Being true to their promise, switchroot has released their highly anticipated method of bringing Android to your Nintendo Switch console. This marks the first public release of LineageOS 15.1, and is based on a build of Android that runs on the Nvidia Shield TV. By flashing the installation image to your micro SD card, you can use Android 8.1 Oreo on the Switch, in both handheld and docked mode. Some of the features include audio support, allowing the Joy-Cons to connect through bluetooth, offering CPU and GPU performance profiles, and more.

As this is a beta release, you should be aware that there are a few bugs. Some notable issues are that sleep mode battery life is lacking, certain apps have problems with being controlled with the Joy-Cons, the screenshot function is disabled, wifi can be spotty, and a few other quirks.

If you're interested in playing around with this release, you can follow the instructions below to get started, with the download links being available in the source.

LineageOS 15.1 for Nintendo Switch by switchroot. This is the first publicly available Android ROM for the Nintendo Switch. Based on the Nvidia Shield TV builds it brings a smooth and powerful Android experience to your Switch in both handheld and docked mode.

1. Pick the image that corresponds to the size of your SD card. You can use an image that is smaller than your card. You’ll end up with the remaining space unused on your card.
2. Write the image to your SD card with e.g. balenaEtcher Do not extract the image, Etcher can handle the compressed image just fine! WARNING: This will overwrite any contents on your card! The progress bar/percentage might go haywire in Etcher, but you can ignore that. The flashing will still work and Etcher will let you know when it’s done. It can take up to an hour depending on your SD card’s speed. Also make sure not to format any of the partitions when Windows prompts you to after flashing.
3. Download GApps for Android 8.1. from OpenGApps, use ARM64. Put the file on the first partition of your new SD card
4. If desired download the "Shield-ifier" zip and place it also on the SD card. This will make your Switch identify as Nvidia Shield TV and install the Nvidia app.
5. Load hekate and boot to TWRP by holding VOL+ when you select the Android config.
6. Flash GApps zip, optionally flash other zips
7. Reboot to hekate and boot into Android
8. Complete the inital setup. For the Nvidia app to work make sure to update it from Play Store!

Source

 

[gamemasteru03]

Edit: Found a good guide from XDA forum but I am not allowed to post links yet. Check it out

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For those wanting to have joycon in PS4 Remote Play. There's a new guide in XDA
Sorry I'm not allowed to post any links yet. I tested and it works great!

Here is the link for anyone who wants it: https://forum.xda-developers.com/ni...ion--development/ps4-remote-play-joy-t3953197

 

[gamemasteru03]

Edit: Double post.

 

[Mythical]

If anyone wants to play emulated games through steam link you can download playnite and have it set up to start up in controller mode then add it as a non steam game. When you use steam link you load playnite and from there you can launch an emulated game directly with your controller as long as the controllers are already setup and as long as your emulator games are imported. You can technically also do this with Kodi and use it as a media player and play retro games through it also
edit: by emulated games I mean games your pc would be emulating not the switch

 

[Pierit]

Just set this up and my joycons don't work at all. None of the inputs are recognized in the Android OS nor in Nvidia Games or Steam.

I did pre-emptively flash the joycon fix (before ever booting into Android the first time) so maybe that broke something? Can I unflash that somehow?

Edit: Nope that's not it. I started over and didn't flash the joycon zip this time and it still happens.

Edit2: I guess I didn't realize you had to pair them via Bluetooth. Working now.

 

[gohan123]

my power button doesn't work at all, can't even wake the device or power off. I have a work around with power menu app and I set vol button to wake. touch very often doesn't respond or respond too often so I open accidentally apps or misstype textes. wifi sometimes drops from 5mbps to almost 0, only turning wifi on / off helps, I think I have same issue in horizon but I'm mostly in plane mode. streaming with steam / amd link is horrible, might be only my device or my crappy 2.4ghz router. on boot and sometimes apps crashes like the nvidia app. my most wanted game oddmar doesn't recognise the joycons, but most apps do.

 

[CameronCataclysm]

Speaking of workarounds, my Switch screen goes out after 1 minute of use (need to repair it) and I've found it almost impossible to mess around 100% using docked mode. Keyboard just won't work in docked.

 

[Yoni Arousement]

Sega Heroes runs buttery smooth on LineageOS.

 

[AvesAvi]

Does anybody have experience getting the Joycons working properly in Retroarch? The menu works fine but when I launch any rom (for example n64) none of the buttons are correctly bound and some don't do anything. If I manually set bindings then I lose all joycon functionality in the menu and the Joycons still don't work right in game, treating the left analog stick like a dpad, X as if it's B, yet Start, A, R, and R2 are bound correctly.

I might be doing something stupid but I think it has to do with both of the Joycons being recognized as two separate controllers. I tried asking on the XDA forum but it seems kinda dead because I've gotten no response.

 

[Rahkeesh]

All of the controls for both joycons are handled by the left joycon android device, make sure you assign all bindings to that. I would also mess with the controls inside the quick menu, i.e. core-specific, rather than trying to remap the general ones in the input settings.

Retroarch android is also set up for x-input standard, which flips the position of A-B and X-Y versus Nintendo. Some of the flashable joycon fix zips will reverse the controls to match the positions on x-input, so pressing B will act like A, etc, if you want.

Analog-to-digital is also probably on by default, which turns all left analog into d-pad commands. I think that's in the main input settings to turn that off, and you need that off to pass the analog stick into the emulators. Keep in mind that currently android only reads the joycons as 8-directional, so you still aren't going to get full analog range without a pro or x-input controller.

 

[Deleted User]

,

 

[davd]

Is there any way to play PUBG with this? I get an "abnormalities detected with emulator" message and it kicks me out.

 

[CameronCataclysm]

Is there any way to play PUBG with this? I get an "abnormalities detected with emulator" message and it kicks me out.

I havent switched over to android in a while but when all of this first came out I was 100% able to play PUBG, even using some "panda" app that allowed me to map and use a bluetooth controller.