Build Your Own Raspberry Pi 4 Retro Game Console – Retropie

54 thoughts on “Build Your Own Raspberry Pi 4 Retro Game Console – Retropie”

1. there is an error in first script, “depth 1” should be ‘depth=1’

   1. Hi Josh,

      Thank you for your feedback! I have just fixed it, sorry about that.

2. I am stuck on a black screen following the RetroPie basic install. Any help will be much appreciated.

3. Thanks for the guide! I have it running, but how do I make it boot into emulationstation automatically?

   1. Hi Jonesey,

      You can select configuration/tools > autostart > Start Emulation Station at boot

4. Hey, I did absolutely everything you advised and nothing works for me: everytime “too many arguments”… Can you help me ?

   1. Hi Roiiban,

      Can you elaborate on your problem? Which command did you key in? Which step did you face this problem?

5. Hello everybody
   the command indicated is the good one but you just need to put a double minus sign before the commands “branch”, “depth” and “single-branch” (I mean –branch, — depth, –singl-branch)

6. If you have the “too many arguments” error, try this line:

   git clone -single-branch -branch=fkms_rpi4 -depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

   If you have problems with options, try write manually and using “tab” key, it completes your line with the correct syntax.

   Hope can help you!!!

7. Hello,

   I am getting:

   pi@raspberrypi:~ $ git clone –single-branch –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git
   fatal: Too many arguments.

   1. Hi Planetdune,

      As C.Bennett said, can you try this command instead?

      git clone –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth 1 –single-branch https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

   2. –single-branch
      Those are two different hyphens you have in your post. Likely a copy and paste error because the person writing the guide is using something that is replacing two hyphens – – (no space, but only included the space so you could see that it was two hyphens) with a LONG hyphen (which is a special character. MS Word, for example will replace — with –… that might be hard to see so try highlighting that…. you’ll see that — is two hyphens and – is a single long hyphen.)

      Linux will not recognize –. Replace – with two hyphens in that command:
      git clone –single-branch –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

      and you should be fine. (I REALLY hope this comment software doesn’t automatically replace the two hyphens that I put in with a long one… we’ll see when I complete the post)

8. Hi, I’ve tried
   git clone –single-branch -branch fkms_rpi4 –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

   It shows the error of “fatal: repository ‘fkms_rpi4’ does not exist”

   I then tried the following as suggested, but get the samse error.

   git clone –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

   Can you hel please?

   many thanks
   Andy.

   1. Hi Andy,

      Can you try this command?

      git clone –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth 1 –single-branch https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

9. I was receiving ‘fatal: Too many arguments.’ after using the git clone command verbatim from the article. I fixed this by using ‘git clone –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth 1 –single-branch https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git‘. I recommend anyone getting that error to try this rearrangement of options and see if it will work for you.

10. Hi when I copy and paste the line
    git clone –single-branch -branch fkms_rpi4 –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

    all I get is fatal error: to many arguments HELP..

    1. Hi Bill,

       You can refer to C Bennett comment! You can try this command

       git clone –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth 1 –single-branch https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

11. Hi, I’ve tried
    git clone –single-branch -branch fkms_rpi4 –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

    It shows the error of “fatal: repository ‘fkms_rpi4’ does not exist”

    I also tried
    sudo git clone –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git
    then
    git fetch && git checkout fkms_rpi4 using root
    it shows the error of “fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git”

    Please help

    1. Hi Luke,

       Can you try this command:
       git clone –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

       Do let me know if it works!

       1. I get the same thing even with trying your suggestion.

          1. Hi Kyle,

             Can you try this command?

             git clone –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth 1 –single-branch https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

12. Just completed an install on RPi4 with a 256gb micro sdhc and followed instructions perfectly. Worked first try. This was a fresh Raspian Debian install on a 2GB RPi4 (US Version if it matters). PSX and Genesis/MegaDrive work with little loss of frame rate. Did not overclock, using PSclassic USB digital controller. Tried watching a video on how to do the install that was outdated (June 2019) and install failed 3 times over the course of 4.5 hours. 10/10 would do again.

13. When I got to etcher and click on the Raspbian file; I get this error:

    Error opening image

    Something went wrong while opening 2019-09-26-raspian-buster-full.zip

    Error: end of central directory record signature not found

    Any suggestions on how to fix this?

    1. Hi Tyler,

       This may be a problem with your Raspbian image. Please try using 7Zip (Windows) or The Unarchiver (Macintosh). Both are free of charge and have been tested to unzip the image correctly if your download is corrupted or not unzipping correctly.

14. The line to clone the single branch to my pi does not work. I just get “fatal error: Too many arguments.” All I did was copy and paste what you have typed up.

15. when i type in the following:
    “git fetch && git checkout fkms_rpi4” it says permission denied.

    Any fix for this? i’ve tried multiple things and cant figure it out.

    1. Hi Taylon,

       You can try to change into root user and run the following command:
       “git fetch && git checkout fkms_rpi4”.

       For the root user, there is no password set by default. Thus, you will be required to set your password with the following command: “passwd root”

       Lastly, to change into root user simply type the following command:
       “su root”

16. Hey dude you saved my live, i haved some problems opening emulationstation, but typing this code solved my problem THX!

17. Cant switch to that branch when cloning over https, instead this worked to clone at the specific branch

    git clone –single-branch –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

18. Excellent review, I think I’ll need to upgrade my old RPi 2 in to a 4 to retro game now.

19. thanks for sharing, although when i run “sudo git clone –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git” i get unable to create /home/pi/retropie-setup/.git/index.lock’: permission denied
    perhaps i needed to setup RPI4 before running this line?

    1. Hi Jesus Alfonzo Bastardo Romero,
       You can try this instead:
       git clone –single-branch –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

20. When I copy and paste the first step into the terminal it says “depth=1 does not exist”

    1. Hi Kyle!
       You can try this instead:
       git clone –single-branch –branch fkms_rpi4 –depth=1 https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git

       1. YIDA, please fix your article / look for a “preformatted” tag option or a “code” tag option and make sure your lines have two hyphens instead of that single long hyphen that keeps showing up: – is wrong – – without a space. Either the blog software or something like MS Word is seeing the – – (without space) and replacing it with the long hyphen which is an invalid character.)

          1. Hi MEMYSELFANDI,

             I have fixed it! Thank you for the feedback!

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