On Debian/Ubuntu, you will need build-essential and the following development packages:
- All: cmake libcurl-dev zlib1g-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev nettle-dev pkg-config libtinyxml2-dev gettext libseccomp-dev
- Optional decompression: libzstd-dev liblz4-dev liblzo2-dev
- KDE 4.x: libqt4-dev kdelibs5-dev
- KDE 5.x: qtbase5-dev qttools5-dev-tools extra-cmake-modules libkf5kio-dev libkf5widgetsaddons-dev libkf5filemetadata-dev
- KDE 6.x: qt6-base-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools extra-cmake-modules libkf6kio-dev libkf6widgetsaddons-dev libkf6filemetadata-dev
- XFCE (GTK+ 2.x): libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev libthunarx-2-dev libcanberra-dev libgsound-dev
- XFCE (GTK+ 3.x): libglib2.0-dev libgtk-3-dev libcairo2-dev libthunarx-3-dev libgsound-dev
- GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon: libglib2.0-dev libgtk-3-dev libcairo2-dev libnautilus-extension-dev libgsound-dev
- GNOME 43: libglib2.0-dev libgtk-4-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev libnautilus-extension-dev libgsound-dev
NOTE: On older versions of Ubuntu, some packages were different:
- Earlier than 18.04:
- libkf5kio-dev: use kio-dev
- Earlier than 16.04:
- libgsound-dev: use libcanberra-dev and a GTK-specific library package:
- libcanberra-gtk-dev
- libcanberra-gtk3-dev
- libgsound-dev: use libcanberra-dev and a GTK-specific library package:
On Red Hat, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and other RPM-based distributions, you will need to install "C Development Tools and Libraries" and the following development packages:
- All: cmake libcurl-devel zlib-devel libpng-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel nettle-devel tinyxml2-devel gettext-devel libseccomp-devel
- Optional decompression: libzstd-devel lz4-devel lzo-devel
- KDE 4.x: qt-devel kdelibs-devel
- KDE 5.x: qt5-qtbase-devel qt5-qttools extra-cmake-modules kf5-kio-devel kf5-kwidgetsaddons-devel kf5-kfilemetadata-devel
- KDE 6.x: qt6-qtbase-devel qt6-qttools extra-cmake-modules kf6-kio-devel kf6-kwidgetsaddons-devel kf6-kfilemetadata-devel
- XFCE (GTK+ 2.x): glib2-devel gtk2-devel gdk-pixbuf2-devel Thunar-devel gsound-devel
- XFCE (GTK+ 3.x): glib2-devel gtk3-devel cairo-devel Thunar-devel gsound-devel
- GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon: glib2-devel gtk3-devel cairo-devel nautilus-devel gsound-devel
- GNOME 43: glib2-devel gtk4-devel gdk-pixbuf2-devel nautilus-devel gsound-devel
NOTE: If gsound-devel is not available, use libcanberra-devel instead.
On Arch and Arch base distros you will need to install "base-devel" and the following development packages:
- All: curl zlib libpng libjpeg-turbo nettle pkgconf tinyxml2 gettext libseccomp
- Optional decompression: zstd lz4 lzo
- KDE 5.x: qt5-base qt5-tools extra-cmake-modules kio kwidgetsaddons kfilemetadata
- KDE 6.x: qt6-base qt6-tools extra-cmake-modules kio kwidgetsaddons kfilemetadata
- XFCE (GTK+ 3.x): glib2 gtk3 cairo gsound
- GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon: glib2 gtk3 cairo libnautilus-extension gsound
- GNOME 43: glib2 gtk4 gdk-pixbuf2 nautilus gsound
NOTE: If gsound is not available, use libcanberra instead.
NOTE: XFCE's Thunar file browser requires the Tumbler D-Bus daemon to be installed in order to create thumbnails.
- Debian/Ubuntu: tumbler
- Red Hat/Fedora: tumbler
- Arch: tumbler
NOTE 2: Thunar 1.8.0 switched to GTK+ 3.x. This version is not currently available in most distribution repositories. The Fedora RPM listed above may change by the time it hits the repositories, or it may stay the same if they decide not to allow both ThunarX2 and ThunarX3 to be installed side-by-side.
Clone the repository, then:
$ cd rom-properties
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
$ make
$ sudo make install
(KDE 4.x) $ kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental
(KDE 5.x) $ kbuildsycoca5 --noincremental
(KDE 6.x) $ kbuildsycoca6 --noincremental
NOTE: KDE will not find the rom-properties plugin if it's installed in /usr/local/. It must be installed in /usr/.
After installing, the plugin needs to be enabled in the Dolphin file browser:
- Close all instances of Dolphin.
- Start Dolphin.
- Click Control, Configure Dolphin.
- Click the "General" section, then the "Preview" tab.
- Check the "ROM Properties Page" item, then click OK.
- Enable previews in a directory containing a supported file type.
If installed correctly, thumbnails should be generated for the supported file type. You can also right-click a file, select Properties, then click the "ROM Properties" tab to view more information about the ROM image.
You will need to install the following:
- devscripts
- debhelper
In order to build debug symbol packages, you will need:
- Debian: debhelper >= 9.20151219
- Ubuntu: pkg-create-dbgsym
In the top-level source directory, run this command:
debuild -i -us -uc -b
Assuming everything builds correctly, the .deb packages should be built in the directory above the top-level source directory.
The Windows version requires one of the following compilers: (minimum versions)
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 with the Windows 7 SDK
- gcc-4.8 with MinGW-w64
- The MinGW build is currently somewhat broken, so MSVC is preferred. (The property page icon doesn't show up sometimes for Nintendo DS ROMs, and XP theming doesn't work because MinGW-w64 doesn't support isolation awareness for COM components.)
You will also need to install CMake, since the project uses the CMake build system.
Clone the repository, then open an MSVC or MinGW command prompt and run the following commands from your rom-properties repository directory:
MSVC 2015-2017:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64"
cmake --build . --config Release
Leave out "Win64" to build a 32-bit version.
MSVC 2019 or later:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A "x64"
cmake --build . --config Release
Replace "Visual Studio 16 2019" with the version of Visual Studio you have installed. Replace "x64" with "Win32" to build a 32-bit version, or "arm", "arm64", or "arm64ec" for the various Windows on ARM ABIs.
After building, you will need to run regsvr32 rom-properties.dll
from
the build\bin\Release
directory as Administrator.
Caveats:
- Registering rom-properties.dll hard-codes the full path in the registry. Moving the file will break the registration.
- CMake does not support building for multiple architectures at once. For Win64, a 64-bit build will work for Windows Explorer, but will not work in any 32-bit programs.
See README.md for general usage information.
The scripts/ directory has a Windows batch script, package.cmd
,
that can be used to build the two distribution packages:
- rom-properties-[version]-windows.zip: Standard distribution.
- rom-properties-[version]-windows.debug.zip: PDB files.
The script uses the installed version of MSVC (2015, 2017, 2019, or 2022) to build both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the ROM Properties Page shell extension, and then it packages everything together.
You must have CMake and Info-ZIP's zip.exe and unzip.exe in your path.
- CMake: https://cmake.org/download/
- Info-ZIP: http://www.info-zip.org/