2026-10-22--Umfeld-x-PortMaster

honestly, for my taste it was a bit too cumbersome to bring Umfeld applications onto a small device ( e.g Anbernic RG 40XXV (H700) or R36S ). so i spent some time to set up a toolchain that would do the following:

  • compile Umfeld applications on host ( i.e cross compilation e.g on MacBook Pro )
  • deploy applications via cmake script right into PortMaster
  • install and run application via PortMaster on device
  • work on unmodified ROCKNIX

so this is a quick step-by-step guide of how to run the rocknix-portmaster application from Umfeld Examples:

How to Run an Umfeld Application on Handheld with ROCKNIX and PortMaster

  • follow these installation instructions
  • from release page download an image:
  • burn image onto SD card with Raspberry Pi Imager
  • modify installation on SD card before first run ( on macOS ):
    • for Anbernic RG 40XXV (H700) copy DTB file sun50i-h700-anbernic-rg40xx-v.dtb to dtb.img ( see Anbernic H700 installation guide ): 
        cp /Volumes/ROCKNIX/device_trees/sun50i-h700-anbernic-rg40xx-v.dtb /Volumes/ROCKNIX/dtb.img
    • for R36S get panel dtb overlays e.g mipi-panel.dtbo.r36s-panel4 ( actual DTB file, depends on R36S variant ), copy to overlays folder and rename to mipi-panel.dtbo ( see Game Console R35S/R36S / Installation ): 
        cp ./mipi-panel.dtbo.r36s-panel4 /Volumes/ROCKNIX/overlays/mipi-panel.dtbo
  • insert SD card into device and boot into ROCKNIX
  • on device:
    • press START button to enter NETWORK SETTINGS
    • enable WiFi
    • connect to WiFi network
    • enable SSH
    • find and note IP address
  • on host:
    • open CLI
    • store device IP address in UMFELD_DEVICE e.g with export UMFELD_DEVICE=root@10.35.30.57
    • log into device via ssh e.g ssh root@$UMFELD_DEVICE ( password: rocknix )
    • (optional) configure passwordless login with ssh-copy-id root@$UMFELD_DEVICE
  • compile and upload the example application ( e.g on macOS ): 
      export UMFELD_DEVICE=root@10.35.30.57
  export UMFELD_PATH=$HOME/Documents/dev/umfeld/git/umfeld
  export UMFELD_EXAMPLES_PATH=$HOME/Documents/dev/umfeld/git/umfeld-examples
  cd $UMFELD_EXAMPLES_PATH/Advanced/rocknix-portmaster
  cmake -B build-rocknix -G Ninja -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$UMFELD_PATH/cmake/toolchains/rocknix-aarch64.cmake
  cmake --build build-rocknix --target deploy

note that you might need to adjust paths and IP address used above.