Step-by-step: How to build EmulationStation on Windows

Nismo

I don't know what to do at this point, so only thing you can try it's download the source from github, place the folder emulationstation-master inside C:\src
and try to use my build folder, place it inside C:\src\EmulationStation-master\ and then you don't need to use C-make, simply open C:\src\EmulationStation-master\build\emulationstation-all.sln in Visual Studio 2015 and build.

If that doesn't fix your problem, I don't know what to do.

Here's my build folder: http://www.mediafire.com/file/18wup39qx35x1ht/build.7z

AndroidKing

@Nismo That works, thanks.

Nismo

@AndroidKing

Finally!!! I'm glad to help. Regards.

duiz

@Nismo I'm getting this error using your build folder

Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error MSB6006 "cmd.exe" exited with code -1073741819. ZERO_CHECK C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets 171
Error MSB6006 "cmd.exe" exited with code 1. nanosvg C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets 171
Error MSB6006 "cmd.exe" exited with code 1. pugixml C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets 171
Error MSB6006 "cmd.exe" exited with code 1. es-core C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets 171
Error MSB6006 "cmd.exe" exited with code 1. emulationstation C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets 171
Error MSB6006 "cmd.exe" exited with code 1. ALL_BUILD C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\VC\VCTargets\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets 171

Nismo

@duiz

Maybe it's because of this?:

Visual Studio Community 2015:
Use the web setup at https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/community/ selecting the following options:

Custom install
Select Visual C++->Common Tools (nothing else)
Select Common Tools->Git & GitHub
Everything else off

duiz

That's VS 2017

Nismo

@duiz I know it, that's because I use bold in 2015...

All it's working fine for me in Vs 2015.

AndroidKing

I was able to open the sln with 2017, have it update the files and continue to build with no problem. I did build with 2015 before trying 2017.

A Former User

Is there a way to compile this onto a USB? Or is there no difference?

Zigurana

@itsnitro there's no difference, just copy all the required files into the same dir on de usb.

ray3d

I tried to install and all steps run perfect except the last step to build ES in VS 2015 these are the errors are shown. How can I fix:

Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State Error (active) identifier "open" is undefined es-core c:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp 87 Error (active) identifier "close" is undefined es-core c:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp 89 Error C3861 'open': identifier not found es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp 87 Error C3861 'close': identifier not found es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp 89 Error C2440 'initializing': cannot convert from 'const boost::filesystem::path::value_type *' to 'std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char>>' es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp 105 Error C2440 'initializing': cannot convert from 'const boost::filesystem::path::value_type *' to 'std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char>>' es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp 106

Zigurana

@ray3d please put the output in a code block (three backticks + newline, see compose?) if you want people to be able to parse this.

ray3d

@zigurana Thank you ziguana for answer. I see what was the pro the problem was I made the build for both versions at the same time in same directory. Then what I did was only use the commands at post and on VS to only debug version and the build was made perfectly.

Now sorry for my ignorance but after I made the build of EmulationStation how do you run? I see in the debug directory these files:"nanosvgd.lib" and "pugixmld.lib" but not an exe sorry to ask but how do you run EmulationStation?

Zigurana

@ray3d
Are you sure the linking did succeed successfully after compilation? It would be good if you could post the complete build output logging (in a codeblock)
I have the following library files included in my Debug folder:

boost_date_time-vc140-mt-gd-1_61.dll
boost_filesystem-vc140-mt-gd-1_61.dll
boost_locale-vc140-mt-gd-1_61.dll
boost_system-vc140-mt-gd-1_61.dll
emulationstation.exe
emulationstation.ilk
emulationstation.pdb
es-cored.lib
FreeImage.dll
libcurl.dll
libvlc.dll
libvlccore.dll
nanosvgd.lib
pugixmld.lib

ray3d

You are right there is something wrong. Actually I made a re build and I have this errors now:

**Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error C3861 'open': identifier not found es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp 87
Error C3861 'close': identifier not found es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp 89
Error C2440 'initializing': cannot convert from 'const boost::filesystem::path::value_type ' to 'std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char>>' es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp 105
Error C2440 'initializing': cannot convert from 'const boost::filesystem::path::value_type ' to 'std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char>>' es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp 106
Error C1083 Cannot open include file: 'SDL2/SDL.h': No such file or directory emulationstation C:\src\EmulationStation\es-app\src\views\ViewController.cpp 15

What could be the problem?

Zigurana

You are missing some dependencies, did cmake find all it needed? You are still only showing part of your output. Please use https://pastebin.com/ to show us all the output of a rebuild.

ray3d

Here are the logs of the cmake of EmulationStation via the developer command prompt VS 2015 :

https://pastebin.com/T4dKM21z

And here are the logs of the VS 2015 building EmulationStation:

https://pastebin.com/SNQW0k7J

Zigurana

@ray3d wait, what branch are you trying to build?
my touch() method in platform.cpp looks like:

void touch(const std::string& filename)
{
#ifdef WIN32
	FILE* fp = fopen(filename.c_str(), "ab+");
	if (fp != NULL)
		fclose(fp);
#else
	int fd = open(filename.c_str(), O_CREAT|O_WRONLY, 0644);
	if (fd >= 0)
		close(fd);
#endif
}

Looks like you are trying to build one of the older branches, that did not have the fixes to build on VS2015 yet.

ray3d

I use this like the post say:

git clone https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation.git EmulationStation

Nothing else and my touch() in platform.cpp I have:

void touch(const std::string& filename)
{
int fd = open(filename.c_str(), O_CREAT|O_WRONLY, 0644);
if (fd >= 0)
close(fd);
}

What I need to download then and from where?

Zigurana

@ray3d I see, you are cloning fieldofcows branch then.
Try this:
git clone https://github.com/RetroPie/EmulationStation.git EmulationStation
That will give you the current repository from the RetroPie branch, which you can consider the main trunk.