Installing apps

A Barry Launcher app comes as an archive: a .zip (most common), or a .tar.gz, .tar.xz or .tar.bz2. You need:

• PB-OS on an AYN Thor, with Barry Launcher's app support (October 2026 or later), or the portable Barry Launcher.
• The bottom screen on, because Barry Launcher installs the app.

1. Get the zip onto the Thor

Any of these work. Put it somewhere you can find it; Downloads is where the installer looks first.

• Firefox on the bottom screen: open the app's download page (a GitHub release, say) and download the zip. It lands in Downloads.
• Desktop Mode: download it with a browser, or copy it from a USB stick or microSD card into Downloads.
• From another computer, over SSH (PB-OS has SSH on, as the steamos user): scp myapp.zip steamos@THOR-ADDRESS:~/Downloads/

2. Install it

In Game Mode:

1. Open Quick Access (the ••• button).
2. Choose Barry Launcher, then the Apps tab (LB/RB switch tabs).
3. Choose Install app… at the bottom of the list.
4. Pick the zip in the file browser.

Barry Launcher checks the app and installs it. "Installed Dice 1.0.0." appears under the button, the app joins the list, and its tile is on the home screen.

If something is wrong with the archive, the message says what, for example "barry-app.json: "name" is 25 characters; the tile has room for 20". Nothing is installed then.

From a terminal

In Desktop Mode's Konsole, or over SSH:

barry-app install ~/Downloads/dice-1.0.0.zip
barry-app list

Updating an app

Install the newer zip the same way. An app with the same id replaces the old version, and keeps what it saved (its settings, scores and so on). If the old version was open, it closes; open it again from its tile.

Removing an app

• Quick Access → Barry Launcher → Apps: the ✕ next to the app, then Remove. Apps you installed have a ✕, and so does Dino.
• Terminal: barry-app remove io.github.project-barry.dice (the app's id; barry-app list shows it). Add --keep-data to keep what it saved.

Removing an app leaves nothing behind: an open app is closed first, then its files, everything it saved, its log and its place on the home screen are deleted.

Dino comes with Barry Launcher, but it's an app like the others: remove it and it stays gone, even after updates. To get it back, install dino.zip from the releases.

Opening an app with a game

Any app (yours, or Firefox, Discord, Signal, Dino) can open by itself when a game starts: a map or wiki for that game, Discord for the friends you play it with, Dice for a board game.

1. Quick Access → Barry Launcher → Games tab.
2. Game: the games running now (marked ▶) come first, then the ones you played most recently. Steam games and non-Steam games both work.
3. Opens: the app.
4. Close it when the game closes: on, the app closes when you quit the game. Off, it stays open.
5. Link.

The links are listed under the button; ✕ removes one. One app per game: linking a game again replaces its app. If the app is already open when the game starts, it just comes forward, and it stays open when the game closes.

Hiding and ordering

Your apps sort like Barry Launcher's own: in the Apps tab, the switch shows or hides a tile and ▲ ▼ move it. Barry Launcher's home screen fits nine tiles; with more, it scrolls.

Where things are

Installed apps	~/.local/share/barry_launcher/apps/ID/
What each app saves	~/.local/share/barry_launcher/app-data/ID/
Each app's log	~/.cache/barry_launcher/ID.log

Safety

Apps aren't sandboxed. An app runs as you, and can read your files and use the network like any program you install. Install apps only from people you trust, and prefer apps whose source you can read (a QML app's source is the app itself: open the zip and look).