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Superseded by the 2026-07-20 release - download removed here, grab the newer one instead.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