Lakka Switch, L4T edition
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I am proud to finally release the L4T version of Lakka Switch!
New kernel, new logo, new drivers, audio... everything is fresh and clean.

Did I mention Rayman 3 was full speed on Dolphin? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

General system updates

• New Linux kernel and underlying operating system, based on Linux4Tegra and Jetson Nano drivers
  • mainline kernel has been deprecated
  • system features should now be on par with the L4T Ubuntu distribution, except for dock support
  • Bluetooth was lost in the battle and needs some rest to come back stronger
• aarch64 is now the default and mainly supported architecture
  • arm has been deprecated since L4T doesn't support it
• New logo made with the help of jaames and the R:S community

New features and improvements

• Audio now works through the internal speakers and headphones
• The new GPU driver supports both Vulkan and OpenGL
• RAM is now locked at full speed (1600Mhz), was 800MHz before
• The system is now way more stable and should boot for everyone with a decent SD card (no more black screen of death)
• RetroArch has been updated to add menu widgets (fancy onscreen notifications)
• Overclock profiles have been updated :
  • Renamed all profiles
  • Added more overclock profiles
  • Added underclock profiles

New cores

• mupen64plus-next (N64 emulator)
  • The core is full speed, even on aarch64 thanks to the new dynarec
  • Includes the updated version of the GlideN renderer
• picodrive (various Sega consoles)
  • The core replaces Genesis Plus GX (Game Gear support has been dropped)
• Beetle PSX HW (PSX emulator with OpenGL and Vulkan renderer)
  • The core performs worse than PCSX ReARMed for now, even with Vulkan
• reicast (Dreamcast emulator)
  • The core is full speed on all commercial games, no visual glitches
  • The OIT renderer works (better accuracy), speed is still good on 1x resolution
  • The core needs the Dreamcast BIOS files to be placed in /lakka/storage/system/DC
  • WinCE games are currently not supported - there is a WinCE version of the reicast core in the works but the aarch64 dynarec is too slow for the games to be playable (for now)
• Yaba Sanshiro (Saturn emulator)
  • The core is full speed on all commercial games
  • Yabause and Kronos were also added but both perform worse than Yaba Sanshiro
• theodore (Thomson MO/TO emulator)

Updated cores

• Dolphin : Vulkan support
  • With Vulkan, Dolphin runs decently - some games are playable, some are full speed... see for yourself, try it and experiment with different games and settings!
• PCSX ReARMed : Switch optimizations and CHD support
• PPSSPP : doesn't crash anymore when closing content

Removed cores

• mupen64plus
• parallel-n64
• Genesis Plus GX
• Ishiiruka
  • It might come back once the core is updated with the (beta) Vulkan renderer

Credits

• Kernel and drivers work: NVIDIA, switchroot team (especially ByLaws and langerhans)
• Lakka Switch work: natinusala and plaidman
• RetroArch, original Lakka distribution: libretro team
• mupen64plus-next: Gillou and m4xw
• PCSX ReARMed: Switch optimizations by m4xw, CHD support by aliaspider
• Dolphin core: aliaspider
• reicast core: flyinghead

Download link

The Lakka Switch website has been updated with the new version: https://lakka-switch.github.io/documentation/

Please note that you can't dual boot Ubuntu and Lakka Switch for now (it will always boot Ubuntu).

 

[Trice]

Hey guys

I have SXOS 2.71 with 8.01 firmware how can I run this?

It doesn't matter which CFW or Switch FW version you have, Lakka is an alternative to the regular Switch OS, it doesn't run on top of it.

You need to follow the same steps as everybody else to boot it from an SD card: https://lakka-switch.github.io/documentation/installation.html

 

[joshwaan2k]

It doesn't matter which CFW or Switch FW version you have, Lakka is an alternative to the regular Switch OS, it doesn't run on top of it.

You need to follow the same steps as everybody else to boot it from an SD card: https://lakka-switch.github.io/documentation/installation.html

Thanks for clearing that up cheers

 

[Jackson98]

After a little more testing ;P

N64 runs full speed for 99% games at stock, although Yoshi's Story seems to lag badly even at 2ghz overclock(whenever moving forward). Certain games also automatically close whenever modifying the CPU or GPU clock speeds while playing(possibly to do with the format .z64 as opposed to .n64, still unsure)
PSP surprised me to a large degree, it runs just perfectly. Out of about 8 games tested 7 run flawless with stock CPU, only God of War seems to require any kind of boost. Castlevania X Chronicles does seem to Crash/Freeze whenever trying to close content though.. not sure how to avoid that. Seems like powering off is the only option.
DS is pretty poor, Melon has no configuration options, and Desmume although the better performer needs severe overclocking to even get a pokemon game running at playable speeds. It does only support interpreter core at the moment.
PSX is mediocre for most games, something like crash bandicoot will get about 45fps with dithering off, requires around 1500 OC to get full speed. Still lacking a dynamic recompiler core.
GC most games run at full speed with max performance OC after a bit of tweaking, PAL seems to be the better choice in most cases, as they can reach full speed with a lower FPS.
WII doesn't seem worth it, to get playable performance you need Max overdrive +3, Donkey Kong Country Returns got about 40-52fps with tweaking, Klonoa can run at full speed with Vsync disabled
(53-60fps), Mario Galaxy gets around 40fps on average.

 

[astrodraco]

I can't seem to figure this one out on my own:

I installed the newest version of L4T Lakka and I can't get joy cons to work at all. They're attached when I boot, I tried detaching, booting, and then inputting them again, but they never work. I can somehow control touchscreen inputs but nothing about where it scrolls or what it selects makes sense.

Any help is beyond appreciated.

 

[EmulateLife]

I can't seem to figure this one out on my own:

I installed the newest version of L4T Lakka and I can't get joy cons to work at all. They're attached when I boot, I tried detaching, booting, and then inputting them again, but they never work. I can somehow control touchscreen inputs but nothing about where it scrolls or what it selects makes sense.

Any help is beyond appreciated.

Delete Lakka folder and start over.

 

[joshwaan2k]

PSP emu works very well anyone managed get save states working without emu crashing? Tried quite few games all lock up when choose save state.

Also Dreamcast where do i put bios for that what dir in lakka folder?

 

[EmulateLife]

Dreamcast bios: lakka/storage/system/dc, just make the dc folder yourself.

Should have dc_boot.bin and dc_flash.bin.

 

[joshwaan2k]

PSP emu works very well anyone managed get save states working without emu crashing? Tried quite few games all lock up when choose save state.

Dreamcast bios: lakka/storage/system/dc, just make the dc folder yourself.

Should have dc_boot.bin and dc_flash.bin.

Thank you

 

[hippy dave]

I don't suppose anyone tried Chibi Robo on Dolphin, any performance report? TY.

 

[joshwaan2k]

PSP emu anyone managed get Vulkan to work with it. when load game it crashes but GL works fine?

Also any one managed to use save states with PSP emu seems freeze emu for me on all games tried?

 

[Mario119]

Question: I would like to experiment with Wii games on Dolphin running through Lakka, but the problem I have is that I simply can't copy the Wii ISOs over to my SD Card due to a lot of them being over 4GB in size. Is there anyway to get around this?

 

[dotmick]

Question: I would like to experiment with Wii games on Dolphin running through Lakka, but the problem I have is that I simply can't copy the Wii ISOs over to my SD Card due to a lot of them being over 4GB in size. Is there anyway to get around this?

You might want to convert them to .wbfs format.

 

[Mario119]

You might want to convert them to .wbfs format.

Ah, I had forgotten I could do that. Thanks!

 

[Jackson98]

PSP emu anyone managed get Vulkan to work with it. when load game it crashes but GL works fine?

Also any one managed to use save states with PSP emu seems freeze emu for me on all games tried?

I dont think the PSP/N64 cores work with Vulkan at the moment, both run very well with glcore though. Not 100% sure about the PSP save states.

 

[joshwaan2k]

I dont think the PSP/N64 cores work with Vulkan at the moment, both run very well with glcore though. Not 100% sure about the PSP save states.

Thanks u cheers

 

[sorabora]

I dont think the PSP/N64 cores work with Vulkan at the moment, both run very well with glcore though. Not 100% sure about the PSP save states.

Just to be certain: should we be using GL or GLCore? Thanks!

 

[Jackson98]

Just to be certain: should we be using GL or GLCore? Thanks!

From what I understand glcore is more recent and puts to use certain features otherwise only available with vulkan, so If glcore works I generally always pick it over gl. For a more in depth technical analysis I'm sure you would get a better answer from one of the developers though .

 

[sorabora]

From what I understand glcore is more recent and puts to use certain features otherwise only available with vulkan, so If glcore works I generally always pick it over gl. For a more in depth technical analysis I'm sure you would get a better answer from one of the developers though .

Thank you! I'm new to Lakka so I had been sticking with gl. I'll try it out and see how it performs. A follow-up question, if you don't mind:

Is there a general rule when it comes to what type of overclocking to enable when you use it? For example, should I leave GPU alone and just use CPU OC? Should I do both? Or only GPU? That kind of thing. Thanks!

 

[Jackson98]

Thank you! I'm new to Lakka so I had been sticking with gl. I'll try it out and see how it performs. A follow-up question, if you don't mind:

Is there a general rule when it comes to what type of overclocking to enable when you use it? For example, should I leave GPU alone and just use CPU OC? Should I do both? Or only GPU? That kind of thing. Thanks!

The GPU only is necessary if you want to use shaders/graphical improvements/increase the screen resolution, and most of the time you wont need to increase it much . 95% of the overclocking you will need to do is with the CPU. Their are no rules, but I personally overclock my CPU anywhere up to the 1768 mark(Max Performance) as it has been tested by the developers and deemed safe, the only downside is it drains your battery faster than normal.
I also normally like to improve resolution as it comes at a small GPU cost. The only core that should require much overclocking at the moment or in the long run is the Dolphin one. The Playstation and Nintendo DS emulation will still need a fair boost currently, only because they are still running off interpreter cores. Before resorting to overclocking though I suggest trying to change the settings in Retroarch if your games cant reach full speed. Certain things you can do like, using PAL over NTSC(for some cores), Disable Vsync, enable Threaded Video, change the emulator CPU(very handy for Dolphin), disable dithering(PSX), can all be used to gain performance boosts and won't drain your battery any faster. Nothing is set in stone however, just play around with settings, see what you can do to get a good performance for your games and enjoy.

 

[enderer]

i tested new super mario bros wii in dolphin and it runs very well with 1.7ghz cpu and boost +1 gpu.

any plans to add sleep mode now that l4t ubuntu has it?