My solution is to stop the desktop, run RetroPie without the desktop, and then start the desktop again once RetroPie is finished. What we're going to do now, is to automate that manual process as a desktop menu item.

If you don't see the desktop after a few moments, press CTRL+ALT+F7 to bring up the graphical console.

Type sudo systemctl start lightdm and Enter to restart the PIXEL desktop.

To exit RetroPie, use the Start button to get the main menu, select Quit, then select Quit Emulationstation.

Type emulationstation and press the Enter key.

Type sudo systemctl stop lightdm and press the Enter key - this will stop the destop.

Press CTRL+ALT+F1 to bring up the first text console.

Now you've got RetroPie installed alongside Raspbian PIXEL, you'll need a way of starting RetroPie. We'll start the desktop again when we're finished with RetroPie.

I recommend you close all your desktop programs/windows yourself before you run RetroPie using my method. Important: The PIXEL desktop will be stopped and any work you haven't saved will be lost. You will need to manually install RetroPie as it doesn't come with Raspbian PIXEL by default.įrom a terminal on Raspbian PIXEL, follow these instructions to manually install RetroPie: Install RetroPie alongside Raspbian PIXEL You can find out more about Cotswold Jam here. If you like this and want to say thanks, donate to Cotswold Raspberry Jam, the computing club aimed at children that I run in Gloucestershire. And that's where it gets complicated, because RetroPie is not a desktop application. What I wanted to achieve, was to have a single Raspbian operating system running from a single partition (plus /boot) and be able to boot to the PIXEL desktop, then be able to run RetroPie as if it were any other desktop application. I want to have a RetroPie icon in my PIXEL menu under 'Games'. By far the easiest way of running RetroPie is to flash their ready-made image to a memory card, but what if you want to have both RetroPie and Raspbian Pixel on the same card? Well, NOOBS and BerryBoot will both support multiple operating system partitions on a single card. RetroPie is a wonderful set of scripts and skins for EmulationStation, a collection of retro computer and video game emulators. In Linux, there's always more than one way to do it. Skip to: How and why does this work? - an explanation of Linux TTY consoles RetroPie and Raspberry Pi PIXEL Desktop - Andrew OakleyĪ RetroPie and Raspberry Pi PIXEL Desktop

Install retropie on debian