Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out because I’ve hit a total dead end with my R36S (V5 Board / Panel 4). I’ve spent hours troubleshooting, testing different images, and swapping files, but I cannot get ArkOS to work. I also tried finding solutions in here and YouTube (promise, I really did), but didn’t find anything matching my scenario.

The strange part: While ArkOS gives absolutely no sign of life (no sceen activity at all, not even the LED turns on), AmberELEC boots fine (+ LED is on), but it’s unusable there (image is rotated 90°, and emulators crash immediately back to the menu).

I am using a Mac and Raspberry Pi Imager. Here is a detailed breakdown of everything I’ve tried to rule out hardware failure or simple mistakes:

Hardware & Setup Info

• Device: R36S
• Board Revision: V5 / Panel 4 (Identified by the white boot logo showing three handheld devices).
• SD Card: Genuine SanDisk (verified working).
• Host PC: Mac (using Raspberry Pi Imager).
• Slot: I am strictly using the right slot (TF1-OS) for booting.

1. ArkOS Troubleshooting (No LED / Black Screen)

• Image Used: ArkOS_R35S-R36S_v2.0_11072025_MultiPanel.img.
• Panel Picker: Attempted R1 + D-Pad Right during second boot (first boot should be made without buttons, and other directions) to trigger the panel selection.
• Manual DTB Swap:
  • Copied all files from the ScreenFiles/Panel 4 and ScreenFiles/Panel 4 V22 folders into the BOOT root directory, replacing existing files.
  • Attempted the "Double-DTB" strategy: Renamed rk3326-r35s-linux.dtb to rk3326-rg351mp-linux.dtb to bypass potential bootloader naming conflicts.
• Backup Restore: Replaced the boot.ini and rk3326-r35s-linux.dtb on the fresh ArkOS install with the original files from my stock SD card backup.
• Result: No matter what I swap, the LED and screen remain completely dark with ArkOS.

2. macOS Specific Maintenance

• Terminal Cleanup: Ran dot_clean /Volumes/BOOT and dot_clean /Volumes/EASYROMS to remove hidden macOS metadata files (._ files).
• Trash: Emptied the system trash while the SD card was mounted to clear the .Trashes folder.
• Partition Table: Verified the card is using MBR (Master Boot Record).

3. AmberELEC Test (The "Proof of Life")

• Status: AmberELEC does boot (LED turns on, system starts). This confirms the hardware and the slot are working.
• Issue: The screen is rotated 90 degrees.
• Issue: Games show up in the menu but "kick back" to the UI immediately upon launch, even after copying the original BIOS folder and trying different video backends (GL vs Vulkan).
• These issues could actually be ignored, as I would love to have ArkOS anyways

Current State: It seems the ArkOS bootloader simply doesn't want to "handshake" with this specific board revision, while AmberELEC's bootloader does.

Has anyone encountered this specific batch where ArkOS stays completely dead? Is there a specific bootloader fix or a different .dtb I should be using for this 2025/2026 V5 revision?

It’s tough. Any help would be greatly appreciated.