A Linux distribution purpose-built for emulation.
Minimal. Optimized. Ready to play.
📖 Documentation • 💬 Community • ⭐ Main Repo
AstralEmu is a Linux distribution designed from the ground up for emulation on embedded and desktop hardware. It ships a minimal base system, a curated set of emulators rebuilt daily with performance optimizations, and a dynamic performance manager that tunes your hardware per-emulator.
Built on top of Ubuntu, Debian, Arch Linux, and Universal Blue, AstralEmu delivers multiple image variants tailored to your device and your needs.
🔧 Dynamic Image Builder — A workflow-based build system that handles service configuration, source images, export formats, filesystem shrinking, and multi-architecture builds. Images are rebuilt automatically every 24 hours.
📦 Custom Package Repositories — APT, DNF, and Pacman repos with daily rebuilds of every standalone emulator and RetroArch core. Each package is compiled with LTO=thin and jemalloc for maximum performance, targeting the exact CPU architecture of your device.
⚡ Per-Emulator Performance Tuning — A custom package per hardware target dynamically manages CPU/GPU/RAM governors, overclocking, underclocking, CPU pinning, and power-aware safety limits — all automatically, per emulator or service.
🖥️ EmulationStation DE Frontend — A custom-themed EmulationStation Desktop Edition as the main interface, with optional services like XFCE, Plasma Mobile, Kodi, and Waydroid. Only one service runs at a time — when a secondary service launches, ES-DE stops; when it exits, ES-DE restarts.
🔄 Atomic Updates — Universal Blue's native image-based update method, replicated across other base distros for a consistent, safe upgrade path everywhere.
| Repository | Description |
|---|---|
| astralemu | Main distribution — image builder, system configs, and integration |
| astralemu-packages | APT / DNF / Pacman repos with optimized emulator builds |
| astralemu.github.io | Documentation & showcase (Starlight on GitHub Pages) |
Made with ⭐ by the AstralEmu community