USB flash drive not showing up

[vinsega]

Very new to raspberry pi 2 and retropie. I was able to get retropie 3.5 running. Now I want to run my roms from a USB flash drive.

I have already plugged my flash drive into my computer and created a folder called retropie. Then plugged the flash drive in the raspberry pi, which created the roms folder.

I have read and seen tutorials about typing LS /media/usb0* to find out which drive my USB is mounted in. The only problem is that this shows no USB is mounted. I have even tried ls /media/usb0-7 and still nothing.

I know the USB flash drive works because I was able to have a ROM work from the SNES folder that was created and copied over to the SD card.

Do I need to format the USB in a certain format? Do I need to change any settings in retropie? Any help would be appreciated

[vinsega]

What are bbcodes and how do I use them?

[InsecureSpike]

ok I’m writing a guide for a fellow member, and I’ll do the same for you, if you like, I just need a little info

exit emulationstation and type:

sudo blkid (and press enter)

now can you post everything that returns from that command, I also need to know the format type of your USB drive your wishing to use

[vinsega]

Okay I will post soon. I just noticed on boot up it says failure to start USB mount@dev A SDA services.

If that’s the problem how do I fix it?

[InsecureSpike]

not sure, it may be easier just to follow this guide

[vinsega]

What guide are you talking about?

And how exactly do I add a root delay? Someone mentioned that adding a root delay might help but I have no clue how to do that.

[vinsega]

Okay here is the sudo blkid

/Dev/mmcblko ptuuid “4b464b5b” pttype = “DOS”

/Dev/mmcblk01 sec_type “MS-DOS” label = boot uuid 5e51-8928 typeb= vfat partuuod 4b46b5b-01

/Dev/mmcblk02 label = retropie uuid 45e7963b-fbbc-423f-9dd0-ebf4455ebfc2 type ext4 partuuid 4b464b5b-02

/Dev/sda1 label retropie uuid 80d7-12f9 type vfat

[InsecureSpike]

awesome, I’m at work at the moment but I’ll be home in just over 4 hours, and I’ll get a guide done, with your requirements

[InsecureSpike]

can you post the full line of this one please

/Dev/sda1 label retropie uuid 80d7-12f9 type vfat

[vinsega]

Sorry I abbreviated last night here is the full line

/dev/sda1: LABEL=”retropie” UUID=”80D7-12F9″ TYPE=”vfat”

[InsecureSpike]

1) sudo e2label /dev/sda1 USBdrive

2) sudo mkdir /media/USBdrive

3) sudo nano /etc/fstab (to make Linux automate this process for you)

UUID=0000-0000 /media/USBdrive ext4 defaults 0 2

(so it looks like the image I’ve attached, taking into account i have 2)

ctrl + X to save

4) sudo mount -a (This will mount all file systems as listed in the /etc/fstab configuration file)

[vinsega]

I followed steps 1, 2, 3 in step 3 I added

UUID=80D7-12F9 /media/USBdrive vfat defaults 0 2

Saved and exited.

Then I typed sudo mount -a
And it said mount point /media/USBdrive does not exist

[InsecureSpike]

sorry, spelling mistake

try this command

sudo mkdir /media/USBdrive

then

sudo mount -a

my apologies

(I’ve corrected that post now)

[vinsega]

Unfortunately this didn’t work either. I am starting to get defeated by this. I even did a new sd card image and install I really appreciate your help so of you know anything that I could try please let me know.

[InsecureSpike]

mmmm here is the guide I followed, to get it working on my 3 retropie setups.
I just re wrote it as you need to add a label and that guide doesn’t have that in it

How to Mount USB Disks on Raspberry Pi

[InsecureSpike]

ok, good news!!
i had a play around, and i can tell you the guide work!
but your drive must be formatted to ext4.
this can be done by flashing an sd card with Raspbian wheezy or jessie.

when its booted, open the terminal and you’ll want to download and install parted

sudo apt-get install gparted

once all is done, it’ll be somewhere in the menu, open and log into it password is raspberry

and then format the usb drive that will need to be selected from the dropdown menu on the right of the app window,

then follow the guide, use

sudo blkid

to find your UUID & the drive number “sd??” (probably sda1)

then when you get to

sudo nano /etc/fstab

replace your new UUID

it seams a lot of things to do, but by using the UUID, you can safely add other USB drives, without them getting swapped around

after that you can use this es_settings.cfg I’ve zipped below

/opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation

next you’ll need to get write privileges

sudo chown -R pi:pi /media/USBdrive

and then create a folder called roms and in here add your rom folders

[vinsega]

Okay thank you again for all your help. But I said I was new to all this so let me make sure I get this straight.

You said flash raspbian does this mean download raspbian instead of the retropie image and flash it to the SD card? Or can I just use the retropie image like before?

[InsecureSpike]

yeah download & flash raspbian, and do the gparted thing you want only 1 partition! once that is done you can flash retropie back, and start from the beginning.

but I do recommend getting at least 1 spare SD card

[vinsega]

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

So flash this first. Then on the same card flash retropie? Do I delete the previous file? Sorry just a little confused

[InsecureSpike]

yeah

flash raspbian, do gparted thing and format the drive to ext4

flash retropie over the top of raspbian, this will remove raspbian, and set up retropie, then follow my guide again just remember to add your new UUID to the line you add to fstab,
replace the 0000-0000, your UUID will be long like mine in that screen shot

[InsecureSpike]

I’m off to bed, I’ll be up in around 6hrs

[vinsega]

Okay I’m off to work so maybe tonight I will get a chance to try

[InsecureSpike]

if you, don’t feel confident doing it this way, think there is a post, with a simpler way, if I remember right, I’d have a little search, before starting this again

[vinsega]

In these message boards? If you see it let me know. I will try to look for it too since simpler is usually better for me!

[vinsega]

Okay i was reading through the instructions and understand everything up until this

after that you can use this es_settings.cfg I’ve zipped below

/opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation

next you’ll need to get write privileges

sudo chown -R pi:pi /media/USBdrive

and then create a folder called roms and in here add your rom folders

What do I do with the zipped file? Where do I store it? If you can give me a detailed instructions of what do starting from here then I think I can do the rest.

[InsecureSpike]

ok, unzip it and it needs to be placed in the emulationstation folder, as that file will point to your new roms folders that are going to be on your USBdrive. putting it here will prevent it from being over written when you do updates.

the other line will make the folder writeable so you can add your folders of roms you “find” Google for an app called FileZilla, this will transfer files from your computer to the USBdrive in your pi

[vinsega]

Okay last question what do you mean by emualtion station folder? Do I access this on the raspberry pie or on my laptop?

[InsecureSpike]

laptop via some all like FileZilla,
probably the best app to do so

[vinsega]

I’m going to try this after dinner but what you are saying is to ftp into the raspberry from a laptop not take the SD card out of the raspberry and put it into the laptop?

[InsecureSpike]

only ftp into it when you have set up retropie

[vinsega]

So how do I get this zipped files into the folder?

[InsecureSpike]

ftp that in there, make sure it’s unzipped tho

[vinsega]

What do you mean by flash retropie over it? The only way I know how to put retropie on the SD card is by adding the image with my computer. How do I do it with the sd card already in the raspberry and running?

[vinsega]

Sorry for all the questions I am just excited to get this done and want to make sure i am doing things right

[InsecureSpike]

once you’ve formatted the USBdrive drive, shut down raspbian safely.
take the SD card out and put into your pc, and flash retropie on to it.

don’t worry I started out from knowing nothing about Linux too

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