sd card required?

[bradwolf]

Im a novice and first timer with raspberry pi. I have a pi 3 i have successfully downloaded th os via sd card. Next I attempted to download retropie but was told that there was not enough room on sd card. not sure how that is being 32g card and only other thing on it was os. My ultimate question is do I need to have the sd card with the os on it inserted at all times or can I delete the os off the sd card after the pi has been set up?

[tweak42]

Im a novice and first timer with raspberry pi. I have a pi 3 i have successfully downloaded th os via sd card. Next I attempted to download retropie but was told that there was not enough room on sd card. not sure how that is being 32g card and only other thing on it was os. My ultimate question is do I need to have the sd card with the os on it inserted at all times or can I delete the os off the sd card after the pi has been set up?

The SD card is the Pi's "hard drive", so everything is stored on it, the OS, applications, games, and your data. So yes, it needs to be inserted if you want the Pi to boot up.

If you are out of space to download files, it sounds like the SD card was not partitioned to use the full 32GB. There is an option to expand filesystem using the raspi-config utility.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... -config.md

If you want to test out other OS installs, I suggest you acquire a few more 8GB or larger micro SD cards. It saves much hassle wiping and reloading OS images.

[W. H. Heydt]

Given the sequence stated (OP has not said *how* he put the OS--or even which OS--on the SD card), it may very well be that it is partitioned correctly and when downloading retropi the intent was to copy it to the SD card. The missing piece here is, I think...

When you load an image file, like Raspbian, to an SD card, two partitions are created. The only partition normally readable by Windows is the relatively small FAT partition that is used during the initial boot process (it's actually read by the VC4 graphics processor). There certainly wouldn't be space on that partition. With a current install of Raspbian, at first boot, the root partition is expanded to take up the entire rest of the card. With a 32GB card, there should be over 25GB of free space once that expansion is complete.

[wildfire]

Another thing to consider is the validity of your SD card, many fakes are available (8Gb cards reputed to be 32Gb cards etc). Did you buy it from a reputable supplier?

[bradwolf]

pardon my ignorance on these issues. To be clear, once i have chosen an operating system, anything I want to download will have to be done via the same sd card as the one that has the os on it. so i leave the os on the sd card and download retropie onto the same card and then plug back into the pi? could I use a different sd card entirely to download retropie? will I be able to download retropie from an sd card that doesnt have the os on it? my only hurdle right now is that for some reason when downloading retropie onto my sd card it says not enough space on card which is baffling me. unfortunately i do not have the technical acumen to take the steps to fix this it turns out. perhaps i've bitten off more than i can chew

[wildfire]

All the information you need is here https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Se ... stallation.

Post back with more specific installation problems.

[bradwolf]

All the information you need is here https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Se ... stallation.

Post back with more specific installation problems.

thanks for that resource. last question, if i were to use a separate sd card for downloading retropie that does NOT have the os installed on it will that work? and after that i just reinsert the sd card that DOES have the os on it to finally utilize retropie. Or does anything i want to do essentially run off the inserted sd card and programs like retropie are not on the pi itself but as a previous responder said that the sd card IS the pi hardrive?

[wildfire]

You need an OS, end of story. The link I provided shows you how to install retro Pi alongside Rasbian (the OS) from scratch. There is nothing to stop you from using multiple cards for various OS's. Just be sure to shutdown first, swap cards and boot up. Everything your pi knows is on the card it boots from, USB booting is an entirely different matter so we'll not discuss it right now, get used to the Pi first.

[bradwolf]

thanks again

[bradwolf]

the original 32g sd card i began with allows the pi to boot up just fine but wouldn't allow me to put retropie on it because of lack of space. i grabbed a different sd card a 64g sdxc and put the same os files onto it and it will not boot up the pi. what may be causing this? it doesn't make any sense that the same exact files work on one sd card but not another.

[DougieLawson]

How did you get your 32GB card copied to your 64GB card?

Did you use the Raspbian piclone tool?

[bradwolf]

no at first i just copied the files from my pc but that didn't work so i just started the entire process of downloading noobs again from scratch. i unzipped like before and transfered files to the new sd card and insterted into the pi and i get no signal. but when i insert the 32g the pi boots right up. This is getting really frustrating. I dont see why im told there isnt enough space on the 32g to install retropie. i even went into raspi-config to free up entire sd card and it told me that since im using noobs that it is already expanded. on top of that why is the 64g not working if im using the same exact os files as the 32g

[bradwolf]

when i try to download retropie it says i only have 89.7MB free and need 1.18GB. how is that possible if the only thing on the sd card are the files from the NOOBS program?

[bradwolf]

Another thing to consider is the validity of your SD card, many fakes are available (8Gb cards reputed to be 32Gb cards etc). Did you buy it from a reputable supplier?

I bought it from wal-mart. it is a 32g. the only files on it are the NOOBS os files. when i try to download retropie it says only 89.7mb free space. how is this possible? the NOOBS files appear to be about 1.1GB so even if i multiply that by 10 i should still have 20GB available. you think its a bad card?

[DougieLawson]

Windows can't see ext4 filesystems so it completely ignores them.

Use a linux system to copy things. You've got a Raspberry Pi, build an 8GB SDCard with Jessie Lite (or Jessie if you want to use gparted) to use for doing that stuff. Get a couple of USB SDCard readers and you've got the perfect system for copying from one SDCard to another.

[bradwolf]

Given the sequence stated (OP has not said *how* he put the OS--or even which OS--on the SD card), it may very well be that it is partitioned correctly and when downloading retropi the intent was to copy it to the SD card. The missing piece here is, I think...

When you load an image file, like Raspbian, to an SD card, two partitions are created. The only partition normally readable by Windows is the relatively small FAT partition that is used during the initial boot process (it's actually read by the VC4 graphics processor). There certainly wouldn't be space on that partition. With a current install of Raspbian, at first boot, the root partition is expanded to take up the entire rest of the card. With a 32GB card, there should be over 25GB of free space once that expansion is complete.

I used raspi-config in an attempt to expand the available space on the sd card and it says im using NOOBS so it is already expanded

[bradwolf]

Windows can't see ext4 filesystems so it completely ignores them.

Use a linux system to copy things. You've got a Raspberry Pi, build an 8GB SDCard with Jessie Lite (or Jessie if you want to use gparted) to use for doing that stuff. Get a couple of USB SDCard readers and you've got the perfect system for copying from one SDCard to another.

lets not get caught up in copying one sd card to another at this point. im not so concerned about that. any idea why a 32GB sd card wouldnt have enough free space to accomodate the unzipped retropie files if the only other thing on the card are the NOOBS os files?

[W. H. Heydt]

Given the sequence stated (OP has not said *how* he put the OS--or even which OS--on the SD card), it may very well be that it is partitioned correctly and when downloading retropi the intent was to copy it to the SD card. The missing piece here is, I think...

When you load an image file, like Raspbian, to an SD card, two partitions are created. The only partition normally readable by Windows is the relatively small FAT partition that is used during the initial boot process (it's actually read by the VC4 graphics processor). There certainly wouldn't be space on that partition. With a current install of Raspbian, at first boot, the root partition is expanded to take up the entire rest of the card. With a 32GB card, there should be over 25GB of free space once that expansion is complete.

I used raspi-config in an attempt to expand the available space on the sd card and it says im using NOOBS so it is already expanded

That's correct...if you're using NOOBS, the OS partitions are created to use all the space the card has. There are a couple of ways to get the additional files you need for retropi onto the system. One is to do the downloads using the Pi itself. Another is to download to your PC and then use a network copy program, like pscp, to copy from the PC to the Pi. If the programs are packed for installation in Raspbian (pretty likely for retropi), the you would download and install using "apt-get". The syntax you'll need is "sudo apt-get install <packagename>".

All of that said, before you go adding things to a new Pi, first do "sudo apt-get update" to update your package list (so the system knows what is current as opposed to what you have) and then "sudo apt-get upgrade" to actually get and install the current version of anything that has changed.

[drgeoff]

the original 32g sd card i began with allows the pi to boot up just fine but wouldn't allow me to put retropie on it because of lack of space. i grabbed a different sd card a 64g sdxc and put the same os files onto it and it will not boot up the pi. what may be causing this? it doesn't make any sense that the same exact files work on one sd card but not another.

An SDXC card comes formatted with exFAT file system. Your Windows PC can copy files to that but the RPi CAN NOT boot from a card that has an exFAT file system. viewtopic.php?f=91&t=83372&p=651745#p677748

As to the apparent lack of space, read viewtopic.php?f=91&t=83372&p=651745#p664906 and understand that Windows only sees the small FAT partition that is only intended to hold the boot files.

[bradwolf]

That's correct...if you're using NOOBS, the OS partitions are created to use all the space the card has. There are a couple of ways to get the additional files you need for retropi onto the system. One is to do the downloads using the Pi itself. Another is to download to your PC and then use a network copy program, like pscp, to copy from the PC to the Pi. If the programs are packed for installation in Raspbian (pretty likely for retropi), the you would download and install using "apt-get". The syntax you'll need is "sudo apt-get install <packagename>".

All of that said, before you go adding things to a new Pi, first do "sudo apt-get update" to update your package list (so the system knows what is current as opposed to what you have) and then "sudo apt-get upgrade" to actually get and install the current version of anything that has changed.[/quote]

i did both the update and upgrade. thank you. when you say i can download using the pi itself, is that complicated for a novice? also,what if i load the retropie files onto the sd card first and then go on to download the os files on the sd card would that make a difference? and then insert the sd card to begin both installing the os and then retropie?

[bradwolf]

That's correct...if you're using NOOBS, the OS partitions are created to use all the space the card has. There are a couple of ways to get the additional files you need for retropi onto the system. One is to do the downloads using the Pi itself. Another is to download to your PC and then use a network copy program, like pscp, to copy from the PC to the Pi. If the programs are packed for installation in Raspbian (pretty likely for retropi), the you would download and install using "apt-get". The syntax you'll need is "sudo apt-get install <packagename>".

All of that said, before you go adding things to a new Pi, first do "sudo apt-get update" to update your package list (so the system knows what is current as opposed to what you have) and then "sudo apt-get upgrade" to actually get and install the current version of anything that has changed.

i did both the update and upgrade. thank you. when you say i can download using the pi itself, is that complicated for a novice? also,what if i load the retropie files onto the sd card first and then go on to download the os files on the sd card would that make a difference? and then insert the sd card to begin both installing the os and then retropie?[/quote]

i found an old fourm post that had links to commands to install retropie. it seems to be working. we'll have to wait and see

[bradwolf]

I was able to get retropie directly thru the pi itself...i think. I type in emulationstation and as expected a welcome screen appears and says gamepad detected . i hold a button as directed and a box appears below with ok inside but im unable to do anything whatsoever with the gamepad or keyboard except f4 to restart. Any ideas?