Compilation guide (Linux)
Compilation on Linux and BSD does not have many surprises, as its foundation is Unix-based.
At least one libretro implementation
pkgconfig
Working OpenGL headers (should be included by default, but you might need to install libgl/mesa development packages)
libxml2 - For XML shaders and cheat support.
freetype - TTF font rendering
ffmpeg/libavcodec - FFmpeg recording
nvidia-cg-toolkit - Cg shaders
Some other libraries can be built support for as well, please refer to ./configure --help.
You should at least build one libretro implementation so RetroArch can do stuff. There is a super-project that is designed to easily build every libretro port out there. To build every core:
git clone git://github.com/libretro/libretro-super.git
cd libretro-super
sh libretro-fetch.sh
sh libretro-build.sh
sh libretro-install.sh <path>
Once dependencies are installed, you can pull and install from Git:
git clone git://github.com/Themaister/RetroArch.git
cd RetroArch
./configure # Script will autodetect features. Refer to --help if you want to override anything, such as --prefix.
make
sudo make install
If you want a GUI launcher as well, you can build it too:
git clone git://github.com/Themaister/RetroArch-Phoenix.git
cd RetroArch-Phoenix
make # Will build for GTK2 by default. If you're a KDE user or prefer Qt, you can build for Qt with make -f Makefile.qt.
sudo make install
Enjoy! :)