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

Last updated: May 9, 2015

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

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-*

Twitter

I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via ubuntuhandbook1@gmail.com Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1 |

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?