How to Install and Configure Lakka on Raspberry Pi (Full Guide)

Lakka is an interesting alternative to Retropie and other retro gaming systems. It’s now supported by most Raspberry Pi models and is even included in the Raspberry Pi Imager’s OS list. Let’s see how to install it and get started, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

The easiest way to install Lakka on a Raspberry Pi is to use the official tool: Raspberry Pi Imager. Lakka is listed in the system options and can be flashed to an SD card in a minute. After booting, the interface is ready for initial configuration.

I’ll show you how to do this step-by-step and share with you a few tips I found to make the most of Lakka on your Raspberry Pi. As this tutorial is a complete how-to guide, if you already know Lakka, you can jump directly to the section that interests you, using the TOC below.

By the way, if you’re looking for some great retro games, I’ve got a list of my 24 favorites for Retropie, Recalbox, or Lakka. It’s packed with screenshots, descriptions, and download links to make it easy for you. Grab the list for free here!

Introduction

If you are new to Lakka, I recommend starting with this section. I’ll introduce the Lakka system and explain what the differences are with other retro gaming systems like Retropie.

Lakka Presentation

Lakka is a Linux distribution created for game emulation.
It will turn your Raspberry Pi into a retro gaming console.

If you have played on a PlayStation before, you should be familiar with the interface.

Lakka is based on LibreElec (a tiny Linux distro mostly used for media center projects) and uses RetroArch for its graphical interface. It’s available for many single board computers (like Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, Banana Pi, or Tinkerboard), but you can also install it on a generic PC.

Lakka Strengths

The first strength of Lakka is that it works right out of the box.
As I’ll show you in the next sections, once the SD card is ready, you can play almost right away.
You get to the main menu and there is no need to configure the controller—it just works.

Configuration is also straightforward.
If you want to enable a share to upload ROMs, there’s just one option to change (on/off) and it’s ready to go. You don’t have to think about user configuration, service start/stop, etc…

And the last thing I really like about it is that you can play PSP and PSX games right away too.
On Retropie, for example, you have to find and install the BIOS to make it work (and it’s not easy).
On Lakka it works right away, even without a BIOS for some games.

Lakka vs. Retropie

Lakka is different from Retropie because they use different technologies.
Lakka uses RetroArch over LibreElec while Retropie uses EmulationStation over Raspberry Pi OS.

Lakka highlights its user-friendly system (ready to play out of the box).
Lakka is also a lightweight system that works seamlessly on any platform, including all Raspberry Pi models.

RetroPie is more popular, with a bigger community, so you’ll find help quickly for any problems you encounter. Retropie also has a better front-end interface, where you can even run Kodi on the same system as a media center.

In summary, both are good emulation systems. The best solution is to try both and pick the one that works best for you :-).

Related articles you might want to read:

• Best Retro-Gaming OS: Retropie, Recalbox, Batocera, or Lakka?
• RetroPie: A Step-By-Step Beginner Guide (with pictures)

Installation Guide

We can now move onto the installation process.
As I mentioned earlier, installation is straightforward.
If you’ve already installed an OS on your Raspberry Pi before, it’s the same process.

Note: Lakka was recently removed from Raspberry Pi Imager, and we’re not sure when/if it will be added back. If you still see Lakka there, use the instructions for “Method A” below. If you don’t see Lakka as a default option, then follow “Method B” instead.

Method A: Flash Lakka With Raspberry Pi Imager

Lakka is now available directly in Raspberry Pi Imager, and this is the easiest way to install it. Lakka is included in the OS list—under the “Emulation and game OS” category:

You’ll then get access to all the versions, one for each Raspberry Pi model:

Pick the image corresponding to your device, and click “Next” to flash the system to your SD card. Success!

Method B: Download Lakka Manually

This section is for those who need to flash Lakka to the SD card manually. We’ll still be using Raspberry Pi Imager, but we’ll have to download the image first and use the custom install option.

Here’s how to flash Lakka onto your SD card manually:

• Download Lakka by choosing the version for your Pi model: download link.
  
• In Raspberry Pi Imager, when choosing the Operating System, select “Use custom” and then point to image file you’ve just downloaded.
  
• Click Next, and when the “apply OS customisation settings?” prompt appears, click No. Imager will begin flashing your SD card with Lakka. Success!
  

First Start

Now that you’ve got Lakka on your SD card, let’s boot it up!

• Insert the SD card containing Lakka into your Raspberry Pi.
• Start the Raspberry Pi.
• The Lakka logo will appear in the background while the installation process starts.
  Note: I got a file system corruption warning during the installation, but I just let Lakka do its auto-repair and it worked fine.
• After a few seconds, your Pi will reboot, and the Lakka main menu will appear.
• Plug in a controller or keyboard if you haven’t already done so.
  The system will enable and configure your input device automatically.

You can now move through the menus to discover Lakka.
In the next section, I’ll help you with the first configuration steps.

Configuration Tutorial

Now that our system is operational, we can customize the default configuration to get exactly what we want out of our retro gaming station.

Audio, Video, and Languages Settings

These settings are basic, so I’m not going to write a lot about it.
You just need to know that they are in the Settings menu.
But this is the first thing to do if you have any issues.

In the video settings, you’ll find everything you need to adjust the display to your screen.
In my case, everything was fine, so I didn’t try any adjustments. I guess they’re only useful if you have a small screen (or an old one, maybe).

Audio settings are more traditional. You can enable or disable audio in-game and the menu.
Then you can adjust the volume or change the output device.

Finally, you can change the language in the Settings > User menu if needed.

Wireless Configuration

Ethernet should work right away if you can plug your Raspberry Pi into your network. But if needed, you can connect Wi-Fi easily.

Here’s how to configure Wi-Fi on Lakka:

• From the main menu, select the Settings icon.
• Scroll to the Wi-Fi item and click on it.
• Click on “Connect to a network.”
• After scanning for a few moments, the interface will display all the available wireless networks.
• Select the one you want to connect to.
• Enter your Wi-Fi passphrase.
• After a few seconds, Lakka will add an “Online” text in front of your Wi-Fi network.

Adjust the Controller Settings

One of Lakka’s strengths is its ability to detect and configure almost any game controller automatically.
You can still check your controller settings, and set them differently if you want.

Here’s how to change controller settings:

• From the main menu, navigate to Settings (2nd icon).
• Select Input and click on it (Button B or Enter).
  
• Now you get a submenu with several options:
  • Menu Controls: Here you Swap OK & Cancel buttons: if you want to reverse these buttons (A and B on an SNES controller).
  • Hotkeys: There are a lot of hotkeys you can configure on your keyboard to do some actions. For example, F8 allows you to take a screenshot in-game.
    • Menu Toggle (Controller Combo): gets you back to Lakka’s main menu from a game. Mine was L3+R3 while I have a SNES controller without L3/R3 🙂
  • RetroPad Binds: This is where you can configure your controller as you want.
    It looks like this:
    
    Set your favorite settings in the User 1 section and move forward.

You can use a Bluetooth controller if you want. I’m often using my old PS4 controller or my 8Bitdo favorite. Both work great. If you need help configuring them, check out my tutorial about this.

Enable Samba

A feature I really like in Lakka is the ability to access the file system via a Samba share in one click.
Samba is a file share service that allows you to get access to the Raspberry Pi file system from another computer on the network.

But before doing this, you need to know the current IP address of your Raspberry Pi.

Get the Current IP Address

As with many things, finding your IP address on Lakka is easy.

• In the main menu, stay on the first item (the Lakka berry icon).
• Scroll to the Information item and click on it.
• Click on “Network information.”
• You should have one line for each network interface, with the IP address.
  I have three lines for example, but you may have only two (Ethernet or Wi-Fi).
  
  • lo: local interface—we don’t need it.
  • eth0: if you use an Ethernet cable, grab this IP.
  • wlan0: if you’re using a Wi-Fi connection, note this IP.
• An IP address has this format: A.B.C.D.
  For example, my IP address on the eth0 line is 192.168.222.17—you’ll need your IP to access the file share later.

Enable Samba

Samba is the file sharing service we’ll use to send files (games) to Lakka. It’s enabled by default in theory, but you can check the settings easily if needed:

• From the main menu, go to Settings.
• Scroll down to Services, and click on it.
• In the list, find SAMBA and make sure it’s enabled, like this:

You can also enable SSH and Bluetooth in the same menu if you like.
For SSH access, the user is root and the default password is also root.

Try to Access the File Share

You can now access your file share over the network.
From your computer, follow this procedure:

• Open your file explorer program (for example Explorer, Finder, or Nautilus depending on your system).
• Enter the file share in the URL field:
  • Windows: \\<IP>   (ex: \\192.168.222.17)
  • Linux & Mac: smb://<IP>   (ex: smb://192.168.222.17)
• You should now see all the shared folders on your screen.
  

We’ll use it later to upload files to Lakka.
For now, you just need to check that this is working, then move to the next configuration option.

Customize the Menu Appearance

By default, the Lakka menu is perfectly fine: it’s similar to the PS4 menu, and you can keep it like this. But I’ll show you how you can configure it as you want in the settings.

From the main menu, go to Settings (2nd icon), and go to User Interface. From there, you’ll get access to many interesting options.

You can tweak a few options right away in this submenu, and you can also open the Appearance menu to get access to everything: background image, animations, shaders, etc.

Make all the changes you want and test it out. Finally, we can now move on to the most important part: How do you play a retro game on Lakka? 🙂

Playing Games on Lakka

Once the basic configuration is done, we’re ready to play our first game. In this section, I’ll teach you where to download ROMs and how to install them on Lakka.

For this part, I’ll take an example to show you how to install a specific game step-by-step. We’ll try to play “Golden Axe” on Sega Master System.

Download ROMs

Downloading ROMs for any retro gaming system can be complex.
You need to avoid illegal stuff and malware while finding the game you want to play.

Where to Download ROMs for Lakka?

I already wrote an article about where to download ROMs for Retropie.
It’s also valid for Lakka, as we need the same files for both.

I recommend using the RomHustler website to download your ROMs.
You’ll find a lot of them on this website, and they seem to respect publisher rights, as a lot of ROMs are unavailable because of an ESA request (ESA = Entertainment Software Association).

Also, I had no issues with files downloaded from this website. They all worked as expected and there was nothing suspect inside (no malware or anything else). The download is fast, you just need to wait 10s for each ROM.

Download Procedure

To start with my example, here’s how to find and download the ROM we need for playing “Golden Axe” on Sega Master System:

• Go to the RomHustler website
• In the top of the website, there is a list of all consoles.
  Select the “Sega Master System” console in this list.
  
• When you scroll down, you have a list of ROMs for the Master System.
• Find “Golden Axe” in this list.
  You can use the search bar to find it quickly.
• Click on the game title to load the game page.
  You can check the screenshots to see if it’s really the game you wanted.
• Then click on the download link: “Click here to download this ROM”.
  After a 10s countdown, you can click again to download the ROM.

That’s it, you have your first game ready on your computer.
But you need to upload the zip file to Lakka to play it, which is what I’ll show you next. 🙂

Upload New Games to Lakka

If you remember, earlier we enabled the Samba service on Lakka.
And we will now use Samba to upload games to the Raspberry Pi.
That’s why I like how simple it was to enable with one click.

Here’s how to upload your game to Lakka using Samba:

• Go back to your file explorer, as for the Samba test (\\<IP> on Windows for example).
• In the folder list go to the ROMs folder.
• There is already a “downloads” folder inside.
  I recommend creating a new folder for each console.
  So you can know which emulator you need to use for each game.
  For my example, create a “Sega Master System” folder, like this:
  
• Copy/paste your ROM zip file into the new “Sega Master System” folder. That’s it, you don’t have to extract the archive. The game will already work on Lakka. I’ll show you how to start it in the next section.

Start and Play a Game

The game file is now in the share folder and on your SD card.
To play your first Lakka game, follow this procedure:

• From the main menu, click on Load Content.
  
• Next, select your ROM location.
  Choose the “Start directory”.
  And then select the “Sega Master System” folder from the list.
  
• Finally, select the ROM file.
  It should be something like “Golden Axe_(UE)_[!].zip”
• When you click on it, Lakka will ask you which core system to use.
  Scroll down to find the ones available for Sega Master System.
  
• Take the first one, I don’t really know the difference.
  If it’s not working as expected, choose the other one.
  Sometimes you’ll have the choice between a lot of consoles, make sure to select the one which corresponds to your ROM system.
• And eventually, your game will start.
  

You now know how to download, upload, and start any game on Lakka.
You can repeat this procedure with each game you want to play.
Have fun and enjoy how easy your Lakka system is to use.

Shaders

Another interesting feature on Lakka is the shaders option.
It allows you to improve the image quality (or change it at least).

To try this, use this short procedure:

• Start your game.
• While in the game, use your Toggle Combo to display the Lakka menu.
• Scroll down to Shaders (last item).
• Click on Load Shader Preset.
• Then choose a GLS shader in the list, for example, “bilinear.glslp” near the end.
• Return to your game.
• You should see a change in the game display.
  You can try different shaders and even download them, to find the one you prefer.
  This way, you can have a “cartoon aspect” instead of an old pixelated game.

Not everyone will like this feature, but it’s a possibility.

At the same time, you can note that there are a lot of options available in this “pause menu”.
You can:

• Take a screenshot
• Save your game even if the original game doesn’t offer this feature
• Record or stream your game
• Change game and controller options
• Use the rewind feature or change audio/video settings

That’s a big improvement compared to other retro gaming systems.
You can play the game like it was originally, but you can also use these features to play it differently.

Related Questions

What is the netplay host in the main menu? Basically, it’s a multi-player game mode. You can host a game on your Raspberry Pi and allow other players to join you. The host chooses “Start netplay host” and the other players have to choose “Connect to netplay host”.  I didn’t try it, so I can’t tell you more about this.

Is it possible to use PS3/PS4/Xbox controllers on Lakka? Yes, Lakka supports almost all controllers. To use it with the cable it’s plug and play, working directly. To make it work wirelessly, you can check the documentation page, it depends on each controller.

What is the achievements feature? The achievements setting allows you to enable a PS-like achievement system by giving you rewards and badges when you make a specific action in a specific game. If you want to learn more about it, I recommend checking out the retroachievements.org website. You must create an account on this website to use the feature on Lakka.

Video

If you need a step-by-step demonstration, I have recorded a video on the topic. You can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/FSim_DIe9yA

Subscribe to the RaspberryTips YouTube channel to receive new videos in your feed:

Conclusion

That’s it, now you know everything you need to use Lakka on your Raspberry Pi.

Personally, I really like this RetroPie alternative, it’s easy to use and works well.
Maybe it has fewer features but do we really need more?

If you like retro gaming, feel free to check out my other articles on this subject:

• Where to download ROMs?
• How to use a PS4 controller on Lakka
• Recalbox vs Retropie

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