ROCKNIX is an immutable Linux distribution for handheld gaming devices developed by a small community of enthusiasts. Our goal is to produce an operating system that has the features and capabilities that we need, and to have fun as we develop it.
This is a community port of ROCKNIX to the W19C-V02, the board inside the
SJGAM M19 budget retro handheld (also sold as the Xiaobawang Q9). Stock
units ship locked to a Chinese OEM firmware (Linux / EmuELEC 4.3). The
bootloader/ folder ships the verified SPI-NAND images and
trilingual (EN / PT-BR / RU) instructions that unlock the console so it boots
ROCKNIX from an SD card instead of the stock OS.
| Component | Details |
|---|---|
| SoC | Rockchip RK3566 — quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 @ up to 1.8 GHz, Mali-G52 GPU, integrated NPU |
| RAM | 768 MB LPDDR4X |
| Internal storage | 128 MB Winbond W25N01GV SPI NAND — holds the boot chain + OEM firmware; the OS and games run from a microSD card |
| Display | 3.5" 640×480 (4:3), 4-lane MIPI-DSI, ST7703 panel controller |
| Audio | Everest ES8156 DAC (I²C); speaker + 3.5 mm headphone jack with insertion detection (auto-mute) |
| Controls | D-pad, ABXY, dual analog sticks (ADC), L1/L2/R1/R2, Start/Select/Function — read over an I²C controller (addr 0x19) plus GPIOs |
| Battery | 3000 mAh Li-Po, USB-C charging |
| Power | Physical on/off switch — there is no software power-off (the board has no PMIC; power is cut mechanically by the switch) |
| USB | A single USB-C port (charging + USB device to a PC). The port does not source VBUS, so bus-powered USB host devices (e.g. Wi-Fi dongles) cannot be powered internally |
| Wireless | No usable internal Wi-Fi / Bluetooth |
| Debug UART | ttyS2 @ 1,500,000 baud |
| Body | 143 × 98 × 53 mm, ~200 g; gray / purple / white / black |
| Market | Released 2024, ~US$55 |
Component-level details (SoC, RAM, SPI NAND, panel controller, audio DAC, input controller, power topology) were confirmed by reverse-engineering the hardware and its OEM device tree. Figures such as battery, dimensions, weight and price come from public listings and handhelds.wiki.
Shutdown behaviour: because the device powers off with a hardware switch, the screen and power LED stay lit after you choose "Shutdown" in the menu — the system still halts and flushes your data to the SD card, and a shutdown hook then blanks the screen and LED so you know it is safe to flip the switch off.
- ROCKNIX has a very active community of developers and users.
- Integrated cross-device local and remote network play.
- In-game touch support on supported devices.
- Fine grain control for battery life or performance.
- Includes support for playing Music and Video.
- Bluetooth audio and controller support.
- Support for HDMI audio and video out, and USB audio.
- Device to device and device to cloud sync with Syncthing and rclone.
- VPN support with Wireguard, Tailscale, and ZeroTier.
- Includes built-in support for scraping and retroachievements.
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The ROCKNIX community utilizes Discord for discussion, if you would like to join us please use this link: https://discord.gg/seTxckZjJy
ROCKNIX is a fork of JELOS, all licenses apply and credit to the JELOS team.
You are free to:
- Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material
Under the following terms:
- Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- NonCommercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
- ShareAlike: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
Copyright (C) 2024-present ROCKNIX
Original software and scripts developed by the ROCKNIX are licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL Version 2. The full license can be found in this project's licenses folder.
All other software is provided under each component's respective license. These licenses can be found in the software sources or in this project's licenses folder. Modifications to bundled software and scripts by the JELOS team are licensed under the terms of the software being modified.
Like any Linux distribution, this project is not the work of one person. It is the work of many persons all over the world who have developed the open source bits without which this project could not exist. Special thanks to CoreELEC, LibreELEC, JELOS, and to developers and contributors across the open source community.