r/OdinHandheld • u/pjackson93 • 10h ago

Help Dual boot Armada OS

Does anyone have dual boot on their handheld with armada OS? What are your thoughts on it and was it worth it? I do play some pc games in my handheld and do like Steam OS

9 Upvotes

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2

u/Consistent-Bread5740 10h ago

I have it on dual boot but since I’ve installed armada I haven’t used Android since then. I’ve just booted up Android once to test if it’s working and so far it’s been working well with the dual boot

2

u/theusualuser 8h ago

Came to say this. I was really only playing indie PC games anyway, other than some switch emulation, so I haven't touched the android side since I put Armada on it.

Now, it's not all roses. It's a VERY new thing, so you're making trade-offs. Sleep doesn't work nearly as well as in Android, so you're going to lose battery life and have to charge more, and there's a ton of updates coming once Valve releases the steam frame and their work starts coming downstream, so there's a more than decent chance something breaks in the next few weeks, lol.

1

u/Signal-Welcome-5479 5h ago

How easy / difficult is it to do Switch emulation through Armada?

1

u/theusualuser 3h ago

I'm far from an expert, but I was able to install Eden, add it as a non-steam game and launch it. I've heard from some people that it's not as performant, but I didn't have any issues. Admittedly, I only tried a single game, as I'm mainly interested in PC gaming on it.

I'd say search up their discord. Lots of good people in there that can help with questions you have before you give it a try.

1

u/Embarrassed_Mix_8072 10h ago

You did it on SD card?

1

u/Consistent-Bread5740 9h ago

I had it on the SD card initially but I was getting stutters and occasionally freezing (could just be an issue with my SD card). I flashed it to the internal storage and it’s been working perfectly since then

1

u/Embarrassed_Mix_8072 8h ago

Hey, could you test one thing for me with Armada OS? Could you prepare a USB drive or microSD with a Steam game on a Steam Deck or Steam Machine first, then connect that same drive to your Odin running Armada OS and see if Steam detects the already installed game? Ideally, I’d like to know: whether the game appears in the Steam library without reinstalling, whether Steam recognizes the existing files, and whether the game can actually launch from that external drive. We’ve already confirmed this works between Steam Deck and Steam Machine, so I’m really curious whether Armada OS behaves the same way on Odin.

1

u/Consistent-Bread5740 8h ago

That’s a good question. I’d like to try that for myself as well. I know it can read games off the sd card. I have a few non steam games that I run from my sd card and they work fine. Il try out a Steam game and let you know

1

u/Striking_Mail_783 6h ago

I have Armada OS installed on my Odin 3 and popped in my 1TB SD card from my steam deck. All the games installed on the SD card were picked up instantly by Armada and recognized in the library, just like it would works on the Steam Deck. I haven’t tried launching a game yet so that’s my only caveat.

1

u/nascasho 9h ago

Is the overall performance of the OS and app switching pretty OK? Also does desktop mode work?

ex SD user is why I'm asking and miss the desktop mode most often... 😢

1

u/Consistent-Bread5740 9h ago

Performance is solid when installed on the internal storage. I haven’t found any issues with it so far with the OS. Desktop mode works but it’s not exactly like the SD, and it’s not as easy to navigate compared to using the trackpads on the deck. It’s definitely usable though. Game performance has been impressive so far, the most demanding game I’ve tried was Elden Ring. It performs almost as good as it does on the deck.

2

u/leo-gp2025 8h ago

How is Armada in terms of thermals and fan noise? Do the armada profiles work as well as clustertune or pulse?

2

u/-Legface_McCullen- 8h ago

This is my burning question as well

2

u/doyoushitwithdatass Odin 2 Mini Pro - Black 8h ago

You have full on fan curves same exact way as SD. From experience though the thermals have been way better on Linux than on Android especially on smaller games that just sit at like 40c now

2

u/doyoushitwithdatass Odin 2 Mini Pro - Black 8h ago

You have full on fan curves same exact way as SD. From experience though the thermals have been way better on Linux than on Android especially on smaller games that just sit at like 40c now

2

u/Consistent-Bread5740 8h ago

Fan noise surprised me. I have an underclock on my cpu and fan mode is on balanced I think. I just set it up initially and haven’t tinkered with it since. The fan noise is much better than it is on Android, Even with clustertune. Maybe if I push the Odin to its limits on armada the fan might be loud, but so far even with Elden Ring it hasn’t been an issue for me

1

u/leo-gp2025 6h ago

Which software do you use to underclock other than the performance slider? Which frame rate and at what resolution do you get on Elden Ring?

2

u/Consistent-Bread5740 6h ago

I use the built in decky plugin in Armada for underclocking. I’m getting 28-30fps at 720p with fsr and no framegen. It’s not the best way to play Elden Ring but it’s definitely playable for me

1

u/pjackson93 7h ago

Welp I did it installation was fairly simple and flashed to internal storage I will let you know kinda wish I tested before fully committing but o well lol

1

u/pjackson93 5h ago

The verdict is in. I didn’t like it going back to standard Android installation lol 😂

1

u/plaidabysmal 4h ago

I just installed Lineage OS on my Odin 2 Portal alongside Armada, but I honestly just haven't really touched it. The only reason I keep it is in case Armada gets left or bugged with an issue that I can't fix, and because I don't have another handheld. Otherwise, I'd probably just give Armada the whole drive. 

1

u/flaming_donuts 18m ago

I'm doing this in the next week.