A real xterm-compatible terminal emulator for the R36S (ArkOS / AeUX) built with Python + SDL2, designed for handheld use with an on-screen keyboard and full gamepad controls. [Video]
A single shell runs on a pseudo-terminal for the whole session, exactly like xterm. Output is interpreted by a VT100/xterm emulator into a character grid, and input is encoded into proper xterm escape sequences. In practice that means:
- Shell state persists.
cd,export,source, venv and conda activation all behave normally, because there is one long-lived shell rather than a new subprocess per command. - Full-screen programs work.
vim,nano,htop,less,top,sshand anything else curses-based runs natively, including the alternate screen. - Real geometry.
stty sizeandtput colsreport the true grid size, and resizing deliversSIGWINCH. - 256-color and truecolor ANSI output, plus bold, underline, and reverse video.
- Job control. Ctrl+C interrupts the foreground job as it should.
| Doc | What's inside |
|---|---|
| Installation & running | Install from a release, update in place, run, and profile on device |
| Controls | Full gamepad mapping, on-screen keyboard, Select/Guide layers, hardware keyboard, Nintendo layout |
| Configuration | terminal_config.json keys, themes, and screen-size autodetect |
| Development | Architecture, running the tests, and target-platform (Ubuntu 19.10) notes |
- A real terminal. One persistent shell on a pty; every program that works in xterm works here.
- Full ANSI color — 16 named, 256-indexed, and 24-bit truecolor, plus bold/underline/reverse.
- Scrollback with history you can page through (2000 lines by default).
- On-screen keyboard with proper Ctrl, Alt, arrows, Home/End, PgUp/PgDn, Insert/Delete and F1–F12.
- Settings overlay for theme, font size, cursor style, and chrome toggles.
- Hardware keyboard support too, if you plug one in via USB/OTG.
- Download
R36Term.zipfrom the latest release and extract it into/roms/tools/. - In Tools, run
Terminal-Installer.sh→Install dependencies(needs internet the first time). - Run
Run-Terminal.sh.
See Installation & running for the details.
- R36S clone - R36Ultra
- ArkOS4Clone Release (20260815)