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System Requirements

Most modern Linux distributions are supported. Unix-like systems other than Linux are not officially supported but might work.

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Hardware Requirements

  • Processor: CPU with SSE2 support (modern 3 GHz Dual Core recommended, not older than 2008)
  • Graphics: Graphics card supporting OpenGL 3.3 (OpenGL 4.4 recommended)

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Build Requirements

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Required Tools

  • CMake - Build system generator
  • GCC or Clang - Recent version with decent C++20 support
  • Git - Version control
CMake will inform you if your compiler is too old or if you need to install any missing packages.

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Installing Dependencies

Many libraries are bundled with Dolphin and used if they’re not installed on your system. For distribution-specific dependency installation instructions, refer to the Building for Linux wiki.

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Building Dolphin

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Clone the Repository

First, clone the Dolphin repository and initialize submodules: 
git clone https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin.git
cd dolphin
git submodule update --init --recursive
Make sure to pull submodules before building. Building without submodules will fail.

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Build Methods

Dolphin supports three different build configurations for Linux:
Install Dolphin to your system (requires root access).
1

Create build directory

mkdir build
cd build
2

Configure with CMake

cmake ..
CMake will check dependencies and inform you of any missing packages.
3

Compile

make -j $(nproc)
This uses all available CPU cores for faster compilation.
4

Install to system

sudo make install
This installs Dolphin system-wide and makes it available from your application menu.

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Running Dolphin

After system installation, launch Dolphin from:
  • Application menu
  • Command line: dolphin-emu

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Command Line Usage

Dolphin supports various command-line options: 
# Launch a game directly
dolphin-emu -e "path/to/game.iso"

# Run in batch mode (no UI)
dolphin-emu -b -e "game.iso"

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Available Video Backends

  • OGL - OpenGL
  • Vulkan - Vulkan API
  • Null - No rendering
  • Software Renderer - CPU rendering (debugging only)

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Uninstalling

Run the following command as root from the build directory:
cat install_manifest.txt | xargs -d '\n' rm
Or with sudo:
sudo sh -c "cat install_manifest.txt | xargs -d '\n' rm"
To completely remove Dolphin, also delete the global user directory (~/.dolphin-emu or ~/.local/share/dolphin-emu) if you don’t plan on reinstalling.

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Troubleshooting

Install a recent version of GCC or Clang with C++20 support:
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install build-essential gcc g++

# Fedora
sudo dnf install gcc gcc-c++

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S base-devel
CMake will inform you of missing packages. Install them using your distribution’s package manager.For detailed dependency lists, see the Building for Linux wiki.
Ensure you’ve initialized and updated all submodules:
git submodule update --init --recursive
Ensure you have up-to-date graphics drivers:
  • NVIDIA: Install proprietary drivers
  • AMD: Use AMDGPU drivers (usually included in modern kernels)
  • Intel: Mesa drivers (usually pre-installed)

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DolphinTool Usage

Dolphin includes a command-line tool for disc image operations: 
dolphin-tool COMMAND -h

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Available Commands

Convert disc images between formats:
dolphin-tool convert -i input.iso -o output.rvz -f rvz \
  -c zstd -l 5 -b 131072
Supported formats: ISO, GCZ, WIA, RVZ