GKD Pixel 2 Stock Firmware: Should You Replace It?
The GKD Pixel 2 ships with its own firmware on the microSD card in the box. GameKiddy publishes no documentation for it, so the best account is Retro Game Corps' guide from February 2025. This is what that guide found, what changes when you put another system on a card, and how to do it without losing the stock one.
On this page
What the stock firmware is
According to Retro Game Corps, the stock firmware is a fork of ROCKNIX, based on ROCKNIX's build for the Anbernic RG351MP, with extra settings. It starts in GKD's own menu, IUX, which the guide says looks like a reskinned GMenu2x, and it also has EmulationStation as a second launcher, chosen in IUX's settings. The card has two partitions, EMUELEC and ROMS, and ROMS holds a folder for each of more than a hundred systems.
GameKiddy has no page for the firmware, and the guide gives no version number. The stock firmware may have changed since February 2025.
What works well
- IUX is usable. The guide calls it a serviceable menu system.
- PortMaster comes installed, and works.
- Many systems, with a folder for each on the card.
- File sharing over Wi-Fi with Samba, once a USB Wi-Fi adapter is in.
What does not
- No working scraper for box art on the handheld. The guide scrapes on a computer, with Skraper, instead.
- No quick shutdown and resume, to turn off mid-game and pick up there.
- Pico-8 has a section, but it is not set up.
- Many EmulationStation themes do not work with GKD's setup.
- Updating PortMaster can break the ports that came on the card; the guide's fix is to reinstall them in PortMaster.
- What is on the card depends on the seller: some cards come with games, some with the system alone.
The guide's own advice is to switch to EmulationStation, add a USB Wi-Fi adapter, scrape box art on a computer, and add apps through PortMaster.
Side by side with ZyperOS
| ZyperOS | Stock firmware | |
|---|---|---|
| Install | Card image or ZyperOS Installer | On the card it comes with |
| Systems | 40, and Ports | Over 100 folders |
| Games without taking the card out | Web page, Wi-Fi or USB cable | Samba over Wi-Fi |
| Box art on the device | Yes | No |
| Pick up where you left off | Yes | No |
| PortMaster | On the shelf | Preloaded |
| Themes | Light and dark | EmulationStation themes, added over the network |
| RetroAchievements | Yes | – |
| Charge limit, charging screen | Yes | – |
Should you replace it?
You do not have to replace anything. On the Pixel 2 the system lives on the card, so a custom firmware goes on a second card, and the stock card stays as it is. Swap the cards and the handheld starts the other system.
A new card is worth it if the gaps above bother you: box art without a computer, a game that picks up where you stopped, or sending games without taking the card out. Each system fills different gaps; the comparison of every system for the Pixel 2 shows which fills which. ZyperOS covers fewer systems than the stock firmware's hundred-plus folders, so check that yours are among its forty.
Keep the stock card safe
- Take the stock card out and put it away. Do not write another system over it: some come with games, and it is your way back.
- If you want a spare, make a full image of it with a disk imaging program before anything else.
- Write the new system to a second card. The install guide shows how.
Sources
- Retro Game Corps, "How to Make the GKD Pixel II Software Suck Less", published 1 February 2025, read 7 November 2026.
- ZyperOS: the README and its comparison table.