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Compiling RetroArch for PSP

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Compiling using libretro-super​

https://docs.libretro.com/development/retroarch/compilation/psp/#core-compilation

  1. Clone libretro-super

    git clone https://github.com/libretro/libretro-super.git

  2. Build RetroArch

    • Build a specific core

      cd libretro-super
      docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/build" bmaupin/pspdev:gcc-4.6.4 ./libretro-build-psp1.sh quicknes

    • Build all cores

      cd libretro-super
      docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/build" bmaupin/pspdev:gcc-4.6.4 ./libretro-build-psp1.sh

    The build will be in retroarch/pkg/psp1/. You can copy the contents of this folder into the folder where RetroArch is installed on the PSP (e.g. PSP/GAME/RetroArch).

Compile a single core manually​

  1. Get the latest tag for RetroArch

    https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/tags

    This is recommended because sometimes the master branch of RetroArch can be broken

  2. Clone RetroArch

    git clone --depth=1 -b TAG https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch.git retroarch

    (Replace TAG with the latest tag from the previous step)

  3. Clone the core

    For example:

    git clone https://github.com/libretro/QuickNES_Core.git

  4. Compile the core library

    For example:

    cd QuickNES_Core
    docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/build" bmaupin/pspdev:gcc-4.6.4 sh -c "make platform=psp1 clean && make platform=psp1"

  5. Copy the core library into the RetroArch repo

    rm ../retroarch/dist-scripts/*_psp1.a
    cp *_psp1.a ../retroarch/dist-scripts
    cd ..

  6. Compile the core with RetroArch

    cd retroarch
    docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/build" bmaupin/pspdev:gcc-4.6.4 sh -c "(cd dist-scripts; ./dist-cores.sh psp1)"

    The build will be in retroarch/pkg/psp1/. You can copy the contents of this folder into the folder where RetroArch is installed on the PSP (e.g. PSP/GAME/RetroArch).

Refer to the previous section with the following differences:

  1. After cloning RetroArch, configure it for a debug build

    cd retroarch
    # Enable building of the .prx file
    sed -i 's/BUILD_PRX          = 0/BUILD_PRX          = 1/' Makefile.psp1
    # Don't delete the .elf file when compiling
    sed -i s'/rm -f ..\/retroarchpsp.elf/true || rm -f ..\/retroarchpsp.elf/' dist-scripts/dist-cores.sh

    For older versions of RetroArch (< v1.7.0), you may also need to run these commands:

    # Enable debugging symbols for the salamander core (the one that loads the other cores)
    sed -i 's/.salamander ||/.salamander DEBUG=1 ||/' dist-scripts/dist-cores.sh
    # Enable debugging symbols for the RetroArch core
    sed -i 's/-j3 ||/-j3 DEBUG=1 ||/' dist-scripts/dist-cores.sh

  2. When compiling the core library, enable debugging symbols by appending DEBUG=1

    cd path/to/core
    docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/build" bmaupin/pspdev:gcc-4.6.4 sh -c "make platform=psp1 clean && make platform=psp1 DEBUG=1"

  3. When compiling the core, enable debugging symbols for the salamander core with -e OPTS=DEBUG=1

    cd retroarch
    docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/build" -e OPTS=DEBUG=1 bmaupin/pspdev:gcc-4.6.4 sh -c "(cd dist-scripts; ./dist-cores.sh psp1)"

    The files you will need for debugging will be:

    • retroarch/retroarchpsp.elf
    • retroarch/retroarchpsp.prx