Here's what the end result looks like:

I tested with Animal Crossing. It runs at about half speed at best. (If you saw this tutorial on Reddit already, I did not steal this guide. I posted it there as well.)

I'm assuming you already have Arch running on your switch with SSH and Wi-Fi working. SSH isn't needed, but it's way easier to do this with SSH. If you don't have Arch set up, look here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/quick-tuto-how-to-boot-linux-on-your-switch.501918/ I would also suggest the precompiled version of the booting tools here https://github.com/SoulCipher/shofel2_linux

Please comment if anything doesn't work as I might have forgotten something (I did most of this last night so I'm pretty much trying to remember the steps I took).

First you should have the equivalent of build-essential or base-devel for your system.

SSH into the Switch and sudo su into root. Now run

pacman -Syu alsa-lib bluez-libs cairo enet gcc-libs gdk-pixbuf2 glib2 glibc gtk2 hidapi libevdev libpng libpulse libsm libx11 libxi libxrandr libxxf86vm lzo mbedtls pango sfml zlib cmake git

This will install Dolphin-emu's dependencies. Next, run

git clone https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin.git dolphin-emu

Which will clone Dolphin-emu's repository to your Switch. Move into the dolphin-emu directory.

cd dolphin-emu

Now create a folder called Build and go into it.

mkdir Build && cd Build

Configure the build

cmake ..

After this is completed, run

make -j6

to compile Dolphin. Now run

make install

to install Dolphin on to the Switch.

Run it by typing dolphin-emu in LXTerminal on the Switch and pressing enter. You can type by using the "Onboard" program. Press the Config button, go to the audio section, and tap where it says ALSA. Change this to disabled. Close Dolphin and go back to your ssh session. Run

nano ~/.config/dolphin-emu/Dolphin.ini

and change where it says CPUCore = 1 to CPUCore = 4. This sets it to use the JIT64 DC, which is the fastest CPU interpreter for the Switch.

Now you can relaunch Dolphin and load a game!

Edit: To improve performance, try running

echo 0a > /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/pstate

(Thanks, @natinusala!)

 

[souler92]

my guess it is half speed because its running linux... i hope one day a natively(ish)emulator comes on the switch its fw


still friggin awesome!

 

[JellyPerson]

Typo:

Code:
cd dophin-emu

You meant CD dolphin-emu

 

[LarBob]

Typo:

You meant CD dolphin-emu

No, I didn't. "cd dolphin-emu" changes the directory to the dolphin-emu directory.
http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_man_pages/cdh.html

my guess it is half speed because its running linux... i hope one day a natively(ish)emulator comes on the switch its fw


still friggin awesome!

Dolphin runs very well on Linux on PCs and on many ARM Android phones. It's more due to how early in development the Switch Linux drivers are.

 

[Seriel]

No, I didn't. "cd dolphin-emu" changes the directory to the dolphin-emu directory.
http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_man_pages/cdh.html

dolphin not dophin (an l is missing)

 

[LarBob]

dolphin not dophin (an l is missing)

OH! Wow, I think I'm blind. I thought he was referring to CD being lowercase as he put it in caps. I'm sorry @JellyPerson! Thank you for pointing that out. I've fixed it in the OP.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Are there any configurations in Dolphin which might help speed up the games?

 

[bobmcjr]

Are there any configurations in Dolphin which might help speed up the games?

Animal Crossing is one of the lightest GC games available and if it's struggling, there's likely little that can be done.
I ran Dolphin on a NVIDIA TK1 board a while back, and that did at least a solid 45 FPS, and failoverfl0w's switch port ran at a decent 40, so I would say the GPU drivers aren't working with this version right now.

 

[Sayora]

Does the emulator recognize the joycons?

 

[cearp]

Does the emulator recognize the joycons?

it's more about linux recognizing them, not dolphin.
if the tutorials people follow include setting up the joycons, it should be easy.

it's bluetooth, maybe support isn't included yet?

 

[Sayora]

Then does linux recognize the joycons?

 

[cearp]

Then does linux recognize the joycons?

They're just bluetooth, I don't know if people have bluetooth working on linux for switch. If so we could use real mice and keyboards easily

 

[Raugo]

Does it work well? I have compiled it and it works but when I launch a game it crashes.

 

[LarBob]

Does it work well? I have compiled it and it works but when I launch a game it crashes.

Make sure you changed the CPUCore option and disabled sound

 

[Raugo]

Yes, I changed it. Maybe is a incompatibility with the game (Fire emblem) I will try with another game.

 

[SkillingCat]

They're just bluetooth, I don't know if people have bluetooth working on linux for switch. If so we could use real mice and keyboards easily

Yeah bluetooth is working fine for mouse/keyboard, I use my bluetooth keyboard so that I don't get mad every time I have to type a command in a terminal.

 

[ExploitTnT]

Help me with this problem

 

[Kobigov]

Help me with this problem

I get the same problem

 

[LarBob]

Help me with this problem

Make sure you have make installed.

 

[Kobigov]

It gives this now.

-- The C compiler identification is unknown
-- The CXX compiler identification is unknown
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:12 (project):
  No CMAKE_C_COMPILER could be found.

  Tell CMake where to find the compiler by setting either the environment
  variable "CC" or the CMake cache entry CMAKE_C_COMPILER to the full path to
  the compiler, or to the compiler name if it is in the PATH.


CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:12 (project):
  No CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER could be found.

  Tell CMake where to find the compiler by setting either the environment
  variable "CXX" or the CMake cache entry CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER to the full path
  to the compiler, or to the compiler name if it is in the PATH.


-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "/home/alarm/dolphin-emu/Build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "/home/alarm/dolphin-emu/Build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log".