I purchased an Anbernic RG351V retro game console from the source itself on Ebay back in January 2025. See the console below:

The console’s form-factor recalls the design of a classic Game Boy, but has six additional buttons (two extra face buttons and four shoulder buttons) compared to its inspiration. It also has a joystick, although my initial impression leads me to conclude this would not be the ideal device for “3D” gaming. Its design evinces that it is intended to play retro games. While I do not recall selecting for color, I appreciate the translucent shell, which is similar to the Game Boy Pocket I received back in 1997.

Below, I will tell you the story of how and why I purchased the Anbernic RG351V and my adventure trying to install alternative firmware in the form of the free and open source AmberELEC on it. Do note that this article is only about the installation of AmberELEC and is not a review of the device, something I do not have time to undertake at the moment.

Table of Contents

• Choosing and Purchasing the Anbernic RG351V
• Getting Around to Doing Something With the RG351V
• Initial Attempt to Install AmberELEC on the RG351V
• Finding and Implementing a Solution
• Early Testing
• Conclusion

Choosing and Purchasing the Anbernic RG351V

The reason I chose the Anbernic RG351V is because I had read before purchasing that it was amenable to running open source custom firmware, or operating systems. I was interested in trying a retro game console to run some of my legitimately-sourced Game Boy ROMs. But, perhaps unsurprisingly in light of the fact I run Linux on all of my computers and GrapheneOS/Ubuntu Touch on my two phones, I was far more inclined to try one where I could supply my own fimrware instead of using stock.

Anbernic is one of several companies producing these sorts of retro game consoles. Anbernic’s devices, like most of the retro consoles, employ emulators to run ROMs from different classic game systems. One issue with some these retro game consoles is that some, including Anbernic, sometimes include pirated ROMs with the stock firmware. I had no plans to use Anbernic’s stock firmware, much less explore the ROMs which may have come with my console (I have no idea what “came with” the stock firmware in my case, although I did note that Mega Man was featured in the UI when I started the console to make sure it worked). I was solely interested in using the *hardware *to run an open source operating system for my own ROMs, which are sourced from games in my possession.

(Note that not every retro console manufacturer distributes pirated ROMs. For a more *ethnical *counter-example, see the Retroid Pocket line.)

I do not recall the brief research process I undertook before settling on the Anbernic RG351V, but I think I chose it based on consoles supported by AmberELEC, an open source firmware developed specifically for several Anbernic devices, including the RG351V. See the official AmberELEC website and its GitHub repository. Because I was undertaking this project out of curiosity, I next looked for a console from a reputable seller on Ebay at a fair price. I found the RG351V at a good price, so I decided to give it a try.

Getting Around to Doing Something With the RG351V

One reason I am having some difficulty offering details about my thought process in purchasing the RG351V is because I largely forgot about it after it arrived in January when I had turned it on just to make sure that it actually worked. I was most likely busy at that time with work and drafting new articles for this humble website. It went in my desk drawer, largely forgotten save for a few instances when it occurred to me that I should really get around to dealing with it. I was motivated to get to work on it on the evening of October 30, 2025, when my esteemed New Leaf Journal colleague Victor V. Gurbo asked me about options for a handheld game console he could bring with him on a trip. I figured I should test mine to see if it worked and if I could offer Victor a recommendation. Things went a little bit rockier than expected, which explains why my recent review of PumpkinOS, a ground-up re-implementation of PalmOS, was published very early on Halloween morning instead of the evening of October 30, 2025.

Initial Attempt to Install AmberELEC on the RG351V

I fished the RG351V out of my drawer and tested it with the stock firmware, which was installed on a micro SD card which came with the device. I first decided to plug it in using its USB-C charging port. When I booted into the stock firmware, I discovered to my consternation that the screen was flickering. While I had not spent a great amount on the device, it would have been annoying for it to have become defective while sitting in my drawer. This ultimately does not affect my story, but the issue is worth noting for two reasons. Firstly, the flickering seems to have been (insofar as I can tell) because the device was on low power. Secondly, I only realized the next day that the device was not charging when I used a USB-C to C charging cable with my Anker charging dock. It did charge with a USB-A to C cable from the same dock, which would send less power. I actually had this same issue charging my old Teracube 2e phone. If you happen to acquire an RG351V, do keep in mind that some USB-C to C chargers may not actually charge it (it has a charging indicator light).

I had a spare micro SD card to install AmberELEC on. This was not just any spare micro SD card, but an official Nintendo Switch-branded micro SD card with 128 GB of storage. I had originally purchased the card for use with a Switch but I had ended up using a different card because I could not find the Switch card when I needed it. In any event, I figured if the card is good enough for the Nintendo’s Switch seal of approval, it is good enough to use in a cheap retro game console.

You can see my Nintendo-branded micro SD card peeking out of the SD slot.

I followed the AmberELEC installation docs to flash the micro SD card with the AmberELEC firmware. To do this, I inserted my micro SD card into a USB SD card adapter, connected it to my desktop computer, and flashed the SD card with AmberELEC using the Raspberry Pi Imager app, which is now my preferred image flashing tool. Then, in accordance with the instructions, I replaced the SD card which came with the RG351V with my properly-flashed Nintendo-branded SD card and turned the console on.

I note what was supposed to happen, quoting from the AmberELEC instructions:

Put your MicroSD card into slot 1 of your retro device. If your device has a second SD slot, please leave it empty during initialization. AmberELEC should create your games partition and reboot. It’s normal for this process to take a minute or two. After setting up for the first time, subsequent boots will be faster.

Unfortunately, that did not happen. Instead, I was greeted with a glitchy-looking white screen with a black bar on the far edge. The screen then proceeded to go through different configurations of glitchiness, with small black lines appearing at different points that could briefly be affected by my pressing the D-Pad on the console, but there was certainly no initialization.

I was initially unsure whether this was an issue with the console itself, having noted the flickering with the stock OS. I did confirm after properly charging the console that it was not a hardware issue. I tried re-flashing AmberELEC but had the same issue. I also replicated the issue with Lakka, a different custom operating system which also supports the device.

I considered whether the issue could be my SD card. Since I knew the SD card with the stock OS worked, I decided to do a very you only live once thing and overwrite that SD card with AmberELEC. As I noted earlier, I had no interest in using the stock firmware or preserving the contents of the original micro SD card (note that Anbernic provides the stock firmware for free on its website, so for those who may use it, losing the original SD card is not a permanent issue). Using the original micro SD card led to the same failure as my own SD card, thus confirming the issue was not my SD card.

Finding and Implementing a Solution

While getting AmberELEC working was not important per se, evinced by the fact I had put the project off for nearly 11 months, it became a point of pride for me. I searched for a solution, but found none on the AmberELEC website or its GitHub repository. AmberELEC recommends asking for help on its Discord channel, but I do not use Discord and in any event prefer solving my own issues and then supplying the solutions on my own website. I ran a few searches on GitHub and came across a promising issue in the ArkOS repository titled RG351v white screen. (Note: I found this *solution *and implemented it on the evening of October 31, 2025.)

Before continuing, ArkOS is another custom firmware which can run on the RG351V and other devices. I did not get around to trying it, but I figured that a “white screen” installation issue on the same device may be relevant to my AmberELEC issue. Moreover, the GitHub issue was openedon March 12, 2023, and the most recent build of AmberELEC that I was trying to install was made available on February 3, 2023. I figured that issues people were having around that time could be relevant to mine. The issue was raised by GitHub user evicous and includes the following notes:

• “Any new install [of ArkOS] causes a white screen with a vertical black bar on the left.”
• “I tried amberelec and lakka. Both showed the same behavior.”
• “[T]he stock OS that shipped with the device works fine.”

I was now confident we were onto something. GitHub user evicous not only had the same issue when trying to install ArkOS that I had with AmberELEC and Lakka, but also had the issue with AmberELEC and Lakka. Moreover, the stock OS booted correctly, which was also the case for me.

GitHub user christianhaitian, the developer of ArkOS, responded favorably to evicous’ offer to send the .dtb files from the stock OS, also requesting the boot.ini file. User eviocous uploaded the files and attached them to a GitHub comment. This proved to be very useful for me, so anyone who may also have the same problem may find the file download link in the comment. Shortly after evocous uploaded the files, christianhaitian responded:

Try copying the rk3326-anbernic-st7703.dtb from the stock OS to the ArkOS installation in the BOOT partition renaming it to rk3326-rg351v-linux.dtb. Make sure to rename the existing rk3326-rg351v-linux.dtb file on the ArkOS installation in the BOOT partition to something else first. Then try to boot ArkOS again and report what happens.

User evicous responded that this solution solved the problem and allowed him or her to successfully install ArkOS. Other users subsequently reported issues. User reezic was able to install ArkOS but needed an external controller to connect to WiFi. Another used the technique for Jelos (a different, now-defunct, custom firmware) but lacked sound. No one specifically noted trying it with AmberELEC, but I saw enough to try the fix that christianhaitian had offered for ArkOS. See the steps below:

1. I downloaded and unzipped the file uploaded by evocous containing files from the stock OS.
2. I inserted the original micro SD card from by Anbernic RG351V, which had been flashed with AmberELEC. I confirmed that AmberELEC had an rk3326-rg351v-linux.dtb file.
3. I renamed the rk-3326-rg351v-linux.dtb file on my AmberELEC SD card.
4. Following christianhaitian’s instructions, I renamed the rk3326-anbernic-st7703.dtb in the zip file to rk3326-rg351v-linux.dtb and copied it to the AmberELEC SD card in the same location.

After going through the steps, I removed the SD card from my card reader and re-inserted it into the first SD card slot in my RG351V. I turned on the system and instead of being greeted with a glitchy white screen, I was greeted with the AmberELEC logo. It went through the set-up process and I was left with a working AmberELEC system.

The AmberElec boot screen.

Mission accomplished.

Early Testing

As I noted at the top, I have not had much time to play with RG351V and have not yet tested any games. However, I confirmed that the main menus all work as expected and I was able to connect to wi-fi without a hitch. Thus far the RG351V appears to work as expected with AmberELEC.

Conclusion

From the dual facts that my issue was not noted in the AmberELEC docs (from my survey, it is entirely possible I missed something) and that the ArkOS thread referenced specific models of the RG351V, I suspect the issue may affect some attempts in install custom formware on the RG351V but not others. In any event, I hope that my issue-in-article report helps someone out there trying to load AmberELEC or a different operating system on their RG351V.

Note the WiFi symbol in the top right showing that WiFi is configured and working.

While I have not tried playing games on it yet, my initial look at the AmberELEC menus and options leads me to think I may yet get some use out of this device after having neglected it for the better part of the year. I look forward to trying it with actual games and reporting back on how it performs.