new image and fresh install is not the solution, like I said, there are several years of configurations there.

mitu

@ray3d said in Rainbow screen stuck raspberry pi 3b+:

I need to fix or upgrade, because download the new image and fresh install is not the solution, like I said, there are several years of configurations there.

There's no magic here - you can't boot without an updated system on a 3B+ model. If you really want to keep your system, then you'll have to find a 3B system to run it (and try the upgrade) OR use something like ext4fuse to read the image on macOS and backup your ROMs and configuration from the Linux partition on the card, then write the new 4.4 image.

ray3d

Ok from osx to read the ext system any link where is suggested what directories to backup? Could be find a needle in a haystack.

simpleethat

@ray3d I would at least grab from these places:

home/pi/RetroPie/roms

home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS

opt/retropie/configs

There might be more but I always make sure to keep those backed up apart from a image dumped from the SD.

Lolonois

@ray3d http://lmgtfy.com/?s=d&q=retropie+wiki+backup See option 2 onwards and less /etc/samba/smb.conf if you want to know where the shares have their folder on the RetroPie.

ray3d

@Lolonois @simpleethat Ok thank you I will check.

ray3d

Can I use this to backup to USB:

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive

It copies everything that comes with the old image (roms, settings, etc.), And is possible then return to the new fresh install? If yes how you return/copy to inside the new fresh install?

simpleethat

@ray3d You would have to be able to actually fully boot the system to be able to turn that feature on.

That being said it is an outside the box way of backing that stuff up easily.

ray3d

@simpleethat Ok I see this script appears strong:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/17546/the-transfer-of-roms-and-more/3

But how do you run? Where do you copy? How you define the usb destination and directory to backup?

simpleethat

@ray3d That I'm not sure. I do one of two things when I want to create a backup that isn't an exact image of my SD card:

Over my network browse my retropie and copy the directories I listed above to either my computer or my NAS (over wifi this can take a lot longer than it needs to.
Use a program that allows me to read the linux partitions on my PC (This is what I use for Windows and Mitu suggested ext4fuse for OSX) and copy them onto my computer or NAS that way (this is actually what I normally do if grabbing everything)

After grabbing all that stuff it's just a matter of writing the new image and copying everything back to where it originally was.

Personally with an image the size of yours I would opt for some kind of USB or NAS solution for ROMs and configs. Then if you ever have to do this again you really just have to do some minor configurations.

Efriim

@simpleethat
What would happen if he were to only update the boot partition with the firmware and kernel?

ray3d

@Efriim Well I was thinking that mainly this:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16145/retropie-upgrading-raspbian-jessie-to-stretch

And is supposed work. I will backup my card to a img and try to make what says there. If doesn’t work I will use ext4 or what suggest @simpleethat and the other guys.

Efriim

What if you were to program_usb_mode and boot from usb; then chroot into the sdcard and upgrade from there?

ray3d

@Efriim I understand the boot from usb but how you chroot? And what would the purpose?

Efriim

@ray3d
400gb is a lot to back up, I don't want for you to lose it.
But if you want to try this the boot directory from my rpi3b+ with all the kernel and firmwares. I don't imagine the kernel will work with raspbian jessie but maybe the firmware will. No it probably isn't worth attempting, you would have your best bet using an ext4 mount and transferring the desired elements.

Anyway boot,

And don't go without backups.

I couldn't tell you how to chroot effectively. chroot changes the root directory so that a process and its child processes exist under the specified rootfilesystem. If you were then to run the update, I don't know if it would work or if it will break.

It sounds way too easy, I think you would invoke chroot like this
sudo chroot /mnt/sda2 /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh
or the mount would be a mmcblk0p2 you would chroot that instead, anyway I think you get the idea.
I'm not very sure, and it's hard to tell from the upgrade guide thread. I think the update process must upgrade the firmware.
I seem to remember one thing or another updating just that. It looks like you would need to update the sources.list @ /etc/apt/sources.list & /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list first.
I think the primary update was under retropie_setup>>configure>>raspbiantools>>Upgrade Raspbian Packages.

Additionally there is the USB boot problem, as far as I know the sdcard has to be removed for the USB to takeover. Then the risky part is putting the sdcard back into this voltage controlled sbc while it is on. It's probably fine, as long as you don't dick around with it.

ray3d

@Efriim Is working making the upgrade of the link posted here. Some minimal details to fix emulationstation but ran incredible well perfect everything after minimal fixes.

Efriim

@ray3d
That's great, did you require to use the kernel, or only the firmwares?

ray3d

@Efriim Imjust followed the instructions from that link to update, upgrade, and I fixed some libraries that had error but very easy nothing complex. And after all the upgrading if I type “lsb_release -r” I receive 9.8 I guess is stretch because 8 is Jessie. Then everything went very smooth and the 400 go intact.