RicoR_XNL 





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Account Type: XNL Future Technologies Founder & Owner

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Last 10 posts by RicoR_XNL 

On Installing or Updating ArkOS (R36S & R36H) at 2025-08-25 13:12:38
Hey Johannes😊.

Nope it's indeed not a Dutch website, I'm Dutch myself though, but I've chosen to make all my content (Video's, Website, Software and other projects) in English so everyone can benefit from it and not just our 'Tiny Country' 😉😊). So thank you for taking this into account and commenting in English (since your problem might also help others world wide when they come across it now😊👍🏽).

I'm strongly suspecting yours MIGHT not be a 'real R36S', which might cause the problem. First let me ask this (and please DO NOT feel insulted😉😂, but it COULD be an problem with booting with these devices): Have you made sure it's fully charged? Although USUALLY when the battery is too low it will just give an on screen text error provided by the bootloader/ArkOS instead of the blinking red LED.

I do however still strongly 'believe' yours is unfortunately a clone which would explain the current issues you're having. I myself can't confirm it directly, but the symptoms you're describing match VERY closely with what I've heard, read and received from other developers and users whom turned out to be having an "Emulec Clone"/K36. I would recommend trying one of these links/resources to see if those will help you further:

https://handhelds.wiki/R36S_Clones#Custom_Firmware_for_the_EmuELEC_Clone

And the download from AeolusUX:
https://github.com/AeolusUX/ArkOS-K36

I THINK these will solve your problem 😊. Do you still have the original SD card though? Because if you still have the original SD-Card AND the files that where on it, then you can compare the boot files and try to swap those as a last resort. But I would recommend to just try the K36 version of ArkOS by AeolusUX😊.

IMPORTANT: Like mentioned in all my tutorials: Please DO NOT use the original SD-Card for your new installation! Those WILL be problematic and eventually even just die randomly. (They are VERY low quality SD cards)..

Good luck and keep me up-to-date if you like if it worked😊

On Installing Cheap WiFi On Your R36S or R36H (ArkOS) at 2025-08-23 16:49:46
Hi there, and welcome 😊

"I suspect it’s because the tool is designed to uninstall your driver, but the one currently on my system is a different one that came with the OS." That is indeed correct, to prevent breaking AeolusUX his system (and thus most likely causing (other) people to start complaining at his release/support tickets etc about a problem they themselves created with "my" driver, I made sure it refuses to uninstall anything which is (pre) installed on the system if it's running either AeolusUX ArkOS, OR!!! If Christian in the future adds a driver to the official ArkOS which doesn't have 'my signature' (this is a simple but common way to prevent one installation breaking other installations, which COULD become a VERY serious issue on Linux machines)...

If you would still want to proceed (at your own risk) to use my driver on AeolusUX his ArkOS then please read along 😊

Again (for ANYONE reading this in the future):
PROCEED AT OWN RISK - And this will ONLY work for the current release as of writing this (Version 1.0)!!
To let the installer ignore the AeolusUX check you could outcomments (adding # in front of the lines):
126-129 in the Install Driver.sh

and for the uninstaller you could do the same for lines 119 to 122

WARNING THOUGH: The uninstaller might (very likely) still not uninstall anything, because it is specifically made to uninstall "my" driver. However the installer should using this method install anyway... DO KEEP IN MIND: That this MIGHT cause conflicts, and I'm also NOT able to guarantee it works since I personally don't use the AeolusUX ArkOS at all on my devices.

So you could try doing these tips (mainly for the installer), but please do keep in mind that it's not intended nor tested for that version of ArkOS though. I'm GUESSING it should work, since I had it running on it back in the day I tested it, but since then AeolusUX has changed a few things and if I'm correct also added additional driver support 😊. And I have absolutely no clue in how or what would be supported in combination with my driver or what could cause issues for example..

I hope this information helped you a bit further though in experimenting 😊, Good luck👍🏽

On Installing Cheap WiFi On Your R36S or R36H (ArkOS) at 2025-08-23 16:36:27
Nope unfortunately not, like explained in the "My speaker is making some strange crackling sound now! What did you do!!??" section, this is unfortunately a result of a (very) poor design of the PCB traces and circuit in the R36S (it's a bit more nuanced though), and unless you are willing to basically tear down and "hack the crap" out of the PCB, add filters, decoupling capacitors etc, there is unfortunately no way around this.

I did noticed however that some (cheap) Wifi dongles have less of this issue while others make it worse on our 3 R36S units. This problem however seems to be NEAR non-existent on our R36H models though🤷🏽‍♀️. Do note that the R36H SOMETIMES still has this problem, but it's VERY VERY faint.

You MIGHT be able to find another USB dongle which doesn't have this problem, but unfortunately in basic sense there isn't much you (or I with the driver) can do anything about it at the moment. Sorry.

On Installing or Updating ArkOS (R36S & R36H) at 2025-08-21 13:07:19
Nice 😊👍🏽 I personally have been running Linux on my/our servers for years (from Red Hat to Fedora, to SuSe (all the way back to 9.0) to even Ubuntu). "Recently" I've switched all our desktops full time to Linux due to all the crap going on with Windows 11😊

Ahh of course, totally my oversight, the "Chinese one" probably likely had a different/modified kernel or what ever to account for the different hardware (Tip: you can see this when using the command uname -a, this will show the kernel version 😊)

In regards if it's safe, yeah I think so, it SHOULD not be a problem, there is however a SLIGHT possibility that the original kernel (if you really need that one indeed), might identify differently, or that it's compiled with (slightly) different modules causing the Official ArkOS not to recognize certain hardware, or that certain emulator MIGHT not run (properly). HOWEVER, I personally think these risks are relatively low, especially since you already stated that everything seems to work normally now for you 😊.

In regards to what these little things can do:
Yeah funny thing is, that I program and make A LOT of small tools for these little Linux PC's (because that's what they basically are at this point😂), and I turn out to be MUCH MORE working on project FOR those devices than do actual gaming on them, out of choice, not because they keep going defective (not at all even). Even more ironic, I have been working nearly a year now on those things, and for years I could not be bothered with Linux for desktop use, and even though it's obviously VERY different on these devices vs pc? They did played a part in making me take the final decision to fully switch😂. Now basically everything here is running Linux, from the servers to the vacuum cleaner (don't ask😂), to our laptops, surface tablets, desktops and our hand held consoles 😊

If you ever get into (or maybe already are🤷🏽‍♀️) scripting or programming stuff for them, I would highly recommend downloading Microsoft VSCode. You can work on UNC with it (meaning you can have the source files ON the R36, write/update them on your PC (either Windows or Linux), and then compile directly on the device via the build-in SSH terminal in VSCode. Why I'm often doing it like this? Since you then don't have to mess with setting up cross compilers on your PC (for the ARM CPU etc), then copy the compiled file(s) to the R36 to test etc etc 😊

You're welcome, and it's seriously neat to see someone this enthusiastic😊👍🏽

On Installing or Updating ArkOS (R36S & R36H) at 2025-08-20 20:49:31
Well first off: KUDOS! 😊👍🏽 for actually trying and experimenting sooo much yourself 😊. "Pro tip:" You can also use programs like VMWare etc on a Windows pc to run linux installations without having to install them on your machine (just in case you didn't knew yet) 😊

The remapping is indeed also a viable option, DO however keep in mind that with some devices (not just these ones) it MIGHT actually cause damage IF for example charge controllers etc are not properly configured. I'm currently working on a project where I'm reviving old tablets to full modern Linux Kernels, and some configs SEEM to work properly, but if you would keep those running it has a HIGH probability of either "blowing stuff up" or burning out components. Because while the first type of tablet DOES boot "properly" with the boot files for the "second type of tablet" I'm working on, those boot files will FAIL thermal control, charge control etc. (NOT saying that this is the case here, but an important lesson to know for possible future 'hacks' 😊).

The LED should however always be on usually. It will change color when it's charging or blink when it's reading that the battery is empty (at least with the default/common config that is 😉)

USUALLY it should be sufficient to just replace the DTB's but if the boot.ini for example is configured differently (or that specific dtb does require extra parameters in the boot ini), then yup, you also need to replace those 😊👍🏽

And yups: Y3506_V03 is indeed they Soy Sauce 😊👍🏽

Short 'tutorial' (since there are actually A LOT of Linux partition/filesystem tutorials out there 😊, so making yet another one would most likely just cause clutter😊):
Very simple put:
Your boot partition has 4 important primary files:
boot.ini which is used to configure/setup the boot and how to boot/load things
image - this is the actual kernel on which it runs
xxxx.dtb - Device Tree Blob, which basically tells the kernel which hardware is connected and how (addresses and such)
uInitRD - VERY simply put an inital RAM Disk with drivers and scripts which is used during boot to mount the actual OS (Ubuntu/ArkOS)

The boot partition is almost always a FAT32 partition
then Linux (Ubuntu/ArkOS in this instance) itself is on a partition which can be ALLLL kinds of filesystem formats, commonly used is ext4 though, and that one is 'the root' (/), Not to be confused with the user root (the system admin, which you should basically NEVER use unless you REALLLLLYYYY know what you're doing and WHY you need 'him' 😉)

And the roms partition is formated in exfat (IF I recall correctly), which can be natively read by both Windows and Linux, so that users can just easily manage their roms on a Linux, Windows or even Mac machine 😊

IF you are interested in how the Linux file system works more deeply, then I would definitely recommend watching some (linux) beginner friendly videos on YT about it. There are quite a few which explain /dev /etc /usr /bin etc 😊

Thanks for your absolute positive feed back, and your absolute persistent DIY attitude 😊👍🏽 Love to see that more these days.

OH! And of course thank you very much for returning with your feedback. This doesn't only help me in knowing you have seen my message, knowing it wasn't for nothing. But it might also help others stumbling upon your replie(s) in the future, and possibly even helping them fix their Soy Sauce R36 😊👍🏽

On Installing or Updating ArkOS (R36S & R36H) at 2025-08-19 11:39:08
First off: "but i have no linux eperience", but yet you're the first I come across which knows how to use dtc 😉😂 (or at least another tool to decompile/recompile the DTB's😂👍🏽).

Did you confirm (or are you able to confirm) that you actually have a legit R36S and not a clone? Since those can be different and require other configs or even a custom rom for that matter (which of course then in basic essence just has different config in it, and possibly a couple different drivers).

Personally I have not once encountered an R36S or H which actually had it's sticks swapped (so I think it's quite an interesting observation). I did had ONE R36H (just one🤷🏽‍♀️) where Doom (the ported version) had UP/Down looking inverted but that was strangely also the ONLY game which had that issue (I could simply fix that by inverting it in the settings). And what makes it even weirder, is that I'm basically using the SAME rom file (stored on my NAS) for all my installs🤷🏽‍♀️. I do recall some Soysauce (or however they are called clones having such issues), but will look in that in a moment and get back to this..

IF I'm correct (I skimmed past it last week or so, but am currently working on something else in between instead of the ArkOS stuff), so I'm not 100% sure, but I thought I had seen quite a few new screens (as in panel dtb's) on AeolusUX's github. Including support for quite a few other clones and/or devices.

I have currently absolutely NO CLUE at all why your sticks are inverted though, sorry. My main suspicion (but again: JUST an suspicion) is that your R36 is possibly an clone which has it's I/O's configured differently.

If you are comfortable with it, you might be able to download for example the panel 4 DTB's from my website, decompile them and then compare them with yours which DO work but have the sticks inverted/swapped. However considering the addressing used in the DTB is the same for each stick (<0xc8>), you can't just change it in the DTB. It would for example need to be done at firmware (driver) level or with remapping it.

Getting back to the Soysauce thing:
After searching for quite a while, I found this one on AeoluxUS's github:
https://github.com/AeolusUX/ArkOS-R3XS/issues/95

A little bit further in that thread I noticed some users having it solved with using different DTB files 😊

I THINK you will find your answers there though 😊. Could you if possible provide me with the version number and other info
which is printed on the PCB (Circuit board) of your R36? (This does of course require you to open it though). If you are able to, there should be white text on the PCB telling which board it is, which version etc... Try to provide as much information as possible if you like 😊

Absolute Last Resort Idea:
And an absolute insane DIY idea IF there would be no other solution at all... considering you mention that Left = Up, Up = Right, you MIGHT be able to dissemble the unit and rotate the right stick 90 degrees. You might need an small extension for the short ribbon cable, but it would/could be a last resort though 🤷🏽‍♀️😊

On Installing or Updating ArkOS (R36S & R36H) at 2025-08-14 20:59:33
Thanks 😊 I've added the link to your tutorial to my main blog post at the bottom 😊👍🏽

On Installing Cheap WiFi On Your R36S or R36H (ArkOS) at 2025-08-05 16:05:42
And just to confirm, when (IF though) it does show networks, are you then actually able to at least see WiFi networks being listed (I'm assuming you are due to your first message where you said that selecting them would often result in the country code selection option)?

Would you know how to manually download the script for the WiFi program from the original ArkOS repo on GitHub and putting it on your SD-Card? I could (if you would be comfortable with it) upload mine which I know works (as in a copy of my R36H's installation) and upload it on my website temporarily. But it would involve needing you to copy it manually to the SD-Card.

Another (but rather drastic) option, would be trying to re-install ArkOS fresh. DO NOTE: That you will need to make a full backup/copy of your ROMs partition otherwise you will lose them.

If it's the official ArkOS from the GitHub already, then that should not be the problem, I however am not sure which ArkOS you meant with 2.0: The "original" from China, from the official ArkOS website/github or the Community version of AeolusUX. All these are currently 2.0 as of writing this. The last two should not be a problem, the first one CAN be a (big) problem sometimes.

Just as the SD-Card which originally comes with these units from China. Those SD-Card randomly (and sometimes 'violently') corrupt, causing all kinds of save, rom and system issues.

Please let me know what the current exact situation is and what is possible for you to try or not 😊

On Installing Cheap WiFi On Your R36S or R36H (ArkOS) at 2025-08-04 13:51:23
First of (and the most important question): Which/what ArkOS version are you using? As in: The official ArkOS from Christian, the Community Maintained version by AeolusUX, or are you still running the original ArkOS which came with the device?

If you are already running one of the two official ArkOS versions, is it possible for you to connect to you WiFi at all or is this issue preventing you from making a normal connection completely?

To me it sounds like there is something wrong with your WiFi script (that Wifi program in the menu is basically "just" an 'graphical script'). It could also be that it's caused by the system not reporting the required/expected output on-time when the scripts expects it to get. This could also have several reasons, like for example the SD-card (or the file on it) being partially corrupted.

It is however definitely not normal behavior you're experiencing.

Please do note though btw that's I'm NOT the developer or publisher of the WiFi tool/script, and thus will not be able to provide you with an fix/update etc for it. But will try to help where and if possible to figure out what the issue is 😊

On Installing or Updating ArkOS (R36S & R36H) at 2025-07-01 13:53:22
Well thank you VERY much for your feedback man😊, absolutely appreciate it 😊. Comment's like these make it worth the time and effort of writing articles like these😊.

Glad you finally got your R36S working as it should, and hope you'll enjoy it for a long time to come👍🏽