Retropie Install on M.2 SATA SSD

TUFFDEC1

Hello Everyone,
Newbie here

I have no issue running Raspberry Pi OS on M.2 SATA SSD in my Argon One M.2 Case
But when I install Retropie to the same M.2 SATA SSD, the system will not boot into Retropie

I am not sure what has to be done to get it to work.
My M.2 SATA SSD Drive is 500GB and will hold multiple Roms etc.
Retropie will work from USB on Micro SD but that Card is too small.

Anyone with experience using the Argon One M.2 Case please feel free to give some tips
Ty
Dennis

mitu

RetroPie's latest image (4.7.1) should be able to boot from USB - how did you install RetroPie ?

TUFFDEC1

@mitu
Hello,
I installed Retropie to SD the first time and it worked ok from the SD slot, then I did all the needed updates to Raspbian OS and also the eeprom so the device would be capable of booting from the USB by choosing the boot order. At that time , I moved the SD Card to the USB3.0 and got Retropie to boot.
Once it booted ok from USB, powered down the Pi 4 and then Copied the SD over to the m.2 SATA SSD by way of the PC.
I put the M.2 into the Argon One M.2 Case and turned on the Pi 4.
But nothing happened boot failed (claiming it could not find the SD) and boot order was to use the USB which I am told is the only option to go with when utilizing the M.2 ?
So to rule out that the M.2 would not boot anything, I made a new simple partition of the M.2 using Windows 10 and created a FAT 32. Using a fresh clean M.2 I installed only Raspbian OS. Then reinstalled the M.2 back into the Argon One Case and turned on the Pi 4 again. The Raspbian OS came right on and all was good. So I am baffled why Retropie refuses to run from the M.2.
I purposely purchased this case because I wanted more space to install ROMS etc.
Hope that explains the process I went through? I am not an expert by any means so please chime in with suggestions.

mitu

@tuffdec1 If your boot EEPROM (on the PI) is up-to-date (and it looks like it is), all you have to do is flash the 4.7.1 image on the SSD and it should boot. Don't manually copy the SDcard over the SSD, just flash the image directly.

TUFFDEC1

@mitu Ty
I will try that and see how it goes ?

MacGyver

It might be the the KMS dtoverlay setting in /boot/config.txt
If I try to use the full driver with:

dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d-pi4

It will boot, but emulationstation won't load and it will drop straight to the CLI.

But if I use the fake driver it boots fine:

dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d

TUFFDEC1

@mitu Hello all,
So I did as suggested and got a fresh download of 4.7.1 and flashed successfully using Balena Etcher
It did boot into retropie for the first time since the beginning of December.

I guess I need a really good tutorial on Retropie full setup for a Noobie
anyone tell me where to find a step by step tutorial ?
At the moment I just have my Controller setup and nothing else.
There are no Games at all that I can see or anything else ?

mitu

@tuffdec1 said in Retropie Install on M.2 SATA SSD:

There are no Games at all that I can see or anything else ?

RetroPie doesn't include any games - you'll need to provide that. The Docs have a section for getting started, explaining how to copy your games.

mrmichaelhallett

@tuffdec1
You can't copy the card in a PC (Windows) because it can't see all the partitions on a Linux boot disk (sdcard, USB, M.2). AFAIK it will only copy the partition that it can see (Fat32 or Exfat) not any EXt3 or EXT4 Linux partitions.

Unless: You boot to a linux distro on your laptop (live or installed)

You can use the Raspbian cloner utility to clone from USB to M.2 or from SDCard to M.2 and it will get all the partitions

Hope thatt helps

mrmichaelhallett

@tuffdec1
RetroPie just provides the emulation.

You have to supply the BIOS for each game console

and ...
ROMS for each game

removed
use a VPN, you'lll get why once you see the whole picture.

https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/homebrew-retro-gaming-legal-roms-for-retropie-and-lakka
MH

mitu

@mrmichaelhallett No links/mentions of ROM sites in the forum, please respect the forum rules.