Installation

 

Remarks about the required firmware

CrossMix-OS doesn't require any firmware update before installation: it will guide you to update it if required, just let yourself be guided on the first boot. CrossMix-OS use the firmware 1.0.4 hotfix 6 (20240413) by default (no need to update it before your CrossMix installation), hotfix 9 is also supported but boot logo change is disabled.

To make a fresh install

Format your SD card in FAT32. (⚠ use a genuine, name-brand SD card and not the stock one sold with your console)

Prepare your SD card to receive CrossMix-OS:

Formatting an SD card in FAT 32

Windows

1. Use fat32format
2. Set options
   • Drive
     The drive letter of your SD card
   • Allocation unit size

     Card capacity	Allocation unit size
     < 128 GB	512
     < 256 GB	1024
     < 512 GB	2048
     < 1 TB	4096
     < 2 TB	8192

   • Volume label
     CrossMix
   • Quick Format:
     ✔️ Yes
3. Press Start and wait for the process to finish.
   It can take a couple of minutes depending on the size and speed of the card and the reader.

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Mac OS

1. Plug in the SD card in the reader, then plug in the reader to your Mac.
2. Choose "Application" > "Utilities" > "Disk Utilities"
3. From the sidebar, click on the USB drive you want to format to FAT32.
4. Choose "Erase" from the toolbar
5. In the "Format" drop-down menu, select the option "MS-DOS (FAT)".
6. In the "Scheme" drop-down menu (if it exists), select the option "Master Boot Record".
7. Click "Erase" and wait for the process to finish.
   It can take a couple of minutes depending on the size and speed of the card and the reader.

CrossMix installation

• Download the latest release of CrossMix-OS (in the "assets", at the bottom of the release page, look for CrossMix-OS_v1.x.x.zip)
• Extract the archive directly on your SD card. Consider using an application like 7-zip to do this (often faster than Explorer). Using an USB 3.0 or USB-C SD card reader can improve the copy time.
• Copy your BIOS files into the BIOS folder (on stock SD card copy it from RetroArch/.retroarch/system to BIOS folder)
• Copy your own ROMs into the Roms folder. If you want to keep roms from stock SD card, copy the content of each Roms subfolder from stock SD card one by one, some rom paths are different from Stock so if you don't find the target folder or if you have any doubts, find the right path in CrossMix emulator list. (Some examples of rom path changes : PPSSPP -> PSP , OPERA -> PANASONIC , PICO8 -> PICO)
• Insert your SD card into your TrimUI Smart Pro and start CrossMix-OS. (the first boot is a little longer than usual to setup some components like PortMaster)

To update from a previous CrossMix Version

• Run a check disk on your SD card first (as there are many bad SD cards, it's always a good idea to check for errors with chkdsk on Windows, fsck on linux or Disk Utility on Mac) (use a genuine, name-brand SD card and not the stock one sold with your console)
• Copy the archive "CrossMix-OS_v1.x.x.zip" (⚠ archive not extracted ⚠) on SD card root
• ⚠ Update the file crossmix_update.sh located in System/usr/trimui/scripts/ with the new version from the archive "CrossMix-OS_v1.x.x.zip" or from here⚠.
• if you are using an old version of CrossMix (v1.0.0 or v1.1.0) then also update the file _FirmwareCheck.sh located in System/starts with the new version from the archive "CrossMix-OS_v1.x.x.zip" or from here⚠.
• At reboot the update will be automatically installed

To update with OTA application

CrossMix features an OTA (Over-The-Air) update tool for easy updates directly on your device. Keep in mind that CrossMix updates are large (around 2GB), so ensure your device is fully charged or connected to a power source and positioned close to your Wi-Fi router.

Take a look to the notes below about the space required and the tips. Note that the OTA update will take 15 minutes minimum but can be significantly longer depending your connection speed (40 minutes at 0.8MB/s).

Various issues may cause the OTA process to fail, such as poor internet connectivity, weak Wi-Fi signal, SD card file system corruption or SD card quality... So if you encounter difficulties with the OTA update, please use the manual steps above to prepare the update from your computer.

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Notes about CrossMix updates:

if you have the message "CrossMix-OS update v.x.x.x found. Not enough space on internal storage to update." Your internal storage is saturated (this is on firmware side, not on SD card side), free up some space on rootFS / internal storage then try again. This problem often happen after the use of a port from PortMaster not well configured but it's not the only explanation possible. The easiest way to fix this problem is to flash your firmware again: Download it, copy `trimui_tg5040.awimg` at the root of your SD card and boot with VOL- pressed.  If you are an advanced user, you can type this command in ssh :

    df -h > /mnt/SDCARD/diag.log
    echo ------------------------ >> /mnt/SDCARD/diag.log
    find / -size +10000k -not -path "/mnt/SDCARD/*" -not -path "/overlay/*" -exec ls -lh {} \; >> /mnt/SDCARD/diag.log   
    echo ------------------------ >> /mnt/SDCARD/diag.log
    ls -lh /usr/bin/poweroff >> /mnt/SDCARD/diag.log

This log file will allow you to see why your internal storage is saturated, it is often due to a port from PortMaster, you can also remove the biggest files manually from SSH. And then send us diag.log from your sd card (we are very interested by this file to understand the source of the problem, we could fix it automatically if it is a common issue).

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Installing CrossMix requires a total of 7GB of free space on your SD card. If you don’t have enough space available, you can temporarily move your largest ROMs to your computer. Proceed with the update, and once you’ve confirmed that it was successful, you can delete the update archive and the backup to reclaim your free space. The decompression time is around 4 minutes with a good SD card (it can be longer depending the SD quality).

The following folders are not altered during the update:

- SDCARD/_Updates
- SDCARD/Data
- SDCARD/BIOS
- SDCARD/Best
- SDCARD/Imgs
- SDCARD/Roms

The automatic update process will move your previous files in SDCARD/_Updates folder. You'll also find the migration log in this directory.

The saves/savestates from Retroarch, PPSSPP, Drastic are automatically copied from the backup to the new installation.

After an update, it is recommended to keep this _Updates folder for some time. Once you have spent some time on CrossMix and verified that all your saves and settings are functional, you can delete this _update directory to free up storage space on your SD card.

To migrate from an another OS version (Stock/Tomato)

You can't just override the files to have a good result. Do not use the stock SD card (otherwise you'll have corruption of filesystem very often and loosing files). This procedure is to migrate to CrossMix on a guenuine SD card which is already used for another OS. The process is similar with a separate/dedicated SD card except that you copy the stock files from the initial SD card instead of "_Mybackup" folder.

• Run a check disk on your SD card first (many SD card filesystem are already partially corrupted before installing so it's always a good idea to check for errors with scandisk or chkdsk on Windows, fsck on linux or Disk Utility on Mac)
• create a folder called "_Mybackup" for example and put all your existing files/folders in it. You now have only one folders on your SD card.
• extract the CrossMix archive on your SD card root.
• copy your BIOS files into the BIOS folder (on stock SD card copy it from /_Mybackup/RetroArch/.retroarch/system to BIOS folder to /BIOS)
• move Roms folders but don't import roms folders which are not coming from CrossMix ! Some name are different: PPSSPP -> PSP , OPERA -> PANASONIC , PICO8 -> PICO (so for example copy the content of _Mybackup/Roms/PPSSPP/* in Roms/PSP, if you don't find the target folder or if you have any doubts, find the right path in CrossMix emulator list)
• Insert your SD card into your TrimUI Smart Pro and boot the console.
• Refresh roms

About saves and save states:

• The save states made with the in game menu are contained in Roms folder, most of them should work directly except if the core is different: in this case the content folder will not have the same name.
• if you really need some save and save states from Retroarch the paths have changed for a more clean organization. It's probably easier to make a save with the in game menu before migrate to CrossMix, otherwise the migration is manual: the base folder is the same (RetroArch\.retroarch\saves and RetroArch\.retroarch\states) but on CrossMix it is RetroArch\.> retroarch\saves\**RomFolderName**\**Corename** .

For example : RetroArch\.retroarch\saves\001 Donkey Kong Land.srm wil go into : RetroArch\.retroarch\saves\GB\Gambatte

 
 
 
 

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