rpi4-retroarch.md

Setting up RetroArch on Raspberry Pi 4 and building emulator cores

Guide for myself and others to get RetroArch running on the new Raspberry Pi 4 while projects like RetroPie get an image out for the rpi4.
Disclaimer: I am not an expert and this may not be the most optimal build possible, but it works.

Inspiration taken from:

• This gist showing the basic steps for building and configuring for raspberry pi 3. I'm new to Raspberry Pi and RetroArch myself so this was super helpful and I recommend looking through it.
  https://gist.github.com/AlexMax/32e5d038a66ce57253e740ea75736805
• This Reddit post showing the performanc gains over the pi 3b+
  https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/c7j150/emulation_on_the_raspberry_pi_4_vs_rpi_3/

1. Environment Setup

• I used 'Raspbian Buster with desktop' installed from NOOBS
  https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/
• I used the OpenGL driver (Enabled by default)

sudo raspi-config
Advanced Options -> GL Driver ->  G2 OpenGL desktop driver...

• Update everything and restart - skip if you know this is done already

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
shutdown -r now

2. Compile RetroArch

Install some needed packages - check the gist I linked for an explanation

sudo apt install build-essential libasound2-dev libudev-dev libgles2-mesa-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxxf86vm-dev

Download RetroArch source code - This guide will use the .tar.gz
https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/releases

wget https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/archive/v1.9.0.tar.gz
tar -xf v1.9.0.tar.gz
cd RetroArch-1.9.0

To fix undefined reference to XF86VidMode... errors change this line in Makefile:

#OLD line 24
LIBS :=
#New
LIBS := -lXxf86vm -lpthread

Configure with additional options to work with rpi4

CFLAGS='-mfpu=neon -mtune=cortex-a72 -march=armv8-a' ./configure --disable-opengl1 --enable-neon --enable-opengles3 --enable-opengles --disable-videocore

If no errors, build

make
sudo make install

3. Run/configure RetroArch

Launch RetroArch fullscreen

retroarch -f

Go ahead and update assets within RetroArch

Online Updater -> Update Assets

The gist for rpi 3b+ will tell you to update the retroarch.cfg file with a url, but those cores did not work for me so this guide will walk through building them.

4. Building Cores

All cores likely have multiple options to choose from but this will just go over what I've done so far.
Compiled core files end in .so and are kept in ~/.config/retroarch/cores/

Create directory to build our cores

cd ~
mkdir cores
cd cores

NES

libretro-fceumm

This could probably use optimized CFLAGS but it works as is

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/libretro/libretro-fceumm.git
cd libretro-fceumm
make -j4

Move fceumm_libretro.so to cores dir

SNES

snes9x2010

This could probably use optimized CFLAGS but it works as is

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/libretro/snes9x2010.git
cd snes9x2010
make -j4

N64

mupen64plus-libretro

This core is no longer being updated so you should use mupen64plus-libretro-next, but keeping this here just in case.

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/libretro/mupen64plus-libretro.git
cd mupen64plus-libretro
platform=rpi4 make -j4

mupen64plus-libretro-next

git clone https://github.com/libretro/mupen64plus-libretro-nx.git
cd mupen64plus-libretro-nx
platform=rpi4 make -j4

PS1

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/libretro/pcsx_rearmed.git
cd pcsx_rearmed
platform=rpi4 make -j4

@denilsonsa I have added that to the gist as well, thanks

@khimaros True if you are looking to use your rpi mainly for emulation that is a good choice.

@khimaros @ematysek Vanilla RA is much easier to configure than Retropie. Especially if you are using a CRT, there is no contest as you need to be able to control the resolution in the menus. At this point, RA is better than even Lakka in terms of support for cores on armf in general. Retropie is basically for people who won't/can't get RA running correctly or who prefer emulation station.

If you use these CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS and configure options, you'll end up with something closer to the build that Lakka is doing. It might be more optimized:

CFLAGS="-march=armv8-a+crc -mtune=cortex-a72 -mabi=aapcs-linux -Wno-psabi -Wa,-mno-warn-deprecated -mfloat-abi=hard -mfpu=neon-fp-armv8 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -pipe -Os" CXXFLAGS=$CFLAGS ./configure \
--disable-vg \
--disable-sdl \
--disable-sdl2 \
--disable-ssl \
--enable-opengles \
--enable-opengles3 \
--enable-opengl_core \
--enable-kms \
--disable-videocore \
--enable-plain_drm \
--enable-neon \
--enable-zlib \
--enable-freetype \
--enable-translate \
--enable-cdrom

Also, I opened up the squashfs from the latest Lakka release for Raspberry Pi 4, and the 2048 core and SNES 2010 core both worked fine in a retroarch I compiled myself.

Hi, i am on the same boat, pi4 with raspberry OS,
Have you tried compile flycast ? the dreamcast emulator
Also any change on the dolphin ? the gamecube emulator?

I followed your guide and successfully compiled the Mupen64plus and mupen64plus-next , thanks

Hello and happy holidays.
I'd like to build the latest version Final Burn NEO, core optimized for Raspberry Pi 3:
https://github.com/libretro/FBNeo

May I ask for some help? thank you very much! :)

Hi - much respect and thanks for maintaining this guide.

I'd like to report the retroarch (1.7.3+dfsg1-1) binary installed from the Raspberry Pi OS (12-2-2020 release) package manager appears to run fine (at least for SNES) using a corresponding bsnes package also available on the package manager, on the Rpi 400.

In the retroarch config menu, the Audio Driver needed to be set to alsa to enable sound - otherwise, this appears to work out-of-the-box for me.

Thank you for this wonderful tutorial. I'm a Raspberry Pi/Linux noob, and I found it to be very helpful 🙏
Could someone, please, share the commands I should enter in terminal to build the PSP and PS2 emulators cores?
I wish I knew how to do it myself, but I'm too new to Raspberry Pi and Linux to know.
I'm using Raspberry Pi 4 4GB running Raspberry Pi OS with desktop.

@Unounited
Retroarch pre-compiled cores were not available when this was written.
x86 compiled code will not work on an ARM processor, you should download the relevant ARM compiled cores.

My bad, I should have tested the x86 cores before I posted them. And they did not work, so I guess someone might have all the cores for retroarch that work on arm