Frequently Asked Questions

Does UnofficialOS offer any formal support?

• No. UnofficialOS is something that we develop for fun, it is provided as-is. There are a variety of avenues to seek community help, but this is a tinkerer's distribution so you may need to get your hands dirty to solve your problems.

Do you plan to add additional ports, software, or emulators?

• We are a community developed distribution, and we believe that it is the responsibility of the person who wants a new feature to develop and contribute that feature. If you would like to add something to UnofficialOS, pull requests are welcomed. Please review our code of conduct, our contributing guidelines, and our build guide before submitting your first pull request.

Which emulators and game engines are supported by UnofficialOS?

• See UnofficialOS emulators and game engines

Will you support my device?

• If you send us devices and source code, we'll consider it. Reach out to us on Discord to get started.

What if you stop working on UnofficialOS?

• I don't expect that to happen, however UnofficialOS is an Open Source project hosted here on GitHub which means the source code is readily available for anyone in the world to pick up and continue where we left off. Our license model(GPLv2) allows for this to happen by providing and encouraging redistribution (freedom 2) and the right to distribute a modified version (freedom 3). UnofficialOS only prohibits commercial use through our branding which is licensed by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

No sound on your RG353V?

• Enable RG353V mode in System Settings.

How can I disable root password rotation?

• Password rotation can be disabled in the System Settings menu. Once committed the root password may be edited in the same menu.
• To set the root password over ssh and keep it in sync with EmulationStation, use setrootpass mynewpassword.
• Alternatively, copy your ssh key with ssh-copy-id, and leave rotation enabled.
  • ssh-copy-id root@UnofficialOS

I have a device with single storage and I can't see the games partition in Windows or macOS.

• UnofficialOS does not create an ExFAT partition on SD1, and expands the full partition using ext4. You can copy files back and forth to this device using SAMBA over a network, or by loading your files onto a EXT4, ExFAT, or FAT32 formatted usb stick and copy them with 351FILES or over ssh.
  • Windows Users can connect to their device by unc path using the device name such as \\RG351P or by IP \\device IP address into the address bar in Windows Explorer.
  • Mac users can connect by selecting "Go" from the Finder menu, followed by "Connect to Server", then enter smb://RG351P or smb://device IP address.
• Log in as root. The root password is required for access which can be found in the system menu.

I'm using an Intel or AMD based device and I have no sound.

• Press Start, select System Settings, and then try choosing a new audio output path.
• On some devices it is necessary to override the way that UnofficialOS loads modules to allow audio output to work. If you've tested all audio output paths and you still have no sound, log in over ssh and run the following commands (your system will be rebooted).

touch /storage/.config/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
reboot

I want to add games to my internal storage or first microsd and see them in my EmulationStation games list.

• A custom facility has been added to UnofficialOS to enable things such as this, to use it add a script to /storage/.config/autostart to create a bind mount and add your games to the directory on your primary SD card. They will appear in ES after a restart of the ES service or a reboot. To create a bind mount, use the example below, changing as necessary.
  • This example uses file name 001-bind.
  • If /storage/.config/autostart does not exist, make it with mkdir. mkdir /storage/.config/autostart

#!/bin/bash
mkdir -p /storage/roms/c64 /storage/c64 2>&1 >/dev/null
mount --bind /storage/roms/c64 /storage/c64
chmod 0755 /storage/.config/autostart/001-bind

How do I edit es_systems.cfg (for example, to modify the list of systems in EmuStation, add a custom core or script, or change the order that systems are displayed)?

• Copy the custom version of es_systems.cfg to ~/.config/emulationstation
• Stop the UI service.

systemctl stop ${UI_SERVICE}

• Restart the UI service to use the custom version

systemctl start ${UI_SERVICE}

Note: once it's edited any changes made by system updates will be ignored

Where do I put bios files and files and Retroarch system files

• They go in roms/bios
• System bios checker in game settings, missing bios identities missing files per emulator and indicates their required location

Where do I put music files to enable background music within emulationstation (while browsing my game library)?

/storage/roms/BGM

What is the difference between the governor performance settings?

Interactive mode ramps up faster than ondemand

Performance mode may help to resolve game stuttering issues

My game has slowdown and stuttering issues. What can I do to improve performance?

Try adjusting settings within the emulator, either retroarch core or standalone emulator configuration menu. First make sure that rewind is disabled. Search online to check for recommended settings that others may have determined.

Try adjusting governor performance settings

Where are log files stored?

/var/log/

Various logs are generated, including

• EmuStation logs es_log.txt (cumulative log of all ES activity), es_launch_stdout.log (last emulator launched from ES) and es_launch_stderr.log (blank if there wasn't an error for the last emulator launch)
• Execution log exec.log (generic execution log that indicates what was last executed, including the command to launch the emulator) e.g. for gzdoom launch of heretic.doom runemu.sh: Executing /usr/bin/bash start_gzdoom.sh /storage/roms/doom/heretic.doom
• Boot log boot.log (Output from autostart during system startup)
• Emulator-specific log (for non-retroarch emulators) e.g. gzdoom.log is the log specific to gzdoom to indicate whether there is any issue within the emulator when launching heretic.doom, noted above
• Retroarch logs are turned off by default, but can be enabled within Retroarch (Tools > Retroarch: Settings > Logging > Log to a File), are stored in /var/log/retroarch and are quite detailed, so should provide sufficient detail to identify missing roms within a game's romset, configuration issues and other errors that prevent games from working

Note: Retroarch uses a shared config file, so logging can be enabled within 64bit or 32bit and it will be enabled for all Retroarch cores