GPI case / raspberry pi Zero (no W) - can't establish SSH connection

dyspho

Hi there !

What I have:

GPI case from retroflag
retro pi zero ( not the W version)
a micro SD card
a laptop running W10

So, I received this cool gameboy case from Retoflag and I am trying to make it work now :)

I've installed retropie and could run it on the case without issue.

Here is the case if you are not familiar with it:
http://retroflag.com/GPi-CASE.html

It has a on/off power switch so they made a script to enable a safe shutdown and safe reset.

To install this script and to transfer roms on the Raspberry Zero, I need to connect my Pi to my computer, right ?
As I don't have the WiFi version of the Pi Zero I have to use the usb ssh connection.

I have followed a dozen of tutorials without any success.

What I have done:

Enable SSH on the configuration screen of Retropie ( like this )
Downloaded and installed Bonjour and Putty
Turned on the Pi (turned on the "case" and booting up retropie)
Connected the "case" to my computer with the USB cable they provided
(I also tried to unmount the Pi and connected it to my computer using a regular Usb Cable, just in case)
Opened Putty
Tried those hostnames:
retropie
raspberrypi.local
hostname -I
Finally, pressed OPEN

Then, nothing happened except an error message saying it can't find anything with this hostname

What should I do now ?

In those various tutorials they say to authorize SSH by adding some line to config.txt , cmdline.txt and adding a blank ssh file without extension.
I did this but then it can't bootup retopie for some reason (until I remove this line from the config.txt file).
(has it kind of overwrite the lines already there on config.txt it seems)

In addition, if I go to the "show IP" on the retropie config screen, I don't have any IP showing up...

I don't know what else to do from here.
Do you have any tips or any links that would show me the way ?
As I said I've followed a lot of step by step on the Gpi case installation, and more generally on the usb ssh connection of the pi zero.

Thanks in advance for your answer.
Feel free to ask if you need extra information.

mitu

What makes you think that plugging the 'case' to your PC will make the PI be networked ? The USB is not a dedicated network interface connector, you need an USB network adapter (wired or wireless) in order to make the Pi get a network address via USB - and have SSH working.

SSH is not authorized by adding something to config.txt- but by creating an empty/blank files named ssh (no extension) to the Boot partition.

mitu

Since the networking connection does not work, try to copy the script to the /boot partition - which you can access from the PC. Afterwards, you can try and run the script with a keyboard connected via USB.

cyperghost

@mitu This will not work. The Retroflag script makes use of gpiozero libary so there is need to install it. Imho the best way would be to utlilze the script for recalbox this should work out of the box becasue all libaries are already installed. Instead of the os.system call shutdown -h me would use killall -w emulationstation && poweroff
Then it should work....

About the SSH thing.... SSH into Pi0 over USB never tried but it could work. Ever heard about that?

mitu

@cyperghost said in GPI case / raspberry pi Zero (no W) - can't establish SSH connection:

About the SSH thing.... SSH into Pi0 over USB never tried but it could work. Ever heard about that?

No, but it might work :).

dyspho

@mitu
Thanks a lot for your answer.

I think the pi Zero just need a USB mini to USB cable to be recognized as a USB/Ethernet gadget by windows.
Not sure a 100% as it's not working on my side but I think it's what the documentation says.

Although, if using a USB network adaptor will fix my connectivity issue I will buy it right away !

Before I buy it any other opinion / reaction on this solution ?

mitu

@dyspho said in GPI case / raspberry pi Zero (no W) - can't establish SSH connection:

I think the pi Zero just need a USB mini to USB cable to be recognized as a USB/Ethernet gadget by windows.

Not out-of-the-box - see @cyperghost's reply with what you need to modify so that it works like you expected. Check the page he linked and make sure those configurations are in-place and then try again.

dyspho

@cyperghost
Thanks for your answer as well.

In my description I wasn't too much into the details but yes I've already tried the blank ssh file + cmdline.txt + config.txt solution.
It's the regular way to do it seems, but it doesn't give any result on my side except not booting retropie until the menu as I've explained (no error then but it's like retropie doesn't recognize the hardware if I boot with those modifications).

mitu

@dyspho Post the configurations you've done on the files.
Make sure you use something like Notepad++ to edit those files, regular Windows Notepad is not - yet - formatting them properly.

dyspho

@mitu
I did as described on this link (previously posted by @cyperghost ), of course, using notepad++

https://desertbot.io/blog/ssh-into-pi-zero-over-usb

mitu

@dyspho Did you use the RetroPie image ? Because the hostname should be retropie.local, not raspberrypi.local, in this case.

dyspho

@mitu just to be sure, in case I missed it, I just tried but unfortunately it doesn't work either.

gtoal

Another thing that can go wrong in this process... saving the wpa_supplicant.conf file to the boot partition - if you use Notepad, it is likely to add a hidden ".txt" extension and save the file as wpa_supplicant.conf.txt which you don't notice because windows hides the .txt extension.

mitu

@gtoal I don't see how this applies to the topic at hand - the poster specifically said it's a non-W(ifi) model and they don't try to use wireless at all.