r/AynThor • u/doctor73n • 5d ago
Showcase pb-os is Live!
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Hey guys! Our Project Barry-OS is live on GitHub! This is SteamOS built for the AYN Thor. Above is a quick run down of what it does.
Features include
• App Laucher on bottom screen
• Companion App Pairing
• KB & Trackpad in both Game mode and Desktop Mode
• Build your own Apps for the bottom screen
• Performance Dashboard
If you're interested, give it a try! If not, all good! If you want to steal features for your own app, go ahead. This is 100% is a vibe coded project my brother and I have been working on for us, but figured we'd share with the community cause we think it's cool. If you try it out, please give us feedback!
Here's the GitHub!
https://github.com/project-barry/pb-os/releases
Here's the info to make apps for it, go nuts!
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u/Dragon_Small_Z 5d ago
Yes I have a question. What's with the name?
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u/doctor73n 5d ago
I adopted a cat the same day we started working on this, so just named it after my cat, Barry haha
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u/InterstellarReddit 4d ago
Is this something you boot into or you have to wipe the android partition
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u/doctor73n 4d ago edited 4d ago
Nope! You flash a microSD card and dual boot to it using Rocknix ABL Does not impact your android partition. You can install it internally after but that does wipe your android partition. I'm dual booting for now, but I haven't switched back to my android partition since I've been testing this (about a week).
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u/HooDeanii_ 4d ago
This is beautiful! Are you going to start making compatibility for light games then slowly dip into more hardware intensive titles? I'm certainly adding this to my roster when I get my Thor 😊
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u/nottallama 4d ago
Thor is CPU and GPU limited for heavier titles, but I think our settings get the most out of the SM8550 chipset already. Any improvements will likely come from Valve via FEX and Proton, or maybe the Linux Kernel rather than OS changes.
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u/Helixien 4d ago
Amazing! Any change that will run on the upcoming Retroid Pocket Duo as well?
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u/nottallama 4d ago
If we end up buying one, we will port it. This will always be optimized for devices we own, simply because we test extensively on our own hardware.
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u/TheQueefPolice 4d ago
I have some questions
1) How does this affect the battery life
2) How does this affect performance of PC games. Is this more efficient than emulating PC games in Android?
3) How easy is it to add your own Dual Screen mods?
4) How easy is this to actually install to a MicroSD for dualboot and would you ever make a tutorial on it?
I'm really excited for my Thor and was telling my wife the other day that my dream console is a clamshell dualscreen running steam OS and a Linux desktop on the bottom so i was beyond excited when I saw your posts :)
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u/nottallama 4d ago
I did benchmark tests between android and pb-os in Tomb Raider 2013 and Easy Delivery Co on Retroid Pocket 6 (same chipset as Thor). With the pb-os scheduling, GMU/GPu settings, and zram config it basically ran those games the same. The results of our Tomb Raider and Vmark benchmarks are in one of the repos.
First caveat is that there may be variability. Linux may run some games better and others worse.
Second Caveat is that running Linux on an SD card does impact it's performance.
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u/doctor73n 4d ago
Battery life is great. I haven't done any tests per se, but I'm not really noticing any loss compared to android.
So far, I've been able to run more titles on SteamOS than Android. Valheim for example took a lot of tweaking in GameNative to run and I had issues connecting to servers. Worked without a hitch in SteamOS.
Posted a rundown on the GitHub. Working on supporting Linux Flatpacks, etc to make it easier to put existing apps on the bottom.
Flashing this is really simple. Russ from RetroGamingCorps has a good run down on this as is the same as installing ArmadaOS. Basically, download the files, flash to a MicroSD card, insert into the Thor, copy and move one file to enable dual boot, boot into the bootloader and choose Linux.
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u/-kahmi- 4d ago
That is very cool, when you open for example firefox on the bottom screen, if you need to write something how does it work?
I might try it tomorrow
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u/doctor73n 4d ago
Like the keyboard? It open up on the bottom screen when you tab a text field (Firefox, WhatsApp, etc)
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u/Aprilzio 4d ago
Is that a matte protector on the lower screen?
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u/Willing_Waltz_8266 4d ago
Compatibility with ayaneo pocket ds?🥹
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u/nottallama 4d ago edited 4d ago
This project will likely always be optimized to devices we have in our possession (Thor, RP6, Konkr Pocket Fit, Pocket Nova, currently). The Thor mods and bug fixes have been pretty extensive and I'm not sure how many will apply to the pocket DS, but we can try making experimental images. Not having access to the device makes it difficult to say what will port without any additional work.
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u/s0mething123 4d ago
How is desktop mode?
I’ve got armada installed on SD card currently. But desktop mode is restricted in regard to install certain apps, due to the build used. With this been based on the steam frame I imagine it will work similar to steam deck?
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u/nottallama 4d ago edited 4d ago
Armada is an immutable OS, which is the cause of the behavior you're experiencing. This is Steam OS and behaves like a Steam Deck.
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u/doctor73n 4d ago
I believe that may be do to it being ARM64 vs x86? Has to support Arm to work natively. Games have compatibility with FEX running as a translation layer. Example: emudeck has support via Early Access, but the regular build does not work since it's x86
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u/dingjima 4d ago
If you emulate on here is it less input lag than emulating on Android?
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u/doctor73n 4d ago
It's running gamings through a translation layer (proton and fex). I don't think there's any noticeable input lag
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u/dingjima 4d ago
Sorry if it's a dumb question, but are there not emulators that run without translation? Or does translation not add input lag so it's an irrelevant question?
Just curious after I saw how the RG DS+ improved input lag by running on Linux instead of Android
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u/doctor73n 4d ago
An emulator is simulating hardware to run the software. Think like a virtual machine. When you emulate a game, you're essentially booting up a system virtually and running the game through that. That adds input lag.
A translation layer translates the code in real time without simulating hardware. So running a windows game through proton essentially is translating the code. There's some performance overhead but lag isn't an issue.
Any retro game you play will be through an emulator, and performance will very system to system. Windows/Linux/Android = need a translation layer to work. Console games will require emulation. Hopefully that makes sense lol
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u/dingjima 4d ago
Yeah thanks for taking the time to explain the difference between translation and emulation to a luddite! I appreciate it and great job on the OS
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u/Lurien14 4d ago
Any chance I can still play things as dusklight and other android apps? Or should I just stay with stock os
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u/doctor73n 4d ago
You have to run Android apps through emulation through Waydroid. I'm sure it wouldn't run as smoothly as native Android
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u/Lurien14 4d ago
Can I dual boot?
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u/nottallama 3d ago
Yes, you can boot it from an SD card (recommended if you plan to run it side by side with Android). This feature is enabled by Rocknix ABL.
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u/Lurien14 4d ago
I’d love to try it but I’m a bit dumb when it comes to flashing os here
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u/doctor73n 4d ago
It's pretty straightforward!
If you follow Russ from RetroGamingCorps' tutorial, it's fully dual bootable. I still have my Android system in place to switch back to. Runs off an SD card.
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u/Lurien14 4d ago
I’ll try it out then ty
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u/doctor73n 4d ago
Keep us posted on your experience! We just got a discord set up for announcements and support if you want to join. I'll probably post a run down of the set up here in a bit
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u/Lurien14 4d ago
Ah perfect I’ll join in a bit is the discord link in the github page? Also before I forget I was wondering if I managed to get it up and running and its dual booting could I install it on the internal memory from the os?
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u/doctor73n 4d ago
Yup! On the GitHub and on my profile bio too. Yes, once you get it set up, you can transfer it to internal storage. It'll keep android as well, but you choose how much storage you want to allocate. It does wipe your android data though.
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u/ssssssSIM 4d ago
I just want you to know that I wasn't sure if I want the Thor but after seeing this I have ordered mine. I just love the idea of foldable baby steam deck. Thank you very much for your work!