20250207

This release of UnofficialOS brings emulators as current as possible, along with over 30 added devices. UnofficialOS has been rebased off the JELOS EOL code, and emulators brought up to date from there, along with needed patch and building fixes. Please see the wiki here for updated information.

Installation

Fresh Install

A Fresh Install Is Highly Recommended, Updating From 20230427 Or Earlier Is Not Supported Or Advised

1. Download the proper *.img.gz for your device.
2. Extract the .img and flash the image to your microSD card using your favorite image writing tool (Balena Etcher, Raspberry Pi Imager, Win32 Disk Imager, dd etc.)

Upgrading Over the Air (OTA)

OTA Updating Is Not Supported In This Release Unless On A Recent Dev Build, It Will Be In Future Releases

Use at your own risk.

Upgrading Manually

Manual Upgrading Is Not Supported In This Release Unless On A Recent Dev Build, It Will Be In Future Releases

Use at your own risk.

Folder Structure for Bios And Games

The folder structure has changed from the root of SD2 to a single folder. The folders for these must now be in a folder named "roms". The folder structure for SD2 can be generated by using the "Create Game Directories" option under System Settings. If you have an existing SD2 with all the folders on the root of the card, just create the folder named "roms", and move the rest of the folders (bios, nes, snes, gb, etc) into this folder. If this is not done ES will not see your games.

IMPORTANT Known Bugs/Issues

Powkiddy RK2023

Currently, sound is broken on this device. I am working on fixing it.

Powkiddy X55

This device has a few known issues.

1. Charge the unit while its turned on, not while its powered off or sleeping.
2. Plugging the power cable in with the unit off causes it to boot. This is normal right now for the unit to charge.
3. Powering down fully for more then a few minutes at a time resets the battery meter. This IS NOT drain, its a bad meter reading.
4. And last, sleeping the unit breaks sound.

What I have been doing currently is charging the unit to 100%, sleeping the unit when not in use, then I'll wake it and reboot when I want to use it. It still has very good battery life when sleeping, as I only lose between 5% and 10% battery daily. Not ideal I know, I'm working towards a fix.

X86_64

This build has some broken emulators, specifically:

1. CEMU
2. XEMU
3. Vita3K
4. PPSSPP Standalone

Working for fixes on all mentioned issues and bugs. Please be patient, as it's only myself working on uOS at the moment. Any help/contributions would be greatly appreciated if you would like to help.

Changelog

There was a ton of commits for this release to bring it up to date, they can be viewed here in the pull request for this release. Another change that is important is the folder structure for the rom files and bios has changed. Please see above for instructions.

20230427

This release of UnofficialOS brings mostly updates, along with numerous bug fixes, multi-panel suppport for the rk3566 devices, and initial support for the PowKiddy RK2023.

Installation

Fresh Install

1. Download the proper *.img.gz for your device.
2. Extract the .img and flash the image to your microSD card using your favorite image writing tool (Balena Etcher, Raspberry Pi Imager, Win32 Disk Imager, dd etc.)

Upgrading Over the Air (OTA)

1. While in Emulation Station (main screen) press Start.
2. Scroll down to System Settings and press A.
3. Scroll down to the System Update section and make sure Update Branch says "Stable".
4. Highlight Start Update and press A.

Upgrading Manually

1. Download the latest release .tar of UnofficialOS for your device.
2. Copy the update .tar to your device to your device's update directory (/storage/.update) via SSH, SMB etc.
3. Reboot the device, and the update will begin automatically.

IMPORTANT Instructions

RG351V ver.2

If you have a RG351V v2 and experience a white screen when booting UnofficialOS, follow the instructions here. This will have multi-panel support in the near future.

RK2023 Instructions

If you have a PowKiddy RK2023 and would like to use UnofficialOS on you device, please follow these instructions. Please be aware wifi is not working at this time.

1. Download the image for the RG353P, and flash it to a sd as normal.
2. After flashing completes, go into the UNOFFICIALOS partition.
3. Open the extlinux folder, and open the extlinux.conf file in your favorite text editor.
4. Replace the existing dtb line with the name of the dtb for the rk2023, rk3566-rk2023-linux.dtb in this case.
5. Save your changes, and the sd card is now ready for the first boot in your device.

Change Log for UnofficialOS-20230427

• Time/date adjustment in ES @oOblik
• Multi-panel support thanks to @dfreivald
• Panel timings updated thanks to @TheGammaSqueeze
• Updated documentation
• Updated various emulators and Retroarch cores

Full Changelog

20230208

This release of UnofficialOS is unlike any of our previous updates. We are now a separate custom firmware, and will not longer be in sync with JELOS upstream due to the dropped support for Anbernic devices.
The changes in this release are mainly transitional and it is intended to be a clean hopefully stable foundation for future updates.

Installation

Fresh Install

1. Download the proper *.img.gz for your device.
2. Extract the .img and flash the image to your microSD card using your favorite image writing tool (Balena Etcher, Raspberry Pi Imager, Win32 Disk Imager, dd etc.)

Upgrading From JELOS or UnofficialOS 20221218 and Earlier

1. Download the latest release .tar of UnofficialOS for your device.
2. Rename the update from UnofficialOS-*.tar to JELOS-*.tar
3. Copy the update .tar to your device to your device's update directory (/storage/.update) via SSH, SMB etc.
4. Reboot the device, and the update will begin automatically.

IMPORTANT RG353V ver.2 Instructions

If you have a RG353V v2 and experience a white screen when booting UnofficialOS, follow the instructions here.

Change Log for UnofficialOS-20230208

• Resolved ThemeMaster Support for UnofficialOS @oOblik
• Updated code and docker images to allow for building on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS @oOblik
• Fixed GZDoom thanks to @dhwz and the @AmberELEC team
• Updated documentation @oOblik
• Game directories are now writable without being root @JustEnoughLinuxOS
• Updated various emulators and Retroarch cores @oOblik

Full Changelog

20221221

This release of UnofficialOS is based on JELOS-20221219 and also JELOS-20221221.

Installation

Fresh Install

1. Download the proper *.img.gz for your device.
2. Extract the .img and flash the image to your microSD card using your favorite image writing tool (Balena Etcher, Raspberry Pi Imager, Win32 Disk Imager, dd etc.)

Upgrading From JELOS or UnofficialOS 20221218 and Earlier

1. Download the latest release .tar of UnofficialOS for your device.
2. Rename the update from UnofficialOS-*.tar to JELOS-*.tar
3. Copy the update .tar to your device to your device's update directory (/storage/.update) via SSH, SMB etc.
4. Reboot the device, and the update will begin automatically.

Change Log for JELOS-20221219

• Adds / fixes RSP selector in ES, thanks to @rishooty.
• Multiple N64 start script and emulation fixes, thanks to @rishooty.
• Adds support for the PowKiddy RGB20S, thanks to @oOblik.
• Adds multiple bluetooth controller configurations.
• Updates emulators, cores, retroarch, moonlight.
• Adds beetle-saturn and Play! (PS2) to the handheld builds.
• Enables online updates using a project variable, thanks to @Sparticuz.
• Re-adds Duckstation libretro and DolphinSA to RG353/RG503 builds.
• Fixes missing 32bit filters, thanks to @sunxuold.
• Updates Linux kernel to 6.1 for handheld, and improves support for AYANEO AIR and AIR Pro.
  • Fixes splash screens.
  • Adds fan control.
  • Corrects issue with no WIFI after wake from sleep.
  • Corrects issue with headphone jack.
  • Works around issue with power button not working after first sleep (press for 3 seconds).
  • Corrects missing audio in EmulationStation.

Change Log for JELOS-20221221

• Fixes ATARI VCS EmulationStation audio playback
• Terminal bug fix (reverts the xterm change).
• Adds fake08, thanks to Lakka-LibreELEC.
• Adds GPU power savings option for handheld builds (AMD only for now).
• Updates SDL2 and reverts Mesa.
• Improves fan curve for supported devices.
• Updates emulators and cores.
• Deprecates and removes original splash logic.

Change Log for UnofficialOS-20221221

• Removes SDL2 patch for RG351 series devices and fixes SDL2 with new patch thanks to @medeirosT and @Cebion from the AmberELEC team.
• Restores OTA (Over the Air) updates to make the updating process easier in future releases thanks to @oOblik.

20221218

uOS-20221218

This is the first beta release of UnofficialOS for the RGB20S, based on JELOS. This build is based on JELOS-dev. This is in devolopment, and therefor may have bugs.

Installation

Download the latest version of uOS.
Decompress the image.
Write the image to an SDCARD using an imaging tool. Common imaging tools include Balena Etcher, Raspberry Pi Imager, and Win32 Disk Imager. If you're skilled with the command line, dd works fine too.

Upgrading

Download the latest version of uOS from Github.
Copy the update to your device over the network to your device's update share.
Reboot the device, and the update will begin automatically.

20221212

uOS-20221212

This is the first release of UnofficialOS, based on JELOS. This build is based on JELOS-20221208.

Installation

Download the latest version of uOS.
Decompress the image.
Write the image to an SDCARD using an imaging tool. Common imaging tools include Balena Etcher, Raspberry Pi Imager, and Win32 Disk Imager. If you're skilled with the command line, dd works fine too.

Upgrading

Download the latest version of uOS from Github.
Copy the update to your device over the network to your device's update share.
Reboot the device, and the update will begin automatically.

Change Log

Deprecates the release build workflow.
Updates emulators and cores, including Dolphin, Duckstation, and PCSX2SA
Relabels JELOS_SSH_KEYS_FILE, JELOS_WIFI_SSID, and JELOS_WIFI_KEY (LOCAL_SSH_KEYS_FILE, LOCAL_WIFI_SSID, and LOCAL_WIFI_KEY).
Drops RG351x devices from world builds.
Updates SDL to 2.26.0 , Linux to 6.0.11 (RG552 and x86_64 only), Python to 3.11 (Thanks to @CoreELEC), and Mesa to 22.3.0.
Reworks online update mechanism to allow disabling with a build time variable.
Reworks JELOS installation to be executed from Tools menu in ES.
Corrects shell prompt display on the console during x86_64 boot.
Fixes asound.state on RG552 with broken values, thanks to @Locutus73.
Fixes bluetooth on x86_64 devices (handheld build).
Fixes issue with hotkey assignment on some devices.
RG351 series stays with SDL 20.0.2. uOS specific.
Changes boot splash screen. uOS specific.
Disables GamesDB scraping. uOS specific.