Error for me too trying that one.
Hello everyone! Many of you have been asking for help to learn how to build and compile RetroArch for iOS on you non-jailbroken iPhone. I have to say that RetroArch for iOS is working great in its current state but not perfected yet. Anyhow, here is the guide which I modified from Rapsac’s post… essentially it is the very same explanation I would have given but with modifications: give Rapsac credit too for demonstrating before.
To start you’ll need:
A Mac with Xcode 7 (download from the Mac App store) An iOS device running iOS 9 or later An Apple ID
First, you’ll need the source code:
Open Xcode 7 Go to the Source control menu > Check out Enter: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch.git and download the directory files to your desktop, documents or wherever you choose. Select the “master” branch. You can also use Terminal to download the RetroArch directory. Just open Terminal and type “cd desktop” then type “git clone https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch.git” of course without these “ symbols. RetroArch folder should download to your Desktop.
Next we need to make an iPhone developer certificate to ‘codesign’ the app and its cores. This can be done with just an Apple ID and not a paid developer account thanks to Xcode 7 and iOS 9:
In Xcode 7 go to Xcode>Preferences and then click on the accounts tab. Sign in with your Apple ID and click on ‘view details’ Click on the create button next to iOS development. Alternatively to the Above this can be done through keychain access>certificate assistant>create a certificate>iOS development.
Then we need to build the base Retroarch App:
In Xcode go to Window>Projects and select the Retroarch (or Retroarch_ios) project. This will be here if you correctly downloaded the source code through Source control menu > Check out. ****Alternatively go to your downloaded RetroArch folder then open the RetroArch_iOS.xcodeproj file inside RetroArch/pkg/Apple/RetroArch_iOS.xcodeproj. You should see the project open up… let it load. Connect you iOS device by USB Select your device as the target in the top leftish corner next to the play and stop buttons. Select RetroArch (not RetroArch iOS6) for the TARGET on the left. Then under the general tab in the centre of the window, under Identity give your bundle identifier a unique name e.g. com.<anything>.RetroArch, you could use com.new4ios.RetroArch as long as that its never been used for an App before. Also under Identity, select your iOS development licence under Team, if you don’t see your licence here, select add an account and follow the prompts. After selecting your Team it will prompt you with another message: ‘No matching provisioning profiles found’. Click on ‘Fix Issue’ and you’re set. Under the general tab in the centre of the window, under ‘Deployment Info’ select iOS 9 as the Deployment target You might see a yellow Triangle symbol indicating to “Update to recommended settings.” Go ahead and update to recommended settings. Not too sure if this step is necessary but Select “Product” at the top then select “Scheme” then “Edit Scheme.” A window should pop up. Change everything in all sections (Build,Run,Test,Profile,Analyze, and Archive) from “Debug” to “Release.” Close the window afterwards. *** This step is necessary otherwise you will get nothing but errors and you won’t be able to build/compile RetroArch correctly. Go to your downloaded RetroArch folder and open it. Look for the “media” folder and open it. Create these folders: assets, autoconfig, cores, libretrodb (inside libretrodb folder create: cut,cursors and rdb folders), overlays and shaders_glsl. You don’t have to put the necessary files in them but go ahead and do so if you prefer. Now if you’re ready for PRIME time let us build and compile RetroArch. Make sure to select your device as the target in the top leftish corner next to the play and stop buttons. Now click on the Play button to build and run the current scheme… let it finish. It will give you a few errors along the way but don’t worry RetroArch will be installed on our phone. If the iOS simulator opens just close it. Congratulatons!!! RetroArch should be installed if you followed instructions and did everything correctly. However, we’re not done yet. We need to codesign the cores. Keep reading below to learn how to codesign the cores.
DO THIS STEP ONLY IF YOU WANT AN ARCHIVED VERSION WHICH YOU CAN TURN INTO AN IPA Go to Product>Archive to build the App, this may fail due to licensing, if this happens you should see a window popup with a ‘fix issue’ button. Click this button to fix the issue and It should compile successfully. An archives window will popup when you successfully build the app. In case you close the window that pops up go to ‘Window’ and then ‘Organizer’. There you should see your archived version of RetroArch. You can right click and then click on ‘Show in Finder’. Then right click the archive again and choose ‘Show Package Contents’. In there you will see RetroArch’s archive contents which you can turn into an ipa or deb.
The App has now been signed by compiling with your Apple ID developer licence, now we need to get and codesign the cores:
Download the latest iOS 9 cores from: http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/apple/ios9/ Once downloaded, the cores will need to be codesigned. I feel this is easiest done in terminal, if you’re not familiar with terminal here is a basic guide:
Open Terminal on your mac, Terminal should open up to your User folder on startup by default. You can see the folders in your current directory by typing the command ‘ls’ (without the quotation marks of course). You can change to a different directory by typing 'cd <name of directory> for example ‘cd Documents’ or ‘cd desktop’ Navigate to the folder with the downloaded cores, again, you can see if you’re in the right place by typing ‘ls’. If you see the list of cores, you’re in the right place. Download the cores to your desktop to make it easier. Once here type the command: codesign -fs “iPhone Developer: <name or email> <(assorted numbers and letters here)>” <core name here>.dylib To find your developer details oper keychain access, and look for the iPhone Developer certificate under the ‘login’ tab An example might be: codesign -fs “iPhone Developer: [email protected] (X3D4A7892)” pcsx_rearmed_interpreter_libretro_ios.dylib If you’ve done this correctly Terminal should tell you that it is 'replacing existing signature’ but not necessarily. Your core is now codesigned! You can download iFunBox from the web and drag it into the cores folder on your phone.
Now you can run the app:
On your iPhone go to settings>general>profiles and select your developer certificate Trust your provisioning profile Open the app Go to the ‘online updater’ Update everything EXCEPT THE CORES, updating core info is fine. You’re good to go!
Roms:
Add roms using iFunBox. Go to RetroArch and create a folder or folders for your roms. Example: n64 roms or psx roms. Then drag the roms inside their corresponding folder. For the n64 roms to work you need to change the CPU Core from dynamic_recompiler to cached_interpreter. If you can’t change it within the RetroArch app then manually do it. Open ifunbox and open RetroArch. Navigate to the ‘configs’ folder and open it. In there you should see a file ‘retroarch-core-options.cfg’. Drag it to your desktop and open it. I use windows notepad to edit it. Now edit these lines and change to: mupen64-cpucore = “cached_interpreter” and thats it. Now drag this new edited file back to the ‘configs’ folder and delete the old one. The n64 core should load up and run roms without a problem now.
Bios:
PSX bios should be copied to the System folder with iFunBox
[QUOTE=Zero2029;29887]Hello everyone! Many of you have been asking for help to learn how to build and compile RetroArch for iOS on you non-jailbroken iPhone. I have to say that RetroArch for iOS is working great in its current state but not perfected yet. Anyhow, here is the guide which I modified from Rapsac’s post… essentially it is the very same explanation I would have given but with modifications: give Rapsac credit too for demonstrating before.
To start you’ll need:
A Mac with Xcode 7 (download from the Mac App store) An iOS device running iOS 9 or later An Apple ID
First, you’ll need the source code:
Open Xcode 7 Go to the Source control menu > Check out Enter: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch.git and download the directory files to your desktop, documents or wherever you choose. Select the “master” branch. You can also use Terminal to download the RetroArch directory. Just open Terminal and type “cd desktop” then type “git clone https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch.git” of course without these “ symbols. RetroArch folder should download to your Desktop.
Next we need to make an iPhone developer certificate to ‘codesign’ the app and its cores. This can be done with just an Apple ID and not a paid developer account thanks to Xcode 7 and iOS 9:
In Xcode 7 go to Xcode>Preferences and then click on the accounts tab. Sign in with your Apple ID and click on ‘view details’ Click on the create button next to iOS development. Alternatively to the Above this can be done through keychain access>certificate assistant>create a certificate>iOS development.
Then we need to build the base Retroarch App:
In Xcode go to Window>Projects and select the Retroarch (or Retroarch_ios) project. This will be here if you correctly downloaded the source code through Source control menu > Check out. ****Alternatively go to your downloaded RetroArch folder then open the RetroArch_iOS.xcodeproj file inside RetroArch/pkg/Apple/RetroArch_iOS.xcodeproj. You should see the project open up… let it load. Connect you iOS device by USB Select your device as the target in the top leftish corner next to the play and stop buttons. Select RetroArch (not RetroArch iOS6) for the TARGET on the left. Then under the general tab in the centre of the window, under Identity give your bundle identifier a unique name e.g. com.<anything>.RetroArch, you could use com.new4ios.RetroArch as long as that its never been used for an App before. Also under Identity, select your iOS development licence under Team, if you don’t see your licence here, select add an account and follow the prompts. After selecting your Team it will prompt you with another message: ‘No matching provisioning profiles found’. Click on ‘Fix Issue’ and you’re set. Under the general tab in the centre of the window, under ‘Deployment Info’ select iOS 9 as the Deployment target You might se a yellow Triangle symbol indicating to “Update to recommended settings.” Go ahead and update to recommended settings. Not to sure if this step is necessary but Select “Product” at the top then select “Scheme” then “Edit Scheme.” A window should pop up. Change everything in all sections (Build,Run,Test,Profile,Analyze, and Archive) from “Debug” to “Release.” Close the window afterwards. *** This step is necessary otherwise you will get nothing but errors and you won’t be able to build/compile RetroArch correctly. Go to your downloaded RetroArch folder and open it. Look for the “media” folder and open it. Create these folders: assets, autoconfig, cores, libretrodb (inside libretrodb folder create: cut,cursors and rdb folders), overlays and shaders_glsl. You don’t have to put the necessary files in them but go ahead and do so if you prefer. Now if you’re ready for PRIME time let us build and compile RetroArch. Make sure to select your device as the target in the top leftish corner next to the play and stop buttons. Now click on the Play button to build and run the current scheme… let it finish. It will give you a few errors along the way but don’t worry RetroArch will be installed on our phone. If the iOS simulator opens just close it. Congratulatons!!! RetroArch should be installed if you followed instructions and did everything correctly. However, we’re not done yet. We need to codesign the cores. Keep reading below to learn how to coding the cores.
DO THIS STEP ONLY IF YOU WANT AN ARCHIVED VERSION WHICH YOU CAN TURN INTO AN IPA Go to Product>Archive to build the App, this may fail due to licensing, if this happens you should see a window popup with a ‘fix issue’ button. Click this button to fix the issue and It should compile successfully. An archives window will popup when you successfully build the app. In case you close the window that pops up go to ‘Window’ and then ‘Organizer’. There you should see you archived version of RetroArch. You can right click and then click on ‘Show in Finder’. Then right click the archive again and choose ‘Show Package Contents’. In there you will see its contents.
The App has now been signed by compiling with your Apple ID developer licence, now we need to get and codesign the cores:
Download the latest iOS 9 cores from: http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/apple/ios9/ Once downloaded, the cores will need to be codesigned. I feel this is easiest done in terminal, if you’re not familiar with terminal here is a basic guide:
Open Terminal on your mac, Terminal should open up to your User folder on startup by default. You can see the folders in your current directory by typing the command ‘ls’ (without the quotation marks of course). You can change to a different directory by typing 'cd <name of directory> for example ‘cd Documents’ or ‘cd desktop’ Navigate to the folder with the downloaded cores, again, you can see if you’re in the right place by typing ‘ls’. If you see the list of cores, you’re in the right place. Download the cores to your desktop to make it easier. Once here type the command: codesign -fs “iPhone Developer: <name or email> <(assorted numbers and letters here)>” <core name here>.dylib To find your developer details oper keychain access, and look for the iPhone Developer certificate under the ‘login’ tab An example might be: codesign -fs “iPhone Developer: [email protected] (X3D4A7892)” pcsx_rearmed_interpreter_libretro_ios.dylib If you’ve done this correctly Terminal should tell you that it is 'replacing existing signature’ but not necessarily. Your core is now codesigned! You can download iFunBox from the web and drag it into the cores folder on your phone.
Now you can run the app:
On your iPhone go to settings>general>profiles and select your developer certificate Trust your provisioning profile Open the app Go to the ‘online updater’ Update everything EXCEPT THE CORES, updating core info is fine. You’re good to go!
Roms:
Add roms using iFunBox. Go to RetroArch and create a folder or folders for your roms. Example: n64 roms or psx roms. Then drag the roms inside their corresponding folder. For the n64 roms to work you need to change the CPU Core from dynamic_recompiler to cahed_interpreter. If you can’t change it within the RetroArch app then manually do it. Open ifunbox and open RetroArch. Navigate to the ‘configs’ folder and open it. In there you should see a file ‘retroarch-core-options.cfg’. Drag it to your desktop and open it. I use windows notepad to edit it. Now edit these lines and change to: mupen64-cpucore = “cached_interpreter” and thats it. Now drag this new edited file back to the ‘configs’ folder and delete the old one. The n64 core should load up and run roms without a problem now.
Bios:
PSX bios should be copied to the System folder with iFunBox[/QUOTE]
Could you codesign this for ios 9 ? http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/apple/ios/latest/mame_libretro_ios.dylib.zip http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/apple/ios/latest/desmume_libretro_ios.dylib.zip
I tried desmume on Jailbreak 9.0.2 and it crashes to home screen. Can you confirm this core isn’t working Zero? Thanks
I’ve found Controllers 4 All to be pretty hit and mis with regard to it working with my gamepads (DS3/DS4).
I do not have a real MFi pad, that is true.
We might start with the donation option being possible though for specific things that we need in order to continue development. I’ve held out for a long time on donations feeling it was not right but at this point it holds back development and progress more than anything and we are now definitely incurring real monthly costs that we previously were able to avoid (monthly hosting fees, etc.).
I think at this point there is enough interest for MFI support being a real thing that people want so if you want to set something up for donations I am in.
One guy offered $50 but $5 and $10 from other people who do not have a lot of cash but want this to happen im sure would work just fine.
Controllers for All is an MFI emulator so I think we still need MFI support .
I’ve been a tad busy lately everybody… I will do my very best to test out cores/codesign them and anything else that arises. We have come so far to have a working RetroArch for iOS… I definitely need controller support, too… That would be nice. Anyways I’ll check back soon. 
Please, fix cydia repo.
BTstack… works on iOS 9! Tried it with Snesx9, so we only need to activate BTstack in Retroarch, but theres no option, like frontend or somehting like that. Here you have a pic.
I’ll be honest, I’ve been bouncing around different pages/forums looking for some walkthrough with a completed repo/app that would just work on an ipad mini (wifi). I can load the game (SNES Mario Allstars + Super Mario World) and it works from what I can see… (sound/video work perfect) But I don’t have an on screen controller, I have a steelseries 69007 (no clue what its “code name” is but I have this SteelSeries Free Mobile Wireless Game Controller), it just will not bind to the keys at all. I have BTStacks connected and inside the bluetooth screen it says that the controller is connected but I’m just hitting a wall. This is for my son so any step by step that could be offered to get this taken care of so his tiny hands could actually play with a real controller it would be absolutely amazing. Thanks for any consideration this message gets.
We are awaiting controller support. I dont believe even basic Bluetooth stuff works at the moment. I thought the steel series free was MFI but its just Bluetooth the white one that came after it is MFI.
So for now it seems from everything I gathered there is 0 controller support in Retroarch for iOS 9.
One day soon hopefully .
Nice to have some confirmation that controller support is broken in this version too, I’ll just stick with what I have at the moment and not bother updating. I’d happily donate for what has been made available so far as I’ve had more than my fair share of fun with this amazing emulator, no strings attached and not expecting favouritism for controller support to be worked on at the expense of other things, just a donation to show my appreciation of this great project.
repo keeps giving me size mismatch :(. Does the pangu JB breaks dynarec?
Installed and running perfectly all except the pangu making you run in interpreter which means final fantasy ix won’t run again… Mah worked just fine on taig.
Nothing worked on iOS 9 till Zero came along.
Cydia builds crash or freeze up on intro. Zeros works it’s just same old having to run in interpreter mode
It was an answer to your question because NOTHING worked on iOS 9. Cydia being part of everything tried and nothing working.
The Repo last I checked has not worked in oh FOREVER so you are not struggling to find answers on your forums.
Of course Cydia was tried and DID NOT WORK. I know you are veteran around here Radius but you do not have to talk to people like they are stupid…
In fact you being in the know around here should know that the Cydia repo has been dead for so very long.
Can we keep this to the development of iOS 9 retro arch guys.
The Cydia builds don’t work. The nightly that I have posted in the past in other threads will also freeze on load.
The reason being the file structure of this iOS 9 build is different than those previous builds.
Mfi support… Man I know everyone has mentioned it… But it really is a must if this ever gets to a final build.
Now my next question with this build is if you have certain builds of psx games do they run better or worse under the interpreter core?
For example .bin of Dino crisis 2 runs perfect.
.iso of ffvii doesn’t even show up. And .img of ffix freezes in game on intro scene.
FF9 freezes on interpreter. Nothing to be done about it.