- Introduced portmaster-compat-libs package to aggregate compatibility libraries.
- Added compat-codec2, compat-x264, and compat-x265 packages for multimedia support.
- Updated package.mk files to include new dependencies and improve installation scripts.
- Enhanced start_portmaster.sh to handle mod_ArchR.txt for modular support.
- Adjusted ffmpeg configuration to enable ffmpeg and ffprobe without ffplay.
- Bump Mesa version from 26.0.3 to 26.0.5 with updated SHA256 checksum.
- Modify RK3326 device tree to increase regulator max voltage for ARM.
- Update OPP settings in RK3326 DTS patch for improved performance.
- Add Python3 and xz to PortMaster dependencies.
- Enhance PortMaster startup script for better directory handling and cleanup.
- Implement HDMI resolution check with timeout in autostart script.
- Add turbo mode configuration to system settings.
- Refactor CPU frequency functions to utilize available frequencies more effectively.
- Update Dolphin emulator scripts to improve gptokeyb process handling.
- Introduce new systemd configuration for timesyncd to optimize polling intervals.
- Set uinput permissions in udev rules for better controller input handling.
- Adjust emulator package.mk to optimize performance for RK3326.
- Modify mkimage script to ensure proper FAT32 formatting and filesystem checks.
- Enhance benchmark script to auto-detect device-specific paths and improve logging.
- Enhanced `runemu.sh` to conditionally enable debug logging based on system log level, improving performance and debugging capabilities.
- Introduced functions to pause and resume background services during gameplay to optimize resource usage.
- Updated `retroarch.cfg` to disable frame delay and set video context driver to default, improving compatibility.
- Changed DuckStation's GPU renderer from OpenGL to Software for better performance on RK3326.
- Adjusted Flycast settings to lower resolution and optimize rendering settings for smoother gameplay.
- Modified MelonDS script to correctly handle internal resolution and screen orientation settings.
- Updated PPSSPP configuration to improve frame skipping behavior and adjusted CPU speed settings for better performance.
- Refined GPU driver scripts to handle panfrost availability and ensure proper driver binding, preventing graphical issues.
- Removed obsolete panfrost quirk file and migrated relevant settings to a new profile.d script for better management.
- Added service condition checks for various network daemons to ensure they only start if their configuration files exist.
- Adjusted systemd service configurations for network daemons to improve reliability and resource management.
- Updated sysctl settings to optimize memory management and reduce unnecessary RAM usage.
- Disabled debug shell service by default to enhance security and resource efficiency.
- Created necessary directories for mesa shader cache to ensure persistent shader caching across reboots.
- Added a new squashfs package for weston to support graphical environments.
The ROCKNIX fork includes all 3 patches we maintained separately:
- 000-dark-theme.patch
- 001-default-paths.patch
- 002-build-fix.patch
Switching to the fork removes the maintenance burden of patch rebasing.
Adapted from ROCKNIX dd10d27a84 to projects/ArchR/ path.
DEBUG_FS provides instrumentation needed by TODO items 1 and 6:
- /sys/kernel/debug/dri/*/name — GPU performance counters
- /sys/kernel/debug/cma/* — per-region CMA page accounting
- /sys/kernel/debug/block/* — I/O scheduler stats (BLK_DEBUG_FS)
- Detailed thermal zone introspection
Trade-off acknowledged: small runtime overhead from debugfs mount,
but the instrumentation granularity is essential while we're actively
benchmarking and tuning. Switch to DEBUG_FS=n or DISALLOW_MOUNT
for release-final builds once FASE 1-2 benchmarks are complete.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Flycast-SA:
- Restore -Ofast sed (was incorrectly replaced with CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release)
- -Ofast = -O3 + -ffast-math is INTENTIONAL for Flycast: the Dreamcast SH4
FPU doesn't use strict IEEE 754, and the hardware itself flushes denormals
- Validated by JELOS/AmberELEC/ROCKNIX upstream for years without issues
- On weak Cortex-A35, the extra optimization from -ffast-math is meaningful
Sysctl:
- vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs: 500→1500 (match ROCKNIX, reduce I/O wakeups
during gaming — read-heavy workload needs fewer writeback checks)
- vm.vfs_cache_pressure: 50→100 (restore kernel default — during gameplay
the same few files are reread (ROM, save, shader cache), so a large
inode/dentry cache provides no benefit on 1GB RAM. 50 is a desktop tuning
that favors metadata cache for build/compile workloads, not gaming.
Note: 200+ is what aggressively reclaims metadata; 100 is the neutral
kernel default, not an override.)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
FRAME_POINTER:
- ARM64 Kconfig unconditionally selects FRAME_POINTER (arch/arm64/Kconfig:136)
- Cannot be disabled regardless of defconfig value
- Overhead <1-2% on ARM64 (x29 designated as FP by ABI, STP saves FP+LR
in single store queue slot)
- Restored to y to match kernel reality
ZRAM compression lzo-rle (reverted from zstd):
- zstd is 3-4x slower than lzo-rle on in-order Cortex-A35
- Estimated: lzo-rle ~350 MB/s vs zstd ~100 MB/s compress on A35
- Each 4KB page swap: 11us (lzo-rle) vs 40us (zstd)
- Under memory pressure during gaming, zstd causes frame stutters
- ROCKNIX deliberately uses lzo-rle on ALL in-order cores (A35/A53/A55)
and only enables zstd on out-of-order big cores (A73/A76)
- The extra ~500MB virtual capacity from zstd's ratio is not worth the
latency penalty for latency-sensitive gaming workloads
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Kernel:
- BRIDGE_NETFILTER=n (was still =m after BRIDGE was disabled)
- BLK_DEBUG_FS=n (depends on DEBUG_FS which is off, explicit disable)
Flycast:
- Replace sed -Ofast hack with proper CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
(CMake Release mode applies -O3 with proper LTO support)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- ZRAM compression: lzo-rle → zstd (better 1:3 ratio vs 1:2.5, saves
~50MB more RAM on 512MB ZRAM at cost of slightly more CPU)
- Add zswap.enabled=0 to kernel cmdline (zswap intercepts before ZRAM,
preventing efficient compressed swap)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- ScreenUseGL=0: Skip GPU-accelerated display compositing. On Mali-G31
with Panfrost, the overhead of uploading software-rendered frames to
GPU for display is slower than direct software blit.
- ScreenFilter=0: Disable bilinear filtering (saves GPU cycles)
- JIT remains enabled (critical for Cortex-A35 performance)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
melonDS was crashing with "could not connect to display :0.0" because
QT_QPA_PLATFORM was hardcoded to xcb. On RK3326 with Sway (Wayland),
XWayland may not expose :0.0 for all apps.
Fix: detect WAYLAND_DISPLAY and use wayland platform automatically.
Also set UTF-8 locale (Qt6 requires it, system defaults to "C").
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Douglas Teles
spycat88
Philippe Simons