Dear Dietpi community,
I recently thought about getting familiar with the Raspberry Pi SBC and now plan on setting up a device to mainly use for a few purposes: Browsing (Surfing/YouTube/Google Docs) and Retro Gaming.
As far as my Investigation went it seemed that the Raspberry Systems aren’t the most efficient/performant and thus I stumbled upon the DietPi project in the first place as it seemed to debloat a lot of stuff the raspbian OS is otherwise using.
However since I’m an absolute beginner when it comes to Linux and setting up all these things I was hoping for your help/guide to set up a system for the given usecase.
So I want to boot in a desktop environment but also, from there or via Terminal, want to be able to switch into using Retropie (or Batocera; which I recently discovered and also seems to have some advantages over Retropie in terms of Performance & accessability)
Help would be really appreciated,
Sincerely Bree
Setting up a desktop you can have a look into Discover exciting X11 desktops for your DietPi - DietPi blog
Regarding Retropie @Arrafart might be able to assist.
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Hi Bree,
I’ve done some digging since last year, from 100% Nooblevel, and can give my advice based on the experience I gained this year.
- Batocera works best on a x86, but you will have to boot or restart the pc to directly boot into it, from either USB-stick, seperate hard disk or a 2nd partitian. It does not work via desktop. Check out the download list for Batocera-ready-devices. batocera.linux
This is a more straightforward “Noobproof” Operating System.
However, scraping game covers needs an extra account creation on screenscraper.fr (free but 1000 covers per day limit), I did it in 2 days.
- Retropie is built for Arms devices (Or any Linux, not sure). This can however boot from the desktop. Tweaking this to boot directly into Retropie is harder for a non Rasberry pi, but achievable. Rasberry Pi has the best support for instant boot, but is not a must. Download - RetroPie
If you were to choose anything else, it is possible to install Retropie with the help from chatgpt. All you need is a browser for the basic help of mounting usb sticks etc. Tell it in the chat what kind of device you have, ask, report back the results, and wait for the next command 
For the likes of this forum. I favor Dietpi OS for some reason as tweaking Xfce environment was easy for a noob like me and with some help from chatgpt 
Setting up wifi is trickier in Dietpi OS, but youtube helped my with this. I shared it here on the forum somewhere too. Dietpi OS headless wifi setup or something.
What era of retro gaming is your must?
No matter what you choose, it will be new for you anyway, just like it was for me. If you fail, cry it out, don’t give up and ask!
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Thanks to you people,
amazing, fast responses and I’m looking forward to give this a try (will watch the video asap)
So from what you wrote (and given my desired usecase) I’d most likely try to setup a Dietpi OS (not headless tho, since I want to use a desktop environment) and “mount” or install Retropie on it so I can start retropie via terminal.
I also think this might be the trickiest part since I’m rather concerned about getting all the “references” of Retropie right so it will work properly and that, by default, it boots into the Dietpi Desktop and not Retropie.
[ For my “experience” so far I managed to set up Dietpi on a Rpi 4B 8Gb but it didn’t recognize my keyboard via bluetooth.
Before that I had managed to setup a Retropie device alongside a raspbian OS (it was rather slow in browser given the Rpi 4 performance) and while the gaming use was quite neat I failed to get a 2nd monitor running -tried to link it up with a portable screen and optionally hook it up to an external monitor/TV that should then be used as the main device-.
However recently I switched to Batocera (no Desktop environment) on the Rpi 4 and there it’s actually possible to at least switch the HDMI output on the fly -with some minor hassle regarding the audio output- ]
For the near future I plan to upgrade to a Raspberry 5 alongside an active cooler, m2 Hat and (a device, maybe some “overkill” for a beginner, but came to my attention) a Crowview Note hence the wish for a Desktop enviroment 
and thus seeking a bit of advice from you guys
Considering your question about my gaming preference: I’m fine with sticking to anything up to the PS1 era while my favorite console to this day might be the SNES.
Hi Bree,
Your Rpi4 is overkill for SNES and PSX Emulation. It should also run N64 and Dreamcast. Go for it!
I would suggest the following steps:
- Flash Dietpi OS on your drive. Don’t install yet.
Follow this guide to set up your wifi before hand.
https://youtu.be/vlMpn9u0Y4o?feature=shared
- Install dietpi OS with a nice Desktop that is available and your favorite browser in the dietpi-launcher.
- Setup your Bluetooth Keyboard with Bluetoothctl in the terminal, not the manager.
- Fix your 2nd monitor.
- Install Retropie via terminal.
Just ask the unspoken (we do not mention “it” on linux forums ) for help via browser. It helped me to through soooo much basic stuff!
Again, post your issues, no shame!
PS: Rpi5 is not yet officially supported by Retropie
Hmm our DietPi online docs have a section for this within our install guide
Do we miss anything or does it really require YT?
