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10 Building on Linux

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GovanifY edited this page Feb 20, 2025 · 7 revisions

Introduction

This guide demonstrates how to build PCSX2 in Linux environments. Note that the steps provided below may vary depending on the distribution - such variances are not officially supported by the PCSX2 team.

Note that the procedure defined herein closely mirrors the scripts used by the PCSX2 CI process. These scripts provide more information behind the build process than what is stated here.

Dependencies

Note that dependencies tend to change over time, along with their required versions. In particular, PCSX2 no longer supports the gcc compiler, as it has transitioned to clang/llvm due to the many benefits the latter compiler offers, including superior efficiency and speed.

Ubuntu Package List

build-essential clang cmake curl extra-cmake-modules git libasound2-dev libaio-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libdbus-1-dev libdecor-0-dev libegl-dev libevdev-dev libfontconfig-dev libfreetype-dev libgtk-3-dev libgudev-1.0-dev libharfbuzz-dev libinput-dev libopengl-dev libpcap-dev libpipewire-0.3-dev libpulse-dev libssl-dev libswresample-dev libswscale-dev libudev-dev libwayland-dev libx11-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-composite0-dev libxcb-cursor-dev libxcb-damage0-dev libxcb-glx0-dev libxcb-icccm4-dev libxcb-image0-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev libxcb-present-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-render-util0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-shm0-dev libxcb-sync-dev libxcb-util-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxcb-xinput-dev libxcb-xkb-dev libxext-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev libxrandr-dev lld llvm ninja-build pkg-config zlib1g-dev

Fedora Package List

The following package list is sufficient for building PCSX2 as of 2024/04/06 with Fedora 39. You must build the third-party dependencies using the script from the CI, as instructed below.

alsa-lib-devel brotli-devel clang cmake dbus-devel egl-wayland-devel extra-cmake-modules fontconfig-devel gcc-c++ gtk3-devel libaio-devel libcurl-devel libdecor-devel libevdev-devel libICE-devel libinput-devel libpcap-devel libSM-devel libX11-devel libXau-devel libxcb-devel libXcomposite-devel libXcursor-devel libXext-devel libXfixes-devel libXft-devel libXi-devel libxkbcommon-devel libxkbcommon-x11-devel libXpresent-devel libXrandr-devel libXrender-devel lld llvm make mesa-libEGL-devel mesa-libGL-devel ninja-build openssl-devel patch pcre2-devel perl-Digest-SHA pipewire-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel systemd-devel wayland-devel xcb-util-cursor-devel xcb-util-devel xcb-util-errors-devel xcb-util-image-devel xcb-util-keysyms-devel xcb-util-renderutil-devel xcb-util-wm-devel xcb-util-xrm-devel zlib-devel

NixOS nix-shell

{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> { } }:
pkgs.mkShell {
  buildInputs = with pkgs;
    with qt6;
    with xorg; [
      curl
      extra-cmake-modules
      ffmpeg
      libaio
      libbacktrace
      libpcap
      libwebp
      libXrandr
      lz4
      qtbase
      qtsvg
      qttools
      qtwayland
      SDL2
      shaderc
      soundtouch
      vulkan-headers
      wayland
      zstd
      clang
      lld
    ];

  nativeBuildInputs = with pkgs;
    with qt6; [
      cmake
      pkg-config
      strip-nondeterminism
      wrapQtAppsHook
      zip
    ];

  qtWrapperArgs = let
    libs = with pkgs;
      lib.makeLibraryPath
      ([ vulkan-loader shaderc ] ++ cubeb.passthru.backendLibs);
  in [ "--prefix LD_LIBRARY_PATH : ${libs}" ];

  shellHook = ''
    if [ ! -d "$(pwd)/pcsx2" ]; then
      echo "pcsx2 not cloned, cloning..."
      git clone [email protected]:PCSX2/pcsx2.git
    fi
    if [ ! -d "$(pwd)/pcsx2/build" ]; then
      echo "pcsx2 not configured, configuring..."
      cd pcsx2
      cmake -B build -DDISABLE_ADVANCE_SIMD=true -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ -DCMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_INIT="-fuse-ld=lld" -DCMAKE_MODULE_LINKER_FLAGS_INIT="-fuse-ld" -DCMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_INIT="-fuse-ld=lld" -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$PWD/deps" -GNinja
      cd ..
    fi


    bashdir=$(mktemp -d)
    makeWrapper "$(type -p bash)" "$bashdir/bash" "''${qtWrapperArgs[@]}"
    export NIX_ENFORCE_PURITY=0
    exec "$bashdir/bash"
  '';
}

Build procedure

Clone repository

$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2.git
$ cd pcsx2

Build Dependencies

PCSX2 depends on multiple third-party libraries, which should be built for your development environment. We provide a convenience script for building these dependencies, which is also used by our CI runners for release builds.

This will build the dependencies to your PCSX2 Git tree, in the deps directory. You can also specify an alternative location, but be sure to adjust CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH in the next step.

$ .github/workflows/scripts/linux/build-dependencies-qt.sh deps

Prepare build with CMake

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ -DCMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_INIT="-fuse-ld=lld" -DCMAKE_MODULE_LINKER_FLAGS_INIT="-fuse-ld" -DCMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_INIT="-fuse-ld=lld" -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$PWD/deps" -GNinja

Note the following optional CMake flags that are commonly used:

  • -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release|Devel|Debug

    • Release: Fastest build, but lacks debug/crash information
    • Devel: Adds detailed trace logging abilities, but lacks debug/crash information
    • Debug: Slowest build as there are no compiler optimizations, but offers debug/crash information

  • -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache

    • Uses ccache to speed up the build process

  • -DCMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION=ON

    • Turns on link time optimization, which provides a noticeable performance improvement.

Execute build

$ ninja -C build

Running PCSX2

PCSX2 can be launched from the build directory:

$ build/bin/pcsx2-qt
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