Lakka – lightweight Linux distribution for retrogaming

Lakka is a Linux distribution that transforms a small computer into a full blown game console. The distro is based on LibreELEC and runs the RetroArch console emulator. It supports a wide range of handhelds, microcomputers, and a standard PC. The software is optimized to run fast even on low end single board computers, and supports many USB joypads.

Lakka emulates a wide variety of systems and has some useful features such as automatic joypad recognition, rewinding, netplay, and shaders.

It can be run in Live USB mode. This mode allows you to play Lakka directly from a USB drive, without installing Lakka on the PC allowing for portability.

Lakka is based on LibreELEC, which provides a number of advantages:

• A 300 MB read-only filesystem you cannot break even with root access.
• A rock solid update system not based on packages, the whole filesystem and kernel are downloaded and replace the actual system.
• Cross-compilation: Compiling the whole project including the Linux kernel takes about 2 hours on a good PC.
• No extra packages, it strictly includes the dependancy tree of RetroArch.
• The build system will bootstrap itself on a project basis, we compile our specific version of the cross compilers for each project.
• Lakka is easy to port to new ARM boards.