Awesome app, but it stopped opening after 5 mins. I have a number of questions but they are all for the purpose of: how in the world do I install this app?!?!
Do I need to set the date back to 2012, as some people claim? If so, at what point(s) in the download, installation, or use of the app do I do so?
I’ve downloaded to .zip files for iOS several times, but nothing happens. I can view them in my Downloads app, but it doesn’t help at all: no RetroArch app ever installs. No idea how it installed the first time - just appeared several minutes after one of my first downloads, but I haven’t been able to recreate that.
The official RetroArch installation requires a jailbroken device. The non-jailbreak version isn’t officially supported, though we’ll try to answer your questions and help with issues when possible.
First of all what device are you trying to install RetroArch on? What firmware? Is it jailbroken?
If your device is jailbroken, then just install RetroArch from the official Cydia repo and it should work just fine.
Ive installed RetroArch on 3 of my devices and not once have I had to change the date
I see. I’m sorry if I was just completely mistaken - I haven’t seen “jailbroken” mentioned on this site, but I probably just didn’t notice it. I hunted for quite some time for SNES emulators, and then N64, for non-jailbroken devices, and somehow stumbled on RetroArch, which seemed like the cure-all. Whatever article got me to RetroArch to begin with claimed it worked with non-jailbroken devices. And oddly, it did work on my iPhone 5S for a few minutes. I saw a YouTube video demonstrating Emu4iOS, which instructions don’t work any more, and somehow made my way to RetroArch.
So, the devices I’m hoping to install RetroArch on are an iPhone 5S and iPad Mini Retina - but neither are jailbroken. Is that possible? I suppose I’d consider jailbreaking them, but I don’t know much about the process or implications. Honestly, I’m not very tech savvy.
Oh boy, someone totally new to jailbreaking… …alright then, listen up! If you truly want to run emulators on ios devices and get the best out of those emulators, youre going to have to jailbreak your devices. It’s really simple, and it opens up your devices to be able to do a lot more things than what it can normally do on stock firmware. Even on the most current ios firmware (7.1.2) , all devices can be jailbroken at the moment. You have two very capable ios devices (I have the 5s as well and the iPad Air) that will pretty much have no problems running any current emulator after theyre jailbroken. It’ll even get much better when the new update for retroarch comes out next month and supports the ppsspp (psp emulator core)! Jailbroken devices even allow you to connect a ps3 controller to them for use with emulators and appstore games that have mfi controller support. ipad+stand+controller= win lol
If youre willing to jailbreak your ios device (since youre new at this, i suggest just jailbreaking your iPad mini to start off with instead of your phone) and want to learn a thing or two on jailbreaking and what it offers, then first I need to know what firmware (settings->general->about->Version) your devices are on.
So, my iPhone has complete coverage, so I’d almost prefer jailbreaking that first. But if there’s really no risk, I can go for the iPad. I had thought that I would have to wait for the next jailbreak release…
In any case, here are the respective firmwares:
iPhone 5S: 7.1.2 (11D257)
iPad Mini Retina: 7.1.2 (11D257)
Alright then, whichever one you want to jailbreak first is up to you. Since you’re already on the newest firmware, all you will need to do is download the jailbreak tool onto your computer. That can be found here: http://en.pangu.io
Just press either mac or windows (whatever system you’re using) and it will download the program to jailbreak your device.
Though before you go ahead and begin jailbreaking, connect your devices to itunes and create a back up for both devices (this is incase anything bad happens during the jailbreak, though under normal conditions, nothing should go wrong). If you’ve only updated your devices through itunes, then you shouldn’t have any issues during the jailbreak process (as long as you can follow instructions). Though if you’ve updated your devices through the OTA (over the air) updater in your devices’ settings, then it could possible cause issues. Im not too sure on that though since I’ve never done it that way, and its usually not recommended to jailbreak your device if you’ve updated your firmware through OTA instead of itunes. So, if you have updated through OTA, then I suggest you first connect your device to itunes, create a back up of your device onto the computer, then restore your device to stock settings, and then when itunes asks if you want to set up your device as a new device or from a back up, you will want to choose the back up option with the the back up you just created. After all that is said and done, you can begin jailbreaking with no possible issues (as long as you follow the instructions during the jailbreak process). If you’ve only updated your firmware through itunes, then you can skip all this (though, still create a back up just in case) and go straight to jailbreaking.
A few things to note when using the jailbreak tool:
-Your computer will need to be connected to the internet.
-Make sure itunes is closed out before you start jailbreaking (also in itunes, uncheck the ‘open itunes when this device connects to the computer’ option. Do this preferably before or after you create your back up and make sure to press apply).
-On your device, make sure you don’t have a password lock set and set autolock in settings to ‘never’ (you can change this back after it’s jailbroken).
-Make sure your device is connected to wifi (or data, though your wifi will be faster). This will be needed when you open cydia for the very first time and also whenever you use it.
Alright, now you can go ahead and jailbreak your device. Just plug up your device and start up the pangu jailbreak. Make sure to follow any onscreen instructions as it jailbreaks your device. Here is a step by step video to help you out: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Ct2bDAeYc (you can ignore the part in the end about installing apple file conduit 2 in cydia. If you download and use the latest version of pangu, which you’ll have automatically if you use the link i gave above, you won’t need to do what he’s suggesting. You will already have root access on your device. This will of course come in handy when you want to transfer games and other files onto your device and take the shortest amount of time possible doing it)
Once your device is jailbroken, make sure it’s connected to the internet and open the cydia application thats on your home screen. Its going to do it’s thing and respring/reboot your device after its done (this is normal and does this the very first time you open cydia). Then go ahead and open up cydia again and go to the sources tab. Press the edit button, then the add button, then type this in: libretro.com/cydia/
So in full, it should read, “http://libretro.com/cydia” go ahead and press the add source button. You will then see that it’s been added to your sources. Press that new source and go into the Games tab. You will then see the official RetroArch, press it and then press install, then confirm.
And that’s it, you’ve jailbroken your device and installed RetroArch through the official source. Congrats. After you’ve successfully jailbroken your device, feel free to ask any questions regarding Retroarch or emulation related stuff. If you want to know about other cool stuff you can do with a jailbroken device, check out this link: http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak
You can also find that direct link within cydia’s home tab. Scroll down and you’ll see a “Community” section. If you want direct and quicker answers to a specific question or suggestions on tweaks or other cool stuff you can do on jailbroken devices, then go ahead and send me a pm.
lol