FAQ

Some SS1 cards came with fix_sd_overlap.sh / exfat_fix_overlap. It misreads the SS1's correct partition layout as overlapping, and running it can destroy the card (SuperStation-Documentation #14). Delete it: SS1 Tool's Setup page finds and removes it. If a card is already damaged, reflash it with the latest SuperStation installer, which has the fixed layout.

The September 7, 2026 MiSTer Linux update (kernel 5.15 to 6.18) broke Console Mode, CRT modes, WiFi and the ARM cores (3S-ARM, Duke3D, Quake) on the SS1. It has since been fixed. To stop Update All from replacing Linux without asking, set update_linux = false in downloader.ini. SS1 Tool's Setup › Update All sets this for you, and the status panel warns when a Linux update is waiting.

That option crashes on the SS1. Leave it off.

Run Update All. That fixes the RTC probe errors.

Gen 4 NVMe drives cause this. Use a Gen 3 drive.

A single-port USB-C PD adapter that gives 9 V at 3 A. The Steam Deck adapter works. Don't share a multi-port charger with other devices, and don't use a Nintendo Switch 1 adapter.

Plug the HDMI cable into the SuperStation itself. The HDMI-shaped port on the dock is an expansion port, not video out.

The card was switched off without being marked clean (exFAT's "dirty" flag). Shut down safely before switching off: SS1 Tool's Remote › Safe shutdown, or the shutdown.sh script it installs in the Scripts menu.

Yes. It shows up as a USB device called "TinyUSB pico_ir_keyboard". Over SSH, find its port with grep -l pico_ir /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/product, then write 0 to that device's authorized file to switch it off (1 switches it back on). It comes back on at the next start unless you add the command to /media/fat/linux/user-startup.sh.

Reset that core's settings to their defaults in its OSD menu.

Replace your ini files with the updated ones in Taki Udon's SuperStation-Documentation INI_Files. SS1 Tool backs up the old ones first if you do it from Setup › MiSTer settings.

Image editors often save PNGs with a colour palette plus gamma, sRGB or transparency information, and Console Mode mishandles those. Save your icons as plain truecolor (24-bit) PNGs without colour profile or transparency information.

Console Mode 1.1.3 nightly added a new setting (xySwap) that broke them. That's on Console Mode's side; 1.1.2 works.

They're missing from Console Mode's list of games it can launch (the _Other category). They still run from the MiSTer menu.

No pinout change. The SS1 has a Sony CXA video encoder and four DIP switches for its analog output. Taki's MiSTer.ini differs from stock MiSTer only in vga_mode=subcarrier and video_info=2. His other ini files (RGHV, RGsB, SVID, YPbP) are profiles for the other kinds of output.

For units made after December 2025. Region: Down = NTSC, Up = PAL. "–" means that switch doesn't matter for the mode.

What each switch does: 1 is the S-Video/composite region, 2 the FPGA luma trap, 3 picks the FPGA or the Sony encoder for S-Video/composite, and 4 is sync on green.

Either vga_mode=subcarrier is set and the core has no subcarrier support, or the core is missing from yc.txt. Flip DIP 3 up and use the SVID profile.

Set menu_pal=1 in MiSTer.ini, flip DIP 1 up, and set each core to PAL in its OSD menu.

It applies a video setting for a short time. Press Keep to keep it; if you don't, the old setting comes back by itself, so a setting that leaves you with no picture fixes itself. Just wait. Your MiSTer.ini is backed up before every try. In SS1 Tool it's on the Video page, and the Setup wizard there tells you which DIP switches to set.

An app for Windows and Android that connects to your SuperStation over your home network (default login root / 1). It sets up a new card, edits the SS1's settings, moves files, backs things up, and runs diagnostics and debug reports.

No. SS1 Tool never installs or updates cores by itself. Update All does that, when you run it.

Every fix takes a backup first, can be undone, and only runs when you press its button. The backups are kept on your PC or phone, one folder per ini file, with the date and time.

It comments out HDMI settings the SS1 doesn't support (HDMI-CEC, hdmi_off, video_off_logo). You can put them back any time.

SS1 Tool keeps every version of the SS1's system files (MiSTer, the menu core, Linux and Console Mode) so you can put an earlier one back (Files › MiSTer & Linux backups). It's how you undo an update that broke something. Settings a Linux update can reset are listed separately, with the version from before.

Console Mode keeps the old version until the new one has been confirmed running. Restarting, shutting down or reloading the menu before then puts the old one back. SS1 Tool confirms a waiting Console Mode update before it restarts, shuts down or reloads, and again when it connects.

A small watcher on the SuperStation (Diag › Power). It notices when the power was lost during heavy work (an update, a copy, a backup) and tells you, so you know which files to check.

It's off by default on MiSTer. Setup › Samba file sharing switches it on at every start, so the card shows up in Windows as \\IP\sdcard.

The exe isn't code-signed yet; signing is in progress. Choose More info › Run anyway.

It uses Windows' own OpenSSH client. Add it in Windows Settings › System › Optional features.

Only what's listed here, all of it in plain shell scripts you can read, and none of it goes online or sends anything anywhere. Everything SS1 Tool adds can be removed from the app:

• /media/fat/Scripts/.ss1tool/: its helper scripts, their settings and logs (power watch, drive guard, offline repair, the TV helpers).
• A few lines in linux/user-startup.sh, each in its own marked block (# ss1tool …: BEGIN / END), for the helpers that start with the SuperStation. Lines that were there before stay as they are.
• Drive guard's hook (below) in Linux's own /etc/usbmount and /etc/udev/rules.d.
• Offline repair's copy of Linux on the repair drive, and its lines in linux/u-boot.txt (below).

It never touches your games, saves or cores.

MiSTer numbers USB drives in the order they come up: the first is /media/usb0, the next usb1. A USB stick that comes up a moment before the dock's NVMe drive takes usb0, and the games drive moves to usb1. Everything that keeps a full path to a game then points at the wrong drive: Console Mode's history, MiSTer's recent files and favourites, MGL files, Zaparoo cards. That's when games "go missing".

Drive guard (on by default, Diag › SD diagnostics) stops that:

• The games drive is always /media/usb0. It's the dock's NVMe drive, or else the drive with your games folder, remembered by its partition ID. If another drive got usb0 first, the two swap places, but only if nothing is using that drive. Otherwise it waits for the next start-up.
• The repair drive is kept out of the list (next question).

It's one script (Scripts/.ss1tool/drives/ss1_drives.sh). MiSTer's own USB mounting runs it as each drive is plugged in, and user-startup.sh runs it at every start-up, which also puts it back after a MiSTer Linux update. Nothing on any drive is changed or moved: only which /media/… folder the drive appears at. Turn off removes it all.

It's at /media/repair, read-only, on purpose. As a normal /media/usbN drive it got used for things it isn't for: Update All's downloader (with prefer_external) puts games folders on the first USB drive it finds, and other tools look there for games or room. Hidden and read-only, nothing writes to it except the repair itself, which makes it writable only while it updates its own files. It still gets repaired with every other drive. Unplug it and plug it in again and it goes straight back to /media/repair.

A drive counts as the repair drive only if it has a repair copy of Linux on it (ss1tool/rescue/os.img, or Phosphor's phosphor/rescue/os.img), and never if it's the dock's NVMe drive.

The SD card can't be repaired while the SuperStation runs from it. So SS1 Tool puts a copy of your SuperStation's own MiSTer Linux on a USB stick (about 400 MB, in ss1tool/rescue; nothing else on the stick changes). It also adds a few lines to the SD card's linux/u-boot.txt, starting ss1t_, that do nothing at all until you press Restart and repair. Every other start-up is exactly as before.

The repair runs fsck.exfat on the SD card and on your other drives while nothing is using them, then starts Console Mode again and shows the results. Turn off offline repair takes the lines and the copy away. A stick used by both SS1 Tool and Phosphor holds one copy for each (ss1tool/rescue and phosphor/rescue): each card starts the copy made from its own Linux.

No. Updates are always yours to run. SS1 Tool only does two things around them:

• Keeps a copy of every version of the files an update replaces (MiSTer, the menu core, Linux, Console Mode), on your PC (Files › MiSTer & Linux backups), so you can put an earlier one back if an update breaks something. Nothing is put back unless you press Put back, and that saves the version in use first so it can be undone.
• Keeps Console Mode updates. Console Mode goes back to the previous version if it restarts before an update has been confirmed. SS1 Tool confirms it the same way Console Mode does, and only when the new version is running (see "Console Mode went back to the old version" above).

The dock's NVMe slot is a JMicron USB-to-NVMe bridge, and it has a few quirks:

• Missing after a restart: a restart keeps the dock powered, and the bridge can come back without its drive ("Unit Not Ready"). Unplugging the SuperStation's power for 10 seconds always clears it.
• A different drive number: MiSTer numbers USB drives in the order they come up, so the NVMe drive can be usb0 one day and usb1 the next. Drive guard keeps it at usb0.
• An empty slot can show up as a drive that never becomes ready. The SuperStation's own rule removes it after 15 seconds.
• Gen 4 NVMe drives can make the SuperStation reboot by itself or show file system errors. Use a Gen 3 drive.

The games drive was moved off usb0 (see Drive guard). With SS1 Tool 1.32.2 or later connected once, it's put back at the next start-up, and it stays at usb0 from then on. Nothing was deleted: the games were on the same drive under a different name.

Problems with the SuperStation itself go to the Taki Udon Discord, with a debug report from Diag › Debug report. Problems with SS1 Tool go to GitHub issues or the SS1 Tool Discord. See Support.