Complete newb needing assistance...

[metalchef1]

Hello. I appear to be mostly computer illiterate, pretty much brand new to github (so not well versed in the community or protocol here) and definitely over my head with what I am trying to accomplish it seems.

I have a raspberry pi 4 b.

Lots of stuff when I google multiboot but I'm confused and don't seem to be able to find exactly what I'm looking for/applies to me? I can find pieces but I can't figure out how to connect them.

I want to multiboot my pi from an hdd and if the pi can't power it than an sdd...

I have a custom image of retropie that is very large and I also want to have an os... rapbian should be fine and then since I believe I can use kodi from within that...I guess I just need the 2? But I may want the option of more later as I learn more??

I can find how to etch the custom image of retropi and run that... but then I won't have an os. I can intall an os but can't figure out how to get the custom retropie into that...ect

I'm sure this is easier than I'm seeing it to be but its currently all over my head.

The retro pie image is a .img file and its 475 gb. I see everyone talking about needing media to be formatted in fat32 or fat16 and every article i can find about using an external hdd doesn't say anything about formatting..

Sorry to ramble... any help you or anyone else could provide to me would be greatly appreciated.

My favorite Jeremy Irons quote kind of describes my level of ability here... "Please, speak as you might to a young child or a Golden Retriever. It wasn't brains that got me here, I can assure you that."

[procount]

Hmm, so why is partition_setup.sh missing from that folder? (rhetorical question!) Let me send you a new copy to put in that folder.

[metalchef1]

If it wasn't difficult it wouldn't be me.. Never met a piece of tech or anything with a current flowing through it that liked me...

[procount]

Lol. :)

Oh! Recalbox is strange as it doesn't have a partition_setup.sh script for the default installation. I'm going to have to dig into this a bit more....

(Each OS can be quite different and it takes a while to work out how to adapt them for PINN/multiboot. I'd forgotten Recalbox was odd)

[metalchef1]

Naturally that's the one I have...

[metalchef1]

Just a thought?? Could I use raspberry pi etcher to mount this custom image on the ssd by itself... And do the other os with pinn on an SD card?

I would have to unplug the ssd when I want to use the desktop but I feel I saw an option in etcher to use a custom img file?

[procount]

You could.... But you're almost there.

[procount]

I'm not sure how recalbox references its additional partitions, so I need to investigate. But you could just try booting recalbox from PINN now and see if it works....?

[metalchef1]

Okay. I'll give it a shot.

[metalchef1]

It loaded right up... Lots to check out in it...

Thank you so much for the help.

There is no way I would have ever come close to figuring out most of what had to be done to accomplish that.

I "understand" what you did... But i don't understand how you did it...

[procount]

Glad it worked out for you.

[metalchef1]

Think I've got just 1 more question for you for now? If I go into the os and the terminal and update all... Will updates screw up this image? Since it's 2 yrs old and such? Do I need to be cautious of what I do and how I do it so nothing gets messed up?

[procount]

You can update most OSes in the usual way. In any case, if it doesn't work, If you keep your custom image, you can always restore it as we did here.

[metalchef1]

Thanks again for all of your assistance.

[procount]

You're welcome. I'll close rhis issue now.