Tutorial, Anbernic

How to install Koriki on Anbernic RG35XX?

6 months ago

When Acmeplus found out that you can unlock GPU on RG35XX with Batocera, it changes everything. A rapid development of a Batocera lite version has been progressing, and Koriki is the fruit of the whole process. The long-awaited official version of Koriki is finally out, giving us the capability to play nds on Anbernic RG35XX. So, with many people are looking for their favorite Anbernic RG35XX to become the benchmark of starter vertical retro handheld emulators, I decide to write a thoughtful guide on how to install Koriki on RG35XX.

Koriki is largely inspired by MinUI, as it conveys the minimalist distribution concept that is very suitable for the whole RG35XX device. If you’re looking for a more stable version at the moment, I recommend to read my guide on how to install MinUI on RG35XX.

I also recommend to check my RG35XX custom firmware comparison, in case you want to see how Koriki compares to other popular RG35XX’s systems like Garlic, MinUI or MuOS.

What you need

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How to install Koriki on Anbernic RG35XX

Like every custom firmware on Anbernic RG35XX, you need to pre-format your microSD card first. There is usually SD cards included with the Anbernic RG35XX, but there is a high chance that it is going to fail. You should read my handheld SD card guide, to know which SD card you should choose (quite a long guide).

If you’re going to use 2 SD cards for installing Koriki on RG35XX, you need to pre-format both SD cards as FAT32.

Step 1: Preparing the microSD card

You need to format your microSD cards as FAT32. Remember that this is not the same format as exFAT. You must format every SD card that you would like to use with the Anbernic RG35XX.

Formatting a microSD card (Windows)

  • For microSD cards 32GB or smaller: You should use SD Formatter
    1. Insert your SD card into your computer with an SD card reader
    2. If the microSD card has any files or folders, copy them all to a folder on your computer
    3. Run SD Card Formatter Setup (the .exe file) in the downloaded .zip file as Administrator, then install the program
    4. Run SD Card Formatter from the Start Menu
    5. Select your SD card’s drive letter for “Select card”. Make sure you pick the right drive letter, or you might erase the wrong drive by accident
    6. Enter anything for “Volume label”
    7. Ensure that “Quick Format” is selected
    8. Click “Format”. Then click “OK”. Wait for the format to finish
    9. Click “OK”
  • For microSD cards 64GB or larger: You could use the latest version of guiformat
    1. Insert your microSD card into your computer, you can use the default SD card reader included in RG35XX package
    2. If the microSD card has any files or folders, copy them all to a folder on your computer
    3. Run guiformat.exe
    4. Select your SD card’s drive letter for “Select card”. Make sure you pick the right drive letter, or you might erase the wrong drive by accident
    5. Select a size for “Allocation unit size”:
      • If the microSD card is 64GB, choose 32768
      • If the microSD card is larger than 64GB, choose 65536
    6. Enter anything for “Volume label”
    7. Ensure that “Quick Format” is selected
    8. Click “Start”. Then click “OK”. Wait for the format to finish
    9. Click “Close”

Formatting a microSD card (Mac)

  • OS X El Capitan (10.11) and later
    1. Insert your microSD card into your computer
    2. If the microSD card has any files or folders, copy them all to a folder on your computer
    3. Run the Disk Utility app
    4. In the top-left “View” menu, choose “Show All Devices”
    5. Select your SD card in the left panel. Make sure you pick the right drive letter, or you might erase the wrong drive by accident
    6. Click “Erase” at the top
    7. Enter anything for “Name”
    8. Ensure that “Format” is set to “MS-DOS (FAT)”
    9. Ensure that “Scheme” is set to “Master Boot Record”
      • If “Scheme” does not appear, click “Cancel” and make sure to choose the device instead of a volume
    10. Click “Erase”. Wait for the format to finish
    11. Click “Close”
  • OS X Yosemite (10.10) and earlier
    1. Insert your microSD card into your computer
    2. If the microSD card has any files or folders, copy them all to a folder on your computer
    3. Run the Disk Utility app
    4. Select your SD card in the left panel. Make sure you pick the right drive letter, or you might erase the wrong drive by accident
    5. Click “Partition” at the top. If “Partition” does not appear, make sure to choose the device instead of a volume
    6. Ensure that “Partition Layout” is set to “1 Partition”
    7. Enter anything for “Name”
    8. Ensure that “Format” is set to “MS-DOS (FAT)”
    9. Click “Options” below the partition table. Choose “Master Boot Record”
    10. Click “OK”
    11. Click “Apply”
    12. Click “Partition”. Wait for the format to finish
    13. Close Disk Utility

Step 2: Add Koriki image on SD card

Download Koriki from prerequisite section, then extract the compressed file with 7zip. Now you can add Koriki image to your SD card using Rufus.

  • Open Rufus, select Device to be your SD card. In Boot selection, choose batocera-rg35xx-rg35xx–20231112.img that you previously downloaded
  • Click START. Then click OK. The process of writing Koriki to your SD card needs 5-10 minutes to be done
  • Don’t format any partitions after that

Depending on how many SD cards that you want to use with Anbernic RG35XX, the process of installation is a bit different. I always recommend to select 2 SD cards for the RG35XX, because it is how it’s meant to be. Also, sometimes you can utilize the included SD card for system files, though there are too many cases of being faulty. That way, you don’t lose your precious progress of game saves by using better SD cards for ROMs and BIOS. Again, I recommend to read my handheld SD card guide.

Single-SD card setup

By default, after flashing image into SD card, there is around 3 GB for the main drive (in FAT32 format). Do the following steps to complete single-SD card setup:

  • Insert the SD card into your RG35XX (TF1 slot), power it up
  • The first boot will take longer to initialize, because it needs to expand the remaining size of the SD card
  • Wait for the process to finish
  • There will be a SHARE partition for taking your ROMs and BIOS folders
Dual-SD card setup

When you use dual-SD card setup, you need to put the SD card with Koriki flashing image into the TF1 slot. The second SD card that goes into the TF2 slot needs to be formatted into FAT32.

  • Insert both SD cards into TF1 and TF2 slots of your RG35XX
  • The first boot will take longer to initialize, because it needs to expand the remaining size of the SD card
  • Wait for the process to finish
  • Anything that should be in SHARE partition will be automatically in the second SD card

If you don’t know which ROM files to add, read my in-depth guide of ROM folder names.

My RG35XX won’t boot with Koriki, how to fix?

Make sure you’re using the official release of Koriki from my guide. If your RG35XX won’t boot with Koriki, perhaps you’re in beta version, so I recommend you to start installing Koriki from the scratch with my guide.
If you really want to stay in the current beta version, you should download and extract file bootfix_for_revision_v6c.zip (downloaded here). Copy both uImage and kernel.dtb to the first SD card (that goes to TF1 slot), overwriting the existing ones.

How to install Batocera on RG35XX

Koriki is actually a fork of Batocera, so by installing Koriki, you’re installing the latest Batocera lite version for your Anbernic RG35XX. While there is no reason to further read on RG35XX’s Batocera installation, if you want to enjoy the last version in the name of Batocera lite, here is a step-by-step installation guide:

  • Do the same process on formatting SD cards as above
  • Download the last Batocera lite version for RG35XX (version 0.8.1)
  • Extract using 7zip, then do the same process to flash the image into your SD card
  • Boot. It takes a bit longer for the first boot (around 15 to 20 seconds) into RetroArch

How to update Koriki on RG35XX

At the moment, there is no need to update Koriki on RG35XX, because the official version has only been released for a while. However, if you’re looking to update to the latest beta version from an older beta version on RG35XX, you can follow these steps:

  • Download koriki_rg35xx_system_update_20231009.zip here and extract with 7zip
  • Insert the SD card in TF1 slot to your computer. Copy everything in the folder that you previously extracted, and paste them in the root of the SD card in TF1 slot. Replace anything prompted
  • Insert the SD card back to the TF1 slot. Turn on the device

That’s it, if you have any other questions, please find it in my RG35XX tutorial.

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lazyhandheldman
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A very lazy man who enjoy playing with handheld exclusively, because he can turn the device into sleep mode and spend time with his little family. My all-time favorite handheld device is the New Nintendo 3DS XL.