Persistent Installation Issues on Windows & Ubuntu VMs/VPS - Missing libnx/tools (and download errors)

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kendellbmt
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2025 2:31 am

Persistent Installation Issues on Windows & Ubuntu VMs/VPS - Missing libnx/tools (and download errors)

Post by kendellbmt » Fri Jun 27, 2025 2:39 am

Hello everyone,

I'm a video editor/media professional trying to set up a development environment for Nintendo Switch homebrew (specifically to build NRO files for game localization patches). I've been struggling for days with persistent installation issues across multiple environments, and I'm seeking your expertise.

My Goal: Successfully install devkitPro tooling to compile an NRO homebrew application for Nintendo Switch.

The Core Problem: The libnx/tools/Makefile.include directory/file consistently goes missing after installation, preventing make from working. Additionally, I've encountered numerous download failures.

Environments Tested (and failed):

Windows 10/11 (Physical PC) - Using devkitPro-windows-installer.exe (Latest v3.0.3 and older v2.2.1 Updater):

Steps: Clean install, run installer as administrator, select switch-dev :evil:

Issue: Installation completes with 100% success, but the directory C:\devkitPro\libnx\tools\ (and Makefile.include inside it) is always missing. This prevents compilation. No explicit errors from the installer.

Attempts: Tried multiple times, restarted PC, temporarily disabled antivirus/Windows Defender, re-downloaded installer. All lead to the same result.

Windows 11 (VPS) - Using devkitPro-windows-installer.exe (Latest v3.0.3):

Steps: Clean Windows 11 VPS, run installer as administrator, select switch-dev. :roll:

Issue: Exactly the same problem as on physical Windows PC. C:\devkitPro\libnx\tools\ is missing. This strongly suggests the issue isn't specific to my local PC.

Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 LTS (VirtualBox VM on Windows PC) - Attempting dkp-pacman via installer script & manual package downloads:

Initial Setup: Clean Ubuntu VM install, Guest Additions installed (after some copy-paste and chmod +x issues resolved).

Problem 1: Script download failure (curl/wget to github.com links):

curl -Ls https://github.com/devkitPro/installer/ ... staller.sh > /tmp/devkitpro-installer.sh resulted in /tmp/devkitpro-installer.sh: line X: <!DOCTYPE html>: command not found (meaning it downloaded an HTML "Not Found" page instead of the script).

wget https://pkg.devkitpro.org/devkitpro-keyring.deb and dkp-pacman.deb consistently resulted in ERROR 404: Not Found.

Attempts: Changed DNS in Ubuntu VM to Google DNS (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4), ensured "Apply" worked. Still same download errors.

Hypothesis: Network/firewall issue specifically blocking correct download of these files from devkitPro/GitHub servers from my location/setup.

Ubuntu Server 24.04 (VPS) - Attempting buildscripts from source:

Steps: Clean Ubuntu Server install, updated system, installed build-essential, git, curl etc. git clone https://github.com/devkitPro/buildscripts.git was successful.

Problem 1: build-devkit.sh "Permission denied" / "No such file" issues:

Resolved by using sudo ./build-devkit.sh and ensuring correct filename (build-devkit.sh vs build_devkitpro).

Problem 2: Error configuring gcc (Missing GMP, MPFR, MPC):

Resolved by sudo apt install -y libgmp-dev libmpfr-dev libmpc-dev.

Problem 3 (CRITICAL): Error: Failed to download binutils-2.44.tar.xz (again, a 404 error from ftp.gnu.org):

Attempts: Manually downloaded binutils-2.44.tar.xz via wget (which worked for this specific file, unlike curl or buildscripts's internal curl). Moved it to ~/buildscripts/.

Issue: Even after manually downloading binutils-2.44.tar.xz and placing it in ~/buildscripts/, the build-devkit.sh script still fails on other components or subsequent downloads with 404 Not Found or similar download errors.

Current Status: I am unable to get a complete devkitPro toolchain installation on any Windows environment (missing libnx/tools despite 100% reported success), and on Linux (VM/VPS), while buildscripts starts, it consistently fails to download various core components from devkitPro/GNU servers with 404 Not Found errors. This leads me to believe there's a fundamental issue preventing successful downloads of necessary files in my specific setup/region.

My Question:
Has anyone else encountered such persistent download/installation issues with devkitPro, particularly on Windows where libnx/tools is missing after installer completion, or on Linux where buildscripts fails to download source archives with 404 errors?

Could this be related to:

Specific network/ISP blocking or routing issues to devkitPro's CDN/download servers in my region?

A deeper underlying issue with devkitPro-windows-installer.exe or buildscripts's download logic that manifests in certain network conditions?

Are there alternative stable download mirrors or methods not reliant on direct GitHub/devkitPro CDN links for core components?

Any insights or alternative reliable installation methods (e.g., pre-compiled toolchains from a trusted community mirror, if such a thing exists and is allowed) would be immensely appreciated. I am very frustrated and keen to finally get this working.

Thank you in advance for your help!


WinterMute
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Re: Persistent Installation Issues on Windows & Ubuntu VMs/VPS - Missing libnx/tools (and download errors)

Post by WinterMute » Mon Jun 30, 2025 8:24 pm

kendellbmt wrote: Fri Jun 27, 2025 2:39 am

The Core Problem: The libnx/tools/Makefile.include directory/file consistently goes missing after installation, preventing make from working. Additionally, I've encountered numerous download failures.

What do you mean by "goes missing"?

Is there a functional Msys2 shell? This should be accessible via Start->devkitPro-Msys2. The fact that you can run make implies that maybe you have unless of course you've installed make somewhere else.

If you can open an msys2 shell then please show us the output of these commands

Code: Select all

env
ls -al /opt/devkitpro

Problem 1: Script download failure (curl/wget to github.com links):

curl -Ls https://github.com/devkitPro/installer/ ... staller.sh > /tmp/devkitpro-installer.sh resulted in /tmp/devkitpro-installer.sh: line X: <!DOCTYPE html>: command not found (meaning it downloaded an HTML "Not Found" page instead of the script).

This is correct. No such file exists.

wget https://pkg.devkitpro.org/devkitpro-keyring.deb and dkp-pacman.deb consistently resulted in ERROR 404: Not Found.

As is this. Again, these files don't exist and I have no idea why you think they would.

Hypothesis: Network/firewall issue specifically blocking correct download of these files from devkitPro/GitHub servers from my location/setup.

Attempting to download files that don't exist will generally result in 404 errors.

Ubuntu Server 24.04 (VPS) - Attempting buildscripts from source:

This isn't something we provide support with, sorry. The process can be difficult to get right and the buildscripts only build a compiler. You won't get access to the 100s of support libraries we provide this way.

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