pspdev-win

PSP homebrew toolchain for Windows, native MSYS2-hosted — no WSL, no Docker, no Linux VM. psp-gcc 15.2.0 (C + C++), the full pspsdk, all the standard host tools (psp-prxgen, pack-pbp, mksfoex, …), psp-pacman, and 16 Tier 1 libraries (SDL2, freetype, libpng, …) — packaged as a 122 MB prebuilt zip.

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Install in 5 minutes

1. Install MSYS2

Download from https://www.msys2.org and install to C:\msys64 (the default). The toolchain produces Cygwin-hosted binaries that depend on msys-2.0.dll at runtime; nothing else from MSYS2 is needed.

Already have MSYS2 somewhere else? Just substitute its path everywhere you see C:\msys64 below.

2. Download and extract the toolchain

Invoke-WebRequest `
  -Uri https://github.com/dmang-dev/pspdev-win/releases/download/v1/pspdev-win-15.2.0-v1.zip `
  -OutFile pspdev-win.zip
Expand-Archive pspdev-win.zip -DestinationPath C:\pspdev

That's the toolchain (psp-gcc, pspsdk, 30+ host tools) plus all 16 Tier 1 libraries — one download, one extract.

3. Add to PATH

Permanent (recommended):

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("PSPDEV", "C:\pspdev", "User")
$existing = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User")
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(
  "Path", "C:\pspdev\bin;C:\msys64\usr\bin;$existing", "User"
)
# Restart your shell after this.

Just this shell:

$env:PSPDEV = "C:\pspdev"
$env:Path = "$env:PSPDEV\bin;C:\msys64\usr\bin;$env:Path"

4. Verify

psp-gcc --version
# psp-gcc (GCC) 15.2.0

5. Compile hello world

Save these two files into an empty directory:

// hello.c
#include <pspkernel.h>
#include <pspdebug.h>

PSP_MODULE_INFO("hello", 0, 1, 0);
PSP_MAIN_THREAD_ATTR(THREAD_ATTR_USER);

int main(void) {
    pspDebugScreenInit();
    pspDebugScreenPrintf("Hello from a Windows-built PSP binary.\n");
    sceKernelSleepThread();
    return 0;
}

# Makefile
TARGET   = hello
OBJS     = hello.o
CFLAGS   = -O2 -G0 -Wall
LIBS     = -lpspdebug -lpspdisplay -lpspge -lpspctrl

EXTRA_TARGETS   = EBOOT.PBP
PSP_EBOOT_TITLE = Hello

PSPSDK = $(shell psp-config --pspsdk-path)
include $(PSPSDK)/lib/build.mak

Build it from an MSYS2 shell (or any shell with the PATH set above):

make
# psp-gcc ... -c -o hello.o hello.c
# psp-gcc ... -o hello.elf hello.o ...
# psp-fixup-imports hello.elf
# mksfoex -d MEMSIZE=1 'Hello' PARAM.SFO
# psp-strip hello.elf -o hello_strip.elf
# pack-pbp EBOOT.PBP PARAM.SFO ...

You now have EBOOT.PBP — drop it on a memory stick at /PSP/GAME/hello/EBOOT.PBP and launch from the XMB, or open it in PPSSPP to test on desktop.

Real-world examples built with this exact toolchain: hash-bench-psp (32-algorithm crypto benchmark), totp-psp (RFC 6238 TOTP authenticator), btc-miner-psp (Bitcoin Stratum-v1 pool miner with TLS).

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Releases

Release	Size	What's in it
v1 (recommended)	122 MB	Toolchain + 16 Tier 1 libraries (everything you need)
libs-v1	8.9 MB	Just the 16 libraries (overlay on top of an existing pspdev install)

v1 is what 90 % of users want. libs-v1 exists for the case where you already have a working pspdev install (Linux, macOS, WSL, or a previous Windows build) and just need the prebuilt libraries.

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Status — verified working

Built and verified end-to-end on standalone MSYS2 (MSYS_NT-10.0, GCC 15.2.0 host — both locally on C:\msys64 and in CI via msys2/setup-msys2@v2). psp-gcc compiles and links a real ELF32 / MIPS R3000 PSP executable.

Component	State	Notes
prepare.sh (host deps)	✅ builds	MSYS2/MINGW/UCRT detection + pacman install list
psptoolchain-allegrex — binutils, gcc (C + C++), newlib, pthread-embedded	✅ builds & installs	the cross compiler; ~30–90 min
psptoolchain-extra — psp-pkg-config, psp-cmake	✅ builds & installs	wrapper tools into $PSPDEV/bin
pspsdk	✅ builds & installs	all libpsp*.a, headers, samples, host tools (psp-prxgen, pack-pbp, mksfoex, …)
psplinkusb — libpsplink, psplink_boot.prx	✅ builds & installs	the on-PSP debug stub
ebootsigner	✅ builds & installs	EBOOT signing tool
psp-pacman	✅ builds, installs, syncs, installs packages	verified psp-pacman -S sdl2 end-to-end on vanilla MSYS2
psp-packages	✅ via psp-pacman -S or bundle	bundle (tools/build-library-bundle.sh, see LIBRARIES.md) is recommended for end users; psp-pacman -S is fine for dev iteration
psplinkusb — pspsh, usbhostfs_pc	⏭️ skipped	USB host-link debug tools — see Roadmap

The result is a complete PSP homebrew toolchain: C and C++ cross-compiler, newlib, libstdc++, the full pspsdk, and the standard host build tools — enough to build essentially any PSP homebrew that doesn't depend on the prebuilt psp-packages binaries or USB host-link debugging.

Important

This is an MSYS2-hosted toolchain — the same architecture native PSP dev on Windows has always used. The produced psp-gcc.exe & friends are x86_64-pc-cygwin binaries that depend on msys-2.0.dll; they run from any shell with both <PSPDEV>\bin and the MSYS2 usr\bin on PATH. Michael Grigorev / NVStat Team's PSPDEV for Windows shipped this same Cygwin-hosted approach from 2008–2016 (with GCC 4.3.2); we're just doing it again with GCC 15.2.0. A fully self-contained MINGW-hosted build, if anyone ever wants one, would be a separate effort.

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Build from source

Most users don't need this. The v1 release is byte-identical to what this section produces, just without the 30-90 minute wait. Use the build-from-source path when you want a different psp-gcc version, are hacking on the pspdev fork itself, or want to verify reproducibility.

Requirements

• Windows 10/11 x64
• Standalone MSYS2 from https://www.msys2.org/ (extract msys2-base-x86_64-*.tar.xz to C:\, or run the installer). Default location is C:\msys64.
• Git (Git for Windows is fine — the project clones itself with this)
• ~5 GB free disk for the build

bootstrap-windows.ps1 auto-detects MSYS2 at C:\msys64 or C:\msys2. Override with -Msys2Root <path> if installed elsewhere (e.g. on a non-C: drive).

Note

Why not devkitPro's bundled MSYS2? Older versions of this README listed devkitPro's MSYS2 at C:\devkitPro\msys2 as an option. It's not supported anymore — devkitPro ships a filtered MSYS2 package namespace (missing libusb, libgpgme, and others we need), its ensurepip is broken, and its /opt/devkitpro/ path layout caused subtle issues during local builds. Standalone MSYS2 is the single supported path. Installing standalone MSYS2 alongside an existing devkitPro install works fine — they don't conflict.

Run the bootstrap

git clone https://github.com/dmang-dev/pspdev-win.git
cd pspdev-win

# 1. Install host build dependencies first (fast — fail early on package issues)
.\bootstrap-windows.ps1 -PrepareOnly

# 2. Full build (30-90 min: binutils -> gcc -> newlib -> gcc stage 2 -> pspsdk -> ...)
.\bootstrap-windows.ps1

The bootstrap script clones the patched pspdev fork (dmang-dev/pspdev, windows-port branch) into pspdev/ next to itself, then drives the build inside MSYS2. The toolchain installs to .\install by default — point PSPDEV and PATH at that directory the same way the install section above describes (just substitute $PWD\install for C:\pspdev).

Options

Flag	Effect
-PrepareOnly	Run only prepare.sh (install host deps) and stop.
-Resume	Skip the expensive core toolchain rebuild; resume from psptoolchain-extra onward. Use after a full build got the cross compiler installed but failed in a later stage.
-PspDev <path>	Install location. Absolute, no spaces, Latin chars only (pspdev's own constraint). Default: .\install.
-Msys2Root <path>	Override MSYS2 auto-detection.
-LocalPackageBuild	Build psp-packages from source instead of skipping it (slow, fragile, see roadmap).

The exact same script runs in CI via the Build release bundles workflow, which produces both the toolchain+libs zip and the libraries-only zip and attaches them to a unified vN release. Trigger it from the Actions tab when you want to cut a new release.

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What's partial / skipped

psp-pacman — fully working on Windows

Upstream pacman's meson.build does mkdir -p "$DESTDIR/<abs-path>" in its install step. When DESTDIR is empty (the typical case), MSYS2 sees //<abs-path> and interprets the leading // as a UNC share prefix, failing with cannot create directory '//i': Read-only file system. Linux's mkdir treats // like / so the bug never surfaces there. The windows-port branch of our pspdev fork ships a one-character patch (patches/psp-pacman/fix-destdir-double-slash.patch) that drops the slash between $DESTDIR and the absolute path — the standard Autotools $(DESTDIR)$(prefix) pattern, identical on Linux/macOS, correct on MSYS2.

The fork also installs libgpgme-devel and libcurl-devel via prepare.sh. Without these, pacman is built with HAVE_LIBCURL and HAVE_LIBGPGME both #undef'd, which makes pacman -Sy fail with error invoking external downloader (no libcurl → libalpm has no internal HTTP path) and the default pacman.conf rejected because SigLevel = Optional TrustAll is invalid without compiled-in signature support.

Verified end-to-end on standalone MSYS2:

psp-pacman -Sy            -> syncs https://pspdev.github.io/psp-packages/pspdev.db
psp-pacman -Ss sdl2       -> lists sdl2, sdl2-image, sdl2-mixer, sdl2-ttf, ...
psp-pacman -S sdl2        -> downloads + installs sdl2 + pspgl + libpspvram (~1.2 MiB)
psp-pacman -Q             -> sdl2 2.32.8-3, pspgl r12-6, libpspvram r11.885fd3f-5

libSDL2.a, libGL.a, headers land in $PSPDEV/psp/{lib,include}/.

One minor cosmetic follow-up: pacman's Hook Dirs listing duplicates the prefix at runtime ($PSPDEV/$PSPDEV/share/libalpm/hooks/). This is a RootDir-vs-HookDir interaction in pacman when prefix isn't the system root. Doesn't block -S (the unduplicated path is also in the list); a cleaner fix is a future patch.

For shipping libraries to users, this repo still defaults to a single prebuilt bundle (tools/build-library-bundle.sh, see LIBRARIES.md) rather than asking users to run psp-pacman -S themselves. The bundle path is simpler (one zip extracted over $PSPDEV, done) and matches the historical MinPSPW model. But for developers iterating on the toolchain, psp-pacman -S <pkg> now works as a real alternative.

pspsh + usbhostfs_pc — USB host-link debugging

The PSPLink PC-side tools: usbhostfs_pc shares a PC folder to the PSP over USB; pspsh is a shell to load/run/debug homebrew on real hardware with host-side printf output.

• You lose: the fast USB hardware debug loop.
• You keep: building homebrew; libpsplink + psplink_boot.prx (the on-PSP side) do build; and PPSSPP — how most PSP homebrew is tested today — needs none of this.
• Fixable. These were originally skipped because we hit them while testing on devkitPro's filtered MSYS2 (which doesn't ship libusb). Standalone MSYS2 does ship libusb — pacman -S libusb plus flipping our skip in 004-psplinkusb-extra.sh is the obvious starting point. PSPDEV for Windows bundled libusb-win32 for years, so this isn't novel territory; open follow-up.

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How the port works

All Windows-specific changes live on the windows-port branch of the dmang-dev/pspdev fork. Every change is gated behind OS detection, so it does not affect Linux or macOS builds. The diff against upstream is small:

File	Change
prepare.sh	Detect MSYS_NT* / MINGW* / UCRT64*; install host deps via pacman (correct package names, --overwrite for the autoconf .info conflict, python3/pip3 symlink fallback, libgpg-error-devel, libgpgme-devel, libcurl-devel).
scripts/001-psptoolchain.sh	On Windows, build the allegrex toolchain; clone psp-pacman directly, inject our destdir patch, run pacman.sh; then build psptoolchain-extra steps 2+3 (pkg-config + cmake).
patches/psp-pacman/fix-destdir-double-slash.patch	One-character meson.build patch that fixes the $DESTDIR/<abs> → //<abs> UNC bug breaking ninja install on MSYS2.
scripts/004-psplinkusb-extra.sh	Widen the host-tools skip from MINGW* only to MINGW* / MSYS_* / UCRT64* (upstream's check missed the MSYS shell's uname).
scripts/003-psp-packages.sh	Cleanly skip on MSYS2 with a clear message; -LocalPackageBuild escape hatch preserved.
depends/check-dependencies.sh	Skip the gpgme-tool check on MSYS2 (not packaged there; only used by the skipped psp-pacman).

This repo (pspdev-win) is just the Windows entry point:

• bootstrap-windows.ps1 — PowerShell launcher: finds MSYS2, clones the fork, hands off to bash.
• build-msys2.sh — the MSYS2-side driver: normalizes line endings, runs prepare.sh, then build-all.sh (or the resume path).

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Troubleshooting

Installing the prebuilt release

• psp-gcc: command not found — C:\pspdev\bin isn't on PATH. Re-run step 3 in Install, and if you used the permanent variant, restart your shell so the new PATH is picked up.
• msys-2.0.dll was not found — MSYS2 isn't installed, or C:\msys64\usr\bin isn't on PATH. The toolchain produces Cygwin-hosted binaries; they need the MSYS2 runtime DLL even though they don't use anything else from MSYS2.
• Different MSYS2 location — if you installed MSYS2 to C:\msys2 or another drive, substitute that path everywhere C:\msys64 appears in the install instructions.
• make: command not found when building hello world — make is from MSYS2's usr/bin; same PATH fix as msys-2.0.dll above.

Building from source

• bash\r: command not found / \r errors — CRLF line endings. The driver auto-normalizes the pspdev/ clone, but not the sub-clones the build downloads itself. If it bites, inside MSYS2: find pspdev/build -name '*.sh' -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/\r$//'
• A late stage failed but the cross compiler is already built — re-run with -Resume to skip the ~30–90 min toolchain rebuild.
• pacman file conflict on autoconf / automake — handled automatically (--overwrite='/usr/share/info/*'); if you see it, your MSYS2 is mid-upgrade — run pacman -Syu once and retry.
• A clean rebuild — delete install/ and pspdev/build/, then re-run .\bootstrap-windows.ps1. Everything is reproducible from scratch.

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Credits

• pspdev and the PSP Homebrew Development team — the actual toolchain. This project is a thin Windows enablement layer on top of their work.
• MSYS2 — the POSIX build environment that makes this possible.

Prior art

PSPDEV for Windows (a.k.a. Minimalist PSPSDK / MinPSPW) by Michael Grigorev / NVStat Team — the Cygwin-hosted Windows port of PSPSDK that served the community from ~2008 to 2016, bundling GCC 4.3.2, PSPSDK build 2443, and ~30 prebuilt PSP libraries (SDL, SDL_mixer, SDL_ttf, freetype, libpng, libvorbis, lua, ode, TinyGL, …) in a single installer. That project established the architecture this repo uses today: a Cygwin/MSYS-hosted toolchain with libraries delivered as one prebuilt set, not via a package manager. Site: http://novell.chel.ru/start.php?dir=plugin/psp/dev&app=sdk&lng=english (intermittently available).

License

MIT — see LICENSE. The patched files on the windows-port branch of the fork remain under upstream pspdev's MIT license; this wrapper repo is MIT as well, so the whole thing is consistently MIT and friction-free to upstream.