Astralixi — space-themed TUI userspace
Astrox's terminal user-space for ARM handhelds, grown out of a PicoCalc project; a 110-post megathread follows its move to a bootable build for the uConsole.
What it takes
- Software only
Difficulty 2 of 3 — moderate.
Details
Astralixi is not an operating system in itself but a Python terminal user interface with system functions, TUI panels and helpers, aimed at space enthusiasts; the PicoCalc original is end-of-life and the new version targets ARM devices generally. On the uConsole the author pivoted from a GUI to the TUI because a trackball-driven GUI wasted resources, produced an 'Astralixi OS' binary in May 2026 and then spent weeks in the thread on VM/USB boot and kernel-packaging problems with help from Rex, snipeytje and trinity.
The repository is only partly open source — stubs and imports are public, the full source is not — and gives no install steps yet, so treat it as one to watch rather than something to flash.
Links
Open at Forum thread- GitHubRepository
Related mods
MeshCore has no Linux-native node firmware, so the community built on pyMC_core: guax's YAMPA packet analyser and TUI chat client, and cwill747's GTK app.
Run a Meshtastic node on the console itself: meshtasticd drives the AIO's SX1262 over SPI, with the graphical MUI, the web UI or the Contact TUI client on top.
On Rex's images a single apt install gives you SDR++ for the AIO's RTL-SDR or a USB dongle; his AIO package adds the sdrpp-brown fork.
Rex's ClockworkPi-RetroPie image (Pi-Gen, EmulationStation, RetroArch) is the working answer; the Debian install and gamepad threads fill in the rest.
jutleys booted a prepared Windows 95 disk image in RetroArch's DOSBox-X core with working mouse buttons; plain DOSBox on the A-06 needs output=opengl to behave.
Two receivers, two recipes: the 4G card's GNSS via AT+CGPS on /dev/ttyUSB3, or the AIO's GPS on the serial port (/dev/ttyS0 CM4, /dev/ttyAMA0 CM5) at 9600 baud.