PSP builds broken since Retroarch 1.10.1

[Animus777]

When loading any gb rom with 671c82e version (or newer), Retroarch crashes and PSP shuts down. Everything works fine in 66ecfc2 bundled with previous Retroarch version 1.10.0

[LibretroAdmin]

You will need to bisect this more thoroughly. First of all, we need any tests conducted against latest RetroArch nightlies. A version that old is going to be impossible to find a needle in a haystack.

It would be far more productive if we had an idea of which Gambatte commit caused it to no longer work using the latest RetroArch nightlies.

[Animus777]

@LibretroAdmin it doesnt work with latest Retroarch nightlies for PSP. I wouldn't call it a needle in a haystack. I narrowed down the issue to these commits:

I'm not a developer but I think 671c82e is the culprit. Others seem like harmless translation changes

[LibretroAdmin]

There is no way 671c82e affected anything. That's just adding a Makefile target for PSL1GHT/PS3. Has nothing to do with the PSP port.

We could maybe exclude the translations out of the PSP core though. The PSP doesn't have a lot of RAM (32MB on lower end models, 64MB on 2000 series and up), so it's best we don't include unnecessary stuff in.

[Harry7228]

Hi, I have exactly the same problem with RetroArch running a GB rom and then crashing and shutting down on my PSP3000. (also tested on a PSP2000)

I was now testing the last stable version of RetroArch v1.14.0 (Gambatte v0.5.0 7e02df6), it has the same issue.
When i swap the core with the version of 66ecfc2, it works perfectly. All versions after that don't work.

[Zade222]

I'll add some information to hopefully help in debugging this. I used PPSSPP version 1.15.4 running 1.10.1 where the problem started. I'm using linux and started it via command line so I could see the log print out.

16:03:220 user_main E[SCEAUDIO]: HLE/sceAudio.cpp:446 80268002=sceAudioSRCChRelease(): output busy

16:03:522 user_main E[FILESYS]: FileSystems/DirectoryFileSystem.cpp:58 DirectoryFileSystem::OpenFile('/PSP/RETROARCH/CONFIG/Gambatte/Gambatte.cfg'): FAILED, 2 - access = 1 ''

16:03:537 user_main E[FILESYS]: FileSystems/DirectoryFileSystem.cpp:58 DirectoryFileSystem::OpenFile('/PSP/RETROARCH/CONFIG/Gambatte/GameBoy Color.cfg'): FAILED, 2 - access = 1 ''

16:03:537 user_main E[FILESYS]: FileSystems/DirectoryFileSystem.cpp:58 DirectoryFileSystem::OpenFile('/PSP/RETROARCH/CONFIG/Gambatte/Legend of Zelda, The - Oracle of Ages (USA).cfg'): FAILED, 2 - access = 1 ''

16:03:572 user_main E[MEMMAP]: Core/MemFault.cpp:292 Bad memory access detected and ignored: 00001528 (0x7fed00001528)

16:03:572 user_main E[MEMMAP]: Core/MemFault.cpp:292 Bad memory access detected and ignored: 0000120c (0x7fed0000120c)

16:03:705 user_main E[MEMMAP]: Core/MemFault.cpp:292 Bad memory access detected and ignored: 0000131c (0x7fed0000131c)

16:03:705 user_main E[MEMMAP]: Core/MemFault.cpp:292 Bad memory access detected and ignored: 00001320 (0x7fed00001320)

16:03:705 user_main E[MEMMAP]: Core/MemFault.cpp:292 Bad memory access detected and ignored: 00001320 (0x7fed00001320)

16:03:705 user_main E[MEMMAP]: Core/MemFault.cpp:292 Bad memory access detected and ignored: 00001318 (0x7fed00001318)

16:03:705 user_main E[MEMMAP]: Core/MemFault.cpp:292 Bad memory access detected and ignored: 681eba76 (0x7fed681eba76)

16:03:705 user_main E[MEMMAP]: Core/MemFault.cpp:267 Bad execution access detected, halting: 681eba72 (last known pc 681eba72, host: 0x7fed681eba72)

I have also attached a screenshot for what PPSSPP displays upon Retroarch Gambatte crashing:

If anyone wants more information to assist with the problem let me know.

Update:
I just did the same thing on the latest retroarch build in PPSSPP and it's essentially the same error but with different memory locations by the looks of it. It doesn't mention any config problems with the latest build so not sure why that's happening on the older build.

[andymcca]

Just an observation on this issue, commit 0eeb15d has more code it in than the description implies -

There is additional code relating to throttling, which may be causing the issue described here. Suggest we revert that code and see if it fixes things? I can do a PR but I don't have a PSP to test with - anyone wanna help out?

[amenoko]

Just an observation on this issue, commit 0eeb15d has more code it in than the description implies -

There is additional code relating to throttling, which may be causing the issue described here. Suggest we revert that code and see if it fixes things? I can do a PR but I don't have a PSP to test with - anyone wanna help out?

I know 3 years later but are you still up for it? lol

[andymcca]

@amenoko ha ha, sure! if I do some builds can you test them?

[amenoko]

Of course :) I have a 3004 model and been tinkering lately

[andymcca]

Great! Not sure what you need for PSP, is it .a files, .prx files or static cores?

[amenoko]

core files have the extension .PBP, same as game eboots, and are included in the retroarch build for PSP: http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/playstation/psp/ if that helps

[andymcca]

@amenoko I spent a good deal of time trying to do a PSP build today but it's just an uphill struggle of issues 👎 I finally got a working static core build earlier only to find that no GB/GBC files would appear in the browser, and even unhiding unrecognised files in the browser and trying to load them results in the dreaded 'No Cores Available' message. Just maddening - not sure I'll try again I'm afraid, my time is too precious these days :-(

[amenoko]

that's okay, can't be helped. maybe someone else will come along eventually

[amenoko]

@andymcca So uh. My time isn't precious so I went down a rabbit hole and I've found that when I compile the core myself from this repo, unmodified, it runs correctly on my PSP.

• Current stable (1.21.0) freezes, black screen, shuts off device
• Current nightly (2025-10-04 from https://buildbot.libretro.com) freezes, black screen, shuts off
• Stable 1.10.0 runs game and can close game correctly
• My own unmodified build runs game and can close game correctly

I used the current nightly (2015-10-04) for all these tests, only overwriting the core file (cores/gambatte_libretro.PBP) with the one from the four mentioned builds.

My build process:
Installed PSP SDK from https://pspdev.github.io/ (using AUR package psp-sdk-bin, I use Arch btw), used libretro-super github repo for its fetching and building scripts, copied the resulting gambatte_libretro_psp1.a into dist-scripts/ of the cloned retroarch github repo, ran dist-scripts/dist-cores.sh psp1, and copied the new file pkg/ps1/cores/gambatte_libretro.PBP to ms0:/PSP/GAME/retroarch/cores, overwriting the original.

I didn't have any trouble with the file browser and selecting and launching my .gbc file.

It says 1.21.0 - Gambatte (v0.5.0 0092232) in the information menu so I'm pretty sure what I'm seeing is correct. I'll attach my build here for anyone else to try out.

gambatte_libretro.PBP.zip

I'm suspecting there's something wrong with the build bot's compilation process?

This is probably not proper github procedure, sorry, I'm not a dev. Hope this helps nevertheless.

[andymcca]

@amenoko that's brilliant, great detective work. 'My time is precious' - my god I'm such a diva sometimes haha!

Your process sounds much better, I was just building Retroarch with the libretro_psp1.a file from the Gambatte build added, to make a static core. I've done this previously when I was messing with PS2 builds for gpsp so not sure why it didn't work properly. But your findings sound like something else is going on, in any case.

@LibretroAdmin what say you?