Connecting your console¶
Your ROMKADE account
At first launch, ROMKADE Manager asks you to sign in with your ROMKADE account. No account yet? Select Create an account: first name or nickname, email address, password (at least 10 characters, with an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter and a digit), then the 6-digit code sent to your email. The account is free, and the same one works in Claude and ChatGPT. Two-factor authentication can be turned on in My account > Security.
Open Settings → Connection. The page guides you through three numbered steps, each checked once done.
Step 1: The console¶
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| IP address or hostname | Shown in the console's Wi-Fi settings, for example 192.168.1.42. |
| SSH port | 22 unless you changed it on the console. |
| User | The console's SSH user, often root. |
| Authentication | Password or SSH key. |
| Password | Stored when you save (in the data volume with Docker, in the system keychain otherwise); never displayed or written in plain text. |
| Private key path | With an SSH key: the private key, as ROMKADE Manager sees it. With Docker, copy it first into the container: see Connection. Its public key must be in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the console. |
| ROMs folder | Where the games are on the card, for example /mnt/mmc/Roms on Anbernic. The System tab can find it for you. |
Click Save.
Step 2: Identify the console¶
This step makes sure you are talking to your console and not to another device on the network.
- Click Read fingerprint. A fingerprint such as
SHA256:…appears. -
Compare it, in a terminal on your computer, with the command shown on the page:
ssh-keyscan -p 22 192.168.1.42 2>/dev/null | ssh-keygen -lf - -
If they match, click Approve this key.
You do this once per console. If the console's key changes one day (firmware reinstalled, another device at the same address), the connection is blocked until you check again. See The console's key has changed.
Step 3: Test the connection¶
Click Test. Six checks run in order: network, SSH server, console key, credentials, command on the console, ROMs folder. Each failure comes with what to do. Nothing is changed on the console.
First sync¶
Open Sync in the sidebar and click Sync. The card is read, nothing is written to it. A few thousand games take a few minutes. When it is done, the Library and the Dashboard fill up.
After that, ROMKADE Manager rereads the console folders whose content changed every minute, so games added outside the app (card read on the computer, another tool) show up on their own.
Console system
ROMKADE Manager detects the firmware on its own. Check Settings → System to see what it found and which features are available with it.