From testing my base model T-Deck (not the Plus), I can only get the trackball to register input when I scroll up, down or right. Scrolling left does not register input. This is the case on every firmware I have tried.
Is there anything that can fix that to get the trackball to work in all 4 directions?
I'm at a loss on how to actually get this device running. The Lilygo documentation for this device is difficult to understand, and I haven't been able to find things like a working case or battery pack for it.
Has anyone managed to find or develop an OS or firmware for this board? If so, is there a link or well-documented guide on how to flash it?
And nothing of value was lost.
The mod cited the Noble Mobile acquisition as the reason, and you can only get support from them (bots) through the Helium Mobile app now.
I guess they didn't like legacy customers with the 1-year 50% discount calling them out on there for suddenly billing everyone full price for their plans.
I'm interested in trying out the total conversion mod MALICE for Quake 1, and would like to create a launcher for it within the EmulationStation menu that boots Quake, but also loads the mod.
I checked the wiki page, but it doesn't have any documentation on mods for Quake specifically. I'm on Batocera V42 and the directory is no longer /tyrquake - it's just /quake.
I currently have a /malice folder within /id1 within the /quake directory. I can't launch Malice using the in-game terminal command "-game malice" because Batocera doesn't recognize the A key on my keyboard since it's mapped to controller movement.
I tried making a separate "MALICE.quake" launcher within the /quake directory, and the EmulationStation menu does pick that up. I tried including "-game malice" within that .quake file to see if the game would boot with that terminal command, but it just loads regular Quake.
Any ideas what I could try next? I feel like this could come in handy for the expansion packs too.
Edit: I swapped to using VKQuake instead of the Quake libreretro core, and I was able to type out "-game malice" within the in-game terminal. However, VKQuake doesn't recognize that command once the base game is already running. From my research, apparently it requires a launcher with that command baked in. The question is how to make that within Batocera, and if it can be done with a .quake file like EmulationStation sees.
I am not affiliated with this project, but within the last two weeks someone has started building a native port of Command & Conquer: Red Alert for Android on Github.
https://github.com/dk8827/ra-port
There's no ready-to-run .apk releases within the Github repo. Unfortunately, you have to manually build the .apk with what's provided, and you have to bring your own game files (you can legally get it for free from CnCNet thanks to EA releasing the game as freeware a few years ago).
So far the Android build is listed as a "debug .apk," so maybe it needs a little more time in the oven. But I'm curious if anyone has tried this and how it performs. This is a dream come true for me if it's real, I've always wanted a mobile port of the first Red Alert like we already have for Dune II. I know technically the game has been playable on Android by emulating the PS1 version for awhile, but a native port with touch controls instead of controller emulation is going to be vastly superior.
The few people in the game's main subreddit were already complaining a few weeks ago that the built-in matchmaking can't find them other players for a co-op game. You have to get a friend to play with you or you're basically stuck solo.
I think OtherSide was banking on the low cost of entry to get as many players as they could into the ecosystem. But with less than 2,000 players max at any point since the game's release, it just doesn't make sense to fund an entire dev team to make content for this small of a customer base.
This is really sad to see, but hopefully Nightdive's Thief remaster has better luck in the market.
Just curious, has anyone heard any mention whether Funcom will keep Battleye anticheat running in the single-player version of the game coming soon? Seems kind of pointless to do so if there's no possibility of transferring characters in or out of multiplayer servers.
Additionally, has anyone self-hosting a server found if there are any options to disable Battleye?
Edit: Not sure why I'm being downvoted, but just to clarify, I'm asking specifically because having Battleye disabled will significantly improve the ability to add mods to the game.
Has anyone successfully unlocked all 40 CUs while running Batocera? I'm unsure if all of the necessary dependencies are installed on it to run the build script, or if I would need to apply the 40 CU kernel patch manually.
Specifically, I'm referencing this repo: https://github.com/starfive-tech/VisionFive2/releases
The VisionFive 2 and Milk-V Mars share the same JH7110 chipset, but not sure if there are any differences in the versions of U-Boot for them. The files I'm wanted to flash from the repo are the visionfive2_fw_payload.img and u-boot-spl.bin.normal.out files from October 16, 2025, and I would flash them while loaded into Debian with mtd-utils.
So, Milk-V has some documentation up on how to boot from a USB drive with the Mars. I have a V1.21 Mars and wanted to make use of a USB drive instead of SD card to test the new Batocera image for JH7110 boards. However, doing so requires you to use a USB to TTL adapter for a serial connection to the board for initial setup. You have to interrupt the boot process and while in the U-Boot command line, enter these commands:
setenv boot_devs 'mmc nvme usb'setenv distro_bootenv_usb 'setenv bootdev usb; setenv devnum 0; run usb_boot'saveenv
I was trying to use a cheapo USB to TTL adapter I had on hand to connect to the Mars, and had it wired exactly like Milk-V said to do so.
I made sure my settings like baud rate were correct in PuTTY and that I was looking at the correct COM port, but I got absolutely no response in the terminal when I turned the Mars on. I tried switching out for a different FT232 USB to TTL adapter, no luck. I also tried changing the DIP switches to use different boot sources, and went between SPI flash and SD card. No matter what I did, nothing appeared in the PuTTY terminal when the Mars was turned on.
As I sat there scratching my head, I casually glanced down and noticed a wisp of smoke was now coming off of the wires between the Mars and the cheapo adapter. I quickly disconnected everything to find that the red, black and brown wires appeared to have bubbled up in the middle, and their pin connectors on the adapter side were melting. Definitely won't be using this adapter again.
Does anyone know what I might have been doing wrong here to where the Mars showed no sign of life over serial, plus the adapter cooking itself?
u/PlatimaZero I tried using your video where Ubuntu on the Mars made you swear a lot as a reference for my serial connection - Any insight?
The Batocera dev team has released an updated V43 image for JH7110 boards! The previous image for V41 was from 2024, so this is much newer and has some noticeable improvements. This has been tested and works on both the VisionFive 2 and the Milk-V Mars, but even with the VF2's NVMe slot, boot time takes awhile.
https://mirrors.o2switch.fr/batocera/jh7110/stable/43.1/
In V41, PPSSPP standalone would run and actually get into games, but would fail to render anything once a 3D scene loaded. V43 is now capable of 3D rendering when using OpenGL as the backend, and performance is actually pretty good. Audio is still garbled, however.
Using the included port of GZDoom, I was able to load and run Ashes 2063. Performance was great and it had normal audio. There's also ports of Fallout 1 and 2 (Community Editions) that had no noticeable issues with a quick launch test.
Quake 1 runs well with normal audio, but I'm not sure what specific port worked since it booted right "out of the box." Quake 2, on the other hand, crashed back to the EmulationStation menu with Yamagi and every other variant I tried.
Mednafen works for PSX emulation, but performance is choppy and audio is garbled.
16-bit emulation, like SNES and Genesis, runs flawlessly with normal audio.
Just like everyone was predicting, they were looking for a buyer and finally found one: https://blog.heliummobile.com/noble/
They're claiming it's business as usual for now for customers, but there's a lot of vague corpo-speak around whether plans or pricing are changing, so you can probably assume something will.
Never heard of Noble Mobile before, does anyone have experience using them?
Edit: Just did some research on them. They only have a single unlimited plan for $50/month, but they claim they will give you up to $20 in a month back if you use less data than other customers. So, at best, you're getting $30/month but discouraged from using data and your bill fluctuates month to month. Helium has flat $15/month and $30/month plans, one offering basically the same thing as the $50 plan. Noble's gimmick probably means the Helium $30 customers will get booted to the $50 plan in the future, and the $15/month plan will get killed off like the free and legacy plans.
Tello and Visible both have $25/month unlimited plans that are half the cost of Noble's plan at full price and $5 cheaper even if a Noble user were to avoid data altogether, so there is no reason to give Noble the time of day at this price point.
I believe this needs to be seen by anyone who is considering or currently using a Helium Mobile plan, especially those deciding whether to stay with them now that both the legacy and free plans have been killed off.
I saw screenshots of CEO Amir Haleem's comments posted in the Helium Mobile subreddit, and joined the Helium Discord to independently verify they were real.
A user named Wired first said in the Discord: "Way to throw your OG members to the curb with changing everyone to the same plan amount dumb move on your guys part."
Haleem's first comment was in response to Wired, saying: "The 'OG' members are only around because they want free or near free stuff. good riddance." This appeared to be in reference to both Zero users and the legacy $5 and $20 unlimited users.
Wired then responded to Haleem, saying "OG members is how you got to where you guys are at now."
The CEO responded: "I don't consider people who are only happy when they get things for free to be useful contributors. More like parasites."
The comments marked out in red are from other users who were not involved in this exchange. For the sake of transparency, I will also paste the CEO's response to the screenshots from the Helium Mobile subreddit below:
>"Sorry. I wrote this in frustration, a bit out of context, and worded it very poorly. (we've also never sold any user data and it has never been any part of the business model for the plans we have offered)"
In case you hadn't already heard, Helium Mobile quietly updated all of their FAQ and plan pages to no longer offer their free Zero plan. People noticed but the mods have avoided responding to anything related to it.
Everyone who has the Zero plan still has it, but they are expecting Helium to abruptly kill it altogether a few months from now, like they did to everyone on the legacy $5 and $20 unlimited plans at the beginning of this year.
I made a post asking the mods to change the sub's cover photo since it still screams "FREE" to advertise a plan no one can get. Their only response was to delete my post.
Just finished the Arsunt Garrison mission, and holy hell, where was that for the last 14 levels in my faction?
That was actually fun, but it left me wishing there was more content like that while I was leveling up with my house. If I could actually have tasks similar to that mission, like "sabotage the Harkonnen AA guns at Edge of Acheron," instead of "go collect cactus samples for the 500th time," I might actually be interested in continuing to participate in the Landsraad more often.
The lack of opportunities for meaningful, direct confrontation between Atreides and Harkonnen in this game, even in PVE, is a serious problem. All semblance of feeling like I'm on a team is broken as soon as I encounter my own faction's NPCs in the wild.
I should be able to get summoned to help my faction's NPCs in a battle in Hagga Basin. Instead, they join the enemy in attacking me when I show up.
I haven't seen this posted here yet, but yesterday Funcom released documentation for the first iteration of self-hosted servers: https://duneawakening.com/self-hosted-servers/
It requires a Windows (doesn't specify 10, 11 or Server) Pro machine with HyperV and Virtualization enabled, with 20 gigabytes of RAM. The actual server is an Alpine Linux virtual machine running inside of Windows (very wonky, would be much better as baremetal Linux).
Access to port forwarding on your router is required if you want to host it for players connecting outside your LAN. 7777-7810 UDP for the game servers, 31982 TCP for RMQ.
You have to download it through Steam, the page claims it's listed as the "Dune: Awakening Public Test Client Server," but I've been unable to find it so far.
Running your own server also requires a token generated on Funcom's account manager website. As of today, no option to do so existed when I signed into it.
Technically, this same question applies to the survey they sent a few weeks after launch, in July.
Does anyone have a written or video guide on how to reflash the keyboard firmware for the T-Deck? I know a USB to TTL serial adapter is required, but I'm having trouble finding any meaningful documentation for flashing the keyboard specifically.