devkitARM in Ubuntu Edgy

I am writing this small recipe because I had been frustrated too much with the installation of the devkitpro / PAlib on Linux.

My favorite distribution is Ubuntu (Xubuntu actually, because it still has the duality ;) of Linux) Edgy 6.10

Following the tutorial on PAlib wiki, is just the first step. But in order to use make properly (at least in the initial level), you will need to do the following (added the wiki steps too):

We will be using the devkit on a user wide installation, that means that user […] will be the one who will use the chaintools and everything of devkitpro.

Since we don’t have windows to make it an installer/update (even though a nifty tool like apt-get or something to the deb package would be great for us debian-oriented users), we will need to gather our packages. That means that should a new package emerge, we have to make it installed manually. Luckily, for a standard x86 pc they come precompiled so we win some, we lose some. Anyway, here is the list of the packages needed (for initial base):

- latest devkitARM (this is for developing ARM applications).
- latest libnds
- latest libfat
- latest dswifi
- latest (beta) PAlib

NOTE: Do not download the src files; download the tar.bz2 files and the PAlibxxxx.zip

> SHORT DESCRIPTION OF TOOLS <
devkitARM contains the necessary tools to compile your code.  libnds has nds.h a very useful library of functions used to make the code for your apps and games. libfat has soemthing to do with the fat system (as I read from other forums, there are other implementations of this lib as well. I chose the default one). dswifi contains the headers necessary for wifi connection. Finally, PAlib is another (really good) set of libraries that make the programming for DS easier. Of course, if you want to do a really good job try learn ARM assembly :).

> INSTALLATION <

  • Make a folder to your home directory called devkitpro and put every file I mentioned there. Then, go to that folder. Do a: unzip PAlibxxxxxx.zip so that it will create the (normally) folders/files such as PAlib, PAlibExamples, PAlibTemplate, PAlibDoc Eng, PAlibDoc Fr and PAlib.url.
  • Do a tar xvjf devkitARMxxxxxx.tar.bz2 It will create a folder named devkitARM.
  • Create a folder libnds inside the devkitpro folder. There move the files libnds, libfat and dswifi and do the appropriate tar xvjf on these files. It will create a lib and an include folder.
  • By now on your devkitpro folder you should have 7 folders and a file. If that’s true, then you are one step before starting developing! With your favorite editor, edit ~/.bashrc and add the following lines:
    export DEVKITPRO=$home/devkitpro
    export DEVKITARM=$DEVKITPRO/devkitARM
    export PAPATH=$DEVKITPRO/PAlib

    Then do a source ~/.bashrc (Note: For edgy this seems to not work from an ssh. Do a logout/login and type env. If its ok, then you have your user wide install ready!)

  • Create a folder on your home dir named projects (if you don’t have one ready). There put all your love and knowledge to create your game :)