Install RetroArch Emulator via PPA in Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.04

Last updated: May 9, 2015

retro-arch-logo1

RetroArch is an open-source multi-system game emulator that is designed to be fast, lightweight, and portable. It is formerly known as SSNES.

Currently supported cores include:

  • bNES, a NES / Famicom emulator.
  • bSNES, a SNES / Super Famicom emulator.
  • Final Burn Alpha, a multi-arcade system emulator.
  • FCEUmm, a NES / Famicom emulator.
  • Gambatte, a Game Boy / Game Boy Color emulator.
  • Genesis Plus GX, a Sega Genesis / Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear and SG-1000 emulator.
  • iMAME4All, a multi-arcade system emulator.
  • Mednafen PSX, a Sony PlayStation emulator.
  • Meteor, a Game Boy Advance emulator.
  • NXEngine, a Cave Story / Doukutsu Monogatari engine.
  • Prboom, a DOOM engine.
  • SNES9x Next, a SNES / Super Famicom emulator.
  • VBA Next, a Game Boy Advance emulator.

RetroArch-PCSX-ReARMed

RetroArch-Genesis-Plus-GX

RetroArch-SNES9x-Next

Install RetroArch Emulator:

For Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command below one by one to install RetroArch:

add-apt-repository ppa:hunter-kaller/ppa

apt-get update

apt-get install retroarch libretro*

UPDATE 2015-05: For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 15.04, there’s now an official PPA for RetroArch. Use below commands instead:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libretro/stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install retroarch retroarch-* libretro-*

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12 responses to Install RetroArch Emulator via PPA in Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.04

  1. How to load a core? How can I possible knew the DIR?

  2. when i enter “add-apt-repository ppa:hunter-kaller/ppa” it returns “bash: add-apt-repository: command not found” does anyone know whats wrong?

  3. Gabriel Ordoñez June 7, 2014 at 9:49 pm

    I have installed in your menu retroarch but no core product I use ubuntu 14.4 64bit

  4. can i install this on 15.04 64 bit?

  5. RetroArch [WARN] :: config_load_file :: system_directory is not set in config. Assuming system directory is same folder as game: “”.
    RetroArch [ERROR] :: gfx_ctx_wl_init :: Failed to connect to Wayland server.
    The UMP devicedriver is version: 3, UMP libraries is version: 2.
    UMP: ump_arch_open() failed to open UMP device driver
    RetroArch [ERROR] :: gfx_ctx_xegl_init :: [X/EGL]: Unable to initialize EGL.
    RetroArch [ERROR] :: egl_report_error :: [X/EGL]: #0x3003, Unknown
    RetroArch [WARN] :: gfx_ctx_drm_egl_init :: [KMS/EGL]: Couldn’t get device resources.
    RetroArch [WARN] :: gfx_ctx_drm_egl_init :: [KMS/EGL]: Couldn’t get device resources.
    RetroArch [ERROR] :: gfx_ctx_drm_egl_init :: [KMS/EGL]: Couldn’t find a suitable DRM device.
    libGL error: MESA-LOADER: malformed or no PCI ID
    libGL error: dlopen /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/dri/mali_drm_dri.so failed (/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/dri/mali_drm_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
    libGL error: dlopen ${ORIGIN}/dri/mali_drm_dri.so failed (${ORIGIN}/dri/mali_drm_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
    libGL error: dlopen /usr/lib/dri/mali_drm_dri.so failed (/usr/lib/dri/mali_drm_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
    libGL error: unable to load driver: mali_drm_dri.so
    libGL error: driver pointer missing
    libGL error: failed to load driver: mali_drm
    RetroArch [WARN] :: sdl_ctx_set_video_mode :: [SDL_GL]: Failed to set video mode: Couldn’t find matching GLX visual
    RetroArch [ERROR] :: init_video_input :: Cannot open video driver … Exiting …
    RetroArch [ERROR] :: rarch_main_init :: Fatal error received in: “init_video_input()”
    happened to me

  6. When doing sudo apt-get install retroarch retroarch-* libretro-* it fails because “libretro-mednafen is in conflict with libretro-mednafen-psx”
    So I went into synaptic and selected all but libretro-mednafen-psx (because it breaks libretro-mednafen). Just so you know of the problem.

  7. Followed the provided commands but I get the following error:

    E: Unable to locate package libretro-stable-trusty.list
    E: Couldn’t find any package by regex ‘libretro-stable-trusty.list’
    E: Unable to locate package libretro-stable-trusty.list.save
    E: Couldn’t find any package by regex ‘libretro-stable-trusty.list.save’

    Any thoughts?