Kids Mode v1.2.0

Everything a kid can reach is now locked down: RetroArch's in-game
shortcuts, the blue-light toggle, and your save states. Plus longer play
sessions, screen brightness from the menu, and a PIN you can change on the
device.

Locked down while armed

• RetroArch's in-game hotkeys are dead — MENU+SELECT (the RetroArch
  menu), MENU+L2/R2 (save/load state), MENU+L/R (rewind, fast-forward),
  MENU+←/→ (save slots), screenshots, cheats, shaders, disc swap and the
  rest. Kiosk mode only ever hid the settings; the menu itself still
  opened. MENU+VOLUME for brightness is untouched — that one is handled
  outside RetroArch. Fixes #4. Prefer stock shortcuts? Set
  "lock_retroarch_hotkeys": false.
• MENU+B blue-light toggle does nothing while armed (a schedule you
  have configured still runs).
• The kid gets their own saves: saves, states and romScreens are
  swapped for a persistent Saves/KidsProfile while armed, so a child
  can't overwrite your save states or flood the game switcher with their
  thumbnails. Their progress persists between sessions; yours comes back
  untouched on unlock. Per-core settings and themes stay shared.

Parent menu

• Longer sessions: the play timer now goes to 120 minutes, up from
  50 — on the arm screen and on Add play time.
• Brightness straight from the menu, changing as you move the row —
  no confirm — in 10% steps down to 10%.
• Change PIN on the device — no computer, no SD card reader.
• Auto-resume last game: boot straight back into what the kid was
  playing instead of the carousel.
• Coming back from a game reopens the carousel on the game just played,
  not at the start.

Carousel

• Battery level on the kid screen, drawn exactly as Onion draws it
  everywhere else (icon and level, top right), with the play-time chip
  opposite it.
• X = RESTART now has a footer hint and icon, so the start-over shortcut
  is visible instead of hidden.
• Long titles wrap onto a second line instead of being cut off with an
  ellipsis.

Faster

Arming went from ~15 seconds of black screen to about 1.5. Three
things were doing it, none of them what they looked like:

• The RetroArch lock matched every setting against every line with a
  regex built from a variable, which busybox awk recompiles each time —
  ~133,000 compilations. Matching each line's key once and looking it up
  in a hash: 14s → under 1s. (It also left duplicate keys later in the
  file untouched, and RetroArch honours the last one, so a repeated key
  silently defeated the lock.)
• Every config read spawned jq. Reads now parse in the shell, with jq
  kept for writes and as a fallback for any file the parser won't touch.
• The timer state file cost three sed processes per read, and the
  ticker reads it every 10 seconds.

Also

• README gains a settings table for kidmode.json and an FAQ (including
  netplay — it's driven from the RetroArch menu, which Kids Mode blocks, so
  it isn't available while armed).
• A kidmode.json with broken JSON is now backed up before being reset,
  so a stray comma doesn't silently lose your settings.

Install

1. Download KidsMode.zip below
2. Copy the KidsMode folder into App/ on your SD card (so it becomes
   /App/KidsMode/)
3. Reboot, then arm from Apps → Kids Mode

Updating from v1.1.0: replace the KidsMode folder — your PIN survives
(it's snapshotted in Saves/kidmode/). The new locks apply the next time
you arm Kids Mode.

Thanks

The hotkey lockout, blue-light guard, save isolation and auto-resume are
@Veuks' work, forwarded by
@andygeorge in #5.

Requires Onion OS 4.3+. Tested on a Miyoo Mini Plus running Onion
4.4-beta; base Mini and Mini V4 are supported in code but less tested —
reports welcome.

Kids Mode v1.1.0

Kids Mode now looks and feels like part of Onion OS — every screen renders
through Onion's own theme engine — plus smarter timer controls and a
PIN system that can't lock you out.

Highlights

• Native Onion look: your active theme's background, fonts, and colors
  everywhere — header bar with battery, footer button hints, and an
  Apps-menu-style parent menu with full-width rows
• Add play time inline: on the parent menu row, ◀ ▶ picks +5…+50 min
  and A applies — with a live preview of what the remaining time becomes
• Turn off timer: new parent-menu option that removes any running timer
  entirely for unlimited play (until re-armed or time is added again)
• Auto power-off: if the "Time's up!" screen is left alone for 5 minutes,
  the device shuts down cleanly instead of draining the battery overnight
• PIN improvements: A confirms (up/down changes a digit, left/right
  moves); a wrong PIN lets you retry on the same screen; and the PIN now
  survives app updates via a snapshot in Saves/kidmode/ — if no PIN exists
  at all, the unlock gesture asks you to set a new one instead of locking
  you out

Install

1. Download KidsMode.zip below
2. Copy the KidsMode folder into App/ on your SD card (so it becomes
   /App/KidsMode/)
3. Reboot, then arm from Apps → Kids Mode

Updating from v1.0.0: replacing the KidsMode folder resets the PIN
once (the update-proof snapshot didn't exist yet). If the device was armed,
hold SELECT+START and you'll be asked to set a new PIN. From v1.1.0
onward, the PIN survives updates.

Requires Onion OS 4.3+. Tested on a Miyoo Mini Plus running Onion
4.4-beta; base Mini and Mini V4 are supported in code but less tested —
reports welcome.

Kids Mode v1.0.0

First release 🎉

A fullscreen, favorites-only launcher that locks a Miyoo Mini / Mini+ running
Onion OS so a young child can use it unsupervised.

Highlights

• Boots straight into a kid-proof carousel of your ★ favorited games — box art, big labels, A to play
• Exiting a game returns to the carousel, never to Onion's menus
• Optional session play timer (5–50 min) with in-game countdown; at zero the game quits gracefully so auto-save keeps the exact spot
• Parent menu (hold SELECT+START ~3s, then 4-digit PIN): exit Kids Mode or add play time
• X = start over (with confirmation); MENU in-game saves & exits back to the carousel
• RetroArch settings kiosk-locked while armed; everything restored on unlock
• Survives reboots; fully recoverable from a computer (see README)

Install

1. Download KidsMode.zip below
2. Copy the KidsMode folder into App/ on your SD card (so it becomes /App/KidsMode/)
3. Reboot, then arm from Apps → Kids Mode

Requires Onion OS 4.3+. Tested on a Miyoo Mini Plus running Onion 4.4-beta;
base Mini and Mini V4 are supported in code but less tested — reports welcome.