GarlicOS 2.0.2 (Public Alpha)

Introduction

It's been a while since the last public update of GarlicOS, and I want to use this chance to say thank you for your continued support and patience.

The reason for the delay is simple: I'm a single man, working on many projects, with only 24 hours in a day to get them done. With other projects like Duo needing my attention, I was limited in how much time I could put into GarlicOS.

For those who keep track of my other projects, either here on Patreon or GitHub, you'll find that Duo has finally reached a point in its development where I'm happy to park it in favor of other projects.

It's stable, self-updating, and overall ready to be considered a finished product, sans potential future bugfixes, of course.

Which means I'm finally free to spend a majority of my available time with my favorite project again, which means we should be seeing significant movement over the next few months.

Now that we're all caught up, let's move on to the two key points we'll be focusing on in the foreseeable future.

Adding support for more devices

While I was busy with other projects, several new devices arrived at my doorstep.

Some were provided by OEMs themselves, but a majority of them came from community members like yourself, for which I am extremely grateful.

I've been busy batch-soldering them all up with easily accessible UART ports for debugging, which should make the trickier-to-implement parts somewhat less tricky.

I expect most of these devices to land on the supported device list within a matter of weeks, with Anbernic's RG28XX being the first of the bunch, landing today.

Adding hardware acceleration, WiFi, BT and other key features

GarlicOS has been labeled as Alpha software for a reason: many key features that people are accustomed to from other operating systems are still missing.

Support for these features is being worked on in a separate, currently private branch, alongside on-screen keyboard support and other prerequisites.

There is currently no ETA for these updates, but I will keep all of you posted on the progress.

Which devices are currently supported?

• Anbernic RG405M

• Anbernic RG405V

• Anbernic RG35XX+

• Anbernic RG35XXH

• Anbernic RG28XX (NEW)

• Retroid Pocket 2+

How to install GarlicOS?

All GarlicOS 2.X devices run off the same operating system image, booted by a custom, device specific bootloader.

The process can differ slightly from device to device, but, for the most part, the process is always the same:

• Install one of the available bootloaders on your device

• Prepare a GarlicOS MicroSD card and plug it into your device

• Boot into GarlicOS using your device's MicroSD card boot button combination (if it has one)

For exact step by step instructions, please consult your device's bootloader repository README.