Installation¶

To use DB9, DB15, SNAC8, or Saturn controllers, the MiSTer FPGA on the SD card must be the MiSTer-DB9 build, not the stock upstream build. The same applies to the on-SD menu.

Files to replace¶

Two files on the SD card root must be the MiSTer-DB9 versions:

The cores themselves (<core>.rbf files in _<system>/ directories) are also DB9-built and ship from each per-core fork repository under the MiSTer-DB9 GitHub organisation. The recommended way to keep everything up to date is update_all.sh, described below.

Keeping everything up to date (update_all.sh)¶

There is no separate DB9 updater script — use the standard MiSTer update_all.sh. You add the MiSTer-DB9 ENCC distribution database to it, and it then downloads the DB9 build of each core (falling back to the upstream build when no DB9 build exists). The database also carries the DB9 MiSTer binary and menu.rbf, so enabling it replaces those for you — the table above is only needed for a manual install without update_all.

1. Run update_all from the MiSTer Scripts menu (it ships with most setups; otherwise install it from the Update All project).
2. In the update_all settings GUI, add the MiSTer-DB9 ENCC distribution database — no manual downloader.ini editing required. Its database URL is:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MiSTer-DB9/Distribution_MiSTer/main/dbencc.json.zip

1. Run update_all. The first run is slow (downloads everything); subsequent runs are incremental.

Boot sequence to expect¶

1. Power on the DE10-Nano.
2. The DB9 build of MiSTer starts.
3. The menu core (menu.rbf) loads. By default the "UserIO Joystick" option is off — the DB controller is not active until you enable it. See osd-menu.md.
4. Pick a core. The same OSD option needs to be set per-core, then saved.

What to do after the first boot¶

• For each core you want to use a DB controller with: open the OSD (F12 on a USB keyboard or Start+C on the DB9 pad after enabling), set UserIO Joystick to your controller type, set UserIO Players to 1 or 2, then Save settings.
• The setting is per-core — the menu core, Mega Drive, Neo Geo, Saturn, and so on each remember their own value.

What you get by default (and how to opt in)¶

The opt-in channels are controlled by a filter, which you can edit from the update_all GUI (it writes downloader.ini for you). If you have not set a filter for the ENCC database, you get the full stable set minus three opt-in channels:

• unstable — nightly builds off upstream HEAD (for testing only).
• jtbeta — jotego's beta game variants (need jotego's patreon beta.bin key; useless without it).
• dualsdram — Dual-SDRAM core variants (PSX, Saturn).

If you already set your own filter (e.g. filter = console), nothing changes — those channels were already excluded for you.

To pull a channel in, add its token to your filter. The Downloader rule: a filter with any positive (non-!) term becomes an allow-list — only files carrying that tag are downloaded. So:

• filter = unstable — downloads only unstable cores, nothing else (no stable cores, no menu). Use this only for an isolated unstable test.
• filter = !jtbeta !dualsdram — keeps the whole normal system and adds unstable (you just drop the default !unstable). This is the right choice for testing an unstable core while keeping a working setup; pick the _Unstable/... build in the core's OSD.
• filter = unstable-saturn — only the Saturn core's unstable build (allow-list, that core only). Replace saturn with the core slug.
• filter = all — everything, including unstable, beta and Dual-SDRAM.

After changing filter, run update_all again.