How to Install - EmuELEC/EmuELEC GitHub Wiki

You can also check out this how to install video: https://youtu.be/5WfC_pNIBE4

First, make sure you read the Supported Devices page. For the moment EmuELEC only works on Amlogic devices, S905, S905x2, S905x3, S922x, A311D, Odroid-GO Advance, Odroid-GO Super

This is a very quick and rough guide to get you started.

How to install

  1. Download the image that corresponds to your device, if there is no image for your device, try one of the generic versions
  • EmuELEC-Amlogic.aarch64-x.x.x-generic.img.gz is for S905 (and variants, S905x, S905y, S905w, etc)
  • EmuELEC-Amlogic-ng.aarch64-x.x.x-generic.img.gz is for S905x2,S905x3,S922x/A311D (notice the ng in the name)
  • EmuELEC-OdroidGoAdvance.aarch64-x.x.x-odroidgo2.img.gz is for Odroid-GO Advance and Odroid-GO Super
  • EmuELEC-GameForce.aarch64-x.x.x-chi.img.gz is for GameForce Chi
  1. Use the fastest SD card you can find, it does make a difference! not all SD cards/USB drives are created equal this will impact how fast EmuELEC loads and performs when file read/write operations are done. Then use Etcher (or a similar program, like Win32DiskImager) to burn the image to the SD Card. A minimum SD card size of 8GB is recommended.

  2. (Skip to step 6 if using the Odroid-Go Advance or Super) Once the image is written if you are using a generic version, make sure you are using the correct DTB for your device, you can find them in the "device_trees" directory in the root of the SD card your just burned.

DO NOT USE A DTB FROM AN OLDER VERSION OR FROM ANY OTHER DISTRO!

Example of DTB files and platforms:

  • Amlogic S905 = p200/p201
  • Amlogic S905X = p212
  • Amlogic S905D = p230/231
  • Amlogic S905W = p281
  • Amlogic S905X3 = sm1_s905x3

Note: You can find more information about the DTB that you need by running android and Terminal Emulator type: cat /proc/device-tree/amlogic-dt-id It won't give you the exact DTB but you will get enough information to figure it out. Experiment with things like RAM size (1G/2G/3G/4G) and try a _gibt variant if your box has a gigabit NIC.

You could also see if your device is listed here: https://pastebin.com/MzcGntYB

Now that you already know which file is the correct dtb for your device copy it to the root of the SD card and rename it to dtb.img.

  1. THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP! Insert the SD card in your device, if this is the first time you will run EmuELEC on the device you need to press and hold the "reset" button during power on. Sometimes the reset button is hidden under the device or in the 3.5mm jack, you will need a toothpick or something similar. Press carefully until you feel a button click at the base of the 3.5mm jack while powering on the device. Pressing the reset button only has to be done once during the first boot of EmuELEC. Alternatively if your device has no reset button, you can boot into android and use an app called "Reboot to CoreELEC" (Or "Reboot to LibreELEC") while the SD is inserted, this can also be done via terminal emulator, just type "reboot update"
  2. At this point you should see the EmuELEC loading screen. If you see a black screen then try another DTB and if your device shows a recovery menu or loads into Android then check that you have written the SDcard correctly and also check that the reset button was pressed when you powered on the device.
  3. Wait for the partition expansion, the device will reboot and if there was no error you should be prompted to configure your game pad.

NOTE: Sometimes the first boot after the partition expansion might be slow as the files are being prepared, this depends on many factors so you might not even notice it.

You can also read this post on the CoreELEC forum for alternative instructions. https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/how-to-install-coreelec/677

Running games

Please copy your game ROM files and media for ports such as Doom, Quake, XRick etc to the correct locations as shown in Supported Platforms And Correct Rom Path. Note that ports will often require copyrighted media to function and these are not distributed with EmuELEC, you must transfer these from your own copy of the game (e.g. Doom WAD files).

s912/Pandora

While s912 still works on v3.9 and lower, no support will be given, it is highly recommended to NOT use EmuELEC on s912.