86Box ROM Paths

2026-02-08

86Box default rom path on linux

On Linux, 86Box looks for ROMs in a pretty straightforward, XDG-friendly place.

Default ROM directory

System-wide install

/usr/share/86box/roms/

That’s where distro packages usually drop the ROM set.

Per-user ROM directory

~/.local/share/86box/roms/

Anything you put here will override or supplement the system ROMs.

Config file (handy for checking)

Your config lives at:

~/.config/86box/86box.cfg

If you ever changed the ROM path, you’ll see something like:

rom_path = /some/custom/path

Quick sanity check

From a terminal:

ls /usr/share/86box/roms
ls ~/.local/share/86box/roms

If neither exists, 86Box will complain at startup about missing ROMs.