dArkOSen Utilities
dArkOSen includes a collection of utilities developed specifically for the dArkOSen environment.
These are not intended to be standalone Linux utilities or portable scripts. Many depend on the files, directory structure, configuration, services, packages, or other components included with dArkOSen. Required dependencies are included with the operating system where necessary.
Because of this, copying these utilities to another ArkOS, dArkOS, or Linux installation is not expected to work correctly. They are developed and tested as part of the dArkOSen environment and will remain exclusive to dArkOSen.
The utilities below are available from the appropriate locations within the dArkOSen system.
Adjust Gamma provides runtime gamma control for the display, with an adjustment range from 0.4 to 1.8. A value of 1.0 is the default gamma setting.
The utility displays the current gamma value, including changes made using the associated hotkeys, and saves the selected setting so that it persists across reboots.
BatteryPlus Mode Switcher changes the BatteryPlus operating mode between voltage-based and PMIC-based battery reporting.
The utility is provided for dArkOSen installations using BatteryPlus and allows the user to switch between the two available modes without manually changing the underlying configuration.
More information about BatteryPlus is available from its upstream project:
Convert GIF to MP4 converts the dArkOSen loading animation from:
/roms/launchimages/loading.gif
to:
/roms/launchimages/loading.mp4
The conversion also crops the animation as required for use as a loading video in EmulationStation.
This utility is intended specifically for converting the standard dArkOSen loading animation into an MP4 that can be used by the EmulationStation video-loading mechanism.
Convert Loading Animations converts and crops loading animations into formats supported by EmulationStation.
It accepts either:
/roms/launchimages/loading.gif
or:
/roms/launchimages/loading.mp4
and converts the selected animation into a format suitable for use by the dArkOSen EmulationStation configuration.
Sample pre-converted GIF and MP4 loading animations are included in:
/roms/launchimages
This utility is useful when creating or replacing custom loading animations without manually determining the required format and dimensions.
R36 Boot Volume is a system service that establishes the console's audio volume during boot.
The default boot volume is 60%.
The setting can also be changed to <default>, which allows the system to use its normal system-controlled boot volume instead.
This is a boot-time setting and is independent of the normal volume controls used after the system has started.
R36 Joystick Deadzone Adjuster
R36 Joystick Deadzone Adjuster changes the joystick deadzone by modifying the button-adc-deadzone value in the device tree.
Stock devices use a default value of 64 ADC, which provides very little filtering and can make the analog stick extremely sensitive when it is being used as a directional control.
dArkOSen uses 384 ADC by default, providing substantially more filtering for this use case.
The utility allows the deadzone to be adjusted as high as 768 ADC for applications requiring extreme filtering.
Higher values provide more filtering but also require more physical stick movement before an input is registered.
R36 SD MP4 Video Converter converts selected videos from /movies into a format suitable for the R36S display and hardware. Videos are converted to 640×480 at 24 FPS with 196 kbps audio.
Non-4:3 video can either be padded to preserve the complete image or cropped to fill the 4:3 frame.
Conversion time is approximately one minute for every minute of source video, depending on the source material.
The converted file is written back to /movies with an appended filename. The original video is never deleted or overwritten.
R36S Theme Patcher adds missing battery indicator and clock data to themes that do not display these correctly on dArkOSen. Before modifying a theme, the script creates a backup of its theme.xml, stored as theme.xml.bak in the theme's root directory.
After patching, the new clock and battery fields are added to the bottom of the theme's theme.xml. The x and y values can then be edited manually to precisely position the clock and battery indicators.
Each successfully patched theme receives a .patched flag file in its root directory. This prevents the theme from being unnecessarily patched again. To prevent a particular theme from being patched, place a .patched flag file in that theme's directory before running the patcher.
If a patch damages a previously working theme, restore the original theme by reinstalling it.
SD Card Scan and Repair checks the filesystems used by dArkOSen and attempts to automatically correct filesystem errors.
Depending on the filesystem, it uses fsck.fat or a Btrfs scrub operation. Partitions are unmounted before repair operations are performed, so a reboot may be required depending on which partition is being checked.
A detailed scan log is written to:
/home/ark/sd_scan.log
after each scan.
The utility is designed to repair filesystem corruption. It cannot repair a physically failing or worn-out SD card.
Root filesystem repair is limited to operations that can safely be performed from the running system. If a more extensive repair requires the card to be removed and scanned from another computer, the utility provides instructions for performing that procedure.
A successful filesystem repair does not mean that an SD card is healthy. Repeated corruption, I/O errors, or filesystem problems after repair are reasons to suspect the card itself.
dArkOSen is a passion project born out of love for the R36S. If you appreciate what I do and want to support the project you can show that support by buying me a coffee. Proceeds help fund the cost of SD cards and other expenses involved with development.