OpenDingux release 2019.06.01

Another month, another update.

Changelog

  • Added USB mass storage mode (MTP). Finally, you can transfer your apps other files without any specific software! Use the 'USB Mode' app in the settings tab to revert to the Ethernet-over-USB mode that was the default in the previous versions of the firmware.
  • Added 20 MiB of in-RAM compressed swap (zram). This will permits some RAM-hungry apps to start, although with a performance hit vs. those who don't require swap.
  • Switched from mdev to udev, which fixes some issues, like the automounting of SD cards.
  • The brightness setting is now preserved across reboots.
  • And most importantly, the cow is back. Those who used to develop for OpenDingux on other devices will understand.

Download links

The update OPK can be downloaded here: OpenDingux update OPK.
Be careful that you must have at least 25 MiB of internal storage before running the update.

Enjoy!

  1. #1 Georgy, 01 Jun 2019

    Nice! Thanks! With this update I can now play ridge racer on pcsx4all-20190524. Is it okay to remove ‘rootfs.squashfs.bak’ if everything works as supposed? What’s the ‘cow is back’ meaning and should the new developers care on it? Do I need any toolchain updates (since ‘2019.04.30’ post) if I plan to compile something? Is it possible to cross-compile with msys for windows?

    Reply

    1. #1.1 pcercuei, 01 Jun 2019 (Reply to Georgy)

      While you can remove the rootfs.squashfs.bak file, it’s protected so you can only remove it by connecting through telnet or SSH. And even though I’d advise against it.

      When you will see ‘the cow’ you will understand.

      You don’t need a new toolchain. Use the 2019.04.30 one.

      About msys / windows, I never did that, so you’re on your own.

      Reply

    2. #1.2 Georgy, 01 Jun 2019 (Reply to Georgy)

      Thanks. I suspect cowsay used somewhere in the firmware. :)

      Reply

  2. #2 Ninoh-FOX, 01 Jun 2019

    work great!!! this kernel work finally in my v21, thanks!!!!

    Reply

  3. #3 s z, 08 Jun 2019

    thank you soo much amazing job really you saved us from this FTP softwares thank u again for all the amazing effort so soon i will donate to your amazing job to keep contuine the great effort

    Reply

  4. #4 Aco, 08 Jun 2019

    Hi and thanks for your efforts.

    But how do I like the emualtor that was copied to my sdcard? I couldn’t find any options for that or did I miss something?

    Reply

    1. #4.1 pcercuei, 10 Jun 2019 (Reply to Aco)

      Make sure the files are in OPK format, and are for the Retromini. Then just copy them in the “Apps” folder, and they should automatically appear in the menu.

      Reply

    2. #4.2 Aco, 10 Jun 2019 (Reply to Aco)

      Thanks I managed to get some emulators :)

      Where do I need to put the update opk (in apps as well?)

      Reply

    3. #4.3 pcercuei, 14 Jun 2019 (Reply to Aco)

      Well, it’s an app, so put it in Apps, yes.

      Reply

  5. #5 Vapor, 18 Jun 2019

    Heya, i cant get my retromini recognized. I’ve tried to install the drivers on win10, win7. I’ve tried to use xubuntu and ubuntu too, but i always get “cant find ingenic device” every time i start the patcher. How can i fix that? N.B. When i connect the retromini, i always connect it turned off. Then i turn it on while pressing A or B button, for the USB Boot mode. It is normal that the screen is total black?

    Reply

    1. #5.1 pcercuei, 22 Jun 2019 (Reply to Vapor)

      It’s normal that the screen is black, yes. On Ubuntu don’t forget to run the script with “sudo”.

      Reply

    2. #5.2 Vapor, 24 Jun 2019 (Reply to Vapor)

      Should i install any type of bootloader before flashing opendingux? Otherwise i don’t know how to get my retromini recognized :(

      Reply

  6. #6 Takeshi, 02 Jul 2019

    I just flashed my retromini with the version of 2019.05.17 but it appears that I have 170 / 192MiB and now I want to update to this new version as I can make space in memory. :(

    Reply

    1. #6.1 Nahuel, 02 Jul 2019 (Reply to Takeshi)

      Actualizala sin problemas, yo lo hice y me aparecia lo mismo

      Reply

    2. #6.2 pcercuei, 02 Jul 2019 (Reply to Takeshi)

      You have 170 / 192 MiB free, not used :)

      Reply

  7. #7 Picea Pungens, 03 Jul 2019

    I attempted to upgrade from 2019.05.17 unsuccessfully. I had ~110 MiB of NAND free at the time yet I still got the “Out of memory” error. Now it seems to be stuck in a weird state when I attempt to boot: “—[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exit code=0x0000ff00 ]— . Then about 50 seconds later I get “random: crng init done”, then no further messages (waited about 5 minutes). It does that every time I boot now.

    I attempted to reflash the 2019.05.17 build, but I now get “Unable to find Ingenic device” , “Detecting OpenDingux…” , “Found Ingenic JZ4750 based device”, (no, that’s not a typo), then it writes a bunch of bytes and “Operation complete” but I still get the same behavior on next boot. lsusb shows the device in the filesystem “Bus 003 Device 019: ID 601a:4750 Ingenic Semiconductor Ltd. “

    Any thoughts on what to do now? The device was working great for about two days under 05.17 before the failed upgrade.

    Reply

    1. #7.1 pcercuei, 03 Jul 2019 (Reply to Picea Pungens)

      You can boot the backup kernel by pressing START when powering on, and the backup root file system by pressing R. Then it should boot to a working state and you can attempt the update again.

      If you still have to reflash… make sure you run the script with “sudo”, and that the Retromini is in USB boot mode (press A when powering ON). If it still doesn’t work, try with a different USB cable.

      Reply

  8. #8 Picea Pungens, 03 Jul 2019

    Ok great, thanks. I notice you have the info about START and R at the end of the upgrade OPK process, perhaps that splash could be moved to the front of the process before any bytes are written? That info would have probably enabled me to troubleshoot this on my own.

    I was still unable to upgrade to 2019.06.01, and I couldn’t get the flasher (v30.sh) to work either in that state. However, the 2017.05.17 upgrade OPK worked nicely, and I now have a nice working device again.

    Anyways, thanks for all the porting work - You have rescued this very nice hardware from the bad software it shipped with!

    Reply

  9. #9 Picea Pungens, 03 Jul 2019

    FYI, I am not sure if the Dingoonity forums are accepting new registrations.

    I attempted to sign up several days ago, yet the status is still ‘pending’. A quick DDG seems to indicate others with similar issues in 2018 and 2019. I sent an email to Max just now to ask about it.

    So, open question for anyone reading this - Have you managed to register an account on Dingoonity in the last 0-12 months?

    Reply

  10. #10 Diego, 04 Jul 2019

    Hello, can you help me? How I can put a Wallpaper on Opendingux?

    Reply

    1. #10.1 pcercuei, 05 Jul 2019 (Reply to Diego)

      In the home folder, inside .gmenu2x/skins/Default/wallpapers/ (create it if it doesn’t exist). The wallpapers must be 320x240 resolution and in PNG format.

      Reply

    2. #10.2 dragon, 07 Jul 2019 (Reply to Diego)

      How do i access this

      Reply

    3. #10.3 dragon, 07 Jul 2019 (Reply to Diego)

      I FOUND IT!! THANK YOU. FINALLY CHANGED THE WALLPAPER

      Reply

  11. #11 prabocor, 05 Jul 2019

    mtp showing with rs-90 but i cannot copy a file on apps folder

    Reply

  12. #12 Dragon, 07 Jul 2019

    Help, y does my retromini stop charging? but when i turn it on, it shows that it’s only half full

    Reply

    1. #12.1 pcercuei, 07 Jul 2019 (Reply to Dragon)

      It stops because it is fully charged. The battery level in the menu isn’t well calibrated, that’s why it only shows half-full.

      Reply

    2. #12.2 dragon, 10 Jul 2019 (Reply to Dragon)

      oh okay, sorry I really have no clue what all this is but i made it work, noooow how do i install this update, i need help

      Reply

  13. #13 Dragon, 11 Jul 2019

    eversince this update, i always crash mid game, only playing pokemon, idk why it still crashes

    Reply

  14. #14 dragonpapa, 11 Jul 2019

    ReGba keeps on crashing with 06-01 update,https://boards.dingoonity.org/retrominirs-90/rs-90-with-opendingux-gba-crash/ the only solution this dingoonity thread found is to revert back to 5-17 :( hope u can fix this small issue soon, godbless, we admire your work

    Reply

  15. #15 Takeshi, 24 Jul 2019

    Will there be any updates to improve battery life? is that with the battery of a Nokia BL-5C 1200 mAh it lasts just an hour playing and then I have to recharge the battery

    Reply

    1. #15.1 pcercuei, 25 Jul 2019 (Reply to Takeshi)

      Either your unit or your battery is defective, I get about 5 hours on the default 1020 mAh battery.

      Reply

    2. #15.2 Takeshi, 01 Aug 2019 (Reply to Takeshi)

      How is my unit or my battery defective? my Retromini bought it in good condition but I changed the battery to another of a Nokia cell phone … I am thinking of buying a battery of more than 3000 mAh so that at least it lasts longer.

      Reply

    3. #15.3 pcercuei, 03 Aug 2019 (Reply to Takeshi)

      The battery report widget isn’t well calibrated, it’s possible that it looks flat after one hour. But the battery should last much longer than that.

      Reply

  16. #16 eagleman, 28 Jul 2019

    Can’t wait for the next update bro, great work

    Reply

  17. #17 Sena, 30 Jul 2019

    I found My save game in GBA and Gameboy Color sudenly disapear. I playing pokemon and then I take a break 2 days, and when i want load the game, the save is not there. hope in the next update can fix this issue

    Reply

    1. #17.1 pcercuei, 31 Jul 2019 (Reply to Sena)

      It happened to me too. But that kind of bug is almost impossible to fix because it’s very hard to trigger…

      Reply

  18. #18 quadjfet, 09 Aug 2019

    Hi Vapor, (or others reading this)

    I can ssh to the device from any of my gnu/linux computers, but it seems very picky about which computers I can flash from. I cannot flash it from any port on my main laptop, it shows up in lsusb but I get the same “unable to detect ingenic device” message you are reporting.

    It works from my GPD Win 1 running Manjaro, so I use that to flash the device.

    Reply

  19. #19 PACHUSOFT, 26 Aug 2019

    Why not make a simpler update or an opk to fix the lighting saving and the battery calibration please

    Reply

  20. #20 Chingchong, 12 Sep 2019

    we need ur genius mind, where’s the update :(

    Reply

    1. #20.1 pcercuei, 15 Sep 2019 (Reply to Chingchong)

      Sorry, I’m working on other things these days…

      Reply

  21. #21 Emi, 04 Oct 2019

    Hello, thank you very much for your work, it is spectacular, but …

    My problem is that once flashed opendingux, I do not know how to access the internal memory, I have copied the update to the micro sd, the last update .opk, but It does not detect it, nor do the emulators to install from the micro sd, and I don’t know how to access the internal memory, I have windows 10, and the drivers are working, but I cannot access the internal memory.

    How can I access the internal memory from windows 10?

    Thanks again and regards

    Reply

    1. #21.1 pcercuei, 04 Oct 2019 (Reply to Emi)

      The OPK update must be in the “apps” folder at the root of the SD card. If you don’t have an “apps” folder, just create one and put the OPKs inside.

      Then once you updated to the latest firmware it should be easier to access the internal memory, just plug-and-play on your PC.

      Reply

  22. #22 Mike, 07 Oct 2019

    Hello, is there still development on this? Haven’t seen update in awhile

    Reply

  23. #23 retrofan, 10 Oct 2019

    nice work bro it works perdect

    Reply

  24. #24 Dr. Slump, 14 Oct 2019

    First of all thank you very much for the great work you are doing, I recognize that it should be difficult to spend time on a project like this. I had a doubt, I have the version of the machine with hynix memory, as I could read that version only works with the latest firmware, but I have heard that the gameboy advance emulator does not work with this version.

    Do I have to wait until you get an update to fix it or is there an easy solution for that problem?

    The truth is that the gaming experience with the original Chinese firmware is quite bad.

    Regards.

    Reply

    1. #24.1 pcercuei, 16 Oct 2019 (Reply to Dr. Slump)

      GBA emu works on the latest firmware, what do you think I tested it with? ;)

      Reply

    2. #24.2 Siggurd, 17 Oct 2019 (Reply to Dr. Slump)

      Hey, I´ve been following development on the rs 90 for quite a long time and I´m thankful for all the work you´ve done. But given that the firmware development has stopped for the time being, is there any way to revert back to the stock firmware? My rs-90 is practically useless with all the crashes.

      Reply

  25. #25 Dr. Slump, 31 Oct 2019

    Thanks, I installed without any problem OpenDingux in v3 version of RetroMini, after installing the latest update, when starting emulators or applications, the console frequently freezes, you have to turn it off, and turn it on again.

    On rare occasions, the graphic environment of the system does not start when it is first turned on cold, in this case it remains in the _ symbol without loading the GUI.

    If this is caused by compressed memory, is there any way to disable this function that causes instability? Is there any way to do a soft reset or to restart alone when it freezes?

    Reply

  26. #26 Retromini90, 18 Nov 2019

    Hi, i have tried to first time flash yesterday on Linux and it worked well with v30 on my JZ4750. After the Process finished it says that the device will reboot now. But it never did.. the Screen remains black and i didn’t managed to flash it another time. Seems to be bricked now? What can i do or how can i restart the process? What i also didn’t understand: Where do i have to put the firmware? I just used the flasher tool but was never asked to put the firmware file anywhere? Does it has to be on the SD? Or does it come later in the process?

    Thanks for your help

    Reply

    1. #26.1 pcercuei, 18 Nov 2019 (Reply to Retromini90)

      … did you say JZ4750? It’s not a JZ4725B?

      The RS-90 has an unbrickable design, you can always reflash from USB. Just power it OFF, then ON while pressing A, and you should be able to reflash from USB again.

      The firmware is transferred over USB, once the flash is done there’s nothing else to install.

      Reply

    2. #26.2 Retromini90, 18 Nov 2019 (Reply to Retromini90)

      Hi and thank you for the quick reply. The Kali Terminal says “Found Ingenic JZ4750 based device” and starts uploading. I will retry later today but after the first time i had the flasher software finishing on the device i’ve never seen the display on again… Opendingux never started even the display says the process successfully finished and will reboot now…

      Reply

    3. #26.3 Retromini90, 18 Nov 2019 (Reply to Retromini90)

      Hi there again,

      i have just done the flashing again with sudo.. The terminal tells me “Operation complete” after 5 times uploading different sizes of bytes but still the device wont power up or start the flasher on itself… can i reset it somehow? also power up with START or R is not working.

      Reply

    4. #26.4 Retromini90, 19 Nov 2019 (Reply to Retromini90)

      Hi there again, i got it starting up pressing START when powering up. The last thing it says is: 3.782415 end Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt

      maybe now anyone can help? Flashing it again seems not to work. The terminal tells me “operation complete” but nothing starts on the device and the upload process just takes 1-2 seconds…

      Reply

    5. #26.5 pcercuei, 19 Nov 2019 (Reply to Retromini90)

      Honestly this looks very much like a corrupted flash. Try with different USB cables, or on a different computer.

      Reply

    6. #26.6 Retromini90, 20 Nov 2019 (Reply to Retromini90)

      Hi, i have now tried 3 different Computers and at least 5 different cables. The flasher once started on the device and told me it succeeded and will reboot now but it didnt reboot. The Terminal always tells me> root@kali:~/Desktop/flasher# ./flash_v30.sh Unable to find Ingenic device. Detecting OpenDingux… Found Ingenic JZ4750 based device Uploaded 23691264 bytes Uploaded 2859200 bytes Uploaded 11065 bytes Uploaded 7648 bytes Uploaded 64392 bytes Operation complete.

      And that only takes 2 seconds. Nothing on the device and no starting up anymore. Not with R and not with START… just nothing…. I only downloaded and used the flasher tool from the previous update….

      Reply

    7. #26.7 pcercuei, 21 Nov 2019 (Reply to Retromini90)

      Well, are you sure you have a V3.0?

      Sorry, I can’t come up with any particular reason why it would fail like that. Maybe it’s defective. Or maybe you have a slightly different version with yet another different RAM.

      Reply

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