PPSSPP Manager¶

Plays PSP games on the console with PPSSPP, an open-source PSP emulator. The app installs the PPSSPP release pinned for this version of the app, finds your games and adds them to Steam, so they start from Game Mode like any other game. It also sets PPSSPP's common picture, sound, controller and display settings, and can rename ISO and CSO files after their game metadata.

Whether a game runs, and how well, is up to PPSSPP. Its compatibility list shows what others found. PSP game compatibility and performance vary by title and are not guaranteed on PlayStation 5 hardware running Bazzite.

What you need¶

Your games, dumped from your own discs: ISO, CSO or CHD images, or (for homebrew and games bought digitally) a folder with an EBOOT.PBP. The app never downloads games. Use game files you are entitled to use.
Steam, started at least once, for Game Mode.
About 50 MB for PPSSPP itself. Its saves, settings and memory stick games go in ~/.config/ppsspp, the PSP's memory stick.
fusermount (FUSE), which Bazzite has. PPSSPP comes as an AppImage, which mounts itself with it. Without it, it unpacks itself to a temporary folder on every start, which takes longer.

No firmware is needed: PPSSPP plays the PSP's system software itself.

Install¶

Install it from the portal (the Gaming tab), or from a checkout of the repository:

apps/ppsspp/install.sh                         # the app, its launcher, a menu entry and a Desktop icon
apps/ppsspp/install.sh --no-desktop-shortcut   # without the Desktop icon
apps/ppsspp/install.sh --uninstall             # remove it; --purge removes its settings and log too

The launcher is ~/.local/bin/ps5-ppsspp-manager; the app runs on the suite's shared Python environment. Installing needs no root: run it as your own user. PPSSPP itself is not part of the install: the app downloads it when you press Install.

Removing the app takes out the app and the PPSSPP it installed; PPSSPP's own folder (your saves, settings and memory stick games) and your games stay. The games in Steam then no longer start: take them out first by unticking them and pressing Update Steam. With --uninstall --purge the app's settings, the covers found on SteamGridDB and the log go too.

Use it¶

The header shows the PPSSPP version, Your games (the games found) and those Available in Steam. Refresh reads everything again. Beside the title stands the app's state: Not installed, No games or Ready. Under the introduction, which links to PPSSPP's release notes and to this wiki, a row of three pills does the setting up, each with what it is for on top and what it does under it: PPSSPP Install, PPSSPP Uninstall and Games Rename. Two lines below the pills say where each stands, and then come three tabs: Your games, Settings and Log, and Start game, a tab that is a button.

PPSSPP: Not installed. or Installed., with the button to use under it. The tooltip says which release is installed, or what Install takes, and when a newer PPSSPP is out. Install asks first, then downloads PPSSPP from its GitHub release (about 48 MB) and checks it against the checksum pinned in this version of the app before installing it; a file that differs is not installed. When another release is installed, the tooltip and the log say so, and Install puts the pinned one in. Uninstall takes it out again; PPSSPP's own folder, with your saves, settings and memory stick games, stays.
Game folder: where the app looks for games, ~/Games/PSP and a removable drive's Games/PSP (see Where your games go); nothing is chosen or browsed to. The i beside them says what goes there, and the tooltip how many games are on PPSSPP's memory stick. A game may sit up to five folders deep.
Games Rename renames the ISO and CSO images after their PARAM.SFO: see Renaming the files.

Press Escape or the controller's B/back button to close the active window or dialog.

Where your games go¶

The app has a folder of its own, which it makes when it opens; you never choose or browse to a folder: ~/Games/PSP. Put your disc images and your EBOOT.PBP folders there, or in folders in it, and they show in the table. On a USB drive or an SD card, make a folder Games/PSP on it, and the app looks there too while the drive is mounted (under /run/media or /media, as Bazzite mounts it).

Your games¶

The table lists every game found: its title and ID (ULUS…, UCES…) from the PARAM.SFO inside the image, its kind and its file. It has two kinds of games:

Disc images in the game folders: ISO and CSO are read for their title, ID and pictures. A CHD is listed under its file name: the app does not look into that archive format, so Steam gets no pictures from it, but PPSSPP plays it the same. An image without a PSP game in it, such as a UMD video, is not listed.
Memory stick games: folders with an EBOOT.PBP, in the game folders and on PPSSPP's own memory stick (~/.config/ppsspp/PSP/GAME), where PPSSPP keeps homebrew and installed games. A game's update there (its PARAM.SFO says category PG) is not a game to start: PPSSPP lays it over the disc game by itself.

Remove game… deletes the chosen game from the disk. A window first lists what would go, a row each with its size: the disc image, or a memory stick game's own folder, and its Steam shortcut when it is in Steam. Every row is ticked; untick what you want to keep, then Delete marked; Cancel deletes nothing. The saves on the memory stick stay. A game the app will not delete (one at the top of a drive, or in a folder that holds another game) is said so under the tabs: delete it by hand. Close PPSSPP first: nothing is removed while it runs.

PPSSPP settings opens PPSSPP's own window, with its other settings, its controller settings and its game list. A game runs from Steam: Start game starts the chosen one there.

Steam¶

Tick the games you want in Steam and press Update Steam. The app adds them to Steam as non-Steam games, with the game's own icon and background (from inside the image) as their pictures and its icon (ICON0.PNG) as the logo on the banner, and takes out the games you unticked and games it no longer finds. Steam keeps these files in memory, so it closes for the change and starts again in the background. PPSSPP has to be installed first: the games in Steam start it.

In Steam each game's name starts with its system, for example [PSP] Lumines, so it stands apart from the same title on Steam or on another system in Steam's menus. Two games with the same title get their ID after the name.

The games are in the library under Non-Steam, on the desktop, in Big Picture Mode and in Game Mode alike. They start the game full screen in PPSSPP, with an Exit entry in PPSSPP's pause menu. Steam's menu and Exit game work as for any game.

Steam's overlay works over a game started from Steam, in Game Mode and on the desktop: press Shift+Tab or the PS button for the game's page, its controller layout and its settings, without leaving the game.

A game started from Steam reads your controllers itself. How it works explains both.

Change Steam from Desktop Mode: in Game Mode Steam is the session itself and cannot close for the change. Update Steam is off there, and until Steam has been started once on the console.

Covers¶

A PSP game has no cover in the shape Steam's library uses, so the app draws one: the game's icon with its title on a dark background. With a SteamGridDB API key, entered under Steam artwork…, Update Steam looks each game up on SteamGridDB by its title and takes a cover from there instead; the background and the logo on the game's page stay the game's own. The key is free with a SteamGridDB account, and it is one key for every app of the suite, kept in ~/.config/bazzite-console/steamgriddb-key. Leave the field empty to look nothing up: the covers already found stay in use.

Steam in the line under the table is a link: it opens Steam's library (Steam starts when it does not run).

Start game¶

The last tab, Start game, is a button. Choose a game in the table and click it: the game starts through Steam, as its shortcut in Steam starts it, and Steam starts first when it does not run. The tab you were on stays open. A game that is not in Steam yet is not started: the line under the tabs says to tick it and press Update Steam first.

Settings¶

PPSSPP's settings that matter for playing, each written into PPSSPP's own settings file the moment you change it. Everything else is in PPSSPP's own window (PPSSPP settings, under the games).

Picture: the Renderer (Vulkan, PPSSPP's own choice, or OpenGL when a game shows faults), the Internal resolution (Automatic follows the screen; 3x fills a 1080p screen sharply, 6x a 4K one; a higher one asks more of the GPU), Stretch to the screen, Integer scaling, Texture filtering (Nearest keeps pixel art sharp), Anisotropic filtering and VSync.
Game: Frame skipping (frames left out to keep a slow game at full speed) and Cheats (the cheats in PPSSPP's cheats folder).
Sound: the Volume.
Controller: the Stick dead zone (how far a stick moves before the game sees it, for a stick that drifts) and the Stick sensitivity (how far the PSP's stick goes for the stick's travel: PPSSPP's 1.10 reaches the edge a little sooner).
On screen: Show FPS and Show speed, in a corner of the picture.

Each setting shows what PPSSPP's settings file holds, or PPSSPP's own default while the file does not name it; a value set in PPSSPP that the app does not offer is shown as it is. Nothing is written while PPSSPP runs: PPSSPP writes its settings back when it closes, over any change.

Log¶

Everything the app said and did, with the time: PPSSPP installed or removed, what the app set up in PPSSPP, files renamed, games deleted, every change to Steam, and every error. The same lines are in ~/.local/share/ps5-ppsspp-manager/ps5-ppsspp-manager.log, which turns over at 1 MB (the three older files are kept). The log holds what the app did, with your home folder written as ~, and not your SteamGridDB key. install.sh --uninstall keeps it; --purge removes it.

Renaming the files¶

A dumped disc often gets a meaningless file name. Games Rename opens the Rename files window with the ISO and CSO images the app found and the name each would get from its own PARAM.SFO: pick one of eight naming templates under Naming, and press Rename all. The window shows the selected game's pictures (a click cycles ICON0, PIC0 and PIC1), and for a title in another language you can type a translation, used as the title in that file's new name (Translate opens the title in Google Translate, in your browser). A name another file already has is never taken over; characters that are illegal in file names are removed. The app remembers the template you chose.

Naming	Example
ID - Title	`ULJM05437 - Ever17.iso`
ID Title	`ULJM05437 Ever17.iso`
ID - Title - Version	`ULJM05437 - Ever17 - v1.01.iso`
Title - ID	`Ever17 - ULJM05437.iso`
Title Id	`Ever17 ULJM05437.iso`
Title only	`Ever17.iso`
Title [ID]	`Ever17 [ULJM05437].iso`
Title [ID] [Version]	`Ever17 [ULJM05437] [v1.01].iso`

A memory stick game is never renamed (its file must stay EBOOT.PBP), and a CHD is not read; with no ISO or CSO image found, Games Rename is off. A renamed game that is in Steam needs Update Steam afterwards: its shortcut names the file.

From a terminal¶

ps5-ppsspp-run starts the installed PPSSPP with the options you give it. The Steam shortcuts use it, so they keep working when a newer version of the app brings a newer PPSSPP.

ps5-ppsspp-run --fullscreen --pause-menu-exit "/path/to/game.iso"   # a game full screen (Steam)
ps5-ppsspp-run "/path/to/game.iso"                                  # a game, as PPSSPP is set up
ps5-ppsspp-run                                                      # PPSSPP's own window

New PPSSPP releases¶

Each version of the app installs one PPSSPP release, the one pinned in it. When the window opens, the app asks GitHub for PPSSPP's newest release. When that one is newer, the PPSSPP line's tooltip and the log say so, with a link to what is new; the app does not install it. A newer PPSSPP comes with a newer version of the app, from the portal: after updating the app, the tooltip and the log say so, and Install brings it. PPSSPP's own notice of a new release is turned off by the app (see below); on Linux PPSSPP does not update itself.

How it works¶

The Steam shortcuts start ps5-ppsspp-run, which starts PPSSPP. Two things change when Steam is the one that starts it. Started from outside Steam (PPSSPP settings, or ps5-ppsspp-run in a terminal), PPSSPP runs as it is.

Once PPSSPP is installed, each time the window opens and while PPSSPP does not run, the app turns off PPSSPP's notice of a newer release in its settings (PSP/SYSTEM/ppsspp.ini on its memory stick): a newer PPSSPP comes with the app. Everything else in the file stays as PPSSPP wrote it, and what changed goes to the log.

The app goes online for three things: the download of PPSSPP from GitHub when you press Install, the question to GitHub for PPSSPP's newest release when the window opens, and, only with a SteamGridDB key, the covers from SteamGridDB on Update Steam. Privacy has the whole suite's list.

Controllers¶

When Steam starts a game, it tells the game's controller library (SDL) to ignore the controllers Steam handles itself, and gives the game Steam's virtual controller in their place (Steam Input). PPSSPP then sees only that virtual controller, and on the desktop it follows the layout Steam has active, which may be Steam's desktop layout (mouse and keys).

So the run wrapper undoes it: while a real controller is connected, PPSSPP reads that controller itself and leaves Steam's virtual one (USB ID 28DE:11FF) out. The PS button stays Steam's. Without a real controller, where the only controls are Steam's virtual controller, the wrapper leaves Steam's choice as it is. Controls are mapped in PPSSPP's own window (PPSSPP settings, then Settings > Controls).

A game renamed, moved or gone¶

A game renamed or moved after it was put in Steam keeps its mark: the app knows each game in Steam by its code (or, without one, its file's size), so on Refresh it finds the game again under its new name, ticked, and says so under the tabs; Update Steam then takes the old shortcut out and puts the game in under its new name. A shortcut to a game that is no longer there (deleted, or on a drive that is not in) does not start PPSSPP: a window says which file is missing and what to do, and closes by itself, so Steam sees the game end.

Steam's overlay on the desktop¶

The KDE desktop of Bazzite is a Wayland session. PPSSPP (an SDL program) may open its window through Wayland, but Steam on the desktop only sees windows that go through X11 (XWayland, the X11 server within the Wayland session). A game window Steam cannot see has no overlay: Shift+Tab and the PS button do nothing.

So when Steam starts a game on the Wayland desktop, the run wrapper has PPSSPP open its window through XWayland (SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11), and Steam's overlay works as in any other game. Game Mode runs every game through X11 already.

What goes where¶

What	Where
The app	`~/.local/share/ps5-ppsspp-manager/app`
PPSSPP	`~/.local/share/ps5-ppsspp-manager/emulator`
PPSSPP's saves, settings, memory stick games	`~/.config/ppsspp` (the PSP's memory stick)
Your games	`~/Games/PSP` (the app's own folder), and `Games/PSP` on a removable drive
The app's settings	`~/.config/ps5-ppsspp-manager`
The app's log	`~/.local/share/ps5-ppsspp-manager/ps5-ppsspp-manager.log`
The Steam shortcuts	Steam's `shortcuts.vdf` and `grid` folder, per Steam user
The covers found on SteamGridDB	`~/.local/share/ps5-ppsspp-manager/covers`
The SteamGridDB key, one for the suite	`~/.config/bazzite-console/steamgriddb-key`
Launchers	`~/.local/bin/ps5-ppsspp-manager`, `~/.local/bin/ps5-ppsspp-run`

PPSSPP can keep its memory stick elsewhere (its --root option and settings); the app reads the standard place.

License¶

GPL-3.0-or-later, see LICENSE. PPSSPP is a separate program under its own license (GPL-2.0-or-later), downloaded from its own release.