libretro/wiki/installer.md

Installer - RetroBIOS

Reference for install.sh, install.ps1 and install.py: what the one-liner runs, what it detects, where the bytes come from and what it is allowed to write. For BIOS directory paths per platform, see Getting started.

One line

# Linux / macOS / Steam Deck
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.sh | sh

# Windows
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.ps1 | iex

From a clone, run the installer itself. Nothing beyond the standard library is needed, and Python 3.8 is the floor both bootstraps enforce before handing over:

python install.py

Passing options

The shell bootstrap forwards everything after -s --:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.sh \
  | sh -s -- --platform retroarch --dest /path/to/sdcard

PowerShell needs another form. iex takes the script text as its own argument, so anything appended to irm ... | iex is read as an argument to iex and rejected with A positional parameter cannot be found. Building a script block from the text and calling it passes the arguments through:

&([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.ps1))) `
  --platform retroarch --dest D:\bios

What the bootstrap does

Both wrappers do the same four things before any BIOS file is considered.

They fetch install.py over HTTPS only, from RETROBIOS_INSTALL_URL or the pinned raw URL. A URL with any other scheme is refused outright.

They cap the download at 2 MB and require the SHA-256 to equal the 64 hex characters embedded in the wrapper, RETROBIOS_INSTALL_SHA256 when set. A mismatch aborts with install.py SHA-256 mismatch and nothing runs. Any change to install.py therefore means recomputing that pin in both wrappers.

They locate a Python 3.8 or newer interpreter (python3 then python on POSIX, py -3 then python3 then python on Windows) and refuse to continue without one. install.sh needs curl or wget and sha256sum or shasum. Windows PowerShell 5.1 still negotiates SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 by default and GitHub refuses both, so install.ps1 raises the floor to TLS 1.2 before downloading; install.sh pins the same floor with curl --tlsv1.2.

They delete the temporary installer on the way out, including on interrupt. Run from a clone, install.sh and install.ps1 reuse the install.py sitting next to them and skip the download entirely; piped from stdin, install.sh never treats the working directory as a trusted location for it.

Piped from curl, the shell's standard input is the script itself, so install.sh hands the installer the terminal (/dev/tty) when there is one. Without that, every question the installer can ask was skipped on Linux and macOS.

What the installer does

1. Detects the host OS and the platforms installed on it.
2. Fetches install/<platform>.json from the same revision the bootstrap verified the installer against, so the file list and the code reading it always come from one commit.
3. Prints the file count and total size, then a safety notice counting the entries the collection cannot serve, how many of those the platform marks required, and why. At a terminal, it then offers to install everything or to choose systems, cores and regions (see below).
4. Hashes what is already in the destination and reports how many entries are present, verified, or present with the wrong contents.
5. Downloads what is missing or wrong, up to 8 files at a time.
6. Verifies each download against the declared size, SHA-256 and SHA-1 before it touches the destination, retrying up to three times, then moves it into place with os.replace so a partial file is never visible.
7. Copies into standalone emulator directories, only with --standalone-copies.

A run looks like this:

Fetching file index for retroarch...
  1872 files (5.5 GB)
  Safety notice: 9 unavailable or unsafe entries omitted (1 required; not found: 9).

Checking existing files...
  0/1872 present (0 verified, 0 wrong hash)

  1872 files need downloading.

Choosing what to install

By default the installer fetches everything the platform runs. At a terminal, after detection, it asks:

Retroarch: 5861 files, 6.0 GB.
  Enter) install everything
  c) choose systems, cores and regions
  q) quit

c walks through three numbered lists, each answered with numbers such as 1,4,7-9, or Enter to keep everything on that axis.

• Systems. The consoles and computers the platform declares. A last entry, other, holds what cores load for systems the platform does not list, such as game engines and extra computers. Choosing systems leaves it out unless it is chosen too, as generate_pack.py --system does.
• Cores. The platform's own BIOS list for the chosen systems is always kept; this narrows only the extra files each emulator core loads beyond it. Asked only when the chosen systems have such files.
• Regions. Asked only when a chosen system has one BIOS per region. The numbers give an order of preference: 2,1 keeps the second region where a file for it exists, and the first one elsewhere.

The run then prints the options that repeat the same choice without questions, for instance --platform retroarch --system sony-playstation --region north-america.

The same choices on the command line:

python install.py --platform retroarch --list-systems
python install.py --platform retroarch --system sony-playstation,nintendo-gba
python install.py --platform retroarch --system sony-playstation --core pcsx_rearmed
python install.py --platform recalbox --region us,eu,jp

A name the platform does not have is refused with the list of the ones it has, before anything is downloaded: carrying on would install something other than what was asked. A system name that itself contains commas, as Recalbox's msx1,msx2,msxturbor does, is read as one name.

The region rule is the one generate_pack.py --region applies, and a test holds the two to the same file list. In each group of regional alternatives the best-ranked match stays; a file declared for every region beats regional files that match nothing asked; when nothing matches, every regional file stays, so no system is left without its BIOS. A file the emulator does not select by region always stays. The manifest records, for each file, the systems that declare it, and for a regional file, its regions and the groups it competes in; the installer reads nothing else.

The questions are asked only when standard input is a terminal. Piped, scripted or run with --no-input, the installer asks nothing and installs what the options name, everything by default.

Options

Option	Effect
--platform NAME	Install for this platform instead of the detected one. Unknown names are refused with the available list
--dest PATH	Destination directory, overriding detection. With --dest alone the file list is RetroArch's
--target NAME	Keep only the files the cores of that hardware target need. An unknown target is refused rather than ignored, since carrying on would install everything
--system NAMES	Install only these systems. Comma-separated or repeated; --list-systems prints the names, other included
--core NAMES	Keep the platform's own list and only the extra files these cores load; --list-cores prints the names
--region LIST	Preferred regions, best first (us,eu,jp): keep one BIOS per region where a system has several. Accepts the names and aliases of generate_pack.py --region
--list-systems	Print a platform's systems with the files and size each holds
--list-cores	Print the cores whose extra files a platform installs
--no-input	Never ask a question, even at a terminal
--check	Report and exit without writing
--list-platforms	Print the supported platforms and what was detected here
--list-targets	Print the hardware targets a platform publishes, with the core count each carries
--jobs N, -j N	Parallel downloads, 1 to 32, default 8
--verbose, -v	Print per-attempt failures and hash mismatches
--standalone-copies	Also copy into detected standalone emulator directories
--help, -h	Print the option list and exit

--check reads the same file list, hashes the destination and exits. Without it, a file already present with the expected hash is left untouched, and one whose contents do not match is re-downloaded and replaced by the verified copy. Files the list does not name are never read, moved or deleted.

Environment overrides

Variable	Effect
RETROBIOS_REF	Branch or tag the file list and the payloads are read from. Defaults to main; a release tag pins a reproducible file set
RETROBIOS_BASE_URL	Base URL for the manifest and the files it declares. HTTPS only, plain HTTP allowed to loopback for end-to-end tests. Whoever controls this base controls the expected hashes, hence the check
RETROBIOS_OS	Names the host outright (linux, wsl, windows, darwin, android) instead of detecting it
EXTERNAL_STORAGE	Android only, the shared storage root RetroArch builds its default directories from. Defaults to /storage/emulated/0
RETROBIOS_INSTALL_URL	Where the bootstrap fetches install.py. HTTPS only
RETROBIOS_INSTALL_SHA256	The SHA-256 the bootstrap requires of that installer, 64 hex characters
HTTPS_PROXY, NO_PROXY	Honoured for every download through the standard library's default proxy handling: one names the proxy, the other the hosts to reach directly

Platform detection

Detection reads what the platform itself writes, never a guess from a directory name. The embedded systems are tested in the order below and the first match wins, since a machine is only one of them.

Evidence	Platform	BIOS directory
/etc/os-release ID=rocknix	ROCKNIX	/storage/roms/bios
/media/fat/MiSTer	MiSTer FPGA	/media/fat/games
/etc/knulli-release	Batocera	/userdata/bios
/etc/os-release ID=lakka	Lakka	/storage/system
/etc/batocera-version	Batocera	/userdata/bios
/recalbox/recalbox.version or /usr/bin/recalbox-settings	Recalbox	/recalbox/share/bios
/opt/muos or /mnt/mmc/MUOS/	RetroArch	/mnt/mmc/MUOS/bios
/home/ark and /opt/system	RetroArch	/roms/bios
/mnt/vendor/bin/dmenu.bin	RetroArch	/mnt/mmc/bios

Desktop installs are read from their own configuration, and several can be found on one machine.

Evidence	Platform	BIOS directory
~/.config/EmuDeck/settings.sh	EmuDeck	emulationPath + /bios
%APPDATA%\EmuDeck\settings.ps1	EmuDeck	$emulationPath + \bios
~/.var/app/net.retrodeck.retrodeck/config/retrodeck/retrodeck.json	RetroDECK	paths.rd_home_path, falling back to the pre-migration retrodeck.cfg and its rdhome
~/.var/app/org.libretro.RetroArch/config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg	RetroArch (Flatpak)	system_directory
~/snap/retroarch/current/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg	RetroArch (Snap)	system_directory
~/.config/retroarch/retroarch.cfg	RetroArch (native)	system_directory
~/Library/Application Support/RetroArch/retroarch.cfg	RetroArch (macOS)	system_directory
%APPDATA%\RetroArch\retroarch.cfg	RetroArch (Windows)	system_directory
%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Steam\steamapps\common\RetroArch\retroarch.cfg	RetroArch (Steam)	system_directory
LaunchBox Data\Emulators.xml	RetroArch (portable)	the system directory that entry points at

system_directory is read the way RetroArch expands it: a leading ~ is the home directory, a leading : is the application directory, and default means system next to the application. The LaunchBox installation is located through its Start menu shortcut, the only record of where its installer was pointed.

Android has one frontend with a shared BIOS directory, and the app-private directories of the standalone emulators are unreachable from outside the app under scoped storage.

Evidence	Platform	BIOS directory
<shared storage>/Android/data/<package>/files/retroarch.cfg	RetroArch (Android)	system_directory
/data/data/<package>/files/retroarch.cfg	RetroArch (Android)	system_directory
<shared storage>/RetroArch/	RetroArch (Android)	<shared storage>/RetroArch/system

The packages are com.retroarch.aarch64, com.retroarch and com.retroarch.ra32, the flavours the frontend publishes. Both config paths are unreadable from Termux on Android 11 and later, so the directory itself is what answers on current devices.

ES-DE and LaunchBox are reported when present and nothing is written to them: they reference emulators rather than owning a BIOS directory. ES-DE is looked up at $ESDE_APPDATA_DIR or ~/ES-DE, the two locations its own getAppDataDirectory resolves.

BizHawk, RetroBat, RomM and RetroPie have no detection and are selected with --platform. When a forced platform is not found on the machine, the destination falls back to /userdata/bios for Batocera, /recalbox/share/bios for Recalbox, /storage/system for Lakka, ~/retrodeck for RetroDECK, ~/Emulation/bios for EmuDeck, /storage/roms/bios for ROCKNIX, /media/fat/games for MiSTer, ~/RetroPie/BIOS for RetroPie, and ~/bios for anything else. On Android a forced --platform retroarch falls back to <shared storage>/RetroArch/system instead, a home directory there belonging to Termux rather than to the frontend. Pass --dest to say where instead of relying on that.

With nothing detected, the installer lists the platforms and asks. With several detected, it asks which one. Both prompts need a terminal: piped into a script with no platform to install for, it prints the manual invocation and exits 1.

Standalone copies

Some files are read by a standalone emulator from its own data directory rather than from the platform's BIOS tree. --standalone-copies copies them there after the install, and only then: without the flag nothing is written outside the selected tree.

The manifest carries the list, fifteen entries on the six platforms that declare them (Batocera, EmuDeck, Recalbox, RetroArch, RetroBat, RetroDECK):

Files	Copied to
prod.keys, title.keys	yuzu, eden, citron, suyu and Ryujinx key directories
Citra/sysdata/aes_keys.txt, Citra/sysdata/boot9.bin	Azahar sysdata
scph*.bin	DuckStation bios
ps2-*.bin	PCSX2 bios, native and Flatpak
GC/USA/IPL.bin, GC/EUR/IPL.bin, GC/JAP/IPL.bin, dsp_rom.bin, dsp_coef.bin	Dolphin, per region for the IPL
PPSSPP/ppge_atlas.zim	PPSSPP PSP/SYSTEM
dc/dc_boot.bin, dc/dc_nvmem.bin	Flycast data, native and Flatpak

An entry names one file or a glob, and one entry carries no file at all: when an RPCS3 configuration directory is present it prints that PS3UPDAT.PUP is installed through RPCS3's own File menu, since that firmware is an installer to run rather than a file to copy.

Targets are per OS, WSL falling back to the Linux ones. A directory that does not exist is skipped rather than created, so nothing is copied for an emulator that is not installed. A destination that is already a symbolic link is skipped too: the copy leaves the tree the user opted into, and a link there would redirect the write somewhere else again.

Android

Android reports itself as Linux, so the runtime is named from its own variables instead: ANDROID_ROOT and ANDROID_DATA, which Termux inherits, with /system/build.prop covering a shell started without them.

Detection then looks for RetroArch, the only Android frontend keeping a shared BIOS directory. retroarch.cfg is read from the app external files directory and then from the internal one, the order the frontend itself follows (platform_unix.c:1327-1395), and a system_directory left at default resolves against <shared storage>/RetroArch, where the directory also sits when no config has been written yet (platform_unix.c:2836-2851).

Under scoped storage those two config paths are unreadable from Termux on Android 11 and later, so on current devices the shared directory is what answers. Running termux-setup-storage once is what makes it reachable:

pkg install python
termux-setup-storage
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.sh | sh

EXTERNAL_STORAGE overrides the storage root for a device that mounts it elsewhere. A custom BIOS directory is still named directly:

python install.py --platform retroarch --dest /storage/emulated/0/RetroArch/system

Where the files come from

Each manifest entry names either repo_path, served from the repository at the pinned revision, or release_asset, served from the large-files release for the files above the size GitHub carries in a tree. Everything else in the entry (dest, size, sha1, sha256, cores) describes what must land where and what it must hash to.

Entries the collection cannot satisfy are not silently dropped: they travel in omitted_files with a reason, and the run prints the count before downloading anything. not_found means no file in the collection matches the entry, which is what the gap analysis tracks.

Trust boundary

The manifest is fetched over the network and treated as untrusted input. Every path it carries goes through one validator that refuses an absolute path, a drive letter, a backslash, a null byte, a doubled separator, a trailing slash and any .. component, so a destination cannot climb out of the BIOS directory. Manifest, target list and payloads each have a size cap, the file list a count cap, and the sum of the declared sizes is checked against the total the manifest claims.

Symbolic links met under the BIOS root are followed on purpose: they are the user's own layout, and EmuDeck links bios/shadps4/sys_modules into shadPS4's data directory where the emulator actually reads it. The boundary is lexical, not a resolved-path comparison, which is what keeps that case working. Standalone copies are stricter, since they write outside the tree the user selected: a symlink already sitting at the destination is skipped rather than followed.

Exit status

0 on success, 1 on failure: an unusable base URL, an unknown platform or target, a manifest that fails validation, a fetch that never succeeded, or no platform to install for in a non-interactive run.

Failures that are per-file, such as a download exhausting its three attempts, are counted and reported at the end.

When something goes wrong

See Troubleshooting for network, permission and detection failures.