Building Dolphin on Linux
Despite not being listed on the main site, Dolphin is readily available for Linux. You just have to build it yourself. Dolphin is fully compatible with both 32 and 64 bit Linux distributions, so as long as it is Linux, you're good. Here's how to do it, 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(This howto is based upon the outdated build instruction from the project wiki page)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
Where can I get help?
Go to the forums. Lots of Dolphin users use Linux, and they are very experienced with this process.
My build failed, but I did nothing wrong!
Most of the time, any problems in the build process are user error. It's understandable, it is a complicated process and can be quite daunting for a first timer. But sometimes you'll do everything right, triple checked, and it's still not working. It's rare, but sometimes a build will just be bugged. But many of Dolphin devs are Linux users, so just wait a day or so, and it will be sorted out.
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)