totk-pc-recomp/docs/toolchain-msys2-python.md

Toolchain: MSYS2 UCRT64, Python, Switch content tools

Set up 2026-10-20. Package set follows refs/LASRecomp/tools/setup_windows.ps1 plus cmake, ninja, gcc, git, unzip. setup_windows.ps1 itself was not run.

MSYS2 UCRT64 (C:\msys64)

Update: C:\msys64\usr\bin\bash.exe -lc "pacman -Syuu --noconfirm" (twice: first pass updates the core and exits).

Install:

pacman -S --needed --noconfirm make mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-{clang,lld,sdl3,ffmpeg,vulkan-devel,shaderc,spirv-tools,
  pkgconf,gdb,vulkan-memory-allocator,vulkan-validation-layers,nasm,cmake,ninja,gcc,make} base-devel git unzip zip p7zip

Package	Version
clang / lld	23.1.3
gcc	16.2.0
make (msys) / mingw32-make	4.4.1
sdl3	3.4.18
ffmpeg	9.0.2 (MSYS2 build is GPLv3; LASRecomp ships an LGPL build via tools/build_deps_windows.sh)
vulkan-devel group (headers, loader, utility libs, spirv-headers, spirv-tools, validation layers)	1.4.363
shaderc (glslc)	2026.4
vulkan-memory-allocator	3.4.0, header at /ucrt64/include/vma/vk_mem_alloc.h
pkgconf	3.0.9
cmake / ninja	4.4.4 / 1.13.2
nasm / gdb	3.02 / 18.1
git / unzip / zip / p7zip	2.56.0 / 6.0 / 3.0 / 17.06

Use from Git Bash: export PATH="/c/msys64/ucrt64/bin:/c/msys64/usr/bin:$PATH". Built exes need C:\msys64\ucrt64\bin on PATH at run time (SDL3, FFmpeg, Vulkan, shaderc DLLs).

Verify:

clang --version; ld.lld --version
pkgconf --modversion sdl3 vulkan libavcodec
glslc --version; ffmpeg -version; spirv-val --version

Vulkan back end of M4

# all part of the install line above plus spirv-cross and glslang; --needed makes this a check
pacman -S --needed mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-{vulkan-devel,vulkan-memory-allocator,vulkan-validation-layers,shaderc,spirv-tools,spirv-cross,glslang}

Verify:

pkgconf --modversion vulkan                      # 1.4.363
spirv-val --version; spirv-dis --version
ls /ucrt64/include/vma/vk_mem_alloc.h /ucrt64/lib/libvulkan-1.dll.a
vulkaninfo --summary                             # Vulkan SDK; lists the discrete GPU, Vulkan 1.3 or newer

tools/build_game.py links -lvulkan-1 -luser32 -lgdi32 -ldwmapi and adds /ucrt64/include/vma to the runtime include path (#include "vk_mem_alloc.h"). At run time vulkan-1.dll comes from System32.

Python

uv 0.13.3 at %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\uv.exe (standalone installer, not winget).

venv	Python	Purpose	Pins
.venv	3.12.15 (uv-managed)	lifter / generator (capstone, unicorn, lz4, keystone, lief, pyelftools), oead 1.3.0, evfl, quicktex, PyYAML, Pillow, numpy, cryptography, nsz, zstandard, pyinstaller	tools/requirements.txt
.venv-py314	3.14.7 (system)	MacNativeGames TotK scripts: they use stdlib compression.zstd (3.14+)	tools/requirements-py314.txt

Version pins taken from LASRecomp Makefile (capstone 5.0.9, unicorn 2.1.4, lz4 4.4.5, pyinstaller 6.22.3) and refs/MacNativeGames/games/totk/requirements*.txt (cryptography 50.0.2, nsz 5.0.0, Pillow 12.3.0, brotli 1.2.0). capstone.__version__ reports 5.0.7 although the installed wheel is 5.0.9; the wheel's metadata is right.

Recreate:

uv venv --python 3.12 .venv
uv pip install --python .venv/Scripts/python.exe -r tools/requirements.txt
uv venv --python 3.14 .venv-py314
uv pip install --python .venv-py314/Scripts/python.exe -r tools/requirements-py314.txt

Verify:

.venv\Scripts\python -c "import capstone, unicorn, lz4; print(capstone.__version__, unicorn.__version__)"
.venv\Scripts\python -c "import capstone; md=capstone.Cs(capstone.CS_ARCH_ARM64, capstone.CS_MODE_ARM); print([i.mnemonic for i in md.disasm(bytes.fromhex('1f2003d5'),0)])"
# -> ['nop']
.venv-py314\Scripts\python -c "import compression.zstd, capstone, unicorn, lz4, cryptography, nsz"

Switch content tools (toolchain\)

Tool	Path	Status
hactool 1.4.0 @ 1d64a83450e025622f3468c28fc4164dad2c5ef6 (the MacNativeGames pin)	toolchain\hactool\hactool.exe	built, static, depends only on system DLLs
hactoolnet	-	not installed: github.com/Thealexbarney/LibHac returns 404 (repo, releases and assets gone)

hactool source: toolchain\src\hactool (git checkout of the pinned commit). Build: UCRT64 gcc, config.mk = CC=gcc EXEEXT=.exe CFLAGS=-O2 ... LDFLAGS=... -static, make -j8.

Applied the portable part of MacNativeGames build_app.py:build_hactool() (diff in toolchain\hactool\portable-patches.diff):

1. MNG_TITLE_KEYS env var selects the title-key file.
2. BKTR: allow 0x200-aligned padding after the subsection table (nca.c).
3. BKTR: accept the subsection total-size layout of newer cumulative updates (nca.c).

Ours (toolchain\hactool\unicode-patches.diff): hactool.manifest with <activeCodePage>UTF-8</activeCodePage>, embedded through hactool.rc (Makefile rule hactool.res.o, windres). hactool converts argv, HOME and USERPROFILE from UTF-8 to UTF-16 (filepath.c); without the manifest they arrive in the ANSI code page, and a non-ASCII user profile or path stops it with Failed to convert ... to UTF-16!. Needs Windows 10 1903 or later.

Rebuild: in an MSYS2 UCRT64 shell (MSYSTEM=UCRT64 C:\msys64\usr\bin\bash.exe -lc ...) in toolchain\src\hactool, make clean && make -j8, then copy hactool.exe to toolchain\hactool\. gcc writes temporary files to TMP; where it cannot (sandboxed shells), point TMP and TEMP at a writable folder.

Not applied: the MNG_BASE_RANGE_OFFSET/SIZE base-file hook. It uses funopen (BSD/macOS only); on Windows the base NCA must be extracted to a file first.

Verify: toolchain\hactool\hactool.exe prints hactool (c) SciresM. and usage.

Keys: hactool reads -k <prod.keys>, else $HOME\.switch\prod.keys (falls back to %USERPROFILE% when HOME is unset; MSYS shells set HOME, so pass -k explicitly). Use your own keys; no keys are in this repo.