Armada 20260723.c9736d7 — RP6 MVP test build

Flashable SD-card image (armada-YYYYMMDD.img.gz) for a fresh install, built from testing digest sha256:163c1c5b63ff9f7630d308c64ef4a08c460295e8172098c278798637203d449f.

Includes Retroid Pocket 6 (SM8550) support: device profile, panel/display kernel config, AYN-style controller mapping, stick RGB lighting, and the SM8550 GPU wedge workaround.

Flash with Balena Etcher, then flash the matching ROCKNIX ABL for SM8550 per the README before first boot.

Armada 1.1

Armada 1.1 — Retroid Pocket 5, Flip2, Mini V2

SD card image, ready to flash.

Download

armada-20260723.37bf163.img.gz (~7.3 GB compressed)

!IMPORTANT

Decky Quick Access

Hotkeys are disabled by default.

• Home + Select → Enable hotkeys
• Home + A (south button) → Open Decky

What's in this build

Base system

• SteamOS-like distro on Fedora bootc/ostree, ARM64 Steam, latest FEX, CachyOS Proton 11
• KDE desktop mode with the Bazaar app store
• Over-the-air updates (Beta/Preview channels) and install-to-internal-storage, alongside Android
• Waydroid support (Android app compatibility), with correct controller mapping for Retroid gamepad families

Compatibility & performance

• ARM64 / x86_64 Compatibility Mode switch - one toggle picks the right global Proton default (native ARM64 CachyOS Proton, or Valve's x86_64 proton_experimental) together with the matching FEX ThunksDB state for each, fixing games that only worked right on one path
• Per-game FEX preset (Default/Fast/Compatible/Custom) and resolution, saved per game
• Per-game CPU core affinity - pin a game to the big or little cluster
• Performance Overlay toggle - gamescope's built-in --mangoapp FPS/CPU/GPU/temp overlay, no extra setup
• gamescope's compositor threads promoted to SCHED_RR for steadier frame pacing under load
• Kernel now built with sched_ext support (BTF + CONFIG_SCHED_CLASS_EXT), laying the groundwork for a BPF scheduler later
• Fixed the Proton auto-apply bootstrap silently disabling itself, so per-game Proton choices actually stick

Power, fan, and sleep

• Power profiles (Eco/Balanced/Performance) with fan curve, CPU underclock, and GPU clock range, editable in Armada Control
• Auto power-profile switching by AC/battery state
• Real suspend on all SM8250 devices, with a working "remember last choice" GRUB menu
• Fixed a power-key rebound race that could disable the safety guard around fake-suspend

Stick RGB lighting (Retroid Pocket Mini V2)

• Its own Armada Control tab, separate from Settings
• Ten modes: Static, Breathing, Battery, Battery + Breathing, Rainbow, Chase, Alternating, Reactive, Multidot, Ambilight (screen-color-reactive)
• Per-mode Speed/Intensity/Size sliders, per-button flash colors for Reactive, and a "follow screen brightness" toggle
• Colors tucked behind a spoiler (presets first, custom RGB sliders behind a further "advanced" toggle)
• Gamma-corrected LED output and fixed duotone zone/color mapping
• Charging indicator now pulses in breathing mode instead of sitting static

Display

• External display menu in Decky (game mode): pick a primary display, resolution, remembers per-display settings, survives unplugging mid-session
• Removed the portrait-only external display block from the UI

Input & UI

• Mapped Retroid's extra button to Quick Access instead of F1
• Decky Loader watchdog (recovers automatically if it stops itself after a session restart)
• Fixed internal/eMMC storage installation for SM8250 devices (was picking the wrong device tree)

Known issues

• OTA updates on the Beta or Preview channels may cause system instability
• External display rotation is not supported (a gamescope limitation, not something we can fix in this repo) - a portrait-only external display can't be set as primary
• Wireless display support not yet implemented
• Sleep/resume is still occasionally flaky on some devices

Retroid Pocket Mini V2 - 2026-07-20

Warning

Early preview for Retroid Pocket Mini V2 (SM8250). Built on top of upstream virtudude/armada; Mini V2 is confirmed working after extensive live testing on real hardware. Retroid Pocket 5 boots and mostly works per community testing; Flip2 remains largely untested.

Built from this repo's main @ 1284b1a, kernel/DTS + InputPlumber patch from Ga1dz1/armada-packages.

Download: armada-20260720-final.img.gz (7.6 GiB)

sha256: f3f56e144d26afc3ca72af72feca3bb174b91e327445014f3587691fe153f86b

New since the last upload

• GRUB replaced with ROCKNIX's own compiled binary (vendored, see grub/README in the repo) - fixes menu button-input unreliability reported on Flip2 and RP5, and fixes the boot menu never actually remembering your last-selected device across reboots. Both confirmed live on real Mini V2 hardware: correct device auto-boots, readable menu, correct panel orientation.
• Stick RGB lighting is fully independent per stick - the left and right stick can each run a different mode, color, and animation settings at once. A new "Configure each stick separately" toggle in the Decky settings panel defaults off (both sticks mirror every change, matching the simpler old behavior) - turn it on to control each stick independently.
• Real suspend (s2idle) on all three SM8250 devices (Mini V2, RP5, Flip2), replacing fake-suspend as the default. Fake-suspend never actually power-gated the SoC - it only froze userspace and blanked the screen - so the power button could never produce a genuinely complete sleep before. RP5/Flip2 wake reliability after real suspend is still being investigated based on community reports of intermittent wake failures; a 10-minute watchdog is armed as a safety net on all three devices in case a wake ever fails to register.
• Ambilight now works correctly in-game, not just in the Steam menu - it was going black as soon as a game started rendering fullscreen. Root cause was gamescope's direct-scanout optimization bypassing the composited output ambilight's screen capture reads from; fixed by forcing full composition (--force-composition, confirmed present in our build via gamescope --help).
• Automatic power profile switching by AC/battery power source - Performance when plugged in or docked, Balanced on battery, both configurable. Switches only right at the plug/unplug transition, so picking a different profile manually in between isn't fought.
• Snappier, more consistent resume from sleep - the backlight is now explicitly turned back on as the very first action on wake, instead of relying entirely on the kernel's own resume ordering.

Working (carried over)

• SM8250 kernel + device tree support for Retroid Pocket Mini V2 (and the original Mini), vendored/adapted from ROCKNIX.
• Gamepad: full button mapping, gyroscope, no ghost/duplicate controller in Steam.
• RGB stick lighting modes: Static, Breathing, Battery, Battery+Breathing, Rainbow, Chase, Alternating, Reactive, Multidot, Ambilight, and Duotone (two-color split), each with relevant Speed/Intensity/Size sliders, per-button flash colors in Reactive mode, and a "follow screen brightness" toggle.
• Steam UI scale fix that survives a restart.
• Audio no longer breaks after sleep/resume.
• GPU overclock: one safe 855 MHz tier above the previous 800 MHz ceiling, live-tested without faults.
• Removed SM8250's default CPU underclock - the "Balanced" profile now uses the actual stock max frequencies instead of capping at ~80%.

Known issues

• Retroid Pocket 5 audio doesn't work yet - being actively investigated with a community tester.
• RP5/Flip2 real suspend wake reliability is unconfirmed on real hardware - the watchdog will recover the device on its own if a wake ever fails; please report specifics if you hit it (screen stays black vs. wakes but hangs, whether it happens on a calm single press with a pause between attempts).
• Flip2 is largely untested beyond booting and the fixes above.
• Ambilight resource cost at scale over long sessions is unconfirmed.
• General upstream armada known issues also apply (see the README).

Collaboration

This fork intends to work with upstream virtudude/armada for exchanging and merging work, not permanently diverge. The audio fix, real-suspend hardening, InputPlumber passthrough patch, and stick RGB lighting feature are all being submitted upstream as separate PRs since they're generic fixes/features, not specific to this device family.

Retroid Pocket Mini V2 - 2026-07-19 (perf + RP5/Flip2 fixes)

Warning

Early preview for Retroid Pocket Mini V2 (SM8250). Built on top of upstream virtudude/armada; Mini V2 is confirmed working after extensive live testing on real hardware. Retroid Pocket 5 boots and mostly works per community testing; Flip2 remains largely untested.

Built from this repo's main @ ca9aaac, kernel/DTS + InputPlumber patch from Ga1dz1/armada-packages.

Note

Superseded by the 2026-07-20 release - download removed here, grab the newer one instead.

New since the last upload

• Real suspend on all three SM8250 devices (Mini V2, RP5, Flip2), replacing fake-suspend as the default. Fake-suspend never actually powered the SoC down - it only froze userspace and blanked the screen, which is why the power button could never produce a genuinely complete sleep. Real suspend (s2idle) has been live-tested repeatedly on Mini V2 this cycle (wifi reconnects in 1-9 seconds after wake, power-key press right after waking no longer re-triggers sleep); RP5 and Flip2 share the same fix but haven't had hardware-specific testing yet, so a 10-minute watchdog is armed as a safety net in case a wake ever fails to register.
• Stick RGB lighting is now fully independent per stick - the left and right stick can each run a different mode, color, and animation settings at the same time, instead of one shared setting applied to both. The Decky settings panel has been redesigned around this: pick a stick, then edit just that stick's mode/color/params, instead of one long combined list.
• New "Duotone" lighting mode - two configurable colors split across each stick's zones (horizontal/vertical/diagonal), picked from the normal mode dropdown like any other mode.
• Fixed Flip2's panel orientation - the previous build's right value actually made it worse (upside down instead of just rotated); switched to left, which should cancel the panel's rotation instead of compounding it.
• Fixed Flip2's lid-close sleep reliability - closing the lid now calls suspend directly instead of going through Steam's own URI handler, which silently did nothing if Steam wasn't running and only opened a confirmation menu instead of sleeping immediately when in desktop mode.

Working (carried over)

• SM8250 kernel + device tree support for Retroid Pocket Mini V2 (and the original Mini), vendored/adapted from ROCKNIX.
• Working GRUB boot menu, built dynamically from whatever sm8250-retroidpocket-* device trees exist - Mini, Mini V2, Pocket 5, and Flip2 all get an entry automatically, remembers your last choice, and times out after 5 seconds.
• Gamepad: full button mapping, gyroscope, no ghost/duplicate controller in Steam.
• RGB stick lighting, independent per stick, with Static, Breathing, Battery, Battery+Breathing, Rainbow, Chase, Alternating, Reactive, Multidot, Ambilight, and Duotone modes, relevant Speed/Intensity/Size sliders, per-button flash colors in Reactive mode, and a "follow screen brightness" toggle.
• Steam UI scale fix that survives a restart.
• Audio no longer breaks after sleep/resume.
• GPU overclock: one safe 855 MHz tier above the previous 800 MHz ceiling, live-tested without faults.
• Removed SM8250's default CPU underclock - the "Balanced" profile now uses the actual stock max frequencies instead of capping at ~80%.

Known issues

• Retroid Pocket 5 audio doesn't work yet - being actively investigated with a community tester.
• Flip2 is largely untested beyond booting and the fixes above.
• RP5/Flip2 real suspend wake reliability is unconfirmed on real hardware - watchdog will recover the device on its own if a wake ever fails, but please report back if you hit it.
• Ambilight resource cost at scale over long sessions is unconfirmed.
• General upstream armada known issues also apply (see the README).

Collaboration

This fork intends to work with upstream virtudude/armada for exchanging and merging work, not permanently diverge. The audio fix, real-suspend hardening, InputPlumber passthrough patch, and stick RGB lighting feature are all being submitted upstream as separate PRs since they're generic fixes/features, not specific to this device family.

Retroid Pocket Mini V2 - 2026-07-18

Warning

Early preview for Retroid Pocket Mini V2 (SM8250). Built on top of
upstream virtudude/armada; many
things work well after a day of live testing on real hardware, but see
Known issues below before flashing.

Built from this repo's main @ 5ea9775, kernel/DTS + InputPlumber patch from
Ga1dz1/armada-packages @ 8680ef5.

Working

• SM8250 kernel + device tree support for Retroid Pocket Mini V2 (and the
  original Mini), vendored/adapted from ROCKNIX.
• Working GRUB boot menu, auto-enabled and built dynamically from
  whatever sm8250-retroidpocket-* device trees exist - no manual flag
  needed, and any future device in the family gets a menu entry for free.
• Gamepad: full button mapping, gyroscope.
• Sleep/wake: fake-suspend fixed (the power button whitelist didn't match
  this SoC's actual pm8941_pwrkey device name, so wake presses never
  reached it).
• No more ghost/duplicate controller in Steam.
• Reactive stick lighting actually works now (traced to an InputPlumber
  bug where passthrough: true was only ever wired up for keyboard source
  devices, never gamepad ones - patched upstream InputPlumber itself).
• RGB stick lighting, ten modes (Static, Breathing, Battery,
  Battery+Breathing, Rainbow, Chase, Alternating, Reactive, Multidot,
  Ambilight), each with relevant Speed/Intensity/Size sliders, per-button
  flash colors in Reactive mode, and a "follow screen brightness" toggle.
  See the README's Stick RGB lighting
  section for details.
• Steam UI scale fix that actually survives a restart. Root-caused live:
  Steam keeps two structures per display in config.vdf - one it recomputes
  from scratch on every launch (not worth patching), and a named per-display
  cache that's the real persisted override. Previous attempts only patched
  the former.

Known issues

• No audio after resume from sleep, sometimes for the rest of the
  session. A same-day fix attempt (restarting the audio server on resume)
  made this worse (silence instead of just distorted audio) and was
  reverted - still open.
• Ambilight (screen-color-reactive lighting) is validated on real
  hardware but not yet play-tested over long sessions; resource cost at
  scale is unconfirmed.
• GRUB menu only lists Mini and Mini V2 - device trees for other
  SM8250 Retroid models aren't in this repo yet, so they won't appear even
  though the menu itself is now built to pick up any that are added.
• General upstream armada known issues also apply (see the
  README).

Collaboration

This fork intends to work with upstream virtudude/armada for exchanging
and merging work, not permanently diverge - expect this device support to
move upstream over time.