Installing Retropie on top of Raspberry OS

sugarfree

Just download the latest stable version and enjoy your favorite old games: https://retropie.org.uk/download/

ExarKunIv

@SquidCoder since you are running a Pi4 just go with what @sugarfree suggests.

i have a Pi4 running a the version that you just get from the RetroPie downloads and its still fine
i stopped updating it about 9 months ago. i have mine offline so it does not need any security updates and all the systems are working fine for me. so no need to worry about updating to the most current versions on things.

you can go mad trying to keeping everything up to date.
as long as everything it working. then you are good to go

start here
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/First-Installation/

then you do want to at least update at least once to get the latest at this time
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/

SquidCoder

@ExarKunIv The version that comes with retropie is the outdated raspian OS. Meaning that many apps are not supported like pi-apps and pi commander.

ExarKunIv

@SquidCoder said in Installing Retropie on top of Raspberry OS:

pi-apps and pi commander

they are not designed to work with RetroPie to start with. at that point you are on your own.
they are designed to work with a desktop as RetroPie does not use one or install one. you have to manual install the desktop your self from the menu

SquidCoder

@ExarKunIv I know they don’t work with retro pi, but I thought they would work on raspbian? Is it still retropie or is it basically a temporary raspbian that you can download all the programs on.

ExarKunIv

@SquidCoder raspbian is the OS that Retropie is built over. which is why you Use https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Manual-Installation/ as a starting point if you want to run a newer OS then buster

the thing is pi-apps and pi commander need a desktop to work. RetroPie does work, but something might be broken if is use a desktop

Lolonois

My head is swirling too when I read through this topic. But joke aside.

@SquidCoder First: Welcome to the fun-house RetroPie! Don't get overwhelmed by the bunch of options and terms. Start simple as others stated here, learn as you go. Ask early enough before banging your head against the wall.

In general start with the questions what will you do with your RetroPie setup, i.e. which games/systems you want to emulate. Then check if it can be done with which hardware, these parameters define the OS and distro you should use.

As with the terms: Raspi OS (short for Raspberry Pi OS and Raspbian is the legacy name, and is usually no longer used as term) uses the Debian distro as base thus has the same distro name (Stretch, Buster, Bullseye, Bookworm, ...), you can find out more here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi_OS and of course here https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/os.html. Every Raspi OS comes in two flavors: Lite (Terminal based) and Desktop (with GUI).

A distro is usually supported for two years after release and then another two years for long term support. Also after ~2 years a new distro is released (e.g. Buster released in July 2019, Bullseye released August 2021). Yes, Buster is out of support, but you can expect that the emulators supported by it run well and stable. And as other stated here: As long as Buster is not reachable from the internet, it is safe to use.

This brings RetroPie in the mix, as also stated here, it is a bunch of scripts on top of the OS, which allows you to install various emulators for arcades and consoles that are out of production for years or decades.

Last but not least there is EmulationStation which allows you to navigate between the systems (a former console or arcade system) and start the emulators with your game and provide the right parameters for the emulator (e.g. Joystick config, graphics paramters, ...).

TL;DR: The RetroPie images, which are downloadable from the RetroPie site do bundle Raspi OS (the Lite variant, not the Desktop variant) and the RetroPie scripts and EmulationStation and have things already at the right place, thus save you the manual steps to install Raspi OS and the RetroPie scripts and move things at the right location.

Lolonois

@ExarKunIv said in Installing Retropie on top of Raspberry OS:

pi-apps and pi commander
they are not designed to work with RetroPie to start with. at that point you are on your own.
they are designed to work with a desktop as RetroPie does not use one or install one.

Pi-apps can be used also from the terminal / command line, but this has a steeper learning curve. They do not support Buster (you get an annoying warning, but it does not stop you from installing). Also Box86 from pi-apps does work on Buster on RaspiOS. Other than that it maybe a hit-and-miss which pi-apps work on RetroPie w/ Buster.

ExarKunIv

@Lolonois said in Installing Retropie on top of Raspberry OS:

Pi-apps can be used also from the terminal / command line, but this has a steeper learning curve

I know. i used them before and also have use his work for some of the my ports. (with his permission).
but they are still not designed to work out of the box with RetroPie, yes you can make them work. as you said

SuperMazut

I have done exactly that myself because for some reason I couldn't get retropie to run on top the Lite OS. Long story short, I like it. You can set boot order to run Retropie first and you got a desktop environment as a bonus when you exit RP. I have yet to find any disadvantages to that... Space efficiency maybe, if you have a smaller SD card?