Emulation Station Issues

Razor04

Hi, I'm new to Raspberry Pi. I was given a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B for Christmas, I downloaded this image "retropie-4.1-rpi2_rpi3.img" and followed the videos and did everything seemingly properly. I checked this website for advice and I've been trying to get this thing working for hours. It boots up properly, everything seems to be ok, I follow all the directions and then everytime I get to the reboot it will never go back to Emulationstation, no matter what I do. It goes to the Linux screen and if I type in emulationstation, it thinks for a second and then goes back to the command prompt. I have looked up every suggestion I can find on the subject and have literally started over several times to mimic exactly what has been suggested and it's the same every time. I have even changed SD Cards and SD Card Readers to rule them out. I could really use some help here. I really don't know anything about Linux codes or any of that. I followed the forum directions with some limited success to start with but I'm not good enough with it to troubleshoot. Please help.

Thanks!

rbaker

@Razor04

Start by telling us your setup according to https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

What power supply? Anything less than 2.5A is no good. A phone charger is no good.
What emulators?
What specifically is working when you say "seems to be ok"
Rebooting after using it successfully or never used it to play a rom?
Metadata? Do you have loads of roms?
"mimic exactly what has been suggested" - from which guide?
Do you definitely have a Pi3? How many raspberries at boot do you see?
What controllers are connected?
Is your SD card on the compatibility list?

Razor04

Sorry about that.

Power Supply is the 2.5A that came with Canakit
Followed a Pet Rock Blog video and then also some of this guide https://supernintendopi.wordpress.com/ - this guide was used after I read some of the forum dealing with similar Emulation Station issues. It did help me get back into ES one time, but never again.
I did a "Basic Install" for Emulators.
Never got to use it to play a rom I did try to upload roms using USB, there were quite a bit, 50 or so. It wants a reboot after that, and then it would never go back to Emulationstation.
The board itself says Pi3 Model B - 4 raspberries at boot
I have the Tata Supernintendo controller connected and a wireless keyboard
The SD card came with the Canakit 32GB Micro SD. I had also bought one 64GB Micro SD. Tried both with the same results.

After initially putting the image on the card and first boot up, it seems to run fine and ES starts up just like in the video. Everything looks to be running the way it should on initial start up based on the video until the Reboot, then can't get back to Emulationstation.

Darksavior

@Razor04 I faintly remember that happening to me a few times. Update retropie and see if that fixes things. In retropie-setup, go to "update all installed packages".I haven't seen it since I updated. Also, it's not a good idea to read severely outdated tutorials. Most of it might still apply, but it doesn't hurt looking up something recent..at least to the version of retropie you're setting up. When in doubt, there's always the retropie wiki: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki

rbaker

@Razor04 said in Emulation Station Issues:

I did a "Basic Install" for Emulators.

Could you explain what this means? Did you follow this process exactly?
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/First-Installation#installation

What emulators are you trying to use?

Everything looks to be running the way it should on initial start up based on the video until the Reboot

Did you configure a controller during the first boot process? What made you reboot after this?

Razor04

@rbaker The first time I tried, I did follow that link exactly. After that didn't work and I started over a number of times trying it over and over, in the Retropie menu on Emulationstation there is a Basic Install option that says it will automatically add all the core and main emulators, so I did that instead of Manage Packages, to try and save a step as I had been trying for hours. I reinstalled the Image several times to try from the beginning. Each time the initial boot up seemed like it was going correctly based on the videos I watched and instructions from wiki.

The emulators I'm most interested in trying for starters are NES, SNES and SG/Megadrive

Yes, I did configure a controller during the first boot process. I followed this https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/First-Installation#installation up to transferring roms from USB...the final instruction says to "Refresh Emulationstation by choosing Restart Emulationstation from the start menu" After doing so, I could never get ES to start back up. I tried to not do the restart a couple of times, but nothing happened. There were no emulators or roms I could see or access.