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Getting MIXXX running on your Denon Prime Go or Prime 4 takes about ten minutes and requires no compilation or firmware flashing. The entire installation lives on an SD card — your device’s internal storage and Engine OS are left untouched. Remove the SD card at any time to return to stock Engine OS instantly.
Prime 4 users: MIXXX boots and all audio/MIDI controls work, but the Prime 4’s DSI display currently causes a GPU crash on EGL initialization. MIXXX will run in offscreen (headless) mode — the hardware controls and audio pipeline are functional, but there is no on-device display output. See the Devices page for full details.

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Requirements

  • Denon Prime Go or Denon Prime 4
  • microSD card, 32 GB or larger
  • A computer with an SD card reader (Linux, macOS, or Windows with WSL)
  • SSH access to the device (USB or WiFi — see Step 3)
1

Download the SD card bundle

Grab the latest release from GitHub:github.com/gueritta/primemixxx/releases/latestDownload the file named prime-series-sdcard-*.tar.gz (approximately 25 MB). This archive contains the complete MIXXX bundle, Qt 5.15.8 libraries, EGLFS plugins, MIDI controller mappings, and the TKGL Bootstrap launcher — everything that runs from the SD card.
2

Prepare the SD card

Format the SD card as ext4 with the label TKGL_BOOTSTRAP, then extract the bundle onto it. Replace /dev/sdX1 with the actual device node for your SD card partition.
# Format as ext4 with the required label
sudo mkfs.ext4 -L TKGL_BOOTSTRAP /dev/sdX1

# Mount the card
sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/sdcard

# Extract the bundle onto the card
sudo tar xzf prime-series-sdcard-*.tar.gz -C /mnt/sdcard

# Unmount cleanly before ejecting
sudo umount /mnt/sdcard
The label TKGL_BOOTSTRAP is required — the device’s boot hook looks for a volume with exactly this name. The filesystem must be ext4; vfat is not supported.
3

Install the boot hook (one-time)

This step writes a small delegation stub to the device’s internal storage. It only needs to be done once. The stub tells the device to hand control to the TKGL Bootstrap on the SD card when the card is present.First, SSH into the device. Insert the SD card and power on, then connect via USB or WiFi.
Prefer USB Ethernet. When you connect the device’s USB-C port to your computer, it appears as a USB Ethernet gadget at 192.168.42.1. This connection is reliable, fast, and never drops — ideal for the install step and any future file transfers.
# Connect via USB Ethernet gadget (preferred)
ssh root@192.168.42.1   # password: denonprime4
If you prefer WiFi, find the device IP on your router or try primego.local (mDNS). WiFi connections drop after ~30 seconds of silence — keep a keepalive running if you use it: ping -i 25 <device-ip> > /dev/null &
# Connect via WiFi
ssh root@<device-ip>    # password: denonprime4
# or
ssh root@primego.local  # password: denonprime4
Once SSH’d in, run the one-time install script from the SD card:
sh /media/TKGL_BOOTSTRAP/tkgl_bootstrap_DenonPrimeGO/install-device.sh
The installer backs up your original engine.service, writes the delegation stub to internal storage, and interactively offers optional features:
  • USB Ethernet gadget — auto-starts at boot for reliable SSH access
  • Power button shutdown — graceful shutdown instead of hard power-off during MIXXX sessions
  • mDNS fix — corrects hostname advertisement (primego.local)
  • WiFi stability — disables WiFi power save to prevent SSH session drops
4

Reboot and enjoy

ssh root@192.168.42.1 reboot
After rebooting with the SD card inserted, the device automatically detects TKGL_BOOTSTRAP, launches the bootstrap, and starts MIXXX. No SSH needed for normal use.To switch back to Engine OS, simply remove the SD card before powering on. The device falls back to the original engine.service and loads Engine OS normally.To re-enable MIXXX, re-insert the SD card and reboot.

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Switching Between MIXXX and Engine OS at Runtime

You can switch without rebooting via SSH: 
# Switch to MIXXX (starts the TKGL bootstrap and MIXXX service)
ssh root@192.168.42.1 switch-to-mixxx

# Switch back to stock Engine OS
ssh root@192.168.42.1 switch-to-engine

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Loading Your Music Library

Plug a USB drive formatted with MP3s into any USB port on the device. The drive auto-mounts via udev and MIXXX scans it on startup. No manual mounting required.
MIXXX’s sandbox blocks direct access to vfat (FAT32) filesystems. The launcher works around this by bind-mounting the USB drive to an ext4-backed path before MIXXX starts. Your files are not modified — only the mount path changes.

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Uninstalling

To fully remove the boot hook and restore the device to stock Engine OS: 
ssh root@192.168.42.1
sh /media/TKGL_BOOTSTRAP/tkgl_bootstrap_DenonPrimeGO/uninstall-device.sh
This restores your original engine.service backup from internal storage. After uninstalling, you can remove the SD card permanently and the device operates exactly as it did before.

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