A couple of days ago, acmeplus, the developer behind Koriki/Batocera for our RG35XX, published an interesting entry on his Ko-fi page. We leave you a copy and paste of what it explains to us in it:
“In recent weeks, significant developments have emerged in the custom firmware scene for the RG35XX Plus/H, with implications for the upcoming RG35XX 2024 model.
A few weeks ago, @TokyoVigilante and the linux sunxi team started to get mainline u-boot support for the H700 SoC, adding the necessary support for the AXP717 PMIC and the different DRAM configuration of the H700. These updates have resulted in a robust u-boot implementation compatible with all H700-based RG35XX models. In addition to that, the mainline kernel is also booting, and we have already managed to get bluetooth, wireless, HDMI, controls, and in general the system is really stable. GPU is recognized but still requires some work, and initial support for cpufreq and thermal has been added by Andrew Przywara, and HDMI is currently working thanks to the changes developed by Jernej Škrabec.
There’s still a lot of work before the remaining bits work (internal display, working GPU, etc.) but things are looking really good and a full mainline implementation for these devices is in the horizon. With those changes you should also expect the current batocera for RG35XX Plus/H fork to be merged back into the main batocera repository, receiving all the great updates that the batocera project does.
Now, one of the current limitations in all the existing RG35XX Plus/H firmwares (stock, muOS, minUI, or batocera) is that they are 32bit only. This was due to the fact that only a 32bit G31 Mali blob was available. However, in the last week @SiliconExarch has found the necessary pieces from a T507 automotive firmware. With that missing piece, work has already started to get batocera to fully work in 64bit mode. This means that there will be additional emulator support (e.g. the updated melonds) ports (like all those maintained by the great PortMaster team), and other changes that will significantly improve the platform. Not only batocera, but soon @adixal’s muOS will also benefit from those changes, so everyone will have a better experience.
Stay tuned to the GitHub repository because a first 64bit batocera build will be out in the next few days. You can always find the latest release at this link.”
For more information about this news and the corresponding links of the people involved, access the original acmeplus publication.
