RetroDECK Cooker Guide: Start Testing Builds

If you are on SteamOS like on the Steam Deck make sure you are in Desktop Mode before you begin.

🛑 Do install cooker without following this guide 🛑

We do not recommend blindly installing the Cooker without reading THIS GUIDE and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS written here.

To just install RetroDECK Cooker and hope for the best is now known as the Rowan Skye Method.

Because of mistakes that were made from a chaotic blue draconic wolfkin tester living on the edge with nothing to lose.

Step 1: Take some Backups

First take some backups:

Make a copy of ~/.var/app/net.retrodeck.retrodeck/ folder and name it old.net.retrodeck.retrodeck
Make a full back up or partial backups of the retrodeck folder normally under ~/retrodeck or sdcard/other drive.

On retrodeck folder backups:

Generally, very few things would target the roms folder, but the other folders could be targeted for various scripts. Our recommendation would be to back up the full ~/retrodeck folder, but as a tester you can decide how much you want to risk.

Disclamer:

The RetroDECK Team also has never had any major data loss so far and we do Cooker updates almost daily.

Step 2: Download the Cooker

Download the latest Cooker release from: RetroDECK Cooker: Latest to your download folder.
Make a note of the <version_id> that is a randomly generated word, example: cooker-X.X.Xb-HelloWorld, in this example it's HelloWorld.

Step 3: Terminal

You will need to open the terminal for this step.

Remove and Install

Open the terminal window where you have downloaded the RetroDECK-cooker.flatpak file, normally it's under ~/Downloads/RetroDECK-cooker.flatpak. Note: The Downloads folder can have a different name depending on your language settings.
Type flatpak remove net.retrodeck.retrodeck -y to remove RetroDECK. Note: If you have more than one version installed for some reason choose to remove all versions.
flatpak install --user --bundle --noninteractive -y RetroDECK-cooker.flatpak this will install RetroDECK Cooker.

Step 4: Upgrade

🛑 IMPORTANT WARNING: 🛑

Under NO circumstances press the Full Wipe and Fresh Install button.

That is NOT to be confused with Configurators Reset RetroDECK option.

This in fact a Nuke Everything option for reseting everything to a clean slate. It will remove all of RetroDECK including all ROMS/BIOS/Downloaded Media and everything else you have in RetroDECK's folders...forever.

You will get several warnings if you accidentally press it.

Upgrading RetroDECK

After the installation is complete type: flatpak run --command=sh net.retrodeck.retrodeck followed by retrodeck.
Press the Upgrade button and keep the installation moving until all the steps are complete and RetroDECK will launch.
Quit RetroDECK again and save all the output from the terminal into a text file.

Step 5: Start testing

If you are on SteamOS like on the Steam Deck return to Game Mode for this step.

If you are on Linux Desktop make sure you launch RetroDECK via Steam, else Steam Input won't work.

Now feel free to test all the new features of the update and report any issues, check the patch notes for what is new.

All logs will be saved in the new retrodeck/logs folder

Thank you! ❤️

T.I.P: Trigger post-update manually

If you want to trigger the upgrade script again between a version upgrade to try something out.

Do the following command

flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck --test-upgrade <version>

Example:

flatpak run net.retrodeck.retrodeck --test-upgrade 0.8.0b

This will trigger all the post-updates from 0.8.0b to the current version you got installed.

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