Experimental RetroArch firmware for the Anbernic RG SP. V1 is the first published project release, using RetroArch 1.22.0.
V1 enables Quick Menu → Close Content to return from a game to RetroArch, advanced settings, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth menus, and Settings → Services → SSH. The shared configuration is upgraded once so older menu visibility settings do not hide these options.
The image passed host filesystem, partition, binary, and compression checks. It has not been boot-tested on an RG SP. Wi-Fi scanning, Bluetooth pairing, graphics, controls, charging, and SSH login still need device verification.
- Download
RGSP_retroarch-V1.img.zstandSHA256SUMSfrom the release. - Verify the download with
sha256sum --ignore-missing -c SHA256SUMS. - Decompress with
zstd -d RGSP_retroarch-V1.img.zstand flash the.imgwith a disk image writer to a spare microSD, preserving your original card. Flashing erases the selected card. - Boot normally. First boot expands storage and reboots; the next boot creates
the FAT32
RGSP-SHAREvolume. Keep power connected while this completes. - Put games in
RGSP-SHARE/roms/and BIOS files inRGSP-SHARE/system/. Saves and configuration also live on this volume. Eject it before removing the card from a computer.
The image is approximately 3.02 GiB uncompressed before storage expansion. FAT32 limits individual shared-volume files to less than 4 GiB. Vendor boot files, kernel, runtime libraries, emulator cores, and factory content are inherited from the supplied stock firmware.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are available under Settings. SSH is off by default.
Place your public SSH key in RGSP-SHARE/services/authorized_keys, connect
Wi-Fi, then enable Settings → Services → SSH. Connect as root on port 22.
Password login is disabled. The device generates its own host key on first use.
If wireless menus are missing, inspect RGSP-SHARE/logs/frontend-status.txt.
A stock fallback means the new frontend crashed. The associated
retroarch-crash.log records details. Close Content returns to the menu;
the main-menu shutdown action powers off the device.
Restart retains the active configuration path. The stock fallback saves its
own settings to configfiles/retroarch/retroarch-stock.cfg on RGSP-SHARE.
Service restarts wait for RetroArch to finish saving before stopping it.
The repository contains the firmware overlay, RetroArch patch, toolchain configuration, and build/repack scripts. The release also includes the patched RetroArch source and compiled ARMHF executable. See BUILD.md. The image depends on vendor components; the repack workflow uses the V1 image as its baseline and does not require older development builds.
See V1 validation for verification and remaining tests.
RetroArch is licensed under GPL version 3 or later; its license is included in docs/RetroArch-COPYING. The source archive retains upstream notices. Buildroot, Linux, emulator cores, OpenSSH, BusyBox, and vendor components retain their respective licenses. This repository does not assign a single license to the complete firmware image. This is an independent project and is not an official Anbernic or RetroArch release.