If you don't want to compile box64 yourself and prefer to use third-party pre-build version, go to the end of the document for alternatives.
You can also generate your own package using the instructions below.
Additional installation steps may be necessary when copying only the box64 executable file without running make install in cross-build environments. See Cross-compiling
git clone https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64
cd box64
mkdir build; cd build; cmake .. ${OPTIONS}
make -j4
sudo make install
If it's the first install, you also need:
sudo systemctl restart systemd-binfmt
- You can use
make -j1
,make -j2
with less jobs to prevent running out of memory - You can also add
-DBAD_SIGNAL=ON
to the cmake command if you are on a Linux Kernel mixed with Android, like on RK3588.
git clone https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64
cd box64
mkdir build; cd build; cmake .. -D ARM_DYNAREC=ON -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
make -j4
sudo make install
sudo systemctl restart systemd-binfmt
On a 64bit OS:
-D RK3399=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D RK3588=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
If building on the Pi, you will also need a large swap (3 GB+)
[optionally reduce GPU memory to a minimum (e.g. 16 MB) using raspi-config
(and reboot) before starting the build]:
You can use e.g. 'make -j4
' to speed up the build, but on a Pi 3 with 1GB memory you will likely
run out of memory at some point and need to run the build again.
Still, this can be faster if your build is attended.
-D RPI3ARM64=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D RPI4ARM64=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
-D RPI5ARM64=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D TEGRAX1=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D TEGRA_T194=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
Note: use gcc-11 or higher, older gcc doesn't know cortex-a78ae
-D TEGRA_T234=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D ODROIDN2=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D SD845=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
or
-D SD888=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
Depending on how recent your Snapdragon is
On a 64bit OS:
-D PHYTIUM=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D ADLINK=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
Only test on Asahi with Fedora, using the default "16K page" kernel
-D M1=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D LARCH64=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D RV64=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D PPC64LE=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
On a 64bit OS:
-D LX2160A=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
You must have ARM64 machine to build box64.
-D ARM64=1 -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc -DBAD_SIGNAL=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
Note: Box64 in native termux is experimental and won't run linux binaries!
You also need libandroid-sysv-semaphore
and libandroid-spawn
libraries.
-D TERMUX=1 -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
-D LD80BITS=1 -D NOALIGN=1 -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
If you encounter some linking errors, try using NOLOADADDR=ON
(cmake -D NOLOADADDR=ON; make -j$(nproc)
).
Alternatively, you can use the curses-based ccmake (or any other gui frontend for cmake) to select which platform to use interactively.
Add -DUSE_CCACHE=1
option if you have ccache and plan to touch the sources.
Add -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
option for an optimized build with debug information embedded. That way, if you want to debug a crash or analyze performance, you have symbols.
To have a trace enabled build (the interpreter will be slightly slower), add -DHAVE_TRACE=1
. You will need the Zydis library in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH
or in the system library folders at runtime to get x86 trace. Use version v3.2.1, as later versions have changed the API and no longer work with box64.
Add -DARM_DYNAREC=1
option to enable DynaRec on ARM machines.
You can use -DSAVE_MEM
to have a build that will try to save some memory. For now, it only increases the jumptable from 4 levels to 5. The added granularity avoids wasting space, but adds one more read from memory when jumping between blocks.
Box64 uses git SHA1 to show last commit in version number, use -DNOGIT=1
option when building outside of a git repo (for example, downloading a release source code zip from github).
Add -DWITH_MOLD=1
option when GNU ld is extremely slow. Then run mold -run make -j4
to build (make sure Mold is installed).
You can now build box64 statically linked, with -DSTATICBUILD
to use inside of a x86_64 chroot. Note that this version of box64 will only have the minimal wrapped libs, such as libc, libm and libpthread. Other libs (like libGL or libvulkan, SDL2, etc...) will use x86_64 versions. A static build is intended to be used in a docker image, or in a headless server. It is highly experimental, but feedback is always welcome.
A few tests are included with box64.
They can be launched using the ctest
command.
The tests are very basic and only test some functionality for now.
Box64 can also be packaged into a .deb file using the source code zip from the releases page with DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=nostrip dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -nc
. Configure any additional cmake options you want in debian/rules
.
You can use the Pi-Apps-Coders apt repository to install precompiled box64 debs, updated every 24 hours.
# check if .list file already exists
if [ -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/box64.list ]; then
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/box64.list || exit 1
fi
# check if .sources file already exists
if [ -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/box64.sources ]; then
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/box64.sources || exit 1
fi
# download gpg key from specified url
if [ -f /usr/share/keyrings/box64-archive-keyring.gpg ]; then
sudo rm -f /usr/share/keyrings/box64-archive-keyring.gpg
fi
sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/keyrings
wget -qO- "https://pi-apps-coders.github.io/box64-debs/KEY.gpg" | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/box64-archive-keyring.gpg
# create .sources file
echo "Types: deb
URIs: https://Pi-Apps-Coders.github.io/box64-debs/debian
Suites: ./
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/box64-archive-keyring.gpg" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/box64.sources >/dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install box64-generic-arm -y
For example, to compile Box64 for RISC-V on an x86 machine, you can get prebuilt GNU toolchain from the riscv-gnu-toolchain
Follow the per-platform compilation instructions to configure the CMake options for your target architecture. In particular, you must specify the cross-compiler. For example:
-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc # Or whichever cross-compiler you use
To do a quick check, run:
qemu-riscv64 -L path/to/your/riscv64/sysroot box64 --help
You can run dirname $(find -name libc.so.6)
to determine whether sysroot is provided by the prebuilt GNU toolchain or not.
To run CTest-based tests under QEMU:
ctest -j$(nproc)
After successfully cross-compiling, copy the box64 executable to your RISC-V device. Note that simply copying the binary does not automatically install Box64’s shared libraries. Because make install
does not run on the target during cross-compilation, libraries required for emulation may be missing.
To fix this, copy the shared libraries folder from the Box64 repository (x64lib
or x86lib
) to your target. Place them into the proper library search paths, for example:
/usr/lib/box64-x86_64-linux-gnu/
(for x86_64)/usr/lib/box64-i386-linux-gnu/
(for i386)