[NEWS] Recalbox 6.1 is getting delayed once again : we're explaining everything here

[Fab2Ris]

Let's not beat around the bush :
The final version of RecalBox 6.1 is getting delayed (again) to a later date, and we also want to issue (once again) our most sincere apologies, accompanied by some explaination.
We are writing these lines with great sadness as we're working hard to give you an up-to-date version of RecalBox with all the latest features.
Though sometimes, we just can't help it and we're suffering from mistakes figuring in other open-source projects on which RecalBoxOS is based on.

As a reminder,
RecalBox 6.1 Beta 4 should just be a simple quality control check away from release.
Unfortunately, it made us discover, to everyone' surprise, an armload of bugs then unknown to the developpers.
What to blame ? The recent Retroarch 1.7.8 update, which we've talked about here not so long ago.
Your feedback has been essential to quickly identify the core of the problem. THANK YOU ALL !

Without really any warning, our friends at Libretro have changed essential things such as the way the shaders, the save system, the settings, the FPS counter among smaller details, all work. In short, the update completely broke RecalBox in terms of functionality.

But that's not all.
Murphy's law implies (say "The ultimate pain in the ass law"), recently, you probably noticed that NetPlay was inaccessible. Pirates are to blame this time who massively attacked the servers (what we call "lobbys") which allow your RecalBoxes to connect together.
The team at Libretro then completely changed their access points and upped their security level (without saying much more, it's obvious the information needs to stay confidential)

And that's still not over...
Along with the new features, the new drivers... RecalBox is becoming bigger. Bigger to a point where the 2GB reserved partition created during the installation for the system just isn't enough anymore. And you know what happens when when space is lacking : Slow downs, getting out of room for the system to work in... and bugs.
We don't have other choices than to go from a 2GB partition to a 4GB one on the PC version of RecalBox, in order to have some extra room. Thing is, a space increase inescapably means doing a clean install again. We know, that's annoying, but we're not doing that on purpose, we swear !
Users of Raspberry Pi, Odroid, etc. : Nothing to worry about just yet, but you'll have to undergo the same procedure one day, we won't have a choice either...

Although rest assured ! @Fab2Ris just posted a tutorial on how to do just that. It's simple, quick and also lets you start again from a clean and functional system. A TUTORIAL TO ALWAYS FOLLOW AFTER AN UPDATE !

https://youtu.be/skeULeTu7p8

Do remember that, with multiple broken features, we can't possibly imagine releasing the version 6.1 of RecalBox with an array of missing features, only to release a rushed version 6.2 quickly after. We'll then wait for Libretro/Retroarch to get their stuff together in order to give you an update that really holds up to its name : STABLE.

How many time is that going to take ?
We're crossing fingers to find a solution within 2 weeks time, more or less. We know that's the 8th time we're saying that but you've got to admit that we weren't really lucky with how all of this turned out in the last few months. Between the release of the GPI Case and the Raspberry Pi 4, as well as the different software updates, the roadmap we envisioned for RecalBox 6.1 got pushed away quite violently !
But we promise that with all of that, we're only going backwards to gain momentum for a higher jump. Memory, CPU and boot time improvements are colossal compared to RecalBox 6.0 !

Thank you for your support, your patience and your fidelity to RecalBox. Sincerely.

[jimsicle]

Cheers for the update! Looking forward to it, thank you all as always for all your hard work!

[jleppa]

Thanks for the info. Looking forward for the upcoming release which seems to bring many new fearures from my wishlist

[Bkg2k]

Well, Recalbox 6.1-Dragonblaze is ready to be deployed worldwide!

Be ready, the 27th September 2019, 21:00 GMT+2 !

[maxmoro77]

@bkg2k A clean installation will be needed or we will be able to simply upgrade from version 6.0 ?

[acris]

Simply upgrade recalbox 6.0 to 6.1

[jimsicle]

@acris This is brilliant news! Thank you!

[maxmoro77]

@acris thank you!

[sag508]

My only complaint is the number of gifs in that post.

Thanks for keeping us all up to date. No need for apologies, you guys are spending months of your own time to do this, for free.

Everyone else should be okay with a delayed release along with the 15 minutes it takes to do a clean install.