How To

Accessing your RetroPie project over SSH allows you to configure drivers, software and settings with out having a keyboard or even a screen connected to your Raspberry Pi.

You can enable SSH from the Boot folder of the SD card, first we must put the SD card in our computer and open the Boot folder.

Create a file in this folder called ssh with NO extension (no .txt, no .conf, no extension)

Once this file is created, you can boot your RetroPie Raspberry Pi build and access the device over SSH to do the work and configuration you need to.
If you are a Windows user, be sure to check out PuTTy to access the device over SSH.

The default hostname for Retropie is, retropie
And the default username and password are pi / raspberry

If you would like to setup your WiFi in the same way, check out our WiFi guide.

Looking to connect your RetroPie project to your WiFi, but have no display or keyboard connected? RetroPie allows us to place a file called wpa_supplicant.conf in the boot folder of the SD card.

Connect your SD card to your computer and open the Boot folder.

Create a file called wpa_supplicant.conf in this folder, I use notepad++ to assure compatibility with the RetroPie OS.
For best results, set the End Of Line conversion to Unix (LF)

And add the following text, be sure to modify the settings to match your network and location.

country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

# RETROPIE CONFIG START
network={
    ssid="Your-network-name"
    psk="Your-network-password"
}
# RETROPIE CONFIG END

Save this file and your ReptroPie device should now boot and connect to your network.
By default the device name is retropie , and you should be able to locate this on your network.

This is assuming you are using WPA and RetroPie 4.1 or higher for your build.

For more RetroPie network options, check out the Official RetroPie WiFi Setup Guide

If you wish to configure SSH on your device as well, Check out this guide.

Having worked somewhat more than a little bit with PinkyPi and PinkyPi Pro, I had to figure out how to get the buttons and joysticks to work with the display hat buttons. These were wired to GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi.

This is where mk_arcade_joystick_rpi comes into play, designed to work with buttons and joysticks connected to the GPIO pins on the RaspberryPi.
You can use this in items such as our PinkyPi project, DIY handhelds and Minicades as well as full upright Arcade cabinets!

(Taken from the git page)
It is written for 4 directions joysticks and 8 buttons per player. Using a MCP23017 extends input numbers to 16 : 4 directions and 12 buttons.
It can read one joystick + buttons wired on RPi GPIOs (two on RPi B+ revision) and up to 5 other joysticks + buttons from MCP23017 chips. One MCP23017 is required for each joystick.

But for 1 player and in 2 player need situations, the setup is fairly simpleI

Installation

Download the installation script :

mkdir mkjoystick
cd mkjoystick
wget https://github.com/recalbox/mk_arcade_joystick_rpi/releases/download/v0.1.4/install.sh

Update your system :

sudo sh ./install.sh updatesystem
sudo reboot

You must reboot before the next step :

sudo sh ./install.sh

Loading the Driver

For a single player setup, use the following.

sudo modprobe mk_arcade_joystick_rpi map=1

Or for a 2 player setup, use the following.

sudo modprobe mk_arcade_joystick_rpi map=1,2

There are several other options for pin settings and mappings, that can be found in the GitHub for the original project

Auto load the driver at Start up

sudo nano /etc/modules

and add this line at the bottom to load the driver :

mk_arcade_joystick_rpi

Then create the following file /etc/modprobe.d/mk_arcade_joystick.conf :

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/mk_arcade_joystick.conf

and add the following line with your mapping configuration :

options mk_arcade_joystick_rpi map=1

Testing and troubleshooting

Before we start into RetroPie, you can do a test and verify the output and functionality of each button.

To test player 1 or a single player setup, use;

jstest /dev/input/js0

To test player 2 on a 2 or more player setup, use;

jstest /dev/input/js1

The same if you have more players, just increase the “js#” value at the end.

You can then see an output of all your buttons and their status, off is default and when the button is active they goto on.

Once everything checks out, load up RetroPi and run through the controller configuration.
You may need to reset your configuration if you have already had an existing controller setup.

Did you download an image or .img file for your Raspberry Pi and you are not sure how to get it running, are you creating a RetroPie game console for Raspberry Pi and you are looking to flash RetroPie to an SD card?

First things first, download balena Etcher and run through its install. Once installed we can continue to flash our image.

Once you have the image you wish to use, such as;

Raspbian or Noobs
RetroPie
OctoPi
Or our PinkyPi images

And then launch balena Etcher and insert your SD card into your computer.
Once Etcher loads, click “Select Image” and browse to the .img file you have and wish to flash to your SD card, in our example I used OctroPi.

Next you can choose your SD card drive, it does attempt to auto detect any SD cards inserted into your PC, so if you have more than one you must specify what device to write to.

Last, click Flash, and it will start writing data to the SD card, depending on the size of the image and speed of your SD card this can take several minutes.

If you wish to do the reverse, and make an image or .img from an existing Raspberry Pi install on an SD card, check out our tutorial on using Win32DiskImager for just that task.