One of the reasons I use StartX is to access the Network settings as I use a wireless USB dongle to connect my Pi to the internet rather than rely on cables.

[redacted- what ROO said]

once you have configured your wifi adapter like roo outlined-

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

or

sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop
 sudo /etc/init.d/networking start

or
sudo reboot

Now your wifi should be running- no gui needed.

I’m on my 4th clean install of the latest image for the RPi2, and I have to say its been all due to installing lxde or xfce. I enjoyed be able to utilize the gui desktop for the sole purpose of clicking and seeing some things such as bluetooth manager and wifi manager. But after this most recent clean install I’ve decided to forego the GUI and keep my pi strictly a gaming console and working on it with the command line.
There is a plethora of info on setting up the wifi adapter and bluetooth adapter. I’m a big fan of text editors, but in the long run if all you’re going to do is make a few minor changes to a file then the command line is really all you need.
Goals for tomorrow: configure pi basic settings, get bluetooth up and running and have it ALWAYS searchable, try relentlessly to get my ps4 controller to work with games wirelessly (i can get emulationstation to recognize it and allow me use it to move between selecting games wired, I was even able to get it to do this wirelessly. But for some reason games will not recognize my controller wired or wireless), and maybe even find someone who has had success in getting the Edimax EW-7811UTC wifi adapter working on the RPi2(then I’ll finally be able to move to the big screen and cut the cord from the ethernet)
Good luck to you, with all of the resources available and the wonderful support of fellow users in these forums getting your project running is only a matter of time and patience!

What is the problem if I install lxde?
If I don’t start lxde, it take resources from the Raspberry and make emulation slower? The space isn’t a problem for me.

[quote=88492]there is no problem if you want to install lxde.[/quote]

Have you actually done it on the latest builds? It breaks some other stuff, like ES autoloading

Without StartX I am stuck with setting up wifi.

Dongle plugged in:

pi@retropie ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 7392:7811 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd EW-7811Un 802.11n Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8188CUS]
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1997:2433
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 045e:028e Microsoft Corp. Xbox360 Controller

And then, Interfaces screen:

auto wlan0

iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

Next Config file:

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

network={
ssid=”SKYC****”
psk=”********”
proto=RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP
auth_alg=OPEN
}

It seems from the instructions I have done it all right but its still not working:

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 80:1f:02:b3:2a:4e
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:2 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1758 (1.7 KiB) TX bytes:940 (940.0 B)

Any suggestions of where I have gone wrong?