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Game Console K36, R36Max/Pro, MyMini, xf35h/xf40h and other "EE clones"

These devices have experimental support

Make sure you use nightly 20251110 or newer, older builds are more broken

About the family

These are mostly similar but subtely different devices. K36 was likely the first one, thus "K36 family".
Some of the devices mimicked "classic" R36s pretty well, thus "clones".
Seem to be designed by a single team, run the same software:

  • EmuElec by default thus "EE clones"
  • play_joystick input driver (patched and renamed variant of something else)

To deal with the variety, hardware configuration is partially imported from stock dtb file. This doesn't yield to a perfect result and sometimes needs extra tweaks, but usually works.

Overview

Hardware

SoC CPU GPU
Rockchip RK3326 ARM Cortex-A35 (Quad-core) @ 1.3 GHz Mali G31
Display RAM eMMC Connectivity
4.0-inch 720x720, 3.5-inch 640x480 and others usually 1 GB DDR3, sometimes 512M 8 GB (often) rk915 2.4G WiFi (sometimes)

Software

Kernel GPU drivers Compositor Interface
Mainline Linux libmali (GLES 3.2) & Panfrost (GL 3.1/GLES 3.1) Sway Emulation Station

Controls

RetroArch Hotkeys

Button Combo Action
SELECT+START (x2) Quit Game
SELECT+R1 Save State
SELECT+L1 Load State
SELECT+Y(NORTH) Open RA Menu
SELECT+A(SOUTH) Reset Game
SELECT+X(WEST) Show FPS
SELECT+B(EAST) Take Screenshot
SELECT+R2 Fast-Forward

Notes:

  • By default ROCKNIX will detect your controller and configure RetroArch hotkeys automatically. This is controlled by the "AUTOCONFIGURE RETROARCH HOTKEYS" option in the Settings > Controller & Bluetooth menu. While the option is enabled, RetroArch hotkeys will be overwritten by the above defaults each time RetroArch is launched. If this behavior is not desired that option can be disabled and your user-defined RetroArch hotkeys will be used instead.

Mednafen Hotkeys

Button Combo Action
SELECT+START (hold for 2sec) Quit Game
SELECT+R1 Save State
SELECT+L1 (hold for 2sec) Load State
SELECT+X(WEST) Show FPS
SELECT+R2 Fast-Forward
START+L1 Select disc
START+R1 Eject/Insert disc
START+D-Pad Left Decrease save slot by 1
START+D-Pad Right Increase save slot by 1
START+L2 Configure buttons on virtual port 1
START+R2 Insert coin

Notes:

  • By default ROCKNIX will expand the configuration file according to the first controller mednafen finds. This only happens when the config file doesn't exist (meaning the first time or if you manually delete it). After the initial expansion you are free to customize the controls.

Global Hotkeys

Button Combo Action
L1+START+SELECT Exit Emulator / Application
SELECT+Vol + Brightness Up
SELECT+Vol - Brightness Down
START+Vol + LED on
START+Vol - LED off
SELECT+START+Vol + WIFI enable
SELECT+START+Vol - WIFI disable

Emulators

Notes

Installation

  1. Flash B image to SD
  2. If your device has a stock firmware on SD, move that card to SD2 (GAME) slot
  3. Insert Rocknix SD to SD1 (OS) slot (or the only slot for some devices with SDIO WiFi)
  4. Power on your device with charger unplugged. Wait till it reboots several times (about 5 minutes)
  5. Should be working!

In case of issues with display/sound/etc.

  1. While device is off, connect it to your PC with a USB cable (use "OTG" port as we need data transfer)
  2. Hold Vol- while booting, your device should enter recovery mode, and all storage should appear as USB drives to your PC
  3. from ROCKNIX partition take stock directory and save it somewhere (you may suddenly need it later in case of broken stock SD or wiped EMMC)
  4. there is a stock whatever.dtb file in stock dir. Upload it to DTBO generator and experiment with options
  5. put the mipi-panel.dtbo you get from the service to overlays folder
  6. safely remove all the drives and boot your device with updated dtbo to see if the issue is fixed

Flashing to EMMC

EMMC is very slow to write and has a mediocre read speed too. Running from SD may be faster.

By trying this you can brick your device

To unbrick, you may need to open the case and short some pads on PCB to skip EMMC boot. This needs understanding what the hell are you doing.

Be warned, we take no responsibility here

  1. As in previous section, Hold Vol- while booting to enter recovery mode and expose all storage to PC
  2. back up your stock directory (or just dtb from there) (or dtb from EMMC, it's the same file). Really. You will need it later.
  3. Flash the same B ROCKNIX image to EMMC (it's first of detected drives, usually 7.8 GB = 7.3 GiB in size). Remember to do sync after dd if you use it.
  4. Copy your stock directory you backed up earlier to the new ROCKNIX partition of EMMC
  5. safely remove all the drives
  6. Remove ROCKNIX SD from your device and let it boot
  7. Should work now