Armada, a Linux-based operating system for ARM gaming handhelds, has been released in preview build 20261109.

Armada is a SteamOS-inspired operating system built specifically for handheld devices like the Retroid Pocket and AYN Thor, bringing Steam’s Game Mode interface along with emulator and streaming support. It follows about four weeks after preview build 20261010.

New are support for the AYN Odin 3 Portal and the Retroid Pocket Duo, gyro controls on many devices, much longer standby times (up to 8 days), a battery charge limit, and Steam Remote Play with low-latency hardware decoding.

AYN Odin 3 Portal support:

• Display: HDR up to 750 nits, 60 and 120 Hz with refresh rate calibration, a brightness curve tuned to the panel, and touch
• Sound, controls (incl. gyro, rumble, RGB), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, microSD, USB-C and DisplayPort
• Power: over 6 days in standby on a charge, Steam’s battery charge limit, and fan control

Retroid Pocket Duo support:

• Dual screens fully supported. Its Adreno 722 gets a tuned Mesa driver that lets 3DS games run at 4x resolution and fixes texture flickering in other emulators
• Steam runs up top while a full Plasma Mobile session keeps your browser, guides, or chat below. Azahar (3DS) and melonDS (DS) from the Armada Store use both screens

Gyro:

• Gyro now works, calibrates itself to stay free of drift, and shows up in Steam as a Steam Deck gyro
• Gyro orientation is configurable in Armada Control
• Supported devices: AYN Odin 2, Odin 2 Portal, Odin 3, Odin 3 Portal, and Thor; Retroid Pocket 6 and Nova; KONKR Pocket FIT; AYANEO Pocket DS

Days of standby:

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 devices now reach full power collapse in sleep for the first time, cutting battery drain by 25%
• Battery drain is also down about 40% on Snapdragon 8 Elite and about 22% on Snapdragon 865 devices since the last release
• On a full charge, the AYN Odin 2 Portal lasts about 8 days in standby and the Odin 3 about 6 days

Battery charge limit:

• Set the highest level your battery charges to with Steam’s own charge limit setting
• Supported devices: AYN Odin 3 and Odin 3 Portal; AYANEO Pocket S2; KONKR Pocket FIT and Pocket FIT Elite

Low-latency Steam Remote Play:

• Hardware decoding on every supported device, in low-latency mode: on the AYN Odin 3, decoding a frame dropped from 4.6 ms to 1.5 ms on average

Devices and controllers:

• Fixed headphone jack detection on the Retroid Pocket 6 and Nova and AYANEO Pocket S2
• Fixed weak, rattly rumble on the Retroid Pocket 6 and Nova
• Fixed the white flash when the Retroid Pocket Nova wakes
• Fixed volume up sometimes not working on the Retroid Pocket Nova
• Enabled the AYN Odin 3 microphones and fixed headphone clipping
• Restored KONKR Pocket FIT speakers
• Fixed the KONKR Pocket FIT’s Menu, K, Equals, and back buttons on some units, added stick light control, and fixed its Xbox mode
• Fixed the KONKR Pocket FIT Elite not finding 5 GHz networks after boot
• Added AYANEO Pocket S2 RGB support
• MANGMI Air Y Pro: mapped the QAM button, defaulted to Steam Deck mode, and added its logo to RGB lighting

Sleep and power:

• Lower battery drain in sleep on every supported chip, with full power collapse on SM8550
• AYANEO and KONKR built-in controllers now power off in sleep
• Added Steam’s battery charge limit on SM8650 and SM8750 devices
• Added the Steam Deck’s low power download mode, on by default while charging, with a toggle for battery in Armada Control
• On dual screen devices, the bottom screen now sleeps and wakes with the top screen
• The power button is ignored while the lid is closed
• The AYN Odin 3 charging LED now shows charging state
• Fixed the hardware clock and wake alarm on AYANEO and KONKR SM8650 devices

Graphics and performance:

• Reworked the performance sliders to show MHz, tune each CPU cluster, and add an SM8250 underclock preset
• Smoother frame times on the Eco and Balanced profiles
• Improved Gamescope frame pacing
• Flatpak and Android apps now use Armada’s graphics drivers, and Flatpak apps get the per-game driver choices from Armada Control
• Added HDR on the Retroid Pocket Nova
• Added a refresh rate calibration tool (Armada Control, Settings > System) that tunes the panel to its exact refresh rate
• Steam’s refresh rate slider can now select 60 Hz on 60/120 Hz panels

Game compatibility:

• x86 Linux games now use Armada’s native OpenGL and Vulkan drivers through FEX’s thunks, so games that fell back to software rendering get hardware OpenGL and Counter-Strike 2 renders correctly
• Fixed Enshrouded and Onimusha: Way of the Sword crashing at startup

Streaming:

• Fixed Steam Remote Play getting stuck on a green screen
• Fixed Steam Remote Play decode errors and frozen starts on SM8250 devices

Armada Control and Store:

• Added Simplified Chinese translations
• Quick Access Menu controls and dialogs now match Decky’s layout
• Fixed missing game profiles for non-Steam games
• Fixed non-Steam games with a compatibility tool sharing one set of settings
• Added Quiver Launcher
• Updated Azahar defaults to avoid flicker and rendering issues

System:

• New installs default to the stable Steam client
• Decky now runs natively on arm64 instead of under FEX
• Android apps: added split APK installs, and fixed swapped X and Y buttons and mapped the triggers on Retroid controllers
• The bottom screen stays off until Steam is started and unlocked
• Added armada-run-bottom --defaults, which sets up a basic environment for single apps on the bottom screen
• Fixed the screen reader breaking hotkeys
• Fixed KDE cache rebuilds freezing games when the bottom screen is on
• Added USB tethering for phones
• Added iptables NAT support
• Added SDL2 addon libraries for apps like Grout
• Updated Armada logos and branding

Boot and updates:

• Replaced ROCKNIX ABL with OpenABL, which boots Armada from standard BLS boot entries

Updated Mesa to 26.2.6, Gamescope to 3.17.0-ogc1, InputPlumber to 0.83.0, Plasma to 6.8.2, NetworkManager to 1.58.1, and OpenABL to 1.2

Source: GitHub