Compiling FS-UAE

These instructions are for you if you want to build your own version of FS-UAE for any reason.

Please note that the resulting build may not be built in a way that's suitable for distribution to other users. Often, you need to take additional steps to ensure that the packages work on systems with older operating system versions.

Setting up a build environment

First, you need to prepare your build environment. Instructions for several operating systems are listed below.

Debian / Ubuntu

Install dependencies for bootstrapping and building FS-UAE:

sudo apt install autoconf automake build-essential gettext \
libfreetype6-dev libglew-dev libglib2.0-dev libjpeg-dev libmpeg2-4-dev \
libopenal-dev libpng-dev libsdl2-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libtool libxi-dev \
libxtst-dev zip zlib1g-dev

openSUSE

Install dependencies for bootstrapping and building FS-UAE:

sudo zypper install autoconf automake freetype2-devel gcc gcc-c++ gettext \
glib2-devel libpng-devel libtool libXi-devel openal-devel SDL2-devel zip

Fedora

Install dependencies for running bootstrap:

sudo dnf install autoconf automake libtool gettext

Install dependencies for building FS-UAE:

sudo dnf install SDL2-devel glib2-devel libpng-devel gcc gcc-c++ openal-devel libXi-devel zip libmpeg2-devel SDL2_ttf-devel glew-devel zlib-devel freetype-devel hicolor-icon-theme

Windows

Install latest msys2-x86_64 from www.msys2.org/ and follow the installation instructions to get an updated MSYS2 installation. Then start MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit.

Install dependencies for bootstrapping and building FS-UAE:

pacman -S autoconf automake gettext libtool make \
mingw-w64-x86_64-freetype mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-x86_64-glew \
mingw-w64-x86_64-glib2 mingw-w64-x86_64-libmpeg2 mingw-w64-x86_64-libpng \
mingw-w64-x86_64-openal mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2 mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2_ttf \
pkg-config zip

macOS

FIXME: Write new instructions for the fsdeps/ fsbuild scripts. Some build-time dependencies must be installed separately, for example via Homebrew:

brew install autoconf automake cmake dos2unix libtool m4 meson pkg-config \
wget

Install homebrew from https://brew.sh (follow their instructions) and then open a new terminal.

Install dependencies for bootstrapping and building FS-UAE:

brew install autoconf automake freetype gettext glew glib jpeg libmpeg2 \
libpng libtool openal-soft pkg-config sdl2 sdl2_ttf zlib

In order build FS-UAE itself, you need to have Apple's Xcode installed and command line tools for Xcode enabled.

Configuring and building FS-UAE

If you are using the git repository, you need to bootstrap with (skip if using source tarball):

./bootstrap

Run the configuration script (see the next section for options):

./configure

And finally, compile the fs-uae executable:

make

You can now run fs-uae from the source folder without installation:

./fs-uae

Configuration options

The configure script can be used to enable some additional features (but they might not work or even compile) and disable default features.

Please note, the only supported configuration is to build with the default option set or the ones listed below. Other options are provided for testing and debugging purposes - and also for your convenience, in the cases where it happens to work ;-).

Supported options:

--prefix=...: Installation prefix (defaults to /usr/local).
--disable-jit: For platforms without UAE JIT support.
--disable-x86: Disable x86 bridgeboard emulation.

37 thoughts on “Compiling FS-UAE”

Hi, I’m looking at compiling on the Mac, for Apple Silicon. What dependencies do I need to get the compile going?

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FrodeSolheim on 2020-12-30 at 17:54 said:

Hi, sorry for late response, but I believe you’ve already figured this out 🙂

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Hi… Im trying to compile fs-uae 2.6.2 under Linux
I’m getting a narrowing error:

src/expansion.cpp:2537:1: error: narrowing conversion of ‘2148532239u’ from ‘unsigned int’ to ‘int’ inside { } [-Wnarrowing]

make throws error 2
my gcc version is 6.1.1
please fix it

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FrodeSolheim on 2016-05-14 at 17:06 said:

Hi, you should be able to compile the latest FS-UAE 2.7.14dev version with GCC 6.x. I’m not planning on doing anything with 2.6.x, since a new stable 2.8.x based on the development branch is imminent.

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- Paul on 2016-05-19 at 05:56 said:
  
  Ok, thanks!
  
  Reply ↓

This page has been updated for the latest development version and stable beta.

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Hi, Is there a pre built version of fs-uae for osx 10.5.8 (PPC)?

I’m really not comfortable building the source tbh. I would really appreciate your help.

Thanks

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FrodeSolheim on 2015-08-04 at 00:46 said:

Hi, I do not provide official support for either 10.5 or PPC. But tlosm provides unofficial 10.5 PPC builds of FS-UAE: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=74649 (go to the last page for the latest version)

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I’m having issues compiling under Debian 8 on a G4 Mac Mini. I don’t have the exact error handy but it’s something to do with libmpeg2arch? I have the libmpeg2 libraries installed. Otherwise for the life of me I can’t get it to run (using latest stable or latest dev) without being slower than Quake on a real Amiga.

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FrodeSolheim on 2015-05-14 at 12:49 said:

Hi, I do not *officially* support FS-UAE on PPC, but it sounds like you may have encountered the same problem as this user: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=76837 (see thread for possible solutions).

As for performance, the G4 is likely underpowered for running FS-UAE. You can tweak FS-UAE to run a bit faster (see http://fs-uae.net/performance), and you also need to ensure you have HW-accelerated OpenGL, otherwise the rendering will slow down FS-UAE too.

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- Aron Bott on 2015-05-14 at 17:55 said:
  
  Thanks for the reply!
  
  I have tried a few performance tweaks and nothing has really helped (at best 1 frame every 3 seconds vs every 5). I’m also about 80% certain that OpenGL is working, however I’m wondering what version the linux repositories gave me. If I’m reading correctly the Radeon 9200 in the G4 Mac Mini only supports OpenGL 1.3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATI_Radeon_R200_series). Would it call for/use opengl functions that are incompatible?
  
  I’ve also had a chat with tlosm/Luigi who told me Mac OSX 10.5 was the was to go on a similarly specced G4 Mac, achieving about 68040/20 speeds, but otherwise I should use EUAE JIT PPC. To my knowledge all implementations of EUAE don’t support parallel joysticks which was something I was hoping for (and it really surprises me that this is pretty much the only emulation option under MorphOS).
  
  If I get a chance I’ll try the compiling tips from the link you mentioned, otherwise I ‘ll tinker with OpenGL more or revisit Linux at a later date and roll with OSX in the meantime.
  
  Reply ↓
  - Aron Bott on 2015-05-15 at 07:27 said:
    
    I’ve found something that wasn’t allowing OpenGL drivers to function completely. Running glxinfo seemed to show everything working allright, but glxgears kept giving me nothing, and running the game Supertux was similarly slow with OpenGL turned on. The Mac Mini G4 w/Debian needs Mesa3D drivers for the OpenGL to function all the way, and I somehow missed one important bit of them: the libgl1-mesa-dri package. After that all of the above worked (though it could also have been one of the other packages I’d installed trying to troubleshoot opengl). Sadly even with that fixed FS-UAE was still slow (about 2fps) but the interface was improved! I really like how it pans out for the save state functions to appear (that didn’t happen at all before).
    
    Now I will try compiling again, as well as performance tweaks, to see if that changes anything, but after that if there are no changes in speed I’ll just try FS-UAE under OSX
    
    Reply ↓

why it’s very slow on Odroid U3+
i compiled it on ubuntu desktop 13 and ubuntu server 14
both are very slow

i don’t understand why…

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FrodeSolheim on 2015-01-17 at 14:21 said:

See http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=76649 🙂

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installed both launcher and emulator, how can i start the launcher ?
its not in the menu

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FrodeSolheim on 2014-12-03 at 17:55 said:

Hi, too little information. What operating system are you using? How did you install FS-UAE Launcher, and what menu are you looking for it in?

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- martin on 2014-12-03 at 18:00 said:
  
  main application menu. operating system in manjaro 0.8.10 32bit and i compiled from sources as said here in this how to.
  
  Reply ↓
  - FrodeSolheim on 2014-12-03 at 18:09 said:
    
    Using python3 setup.py install does not install any launch icon. For the binary packages I provide for .rpm and .deb-based system for example, I add the launcher icon (.desktop file) when packaging the software. The setup script should install a “fs-uae-launcher” script though, which you can run manually – or you can create a launcher icon to run it.
    
    Reply ↓
    - martin on 2014-12-03 at 18:16 said:
      
      i dont know how to create launcher,im somewhat new to linux and.
  - FrodeSolheim on 2014-12-03 at 18:22 said:
    
    I double-checked the source distribution btw. Looks like I have in fact at some point added the .desktop launcher to the source distribution, and I’ve also added a Makefile target to install it. Just run “make install” from the launcher source code directory to install the icon, launcher and translations 🙂
    
    Reply ↓
    - martin on 2014-12-03 at 18:56 said:
      
      icon is there now, but when i click on it it doesnt start up for some reason…i have all dependencies installed.
      ok 😀 after trying to run it thru terminal, it says”no module named lzhlib.
    - FrodeSolheim on 2014-12-03 at 19:10 said:
      
      I don’t think that’s the problem. lhafile/lzhlib should be an optional dependency 🙂 Can you paste the last 20-30 lines of output from the terminal?
    - martin on 2014-12-03 at 19:27 said:
      
      [martinxd@Arvuti ~]$ fs-uae-launcher
      …
      Traceback (most recent call last):
      File “/usr/bin/fs-uae-launcher”, line 68, in
      from fs_uae_launcher.ConfigChecker import ConfigChecker
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fs_uae_launcher/ConfigChecker.py”, line 7, in
      from .Config import Config
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fs_uae_launcher/Config.py”, line 28, in
      from fsgs.platform import PlatformHandler
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fsgs/platform.py”, line 49, in
      from .platforms.amiga import AmigaPlatformHandler
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fsgs/platforms/amiga.py”, line 8, in
      from fsgs.amiga.runner import AmigaRunner
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fsgs/amiga/runner.py”, line 10, in
      from fsgs.amiga.LaunchHandler import LaunchHandler
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fsgs/amiga/LaunchHandler.py”, line 18, in
      from fsbc.Resources import Resources
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fsbc/Resources.py”, line 9, in
      from pkg_resources import resource_filename, resource_stream
      ImportError: No module named ‘pkg_resources’
    - FrodeSolheim on 2014-12-03 at 19:30 said:
      
      You are missing the required dependency setuptools (a python package).
    - martin on 2014-12-03 at 19:49 said:
      
      now it says …
      
      [martinxd@Arvuti ~]$ fs-uae-launcher
      Traceback (most recent call last):
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fsgs/Archive.py”, line 15, in
      from lhafile import LhaFile
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/lhafile/__init__.py”, line 2, in
      from .lhafile import *
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/lhafile/lhafile.py”, line 45, in
      import lzhlib
      ImportError: No module named ‘lzhlib’
      LhaFile module import problem
      checking /usr/bin/Portable.ini
      checking /usr/Portable.ini
      checking /Portable.ini
      no Portable.ini found in search path
      base_dir not decided yet, checking FS_UAE_BASE_DIR
      using default base_dir
      – checking /home/martinxd/.config/fs-uae-launcher/base-dir
      – checking /home/martinxd/.config/fs-uae/base-dir
      XDG user dir DOCUMENTS => ‘/home/martinxd/Dokumendid’
      base dir is /home/martinxd/Dokumendid/FS-UAE
      fs-uae-launcher
      2.4.1
      stable
      enabling except hook
      enable tread exception handler
      uname_result(system=’Linux’, node=’Arvuti’, release=’3.14.21-1-MANJARO’, version=’#1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Oct 11 18:54:33 UTC 2014′, machine=’i686′, processor=”)
      [‘/usr/bin/fs-uae-launcher’]
      FS-UAE Launcher 2.4.1
      
      Unhandled exception detected in thread MainThread:
      Exception:__init__.py::56
      
      Traceback (most recent call last):
      File “/usr/bin/fs-uae-launcher”, line 71, in
      from fs_uae_launcher.FSUAELauncher import FSUAELauncher
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fs_uae_launcher/FSUAELauncher.py”, line 12, in
      from fs_uae_launcher.ui.download import DownloadGameWindow, DownloadTermsDialog
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fs_uae_launcher/ui/download.py”, line 10, in
      import fsui
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fsui/__init__.py”, line 24, in
      from .qt import *
      File “/usr/lib/python3.4/site-packages/fsui/qt/__init__.py”, line 56, in
      raise Exception(“no QT python bindings found”)
      Exception: no QT python bindings found
    - FrodeSolheim on 2014-12-13 at 08:58 said:
      
      You need python QT bindings…
      
      Btw, if you want to try running “your own version” of FS-UAE, it might be better to use the development version (http://fs-uae.net/download-devel). Since that is more up to date, I’ll easier be able to help you.
      
      I have also updated the documentation at http://fs-uae.net/compiling to work with the latest development version 🙂 (so you’ll find an updated list of dependencies on this page now).

I got it up and running on PCBSD 10. Be aware that you need to install gcc separately since FreeBSD changed to clang from version 10.

I needed to add a few other packages to complete the gmake build. But it works.

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FrodeSolheim on 2014-06-08 at 18:37 said:

Hi, that’s great! Note that GCC isn’t needed to compile FS-UAE (you should be able to point CC/CXX to clang instead). The latest development version uses autoconf and should detect the compiler automatically (and gmake isn’t needed either anymore).

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Thanks. works fine under FreeBSD 9.2! Y.

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Hi! Thanks for fast reply 🙂
Sorry my English is bad 🙁 I tested with python 2.7 and 3.0 and have follow errors:

python2.7 /usr/bin/fs-uae-launcher
…
File “/usr/share/fs-uae-launcher/lhafile/lhafile.py”, line 45, in
import lzhlib
ImportError: No module named lzhlib
…
File “/usr/share/fs-uae-launcher/fsui/qt/__init__.py”, line 56, in
raise Exception(“no QT python bindings found”)
Exception: no QT python bindings found

python3 /usr/bin/fs-uae-launcher
…
File “/usr/share/fs-uae-launcher/fsgs/mame/mame.py”, line 92
rom_path = rom_path + u’;’ + self.mame_get_bios_dir()
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

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FrodeSolheim on 2014-02-22 at 21:24 said:

It does not start on your system (with python2.7) because you are missing QT bindings for Python. You need either Pyside, PyQt4 or PyQt5. Python 3.x isn’t officially supported yet.

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I use CommodoreOS Vision (Linux Mint Julia)

python fs-uae-launcher

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “fs-uae-launcher”, line 31, in
from fsgs.FSGSDirectories import FSGSDirectories
File “/home/user/Downloads/fs-uae-launcher-2.4.0/fsgs/__init__.py”, line 6, in
from .FSGameSystemContext import FSGameSystemContext
File “/home/user/Downloads/fs-uae-launcher-2.4.0/fsgs/FSGameSystemContext.py”, line 17, in
from fsgs.Archive import Archive
File “/home/user/Downloads/fs-uae-launcher-2.4.0/fsgs/Archive.py”, line 24, in
from fsbc.SevenZipFile import SevenZipFile
File “/home/user/Downloads/fs-uae-launcher-2.4.0/fsbc/SevenZipFile.py”, line 68
return {“name:”, name}
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Regards
Rolly

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FrodeSolheim on 2014-02-22 at 19:37 said:

This is a bug, the line should be return {“name:”: name} instead (colon should replace the comma). It does not cause a syntax error in Python 2.7 since this is a valid expression for sets.

FS-UAE Launcher is not tested with Python 2.6. I’ll fix this error, but the launcher may still not work with Python 2.6, You should, if possible, upgrade your Linux distribution so you have Python 2.7.

If you already have Python 2.7 installed (but 2.6 is default), please run the launcher with
python2.7 /usr/bin/fs-uae-launcher

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I’m trying to compile on FreeBSD 10, and have all the dependencies installed (including gcc; I also have gcc49). The compilation quits with the following:

g++ -DFSEMU -DFSUAE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -DFREEBSD -DUSE_SDL -DUSE_GLIB -DWITH_LUA -Isrc/od-fs -Isrc/od-fs/include -Isrc/include -Igensrc -Isrc `pkg-config –cflags glib-2.0 gthread-2.0 libpng` -Ilibfsemu/include -Ilibfsemu/src/lua `sdl-config –cflags` -O2 -ggdb -c gensrc/blitfunc.cpp -o obj/gensrc-blitfunc.o
g++: not found
gmake: *** [obj/gensrc-blitfunc.o] Error 127

Am I missing something, or is this a FreeBSD 10 issue?

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FrodeSolheim on 2014-02-09 at 23:29 said:

You are missing the C++ compiler from GCC (g++). Perhaps you need to install that separately from “gcc” in FreeBSD 10? – or perhaps it is installed but with a version suffix like g++-4.9 instead?

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Hi, thanx for the cool emulator. On FreeBSD openal-soft is in audio category, so perhaps you could correct devel/openal-soft to audio/openal-soft.

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FrodeSolheim on 2013-03-30 at 12:53 said:

Thanks, I have corrected the documentation!

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FS-UAE Amiga Emulator

Documentation

Compiling FS-UAE

Setting up a build environment

Debian / Ubuntu

openSUSE

Fedora

Windows

macOS

Configuring and building FS-UAE

Configuration options