dArkOS Setup Guide
Table of contents
What is dArkOS?
dArkOS is a Linux-based custom firmware available for a ton of different devices – BatleXP G350, Miniloong, Anbernic’s RG351MP, RG353 series, Powkiddy RGB series and more.
You can see a full list of supported devices by scanning the names of the release APK’s here.
What you need
You’re going to need a branded SD card, and we will be formatting it (erasing all contents) so make sure you have nothing you need on it.
Depending on the device, you may have an option of one or two SD card slots and it’s your choice on whether you want to use one, or two SD cards.
Typically, what users will do is use a small 16-64GB SD card for the operating system (dArkOS), and then a larger 128-256GB SD card for the ROMs.
Or you can just use one SD card, it’s up to you.
You’ll also need a USB SD card reader to connect the SD card to the PC.
Download & Setup dArkOS
Let’s head to the dArkOS Github page and you’re going to need to download all of the files for the device you have.
So for example, with the Miniloong, there are three files – dArkOS_MINILOONG_trixie_08062026.img.7z.001, dArkOS_MINILOONG_trixie_08062026.img.7z.002 and dArkOS_MINILOONG_trixie_08062026.img.7z.003.
Some devices have only 001 and 002, and some have three.
These are all parts of a single file, the 001-003 numbers mean they combine together to one file, which is why you need all parts.
Then, you’re going to need to download 7-Zip (the 64-bit option for Windows).
Once you do, go ahead and right click the file that ends in 001 > 7-Zip > Extract here and you should see an image file extracted like dArkOS_MINILOONG_trixie_08062026.img.
Connect your SD card to your PC using the SD card reader. If you’re doing the two SD card method, this would be the smaller operating system card.
Go ahead and download Rufus if you don’t already have it – it’s a tool that we use to flash this image to the SD card. The Portable version is fine.
This next step will wipe your SD card, so ensure you’ve backed up anything if you need to.
Open Rufus and make sure the device listed is the SD card that you connected.
On the right, click Select and navigate to the image file and select it.
Leave everything else as default and click Start. Then yes to any popups.
This is going to take some time, so just wait for it to finish – from here on though, inserting your SD card into your PC may pop up with errors saying the card is not formatted, asking you to format the card and other errors. Do not re-format the card as that will erase everything we’ve done – you can ignore those errors.
Once Rufus is done, safely eject the SD card from your PC and put it into the first slot of your device (each device is different, some have two slots and they don’t have a way to know).
If it’s in the right slot though, when you power it on, you’ll see it installing dArkOS. If not, you’re likely in the wrong slot or something went wrong with the above flashing.
When you see the EmulationStation menu, that’s when you know you’re set!
Push Start > Quit > Shutdown system.
Using two SD cards
This step here is if you wanted to use both SD card slots, so two SD cards – one for the operating system, and one for the ROMs.
Connect your second SD card to your PC using the SD card reader. This would be the larger ROMs SD card.
This next step will wipe your SD card, so ensure you’ve backed up anything if you need to.
Open Rufus and make sure the device listed is the SD card that you connected.
Under Boot selection, change it to Non bootable.
Then, under File system, make sure it’s set to EXFAT.
Click Start and yes to any popups.
When it’s done, safely eject it and insert this card into the second slot of your device, with the operating system card in the first still.
Turn on the device and when you get to the main menu, press Start > Options > Advanced > Switch to SD2 for ROMs.
When that’s done, push Start > Quit > Shutdown system.
Adding ROMs & BIOS
For both single and dual SD card users, connect your SD card back to the PC (the ROMs card for dual SD card users).
You should see an EASYROMS partition in File Explorer for single SD card users, or you’ll just see ROM system folders for dual users.
If you don’t see the partition, open Disk Management in Windows, and you’ll need to assign that partition a letter.
Now adding ROMs should be pretty self explanatory here – all the folders you see are system folders, so you need to put your ROMs in the right system folder.
Game Boy games into gb, Game Boy Advance into gba, and so on.
You’re also going to need BIOS files for some systems (mostly disc-based systems like PlayStation 1, Dreamcast and so on).
These files are required for those games to work as the emulator needs them.
BIOS files go directly into the BIOS folder.
This same master list will tell you what BIOS files are required for each system.
Once you’ve moved all of your ROMs and BIOS files over, you can safely eject and insert the card back into your device and turn it on.
RetroArch
There’s a few settings in RetroArch that we should look at and potentially change.
Hotkeys
Now, by default, these are the hotkeys that are mapped for dArkOS:
- Menu + X is RetroArch Menu
- Menu + B is Reset Content
- Menu + A is Pause
- Menu + Start is Quit
- Menu + R1 is Save State
- Menu + L1 is Load State
It’s important to note that Menu may be different on some devices – it might be the Fn key or Select key instead.
If you want to change these, or add more (like Fast Forward since it’s missing), let’s do that.
From the main menu, open RetroArch > RetroArch (you will need to repeat these steps for RetroArch32 as well after).
Then head to Settings > Input > Hotkeys.
Hotkey Enable is the one constant button (like Menu above), so you can leave that, but otherwise you can set whatever hotkey to a button.
So, let’s add Fast-Forward (Toggle) – click it, and then push and hold R2 on your device to register it.
I also don’t like having Reset Content or Pause as hotkeys, so if you want to remove them, highlight their hotkey and push Y.
Back out a menu, scroll down to Confirm Quit/Close/Reset and if you don’t like being asked to confirm every time you quit a game, turn this off.
Back out a few menu’s to the main menu > Configuration File > Save Current Configuration to save all the changes we just made.
You can choose Quit now to exit RetroArch unless you want to setup RetroAchievements.
RetroAchievements
To add your RetroAchievements login, head back into Settings > Achievements.
Enable Achievements and then login with your Username and Password.
Back out a few menu’s to the main menu > Configuration File > Save Current Configuration to save all the changes we just made.
You can choose Quit now to exit RetroArch.
RetroAchievements won’t work until you setup Wi-Fi in the next section.
Wi-Fi
These next steps assume you have a device that has Wi-Fi.
If you don’t, you can use a Wi-Fi Adapter and USB-C Adapter for it to work on handhelds without built-in Wi-Fi.
To connect to Wi-Fi, from the home screen, press Start > Options > Wifi.
Select Connect to new Wifi connection and then choose your network and enter your password.
Then select Back and then Exit.
Themes
You can add themes right from the device using Wi-Fi with ThemeMaster, or by the SD card.
Insert your SD card into your PC (ROMs card for dual users) and head into the themes folder (it’ll be with all the other game system folders).
This is where you want to put any themes you find online.
So for example, a popular theme is Art Book Next and you can find a port of it here.
Click the green Code button > Download ZIP.
Extract that ZIP and inside you should see a folder called es-theme-art-book-next.
Copy that folder into your themes folder, then safely eject and insert it back into your device.
Turn on the device, and press Start on the home screen > UI Settings > Theme and change your theme to your newly installed theme to use it.
ThemeMaster
You will need Wi-Fi for this section.
From the home screen, press Start > Options > Tools > ThemeMaster.
Let it install ThemeMaster.
When it’s done, it’s going to ask what Theme’s Resolutions to show and you’ll want to choose the resolution of your device, or the closest of the same aspect ratio. Use B to select and A to confirm.
Then you should see a list of Themes afterwards to choose from.
Once you choose a theme and install it, exit out of ThemeMaster and head to UI Settings > Theme and change it to your new theme.
B to back out and if you head back to the main screen, you should see your new theme.
Box Art
You will need Wi-Fi for this section.
From the home screen, press Start > Scraper.
You can customize your options here for what you want to scrape, or leave it as default.
You will need a ScreenScraper.fr username and password for a higher limit for scraping, and then enter that into the username/password fields here.
Once done, you can choose Scrape Now, and then decide on what to scrape and click Start.
It’ll scrape in the background so you can just let it finish.
Updating dArkOS
You will need Wi-Fi for this section.
From the home screen, press Start > Options > Update.