Compilation and Installation

  1. Unix / X11
  2. Windows
  3. VMS
  4. Other

1. Unix/X11 Compilation and Installation

Mesa uses a rather conventional Makefile system. A GNU autoconf/automake system used to be included, but was discarded in Mesa 5.1 because:

If someone strongly feels that Mesa should have a autoconf/automake system and wants to contribute one and maintain it, we'll consider adding it again.

1.1 Compilation

Note: if you've obtained Mesa through CVS, do this first: 

    cd Mesa-newtree
    cp Makefile.X11 Makefile

Now, just type make. You'll see a list of supported system configurations. Choose one from the list (such as linux-x86), and type: 

    make linux-x86

That's it.

1.2 The libraries

When compilation has finished, look in the top-level lib/ directory. You'll see a set of library files similar to this: 

lrwxrwxrwx    1 brian    users          10 Sep  4 17:55 libGL.so -> libGL.so.1*
lrwxrwxrwx    1 brian    users          19 Sep  4 17:55 libGL.so.1 -> libGL.so.1.4.050100*
-rwxr-xr-x    1 brian    users    13940317 Sep  4 17:55 libGL.so.1.4.050100*
lrwxrwxrwx    1 brian    users          11 Sep  4 17:54 libGLU.so -> libGLU.so.1*
lrwxrwxrwx    1 brian    users          20 Sep  4 17:54 libGLU.so.1 -> libGLU.so.1.3.050100*
-rwxr-xr-x    1 brian    users      324746 Sep  3 13:54 libGLU.so.1.1*
-rwxr-xr-x    1 brian    users     2830539 Sep  4 17:54 libGLU.so.1.3.050100*
lrwxrwxrwx    1 brian    users          12 Sep  4 17:53 libglut.so -> libglut.so.3*
lrwxrwxrwx    1 brian    users          16 Sep  4 17:53 libglut.so.3 -> libglut.so.3.7.1*
-rwxr-xr-x    1 brian    users     2426683 Sep  4 17:53 libglut.so.3.7.1*

libGL is the main OpenGL library (i.e. Mesa).
libGLU is the OpenGL Utility library.
libglut is the GLUT library.

1.3 Running the demos

If you downloaded/unpacked the MesaDemos-x.y.z.tar.gz archive or obtained Mesa from CVS, the progs/ directory will contain a bunch of demonstration programs.

Before running a demo, you may have to set an environment variable (such as LD_LIBRARY_PATH on Linux) to indicate where the libraries are located. For example:

cd into the Mesa lib/ directory.
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${cwd} (if using csh or tcsh shell)
or,
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${PWD} (if using bash or sh shell)

Next, change to the Mesa/demos/ directory:

cd ../progs/demos

Run a demo such as gears:

./gears

If this doesn't work, try the Mesa/progs/xdemos/glxinfo program and see that it prints the expected Mesa version number.

If you're using Linux or a similar OS, verify that the demo program is being linked with the proper library files:

ldd gears

You should see something like this: 

        libglut.so.3 => /home/brian/Mesa/lib/libglut.so.3 (0x40013000)
        libGLU.so.1 => /home/brian/Mesa/lib/libGLU.so.1 (0x40051000)
        libGL.so.1 => /home/brian/Mesa/lib/libGL.so.1 (0x400e0000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/i686/libc.so.6 (0x42000000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib/i686/libm.so.6 (0x403da000)
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x403fc000)
        libXmu.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6 (0x404da000)
        libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6 (0x404f1000)
        libXi.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXi.so.6 (0x40543000)
        libstdc++.so.5 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 (0x4054b000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x405fd000)
        libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x40605000)
        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/i686/libpthread.so.0 (0x40613000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x40644000)
        libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x40647000)
        libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x40650000)

Retrace your steps if this doesn't look right.

1.4 Installing the header and library files

The standard location for the OpenGL header files on Unix-type systems is in /usr/include/GL/. The standard location for the libraries is /usr/lib/. For more information see, the Linux/OpenGL ABI specification.

If you'd like Mesa to co-exist with another implementation of OpenGL that's already installed, you'll have to choose different directories, like /usr/local/include/GL/ and /usr/local/lib/.

To install the Mesa headers, do this:

cp -r include/GL /usr/include

To install the Mesa libraries, do this:

cp -pd lib/* /usr/lib
(The -pd options preserve symbolic links)

If you install the libraries in a non-standard location you can use LD_LIBRARY_PATH (on Linux) to switch between the Mesa libs and another vendor libs whenever you want. This is a handy way to compare multiple OpenGL implementations.

2. Windows Compilation and Installation

Please see the README.WIN32 file.

3. VMS Compilation and Installation

Please see the README.VMS file.

4. Other systems

Documentation for other environments (some may be very out of date):