Files
libretro/emulators/starboard.yml
T
Abdessamad Derraz 3199bc2a55 fix: state standalone versions from their code
Each standalone profile records where its version is read: the source
at its pin (clk 2026-07-23-136-g9020107, shadps4 0.20.1 WIP, eden
v0.2.0-401-g26a03d2), the APK, binary or archive read (kind package),
or, where no reading can be made, kind unverified with the reason: a
host the tools cannot read, a forge gone or not answering, no build
recorded as read, a pin on another branch. Those keep their value,
unconfirmed.
2026-10-27 19:21:40 +01:00

109 lines
6.2 KiB
YAML

emulator: Starboard
type: standalone
core_classification: other
source: "https://github.com/get-starboard/starboard"
upstream: closed-source
author: "force9"
profiled_date: "2026-10-27"
source_commit: "d3a21a9aaeabb90e59d7a48241b293dba3ee9309"
core_version: "0.40.0"
version_basis:
kind: package
url: "https://github.com/get-starboard/starboard/releases/download/v0.40.0/Starboard-v0.40.0.apk"
pattern: 'Starboard-v([0-9][0-9.]*[0-9])\.apk'
artifact: "Starboard-v0.40.0.apk"
display_name: "PortMaster library (Starboard)"
verification: existence
cores:
- starboard
- STARBOARD
- org.force9.starboard
systems: []
mode: standalone
notes: |
Catalogue manager and execution environment for the PortMaster library on
Android ARM64 handhelds. PortMaster ports are Linux ARM64 builds, so nothing
is emulated: proot opens a userspace chroot into a Debian bookworm root
filesystem and the games run there as native binaries against glibc, SDL2 and
Mesa. ES-DE reaches it through the ports system, passing a .port file as the
port_file extra to org.force9.starboard/.ui.game.GameActivity.
The build read here is the signed release Starboard-v0.40.0.apk, sha256
e03173ee119223d3d3321e0684695a0af24dce84be8f440fa0fca0b10cd7806b, matching the
digest GitHub records for the asset and signed by the same certificate as
v0.23.0. The source is not published, so the readings below cite a jadx
decompilation of classes.dex taken with --show-bad-code, where
org.force9.starboard.* keeps its names and the rest is r8 output under
defpackage.
The APK carries its own execution stack in lib/arm64-v8a: libproot.so,
libproot_loader.so and libtalloc2.so mirrored from Termux through
get-starboard/starboard-prebuilts, libSDL2_starboard.so preloaded ahead of the
SDL2 in the rootfs, with libSDL2_dlopen.so as the interposer for a port that
opens SDL2 with dlopen and libSDL2_pysdl2.so for the pysdl2 and SDL3 shim
paths, libsb_libguard.so as an LD_AUDIT module that keeps a port's bundled GL
libraries from loading, libsb_xhelper.so for the Westonpack ports run on
Xvfb, libasound_module_pcm_starboard.so as the ALSA output plugin,
libGLESv2_wrap.so with libvirgl_vtest.so and libvirglrenderer_sb.so for the
per-port GPU path, libandroid-shmem.so, and libgame_bridge.so which starts
proot, binds the native library directory at /opt/sb and builds the
PortMaster environment. Android installs all of them with the package.
What the ports find under /opt/system/Tools/PortMaster is written at launch by
libgame_bridge.so: bind_directories.sh, bind_files.sh, the gptokeyb shim,
runtimes.json, control.txt and device_info.txt, with patch_ld_preload.sh,
seed_retroarch_cfg.sh, audio_cfg.sh, libguard_env.sh, westonwrap.sh and
launcher.sh under /tmp/sb. etc/resolv.conf and etc/hosts are seeded straight
after extraction, and libgame_bridge.so then patches the extracted tree,
setup stopping when it reports a failure. The ES-DE sync writes the .port
files it later launches from into the ports folder of the ES-DE ROMs
directory, each holding a zip_name and a launcher key, plus a source_id for a
port from another catalogue, and adds the entry to
gamelists/ports/gamelist.xml.
Games install to Starboard/ports on the storage volume picked in the
settings, marked by a .starboard_installed file, and come from the PortMaster
catalogue rather than from this profile. A catalogue source added by the user
installs to Starboard/ports.<id> instead. A port that declares a runtime pulls
a squashfs image into Starboard/libs on the same volume on first launch,
bound into the rootfs at /opt/system/Tools/PortMaster/libs, named by the port
and resolved through the utils index of PortsMaster/PortMaster-New filtered to
arch aarch64. Starboard names no runtime of its own and that index is
republished with the catalogue, so the set belongs to PortMaster.
files:
- name: starboard-rootfs.tar.gz
aliases:
- rootfs.tar.gz
path: "rootfs.tar.gz"
required: true
bundled: true
category: game_data
storage: large_file
validation: [sha256]
size: 586984114
sha256: "883f1800eed1018df06e877dca578430e0f32ce954129a7733f23458d2857d54"
description: "Debian bookworm ARM64 root filesystem the ports execute in"
note: >-
Fetched as the asset starboard-rootfs.tar.gz from releases/latest/download
of get-starboard/starboard-runtime, written to the cache directory as
rootfs.tar.gz, gunzipped into a rootfs
directory under internal storage, then deleted. Nothing launches without
it: the gate reads usr/bin/env and bin/sh in the extracted tree beside
libproot.so in the native library directory. Integrity comes from a
.sha256 sidecar requested next to the asset, whose first whitespace token
must be 64 hex characters. The file is hashed and dropped on a mismatch,
while a missing sidecar logs "No rootfs checksum sidecar available" and the
download is kept on TLS trust alone. The release publishes that sidecar,
and it carries the hash recorded here. The size and hash identify
release starboard-rootfs-20261020.3, the one that URL served at profiling
time, and the app follows whatever release is latest: the ETag of the
download is kept, a later HEAD request returning another one offers an
update named after the latest release tag, and accepting it wipes the
rootfs and repeats the download. Its own version is read back from
etc/starboard-release, which carries release, commit and built keys.
The first-run setup screen starts this download by itself, with no button
or file to pick, so the file arrives with the install.
source_ref: "Starboard-release ch0.java:82,533-535 (base and asset URL), Starboard-release xh.java:150-156 and Starboard-release zg0.java:57-66 (download, verify, extract, delete), Starboard-release ch0.java:319-425 (sha256 sidecar and comparison), Starboard-release ch0.java:234-248 (gunzip into place), Starboard-release ch0.java:529-531 (install directory), Starboard-release ch0.java:537-539 and Starboard-release xh.java:141 (launch gate), Starboard-release ch0.java:250-271, Starboard-release yg0.java:22-25 and Starboard-release zg0.java:79-84 (ETag update check), Starboard-release ch0.java:611-635 (etc/starboard-release)"