New user to muOS, RetroArch veteran.
I have become incredibly frustrated with muOS replacing my retroarch config. Picture it from the perspective of a new user to muOS:
The new user installs muOS for the first time. They start configuring everything, and get it the way they like it. Then they start configuring RetroArch, get that the way they like it, then start playing. They use sleep mode, so their RetroArch config doesn’t get reset that often. But when it does, it’s not clear at first that muOS is the cause, because it doesn’t happen that frequently. So the user sets up their config again, not knowing that it’ll only get replaced again.
At the least, there should be a warning that informs you prior to launching RetroArch for the first time that your config may get replaced. Ideally, it should check if there’s any changes and ask the user if they wanna replace their config or keep their changes.
We will not be adding a prompt to preserve user modified global RetroArch configurations.
The global RetroArch configuration is deliberately frozen because it needs to remain predictable, recoverable, and supportable across devices, cores, updates, and many many multiple launch behaviours.
There are already warnings around changing RetroArch settings, and any user making manual changes there should understand that they are potentially altering behaviour that a standard MustardOS installation expects to control. That is especially true for experienced RetroArch users, who will already know that the correct place for personal changes is not the global configuration, but overrides.
RetroArch overrides exist specifically for this reason. They allow per core, per content, and per directory customisation without compromising the baseline configuration.
So while I understand the frustration, the answer is no. We are not going to encourage or preserve direct edits to the global RetroArch config. The intended and supported path is to use overrides.
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