Building Dolphin on Linux

Compile and build Dolphin on Linux

Dolphin is compatible with both 32 and 64 bit Linux distributions. Following instructions explain how to build dolphin on Linux using the cmake build system.

(This howto is based upon the outdated build instruction from the project wiki page)

Step 1 - install the correct dependencies

Ubuntu 12.04
sudo apt-get install cmake git g++ wx2.8-headers libwxbase2.8-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libgtk2.0-dev libsdl1.2-dev nvidia-cg-toolkit libxrandr-dev libxext-dev libglew1.5-dev libao-dev libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libbluetooth-dev libreadline-gplv2-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev

Ubuntu 11.10
sudo apt-get install cmake git g++ wx2.8-headers libwxbase2.8-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libgtk2.0-dev libsdl1.2-dev nvidia-cg-toolkit libxrandr-dev libxext-dev libglew1.5-dev libao-dev libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libbluetooth-dev libreadline5-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev

Other Linux version?
If you run a distribution without aptitude, see the build dependencies in addendum A for a list of packages you'll need to install.

Step 2 - Get the Dolphin repository

Install git if you don't have this already.
sudo apt-get install git

Get a local copy of the dolphin-emu repository.
git clone https://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/ dolphin-emu

Change to the directory created.
cd dolphin-emu

Later, if you wish to update your local copy you run following command and proceed with the following steps.
git pull origin

Step 3 - Building Dolphin

Create a build subdirectory, and change into it.
mkdir Build && cd Build

Configure the build.
cmake ..

You may also want to change the install prefix by adding "-D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/new/path". Note that this path does not need to be absolute. cmake will complete it to its absolute equivalent. The default prefix is "/usr". This means that the executable will be installed as "/usr/bin/dolphin-emu", the plugins will be installed into "/usr/lib/dolphin-emu", and the shared data files will be installed into "/usr/share/dolphin-emu".

From here build and install in the standard make way.
make
sudo make install

Note that you need superuser privileges for the last command.

If you must insist on having the "local" build setup from the deprecated scons build you can configure the build with the following command.
cmake -Dbindir=../Binary/Linux -Ddatadir=../Binary/Linux ..

Step 4 - Run Dolphin!

You can run dolphin from anywhere by typing:
dolphin-emu

If you changed the prefix and $prefix/bin is not in your path, then you will have to precede this with the path to the executable.

FAQ

Is there a forum to find answers or ask questions?
you can go to the official forum [1]. But try to find anwers there before asking anything.
My build failt, what did I do wrong?
You pulled the latest build from the repository which sometimes contain errors. Just take a new build tomorrow or the day after when its fixed. If this does not help report your problem on the forum.

Addendum A - dependencies

This addendum lists the dependencies to build Dolphin.

• Build Dependencies
• git
• cmake
• g++
• wx2.8-headers
• libwxbase2.8-dev
• libwxgtk2.8-dev
• libgtk2.0-dev
• nvidia-cg-toolkit
• libbluetooth-dev (optional, for real wiimotes)
• libxrandr-dev (optional, for switching desktop resolution in fullscreen mode)
• libxext-dev
• libreadline-dev
• libasound-dev (optional, for alsa sound backend)
• libpulse-dev (optional, for pulseaudio sound backend)
• libao-dev (optional, for ao sound backend)
• libopenal-dev (optional, for openal sound backend)
• libavcodec-dev (optional, for dumping frames in AVI format)
• libavformat-dev (optional, for dumping frames in AVI format)
• libswscale-dev (optional, for dumping frames in AVI format)
• libglew1.5-dev (optional, if not found will be built statically)
• liblzo2-dev (optional, if not found will be built statically)
• libsdl1.2-dev (optional, if not found will be built statically)
• libsoil-dev (optional, if not found will be built statically)
• libsfml-dev (optional, if not found will be built statically)