Quick Start Guide

You just got your GCW Zero. Congratulations!

Below you will find instructions that will help you take your first steps with the device.

Screen Protector
Depending on the batch and the reseller, GCW Zero might come with up to two layers of plastic film attached on top of the screen bezel. They are meant to protect the screen from scratches and damage during transport and they can be removed before the first use. They are not scratch-resistant and aren't meant for regular use.

Bottom Side


Corner between the Left and Bottom Side also features a wrist-strap socket.

Button Combinations
You can raise the Power slider, then press a button on the GCW Zero to perform various system actions. The implemented actions are described below.

LED states
'''NOTE: Green LED functionality listed below is available from 2014-04-27 firmware update. Might not work correctly on some units - under investigation.'''

Menu System
GCW Zero uses a menu system called gmenu2x. It was designed with handheld devices in mind and first used in GamePark Holdings GP2X. The version installed in the firmware is fully adapted to work with GCW Zero.



The menu interface consists of 3 elements:
 * Category bar (top)
 * Current category items (middle)
 * Info bar (bottom)

Items in the menu are arranged into categories, based on their purpose: games, applications, emulators, settings. You can switch between the categories by pressing or.

Items in the currently selected category are displayed in a row of columns. Use or  to navigate between the items and select the one of interest. Press to launch the currently highlighted item.

Pressing will bring up a contextual menu. Below is the description of it's functions:
 * "Add link in {category}" - allows for adding non-OPK programs. This feature should be used only by advanced users.
 * "Show manual of {item}" - displays a manual/readme for the selected program. This menu entry is available only for programs that show [[Image:Gmenu2x_manual.png]] at the info bar, when highlighted.
 * "Edit {item}" - this option is available only for programs which expect to be launched with extra files, ie. emulator that needs ROMs to run. "Selector Directory" sets the default directory where the program looks for extra files, while "Selector Browser" allows (ON) or prevents (OFF) from navigating outside this directory.
 * "Add section" - adds a new section in the categories. Note that OPK files will automatically appear in the right categories, creating a new category if needed. This feature is useful only for manually added programs.
 * "Rename section" - change the name of the selected category.
 * "Delete section" - remove the selected category.
 * "Scan for applications and games" - deprecated?

button displays internal gmenu2x settings, consisting of:
 * "Language" - change the language of the menu (NOTE: it won't affect the language settings of any games or programs. You will need to configure them separately, per program basis.)
 * "Save last selection" - deprecated?
 * "Output logs" - logs the stdout and stderr output of a program and allows for a later view of it. This has a use mainly for developers and should be left to OFF for regular usage. NOTE: Setting this option to ON might cause game lags due to extensive filesystem write usage.
 * "Screen Timeout" - number of seconds of user inactivity after which the screen turns off to conserve energy (NOTE: this doesn't power off the device).
 * "Show root" - deprecated?

Navigation Summary:

Info Bar:

This bar, located at the bottom of the screen, displays the following information:
 * [[Image:Gmenu2x_memory.png]] Free space on the internal memory - ie. 27.0/28.5GiB means that the user has 27.0 GiB of free space remaining out of the total 28.5GiB memory capacity.
 * [[Image:Gmenu2x_manual.png]] Manual available - displayed only when the selected menu entry has an included manual.
 * current system time - change the settings via the [[Image:Pyclock.png]] "Clock" program.
 * [[Image:Gmenu2x_battery5.png]] Battery usage - can display one of the 6 states depending on the charge level (listed here from fully charged to depleted): [[Image:Gmenu2x_battery5.png]]/[[Image:Gmenu2x_battery4.png]]/[[Image:Gmenu2x_battery3.png]]/[[Image:Gmenu2x_battery2.png]]/[[Image:Gmenu2x_battery1.png]]/[[Image:Gmenu2x_battery0.png]]
 * [[Image:Gmenu2x_battery_ac.png]] Charging - displayed only if a charging cable (miniUSB or DC) is connected.

Overview Of Selected Preinstalled Programs

 * [[File:Pyclock.png]] Clock - adjust the system clock, display calendar or set an alarm
 * [[File:Dgcommander.png]] DinguxCmdr - File manager with such features as navigating the filesystem or deleting/copying/moving the files between folders.
 * [[File:O2xiv.png]] o2xiv - Image viewer. Supports Windows bitmaps, PNG files and JPEG files.
 * [[File:Hwtest.png]] HWTest - Button and sound hardware test.
 * [[File:Network.png]] Network - change remote login permissions for FTP, SFTP, Telnet and SSH connections
 * [[File:Wireless.png]] GCW Connect - allows you to set up and connect to your Wi-Fi network(s) as well as set up your GCW Zero as an access point
 * [[File:Alsamixer.png]] Sound Mixer - AlsaMixer, allows you to adjust the volume of different audio equipment of GCW Zero (ie. speakers, headphone socket, microphone).
 * [[File:About.png]] System Info - displays the firmware version, hardware information and available network interfaces.
 * [[File:Terminal.png]] Terminal - disables the graphical mode. Useful only for developers.

Gmenu2x comes with a few built-in features that you can find among the programs:
 * [[File:Poweroff.png]] Power off - turn off the GCW Zero.
 * [[File:Reboot.png]] Reboot - reboot the GCW Zero.
 * [[File:Log.png]] Log Viewer - allows you to view the last logged stdout/stderr of a program. This requires "Output logs" option to be ON.
 * [[File:Skin.png]] Skin - allows you to customize the skin of the menu.
 * [[File:Wallpaper.png]] Wallpaper - allows you to customize the wallpaper displayed as the menu background.
 * [[File:About.png]] About - gmenu2x program credits.
 * [[File:Explorer.png]] Explorer - allows you to browse the filesytem and lanuch any OPK files, .sh scripts or Linux executables directly.

Installing New Software
New software can be obtained from our official repository in form of OPK packages. Such packages need to be transferred into the GCW Zero and put to a correct directory. Below you will find instructions on how to properly install your applications.

GCW Zero Manager



 * Main article: GCW Zero Manager

''Please note that this method is available only for MS Windows (although support for other platforms is planned). If you run GNU/Linux or OSX, you will need to use other file transfer methods listed below.''

''The application requires .NET 4 runtime. If you don't have it installed, it's available here.''

This is the default and most user friendly method of installing software.


 * 1) In your GCW Zero, go into Settings > Network and select between setting a random password or login without password (NOTE: This step isn't necessary on older firmwares. If your firmware has no "Network" program, it is set to use login without password.).
 * 2) Download GCW Zero Manager.
 * 3) Follow the "Add connection" wizard. You may connect to the console through either USB or Wi-Fi connection.
 * 4) In the Install Software tab, browse for OPK files or drag-and-drop them to the application.
 * 5) Hit "Install All" to install the OPK files to your GCW Zero console.

If you can't connect through USB, it's likely that your OS failed to automatically install the appropriate drivers. Manual driver installation will be necessary:


 * Windows 7


 * 1) In Windows, go to the Control Panel > Device manager.
 * 2) Once there, locate a device with a yellow "!" sign. It will probably be in the Network adapters area.
 * 3) Right-click it, and select "Update Driver".
 * 4) Select "Manual install".
 * 5) Select "Choose from a list of drivers", then "Network Adapters".
 * 6) In the Vendor list, select "Microsoft Corporation".
 * 7) Select "Remote NDIS Compatible Device" and install that driver.
 * 8) It should now successfully connect in your FTP client app.

FTP connection
There are two ways to connect to GCW Zero over FTP:

Over USB cable:


 * 1) Download an FTP client (Filezilla is recommended).
 * 2) In your GCW Zero, go into Settings > Network and select between setting a random password or login without password (NOTE: This step isn't necessary on older firmwares. If your firmware has no "Network" program, it is set to use login without password.).
 * 3) Connect the GCW with the USB cable and start your FTP client.
 * 4) In the "Host" field of your FTP client (upper left in the Filezilla window) type 10.1.1.2 and press Enter. You might also need to enter a username/password if you chose it in the Network settings of the GCW Zero. Password is randomly generated. Username is "root".
 * 5) You should now be able to access the folders of your GCW Zero and drag and drop files into the FTP client window.
 * 6) To install OPK apps, simply drag and drop them into the /media/data/apps/ directory (internal storage) or /media/{sdcard_name}/apps/ (external storage). Gmenu2x will autodetect them and create a shortcut in the appropiate section.

If you can't connect through USB, it's likely that your OS failed to automatically install the appropriate drivers. Manual driver installation will be necessary:


 * Windows 7


 * 1) Connect your GCW to your PC with the USB cable.
 * 2) In Windows, go to the Control Panel > Device manager.
 * 3) Once there, locate a device with a yellow "!" sign. It will probably be in the Network adapters area.
 * 4) Right-click it, and select "Update Driver".
 * 5) Select "Manual install".
 * 6) Select "Choose from a list of drivers", then "Network Adapters".
 * 7) In the Vendor list, select "Microsoft Corporation".
 * 8) Select "Remote NDIS Compatible Device" and install that driver.
 * 9) It should now successfully connect in your FTP client app.


 * GNU/Linux

The USB Networking drivers should be now a standard part of every modern GNU/Linux distribution, but if for some reason your system is lacking them, you will need to install the cdcether kernel module.

If the IP address of the newly detected ethernet interface (usually usb0) wasn't automatically assigned, set it manually (with superuser permissions):

Over Wi-Fi:


 * 1) Download an FTP client (Filezilla is recommended).
 * 2) In your GCW Zero, go into Settings > Network and select between setting a random password or login without password (NOTE: This step isn't necessary on older firmwares. If your firmware has no "Network" program, it is set to use login without password.).
 * 3) In your GCW Zero, go into Settings -> Wireless, configure your network's details such as ESSID/encryption/password and connect to it.
 * 4) Read the IP address assigned to your GCW Zero.
 * 5) In the "Host" field of your FTP client (upper left in the Filezilla window) type the IP address of GCW Zero and press Enter. You might also need to enter a username/password if you chose it in the Network settings of the GCW Zero. Password is randomly generated. Username is "root".
 * 6) You should now be able to access the folders of your GCW Zero and drag and drop files into the FTP client window.
 * 7) To install OPK apps, simply drag and drop them into the /media/data/apps/ directory (internal storage) or /media/{sdcard_name}/apps/ (external storage). Gmenu2x will autodetect them and create a shortcut in the appropiate section.

External microSD card
For those who don't want to use GCW Zero Manager or FTP, they can simply format a microSD card with Windows' FAT32 or Linux's EXT filesystem, create a folder "/apps/" and put their OPK files inside.

Note that NTFS and exFat filesystems aren't supported for legal reasons.

While the OPKs run fine from external microSD card, "DinguxCmdr" can be used to move them to the internal memory storage, if desired.

Other methods
SFTP and SCP file transfers are supported. They are not covered in this manual.

Firmware Upgrade
First make sure you have a backup of all valuable user data you have on your GCW Zero, such as save games.

Download the most recent updater application from our website. Transfer the application (OPK file) to the apps/ directory on your GCW Zero. Then start the application from the menu:



You can select an option with the d-pad and confirm your choice with the button.

While the update is in progress, you'll see progress information being printed showing what the updater is doing. The update process takes a few minutes, please be patient while it does its work, even if you don't see anything happening for a while on the screen. The output should look like this:



When you press again, the system will restart. After the restart you can check that the new kernel and rootfs were installed in the System Info application:



The compilation date for the kernel and rootfs should be equal to or very close to the date of the updater application.

After the update is complete, you can remove the updater application (OPK file).

Hardware Features Not Yet Supported
The software side of GCW Zero is still under development. Due to this nature, some features of the device might not yet be available. Below is a list of features currently missing from the end user firmware release:

All these features will be eventually implemented and with time appear with the future firmware updates. You can monitor the current progress of the software development at our GitHub account.

Below is a list of previously missing features that have been since fully implemented and are present in the end user firmware:

Support
If you need support that extends beyond the information found in this article and on the GCW Zero Wiki, you can seek help via one of the following methods:
 * IRC channel - #gcw at irc.freenode.net
 * Unofficial GCW Zero forums at dingoonity.org

If you need a warranty service, contact GCW LLC via e-mail: contact (at) gcw-zero.com