BananaOS
Lightweight Linux for the Anbernic RG DS and RG DS Plus.
A pixel-art menu, two DS emulators and a system built around your handheld's two screens and lid. Add your games, choose an emulator and start playing.
[!WARNING]
Beta 0.5.3.4. An update over Wi-Fi on top of 0.5.0: install 0.5.0 from its card image, then update in Settings › System › Update. Read the known issues under Status before installing. If something goes wrong, docs/FIRST-BOOT.md explains which logs to include in a report.
What it is
BananaOS is a complete Linux system built specifically for the RG DS and RG DS Plus. It uses Buildroot, a Linux kernel with ROCKNIX hardware support, BusyBox init and a dedicated interface for both screens. The system image is read-only; games, saves and settings live on a separate exFAT partition.
It starts directly in the menu, releases display, input and audio resources when launching a game, and pauses play when you close the lid. Updates come over Wi-Fi and install to a second system slot, so the previous version remains one restart away. The menu speaks English, Simplified Chinese (简体中文, translated by Majirefy), Russian (Русский, translated by Vladislav (LVD) and Ruslan (Nestrahoff)), Italian (Italiano, translated by Olympicus), Finnish (Suomi, translated by HANHITSI) and Spanish (Español, translated by Pixelado Dev).
See BananaOS in action
New in 0.5.3.4
The full list: the 0.5.3.4 release notes. It brings together the 0.5.3 builds the beta testers ran first. Over Wi-Fi only: there is no new card image.
[!IMPORTANT]
Poketool and PortMaster now come from the App Store. They are no longer built in: install them from the Store, and your bank and your ports stay on the card.
- Three new languages: Spanish (Español) by Pixelado Dev, Italian (Italiano) by Olympicus and Finnish (Suomi) by HANHITSI. Thank you! The language is picked from a list (Settings › System › Language), and the Pokémon companions read the Spanish releases.
- GBA Pokémon companion: the DS companion's pages (Battle, Party, Team, Here, Map, Guide, Pokédex, journey log) for Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen and the hacks Glazed, Gaia, Heart & Soul, Lazarus, Seaglass, SoulGold and Unbound, with a Nuzlocke-style Challenge mode: Settings › Other systems › Second screen.
- Speaker EQ: a tuned profile for the RG DS Plus speakers, seven sliders, or your own Equalizer APO profile (Settings › Display & sound). Speakers only.
- Game & Watch on both screens, through MAME, and Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum (basic support).
- Activity on the home row: play time, a timeline and trends, and what to play next.
- Clearer Settings: one plain sentence per row, and a line under each choice saying what it does.
- BananaDS: black caves and washed-out fog fixed (Black 2's Chargestone Cave), a per-game DS CPU speed up to 2133 MHz, no crackle when fast-forward ends.
- Safer saves and updates: RetroArch and BananaFront saves move to one folder (
/data/saves, old copies kept in banana/saves-legacy), a full card no longer cuts saves short, and a cut-off update can't leave the handheld unable to start. Plus sleep, lid and Bluetooth fixes.
- App Store: GBA DS by kyannon, dual-screen GBA.
New in 0.5.2.2
The full list: the 0.5.2.2 release notes. It brings together 0.5.1 and 0.5.2, which went to the closed beta first. Over Wi-Fi only: there is no new card image.
[!IMPORTANT]
Shut down and Restart have moved. They are no longer in Settings › System. Press START on the home screen, then Y for Power: Sleep, Restart and Shut down (press A twice). Holding the power button for 2 seconds still shuts down from anywhere.
- BananaFront, BananaOS's own player: Game Boy, Game Boy Color, GBA, Mega Drive, NES, SNES and PICO-8 start in it instead of RetroArch, with up to half the CPU work (Game Boy Color −50%, GBA −40%, Mega Drive −33% on an RG DS). Same saves, states and hotkeys; RetroArch is one setting away (Settings › Other systems › Frontend).
- New cores: BananaNES (about twice as fast, now the NES default), BananaGBA and BananaSNES.
- DS Pokémon companion (alpha) for all nine main-series DS games, Diamond to White 2: battle help with catch chances and IVs, party, team score, the area's wild Pokémon, a guide, a Dex with the game's own sprites and a journey log, behind an icon on the touch screen. BananaDS only, off by default: Settings › Nintendo DS › BananaDS › NDS Pokémon companion (alpha).
- Russian (Русский), translated by Vladislav (LVD) and Ruslan (Nestrahoff). Thank you both!
- Buttons pages: choose what L2, R2, L3 and R3 do. New DS defaults: L2 swaps the screens, F + R saves, F + L loads.
- A tidier Settings: a page per emulator, and subpages such as System › Updates and Network › Bluetooth.
- BananaDS: faster at 3x and 4x, and a per-game "Fast, DSi CPU" timing (Pokémon HeartGold: Origin at 60 fps).
- Files and sharing: games from a NAS or a computer (SMB, SFTP, FTP), archives unpacked on the handheld, and Bshare for LocalSend in the App Store.
New in 0.5.0
The full list, with every fix: the 0.5.0 release notes.
Nintendo DS
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
