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 Link: https://old.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/1te2u8c/official_linux_firmware_for_rg_ds_v10_20260513/ This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.The original was posted on /r/sbcgaming by /u/nekomichi on 2026-05-15 17:18:45+00:00. So Anbernic just released an official Linux build for the RG DS this week and I've been testing it for a while. While it's an improvement over the initial Android release, there are still quite a few issues that prevent me from switching over from Rocknix. (tl;dr summary at the end) General User Interface Right off the bat, the user interface is more streamlined. Instead of the smartphone setup, the Linux OS adopts a more traditional game console interface that puts the game collection front and centre. It comes with three themes and I chose the DS light theme which has a glassy icon look that feels like a mix between the DSi, Wii U, and Switch system menus. From here, games are sorted into their systems with DS games being launched through DraStic and everything else through RetroArch. The SD card layout is similar to most other CFWs with a roms folder and each system given its own folder. The Linux OS supports having nested folders inside each system folder although it appears to be setup for Asian users because NES and SNES ROMs are supposed to go in the FC and SFC folders instead of their Western localised names. Once in a system folder, the games are in a simple list format. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be support for custom scrapers which is strange because the UI reserves a space to the right of the list. Maybe it's coming in a future update? RetroArch Emulation When in a game run through RetroArch, there are pre-configured overlays which add to the variety. These can be disabled and the RetroArch config can be customised by the user. Unlike Rocknix, user-specified custom RetroArch configs are saved and restored normally instead of being overwritten which is a plus. What's not a plus however is that there is always a "now playing" icon on the bottom screen that cannot be disabled and personally I find that distracting. Also it comes with RetroArch 1.21.0 instead of 1.22.2. There are some reports of joysticks not being recognised but during my testing they worked fine. DraStic DS Emulation DS emulation is a bit of a mixed bag. https://reddit.com/link/1te2u8c/video/7chnsjk64c1h1/player Initially I tested for the screen desynchronisation issue (even though it's already been addressed in the Android release). There was no significant desynchronisation between the upper and lower screens and if I slow the footage down to 1/4 speed it still looks okay. There did appear to be some ghosting of the previous frame though. Latency-wise it's actually better than on Android. I played Taiko no Tatsujin as a test and it was playable whereas on Android the latency was so bad I couldn't clear anything on hard mode. https://reddit.com/link/1te2u8c/video/e98hcwsa4c1h1/player Performance-wise, somehow it's worse than Android. If I enable both high-res 3D and threaded video, it struggles to run at full speed in scenes with 3D rendering, causing audio to crackle. On Rocknix, this issue does not occur. https://reddit.com/link/1te2u8c/video/99bpd6zc4c1h1/player There are also other audio oddities with DraStic that aren't present with games emulated via RetroArch. For example, the lowest volume setting is still quite loud compared to mute and if I put the device to sleep and wake it back up, it causes the volume to be maxed out which isn't good. Other Oddities and Summary Finally, I noticed that the system doesn't always shut down properly. If I navigate to the power setting screen and choose to power off, sometimes the screens turn off but the green power LED stays on indefinitely and I have to force power off by holding the power button. Also the first time I ran DS games it wouldn't detect the touchscreen at all but a reboot fixed it. For now, I'm sticking with Rocknix because it has a better game presentation interface through EmulationStation and DS emulation has better performance without the audio issues. The new Linux OS is a step in the right direction but still needs a lot of polish and bug fixes. tl;dr Summary The Linux OS makes the RG DS feel more like a console but lacks the in-depth customisation options as Rocknix such as custom scrapers. While it doesn't have the screen desync issue as the Android OS originally did, DS emulation struggles with high-res 3D mode and has audio bugs. Personally I'm staying on Rocknix but will keep an eye out for future updates. |
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