[🐧] GNU+Linux compatibility progress

edit 2026-07-20: Locking this thread so no-one can ping 50 users at once. There aren't many new Linux-only bugs anyway, and you can always open a new issue.

jump to known bugs

Overview:

• Nothing on this page applies to the (discontinued) macOS port.
  • Also, EmuHawk is only for x86-64 machines for the time being. If you have an x86 or AArch64 machine, you should have no trouble installing the rundeps, but EmuHawk will crash on start; see #3687. Contributions welcome.
• Build instructions are in the readme. tl;dr: run Dist/BuildRelease.sh.
• "Installation" instructions are also in the readme. tl;dr: run output/EmuHawkMono.sh.
  • No Wine required! If you get it working in Wine, good for you, but I'm going to ignore you and hide any counter-productive comments.
• 40-ish of 45-ish systems can be emulated, with the notable exception of N64 (Mupen64Plus isn't available, and the experimental Ares64 core is too slow).
  • But this may soon be resolved with #4117!
• For casual players, most things work as they would on Windows.
• For TASers, most things work as they would on Windows.
• For glitch hunters and romhackers, everything sucks and I'm sorry. But if a core is available on Linux, and the core implements the necessary services for a tool, then it should be at least functional.
• Before 2.10:
  • Command-line flags to EmuHawkMono.sh are passed through as expected. The single exception is if you pass --mono-no-redirect as the first flag, which disables redirecting stdout/stderr to EmuHawkMono_last*.txt (the default behaviour is to write to disk instead of the terminal).
  • When it inevitably crashes, some errors go to the terminal/EmuHawkMono_last*.txt, some appear in dialog boxes, some both. Most of these error dialogs will either have a "Copy" button, or will allow Ctrl+C.

As of 2.10.1, the following systems can be emulated:

• 3DO with Opera (I don't have roms --yoshi)
• 3DS with Encore
• Amiga with UAE
• Apple II with Virtu
• Arcades with MAME
• Atari 2600 with Atari2600Hawk or Stella
• Atari 7800 with A7800Hawk
• Atari Jaguar with VirtualJaguar
• Atari Lynx with Handy
• Channel F with ChannelFHawk (I don't have roms --yoshi)
• ColecoVision with ColecoHawk
• Commodore 64 with C64Hawk (loads to BASIC prompt, at least --yoshi)
• DOOM with DSDA-Doom
• Game Boy and GBC with Gambatte, GBHawk, or SameBoy
• GBA with mGBA
• Intellivision with IntelliHawk
• Magnavox Odyssey² with O2Hawk
• MS-DOS/Win9x with DOSBox-X
• MSX with MSXHawk
• N64 with Ares64
• N64DD with Ares64 (I don't have roms --yoshi)
• Neo Geo Pocket / Color with NeoPop
• NES/Famicom plus FDS with NesHawk or QuickNes
• Nintendo DS with melonDS
• Nintendo Virtual Boy with Virtual Boyee
• PC Engine / TG-16 and SuperGrafx plus CD with HyperNyma, PCEHawk, or TurboNyma
• PC-FX with T.S.T.
• PSX with Nymashock
• PSP with PPSSPP (I had troubles with it during the PR phase --yoshi)
• Sega 32X with PicoDrive
• Sega CD with Genplus-gx
• Sega Game Gear with SMSHawk
• Sega Genesis / Mega Drive with Genplus-gx
• Sega Master System with SMSHawk
• Sega Pico with Genplus-gx (I don't have roms --yoshi)
• Sega Saturn with Saturnus
• Sega SG-1000 SMSHawk
• SNES/SFC with BSNES, Faust, or Snes9x
• Super Game Boy with Gambatte or BSNES
• TI-83 with Emu83 or TI83Hawk (see "Issues with TI83Hawk" below)
• TIC-80 fantasy console with TIC-80 reference implementation
• Uzebox fantasy console with Uzem
• Vectrex with VectrexHawk
• WonderSwan / Color with Cygne
• ZX Spectrum with ZXHawk
• Anything else via Libretro cores (provided they don't crash)

This is a locked compatibility tracker rather than a scoped task. Start with the linked known-bugs list and the README's Linux build and installation instructions, including Dist/BuildRelease.sh and output/EmuHawkMono.sh. A contributor would need a newly opened, specific bug before there is a defined completion condition.