Rainbow screen trouble

quicksilver

@Merktheluddite unfortunately the underlying OS on your old SD card image is not compatible with the pi 3b+. You'll need to back up your roms/configs/bios etc. and then start with a fresh retropie 4.4 image that will be compatible with the 3 b+.

Efriim

@Merktheluddite
Maybe these threads can help

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

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21678/rainbow-screen-stuck-raspberry-pi-3b/14

The original poster of the second thread seemed to have been able to upgrade.
I think OP used his original Raspberry Pi 2/3 to perform the upgrade in thread1, but OP wasn't entirely clear other than stating the original RPi was unavailable to perform upgrades.
But you could try what I posted in thread2; transferring the rpi3b+ firmware and overlays(make a backup first) then boot and upgrade. Transferring the kernel, I don't imagine will work, but you could try that after everything else doesn't work out, just be sure to backup the original boot files.
Lastly you could try to boot from another medium and chroot the disk to invoke the upgrade

EDIT
Follow in this order as suggested; this is the sensible solution.
Migrate roms, bios, configs to a brand new installation

Or

Attempt any of the upgrade roots outlined above in thread1&2 and risk broken updates and other nonsense.
Upgrade using original RPi2/3 hardware.
Attempt a boot transfer using RPI3B+ firmware to then Upgrade using RPi3B+
Boot from another medium, and attempt a chroot upgrade on the retropie sdcard.
Know that upgrading the installation is no shortcut and it will likely run into more problems down the line.

ByteThis

@Efriim That internal upgrade by @Lodan-Zark
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16145/retropie-upgrading-raspbian-jessie-to-stretch doesn't work properly by my own account. You can't update any emulators..has bugs and not reliable. It is better to backup all your necessary roms, configs,bios etc and flash a fresh image and transfer it all back.

This is the best way to upgrade :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16866/migrating-a-working-retropie-setup-to-the-new-stretch-image

herb_fargus

@ByteThis I really don't recommend updating legacy images. Too many pieces to go wrong. It's better to just start with a fresh image and transfer assets over instead.

Merktheluddite

@Efriim @ByteThis @herb_fargus @quicksilver Thank you all for the help, i'm going to try doing a fresh install and the transfer across method. I'll need to transfer the roms, configs, bios, what about the n64 HD packs? Do i do it all through filezilla over wi fi? I'm really remedial with all stuff so please explain to me like i'm an idiot. I do have a backup of the old image on a usb? as well as it being on my computer.

ByteThis

@herb_fargus That's what I was referring to. The thread I linked helps with knowing what folders to backup to transfer over to a fresh image.

Efriim

@Merktheluddite
Connect using filezilla just like ssh, if you have a cat5 you can probably get faster download rates than wifi. I don't know how many of these folders will differ from your installation.
Make backup folders for every item and pull them over

/home/pi/.local/share/mupen64plus/hires_texture/*
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/*
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/*
/opt/retropie/configs/*

not much sense in grabbing anything else unless you have other things stored, like guidebooks in Documents or downloads.
/opt/retropie/emulators/
/etc/emulationstation/themes/ If you have custom theme resources, I don't know if they will be compatible
/home/pi/Retropie/splashscreens/If you have any splashscreens saved.

I don't know how many of the configs will work, you'll just have to import them to the new installation and try.

Merktheluddite

@Efriim brilliant, ill do that. How do i locate all the stuff on the original image so im able to drag and drop? Do i need a pi 3 to do this? When i look at the image on my computer, it doesnt have any of those paths. I know it does through filezilla though. But it just has a kernal image a load of other stuff and an overlay folder with loads of dtbo files in it. Do i have to open it with some other program or via filezilla but using the old pi itself?

Efriim

@Merktheluddite
There are two partitions on the sdcard. The first one the boot partition, is a FAT32 that is accessible in Windows and the second one is a EXT4 file system that is accessible in the linux environment.

We can most readily use the original Raspberry Pi hardware to boot into the source system and download the files. This will be reflected when we install the new retropie version, uploading to the new Raspberry Pi 3B+ target installation.

Once our source system is booted up. Navigate EmulationStation to raspi-config >> Interfacing options>>SSH-enable.

You will need to find the ip address of the raspberry pi that is connected to the local network. Plug a keyboard into the Raspberry Pi press "F4" to exit to the Command Line Interface, and type ifconfig look for the first "inet" address in either wlan0(wifi) or eth0(ethernet); .
or
On the Windows computer connected to the same network, open the command prompt and type arp -a if you have multiple interfaces connected look for the dynamic ip that doesn't look like a router e.g. 192.169.1.1 you can use ipconfig as a reference.
or
Navigate emulationstation to "show IP"

On the Windows computer create some backup folders, and install a sftp client
winscp, filezilla, Bitvise SSH client, or maybe the firefox plugin "fireftp" if that still exists.

Run the SFTP client on the local network windows computer and enter the IP address that we acquired.
When it asks for login credentials the defaults are user:pi and pass:raspberry .
We should have a ftp dual-pane file manager connected to the root filesystem of the source installation on successful connect.

Now navigate to the backup folder in the left(Windows) pane, and navigate the folder we want to backup on the right (Raspberry Pi) pane. Download the folders
/home/pi/.local/share/mupen64plus/hires_texture/
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/
/opt/retropie/configs/
/etc/emulationstation/themes/
/home/pi/Retropie/splashscreens/
I don't know the folders for overlays it might be included in the configs

When we have everything then we are done with the source, and we need to start the new Installation Raspberry Pi3 Target System and in the same way
Enabling SSH,
And connecting using sftp.
This time we upload the folders to where they belong. It is perhaps best do them one by one starting with the roms and bios to make sure they work.
hires_texture >> /home/pi/.local/share/mupen64plus/
roms >> /home/pi/RetroPie/
BIOS >> /home/pi/RetroPie/
configs >> /opt/retropie/
themes >> /etc/emulationstation/
splashscreens >> /home/pi/Retropie/

When the configs folder has been uploaded we need to change the permissions recursively.
Right-Click on the folder /opt/retropie/configs.
Set the user to pi and group to pi or UID 1000.
And set the permissions like this;

       R   W   X
Owner [X] [X] [X]
Group [X] [ ] [ ]
Others[X] [ ] [ ]
[X] Add X to directories
[X] Recursively

Navigate EmulationStation RetroPie Setup >> Configuration / tools >> resetromdirs
It is probably a good idea now to update too RetroPie Setup >> Update

If you have trouble with permission denied while uploading; the end of this post will explain how to get around this using winscp
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21830/deleted-replaced-folders-in-opt-retropie-now-won-t-boot/2

Merktheluddite

@Efriim that is very comprehensive advice much thanks, Hey happy to say it all worked really well too, it wasnt actually that difficult in the end. Just dragged and dropped the right files in and everything seems to be all good! Brilliant thanks!

Efriim

@Merktheluddite
Which FTP client did you decide to use? I haven't really decided which one because I use SFTP so little.

Merktheluddite

@Efriim I used Winscp in the end, super easy.

Efriim

@Merktheluddite said in Rainbow screen trouble:
I'm glad to help, and you're welcome.
I think I would have used Bitvise SSH, because it has SSH included but I don't know how to give root to sftp.

quicksilver

@Efriim you can use winscp to create an ssh connection via putty

Efriim

@quicksilver
So you can, "Ctrl+P"
It is also possible to specify the application to use, kitty superputty or cygwin.

I haven't tried terminus yet, it won't run on my computer.
I got to say. winscp is the best then.