ODROID-GO Advance Operating Systems: An Overview Of The Currently Available Prebuilt Images

March 1, 2020 Rob Roy, Editor-In-Chief ODROID-GO Advance 0

Now that the ODROID-GO Advance has been out for several months, there are some amazing operating systems that have been ported by the ODROID community. This article highlights several of those operating systems, and includes links to pre-built images that allow you to run them on your own ODROID-GO Advance. For instructions on how to create an ODROID-GO Advance SD card from the images detailed in this article, please check out the ODROID-GO Advance Wiki at https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid_go_advance/make_sd_card. Before playing games, you also need to transfer your game ROMs as described at https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid_go_advance/transferring_game_roms.

Ubuntu Minimal image with EmulationStation

Hardkernel’s official Ubuntu image offers extremely fast bootup time, minimal setup, and an excellent emulator that is already set up to emulate the following systems:

  • Atari 2600
  • Atari 5200
  • Atari 7800
  • Atari Lynx
  • Sega Game Gear
  • GameBoy
  • GameBoy Advance
  • GameBoy Color
  • Sega Master System
  • Sega Mega Drive
  • NES
  • PC Engine
  • PC Engine CD
  • PSX
  • Sega CD
  • SNES
  • PSP

Just update the SD card with the image, copy the games to the ROMS folder, and boot it up!

Figure 1 - EmulationStation is an easy way to launch all of the supported ODROID-GO Advance emulators
Figure 1 - EmulationStation is an easy way to launch all of the supported ODROID-GO Advance emulators

EmuELEC for the ODROID-GO Advance

Forum contributor @shanti maintains a build of EmuELEC for the ODROID-GO Advance, which is an Alpha release. You can find out more information about the latest build by visiting https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=193&t=37516, and watch videos of it in action at https://youtu.be/r7rDkB9VkFE and https://youtu.be/uC69OLUyA3U. To install EmuELEC, follow the standard instructions mentioned above for copying the image to the SD card. It offers emulators for the following systems:

  • NES
  • SNES
  • SNES with MSU1
  • Genesis (MD)
  • PSX
  • Naomi
  • N64
  • Sega Master System
  • Amiga (with PUAE, working on Amiberry)

It uses Retroarch as its core, so most emulators offered by Retroarch and supported by libretro are available with this image. To download EmuELEC for the ODROID-GO Advance, visit https://test.coreelec.org/mirrors/emuelec/. Make sure to use a fast SD card so that games run at full speed.

Figure 2 - EmuELEC for the ODROID-GO Advance offers a wide variety of emulators
Figure 2 - EmuELEC for the ODROID-GO Advance offers a wide variety of emulators

Batocera Linux

Forum contributor @nadenislamarre offers a port of Batocera Linux for the ODROID-GO Advance, which is a specialty gaming image that facilitates running retro games on nano computers. It is an open-source project that already runs on the ODROID-C2, ODROID-XU4, and ODROID-N2. It’s available for download from https://batocera.org/download, and you can see a video of it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQyn40zVHk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAOCqOzdH58, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy6U3nmU924.

The ODROID-GO Advance image supports a wide variety of emulators, including Amiga, Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64, Gameboy, Nintendo, Sega, and many others, as well as a build of Kodi for media playback. The latest image is available at https://batocera.org/upgrades/odroidgoa/beta/last/, where you can follow the progress of the team as they port the individual emulators.

Figure 3 - Batocera Linux for the ODROID-GO Advance is also available on many of the other ODROID devices such as the C2, XU, and N2
Figure 3 - Batocera Linux for the ODROID-GO Advance is also available on many of the other ODROID devices such as the C2, XU, and N2

Retro Arena OS

The Retro Arena operating system was recently ported and released by @Slaminger, and is a work in progress that welcomes contributors. It supports 48 different systems, some of which require a bios to be manually installed. You can download the latest image at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TFph93l7XAiDkd94d-Kp0_a9qEHnaMsF/view?usp=drivesdk, and post suggestions, questions, comments, and contributions on the ODROID Forum thread at https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=193&t=37281.

Figure 4 - Retro Arena is a newly released operating system for the ODROID-GO Advance that supports 48 different systems
Figure 4 - Retro Arena is a newly released operating system for the ODROID-GO Advance that supports 48 different systems

Figure 5 - Retro Arena is a newly released operating system for the ODROID-GO Advance that supports 48 different systems
Figure 5 - Retro Arena is a newly released operating system for the ODROID-GO Advance that supports 48 different systems

Figure 5 - Retro Arena is a newly released operating system for the ODROID-GO Advance that supports 48 different systems
Figure 5 - Retro Arena is a newly released operating system for the ODROID-GO Advance that supports 48 different systems

Debian Buster

Veteran ODROID forum contributor and ODROID expert @meveric expert, who also writes the monthly Linux Gaming column in ODROID Magazine, offers the community’s largest repository of ODROID games, operating systems, applications, tools, and utilities at https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric. His favorite operating system is Debian, and not only maintains the immensely popular ODROID GameStation Turbo for the ODROID family, but has also ported the latest version of Debian, codenamed Buster, to the ODROID-GO Advance. Debian Buster is not necessarily a gaming image for the ODROID-GO Advance, but is actually a fully functioning version of Debian Linux that allows the device to be used for any task that a desktop Linux computer can do. It is highly recommended to attach a keyboard to the ODROID-GO Advance for use with this image, along with a WiFi Module and mouse.

Figure 7 - The ODROID-GO Advance is not only a gaming device, but can also run a full version of Linux for use as a portable computer
Figure 7 - The ODROID-GO Advance is not only a gaming device, but can also run a full version of Linux for use as a portable computer

The latest version is available for download at https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/images/Buster/Debian-Buster64-1.0~RC2-20200208.img.xz, and any updates, bug fixes, and progress are posted at https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=193&t=37399.

Since there's constantly new development for this image, and ODROIDs in general, the first thing you should do after the image is up and running is to install all updates: 

$ apt update && apt upgrade && apt dist-upgrade
If you install a Desktop environment you should already have keybord-configuration installed, and it will ask upon the first installation what keyboard layout it should use. This configuration is for your X11 Desktop so you have your desired keyboard layout. For console you need to install console-setup to do the same. The following commands will change the keyboard layout and timezone: 
$ apt-get install console-setup keyboard-configuration
$ dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
$ dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
To enable WiFi, edit the file /etc/network/interfaces or create a new one under /etc/network/interfaces.d/ and add the following lines: 
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-essid 
wpa-psk
If you're using a "hidden" network, please also add “wpa-scan-ssid 1” You can turn this into a desktop based image with X11/GBM GPU drivers using setup-odroid, which allows for many applications and games to run. You can even increase the desktop size by using one of the following commands: 
$ xrandr --output DSI-1 scale 1.5x1.5
$ xrandr --output DSI-1 scale 2x2
To scale the desktop to either 720x480 or 960x640, which may look tiny but allows for even more applications on the desktop.

Conclusion

The ODROID-GO Advance is a powerful yet tiny device that is specifically designed for gaming, but can also run a full Linux distribution with ease. The images listed in this article are the early entries into operating system ports for the device, and will continue to evolve as the community grows. Make sure to check back with each of the threads for updates and improvements, and feel free to make contributions of your own!

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