OpenDingux release 2020.01.06

Since last 2019.06.01 update, there has been reports of a lot of hangs and crashes that I could never manage to reproduce. The difference was that unlike most users, I don't use a micro SD and only have a handful of GBA games on the internal NAND. The bug turned out to be in the DMA driver, which caused data packets to be lost between the SD card controller and the card itself.

Changelog

  • Fixed DMA driver; using external micro SD cards won't cause crashes anymore.
  • Based on Linux v5.5-rc5 kernel and Buildroot 2019.11.
  • Small fixes to GMenu2X, nothing particularly noteworthy to report.
  • GMenu2X should now properly respawn when an app crashes.

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.

For those who did not flash already, an updated flasher can be downloaded here: Flasher tool download

Special thanks

A big thanks to all those who donated. That was many more people than I thought. While I don't do this for the money, tips are always appreciated! Thank you!

  1. #1 Dr. Slump, 12 Jan 2020

    First of all, thank you very much for updating, personally the machine is no longer frozen, that point was very important.

    But after trying this version with emulators and homebrew, I have noticed a significant loss of performance, GBA games are less fps, there is a lack of softness in most games, everything is not as smooth as in the previous one version.

    Ports of games are going to pull and eventually cause a restart (doom), before 60 fps worked perfectly and without stops, it happens with the rest of ports too.

    The complete battery is never shown, and that I acquired another spare and the same thing happens.

    If this is not fixed, could I go back to the previous version without having to reinstall everything again? I know the machine would hang again, but I liked it when the games were fast and playable.

    I hope this information is useful, greetings and thanks again.

    Reply

    1. #1.1 pcercuei, 13 Jan 2020 (Reply to Dr. Slump)

      I noticed that Hocoslamfy is sluggish and gmenu2x isn’t as smooth as before, and will release a bugfix update shortly. But I did not notice any performance problem with GBA emulation, are you sure?

      If you want to help debug, switch to USB Ethernet mode, telnet from your PC to 10.1.1.3, then try to disable zram swap:

      sudo swapoff /dev/zram0

      It will ask for a password, that’s the password that you generated using the “password” tool in the settings tab of gmenu2x.

      Reply

    2. #1.2 Dr. Slump, 14 Jan 2020 (Reply to Dr. Slump)

      I have tried removing the swap, there have been no major changes in performance, speed has not improved.

      One note: the ECM mode for using telnet does not work in windows 10 (it detects a device in the absence of drivers), I have used RNDIS with W10 without problems and it works correctly using telnet.

      The biggest difference is that doom did not even start when removing the swap, the emulators are still working very similarly maintaining the swap, with the same lag, Hocoslamfy and GUI also offer no improvement by changing that parameter.

      Once I changed the swap I checked that it really changed in “System Info” to do the tests, I see that when rebooting the system the compressed memory swap was created again.

      I can already use the USB mode to access the memory of the console and the SD card in write mode, that’s great.

      Do you know any tricks or ways to improve the theme of the battery level indicator?

      Thank you very much for the continuous efforts, we will wait for that patch.

      Greetings.

      Reply

    3. #1.3 pcercuei, 14 Jan 2020 (Reply to Dr. Slump)

      Sorry, I can’t reproduce. Here ReGBA works as good as it did on the 2019.05.17 version. The FPS count is the exact same.

      What’s wrong with the theme of the battery level indicator?

      Reply

    4. #1.4 Dr. Slump, 15 Jan 2020 (Reply to Dr. Slump)

      Ok, as soon as I can do performance tests again, I have the feeling of not going smoothly in games such as Aladin, Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure, Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, Sonic Advance, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Advance 3, Castlevania … The version of ReGBA installed is 1.45.5 (Nebuleon / ReGBA commit e500864). It is a sensation of small, random micro pauses that are also perceived in the sound (not always). I have tried overclock to the fullest and in this update it does not hang in any game at 456MHz (in everything I have tested).

      I put the GBA BIOS, because if it did not, some games did not work, without the some games did not start, I do not think it has an impact on performance (I do not think it influences).

      The problem with the battery is that when charged, it only indicates approximately 75% of the bar, in a short time an approximate 25% appears, and an hour later the plug icon. But in total the machine works correctly about 5 hours without problems until it turns off, but as you can see the battery indicator is not very reliable. The original firmware was not very accurate, true, but it indicated the maximum load for some time, then after several hours it went to approx. 50% and after 3 hours at low battery. The problem is not of duration, it is of calibration, the battery is kept running for the time indicated by the manufacturer.

      You will know that several ports have stopped working, but that has nothing to do with you, it is something of those who have compiled them.

      Thanks for the answers, I try to help by giving feedback on the RS-90 that I bought, I know it is difficult to do what you have done without help.

      Reply

  2. #2 ChampionLeake, 16 Jan 2020

    I’m happy about that the freezing was resolved. Also, I noticed that the gnuboy emulator reboots the whole unit when you try to play a Gameboy color game.

    I’m not sure if anyone is having that issue.

    Reply

  3. #3 Ninoh-FOX, 30 Jan 2020

    In my RetroMini v21 I have the follow menssage to boot and the console not work:

    “kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception”

    :(

    Reply

    1. #3.1 pcercuei, 31 Jan 2020 (Reply to Ninoh-FOX)

      Well… I guess you’re good for a reflash. It can happen if the filesystem gets corrupted somehow.

      Reply

    2. #3.2 Ninoh-FOX, 19 Feb 2020 (Reply to Ninoh-FOX)

      rootfs work fine with the previous kernel file

      Reply

  4. #4 Kokos, 10 Feb 2020

    Another happy user!

    Just finished flashing my RS 90 V30. Good to go!

    Thank you for your hard work!

    Reply

  5. #5 RetroVibe, 15 Feb 2020

    I can confirm that version 2019.05.17 is superior in performance to play GBA. Playing FFTA, versions above gives freezing often and show more frameskip, especially when performing some magic. You could compile that version just with brightness saving and mass storage by default! :)

    Reply

  6. #6 VortexWong, 15 Feb 2020

    Thanks for the project. I tried everything to read/write my RS90 v21 (SAMSUNG 552K9F2G08U0M YCB0) but it was imposible. I succesfully flash the RS but i cant write anything in /apps folder. OpenDingux installed and running properly. Tried Windows10 / Ubuntu, Filezilla FTP, drivers, several atempts, different cables… Once i saw the content via FTP but it never happened again. Technically my RS is bricked.

    Reply

    1. #6.1 pcercuei, 23 Feb 2020 (Reply to VortexWong)

      FTP is gone, it uses MTP now, just like on Android. It should work out of the box on Windows 10 and Ubuntu. Note that you can always put your apps, games and updates on an external micro SD, so even with a dead USB you’d still be able to use it.

      Reply

  7. #7 Fernando, 23 Feb 2020

    Hi Guys For some reason most of te files are no longer available in the Box.

    Thanks Fernando

    Reply

    1. #7.1 pcercuei, 23 Feb 2020 (Reply to Fernando)

      What are you talking about? They’re still here.

      Reply

    2. #7.2 guest, 24 Feb 2020 (Reply to Fernando)

      I cannot download it too It’s not available from mobile and just does not work from PC. Pls don’t use BOX for distribution anymore, it’s sucks!

      Reply

  8. #8 Takeshi, 26 Feb 2020

    Hello in advance thank you for this update, I’m doing well for now. My question is how to change and add more wallpapers to the GMenu2x .. try creating the folder in OpenDingux Device \ Home \ .gmenu2x \ skins \ default \ wallpapers but it doesn’t recognize me the wallpapers that I have uploaded although I put them in 320x240 in png … I hope the prompt help of the community

    Reply

    1. #8.1 pcercuei, 26 Feb 2020 (Reply to Takeshi)

      In the last version the path to the wallpapers changed, sorry if it wasn’t mentioned (by the time I made the release post I had forgotten about it). The path is now .gmenu2x/skins/320x240/Default/wallpapers/

      Reply

    2. #8.2 Takeshi, 02 Mar 2020 (Reply to Takeshi)

      Hi, thanks in advance for your reply. I did not find the route you put to put the wallpapers but I created it just as your route indicates. but it still doesn’t detect my new wallpapers that I put in the “wallpapers” folder (I put the PNG file in 320x240). Could you help me solve this problem? I use Windows 10 and recognize it normallynormalmente

      Reply

  9. #9 Georgy, 27 Mar 2020

    In my case ccdoom and wolf3d go reboot after finishing the first level on this firmware. Previous firmware was fine with ccdoom and wolf3d. Turning swap off makes ccdoom unplayable at all and after shooting pistol it just goes reboot. No noticeable slowdowns in speed with regba for me. No sdcard used in my cases. I kept running “free” while playing ccdoom just to see the stats and right before loading the second level it was: total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 25008 21760 912 0 2336 1920 Swap: 19440 10528 8912 Maybe it’s just a broken port of doom…

    Reply

  10. #10 Rodrigo Andrade, 08 Apr 2020

    hi friends….a just can’t install the emulators. Please somebody help me? from pc, i put the opk files in Apps paste, but when i start the retromini does not apear the tab emulators. im use this last version flasher

    Reply

    1. #10.1 humming, 14 Apr 2020 (Reply to Rodrigo Andrade)

      https://ozgur.kazancci.com/jutleys/13-RS90/OPK/

      Reply

  11. #11 bob, 22 Apr 2020

    Are there new releases around the corner?

    Reply

    1. #11.1 pcercuei, 23 Apr 2020 (Reply to bob)

      There’s not much more to add, so I won’t make a new release anytime soon.

      Reply

    2. #11.2 v47, 27 Apr 2020 (Reply to bob)

      So, the lower performance issues some users reported on the forum were not possible to replicate?

      Reply

  12. #12 Sion, 01 May 2020

    Could someone post instructions on how to enable thumbnails in the selector browser. I have read how to enable it in vanilla gmenu2x but for some reason making shortcuts to opks does not work on this retro mini build and I if I try to add the option “selectorscreens={path to pngs with same filename as rom} “ to the shortcuts that are created in home/.gmenu2x/sections/emulators it does not work. Can someone either confirm that this type of customization works on this build of gmenu2x or post some examples.

    Reply

  13. #13 halow, 05 May 2020

    Im not able to put the rs 90 into boot mode and my WIndows wont recognize the device, any advice?

    Reply

    1. #13.1 v47, 06 May 2020 (Reply to halow)

      Try different usb ports/computers/usb cables. Also, some units actually need the B button pressed and held instead of A to go into boot mode, iirc.

      Reply

  14. #14 Dave, 06 May 2020

    Tried to flash but when I run flash tool in terminal it says,

    3: bin/jzboot: not found 11:bin/odboot-client: not found

    What am I doing wrong??

    Reply

    1. #14.1 pcercuei, 20 May 2020 (Reply to Dave)

      You have to be in the same directory in which the flash script is located. Also, the binaries are for x86_64 Linux.

      Reply

  15. #15 LeonardoRM, 30 May 2020

    Hey Paul,

    I recently bought a Retromini RS-90 for my 4-year old, not the best idea however I prefer he plays GBA games in comparison to what you will find on Google Play Store. Anyways long story short, from one day to the next the screen is black, I have plugged it into a PC, however it only supplies power to it and it is not recognized as a device. Hence I cannot re-install OpenDingux, which is very disappointing since I would enjoy playing with him at least when he wanted to share it with me. I would really appreciate your help and I would understand if you cant since you are probably busy.

    Reply

  16. #16 ZombieGavinS, 14 Jan 2021

    I’m unable to download the flasher as every time I try it tells me that the appbox site is unreachable, is there currently an issue with the download links or is this something on my end? Many thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

    Reply

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