Compilation and Installation for Unix/X11

If you're not using a variant of Unix with X11, see the Supported Systems and Drivers section for instructions.

There are two methods for building Mesa on Unix/X11 systems:

NEW-STYLE
: Basically, type "./configure" followed by "make" This should work on most Unix-like operating systems. Unfortunately, autoconf/automake seems to seldom work reliably on non-Linux systems. For that reason, the old-style make system is still supported (and is the preferred method of the Mesa developers).
OLD-STYLE
: Simply type make and you'll see a list of supported system configurations. Pick one and type make config. More details below.

NOTE: The GLUT library and demonstrations programs are in the MesaDemos-x.y.z.tar.gz file. If you don't have GLUT or you want to run some demos, download the MesaDemos package too.

In either case, building Mesa entails the following:

Compiling libGL, the OpenGL-replacement library.
Compiling libGLU, the OpenGL Utility library.
Compiling libglut, the GLUT library (if you downloaded the Mesa demos package)
Compiling the demonstration programs in the directories: demos, xdemos, samples and book (if you downloaded the Mesa demos package.)

NEW-STYLE compilation and installation

0) If you've downloaded Mesa via CVS there will not be a "configure"
   script.  You'll have to run the "bootstrap" script first.  This script
   may not work on any OS other than Linux.  You'll need these programs
   to run the bootstrap script:

	autoconf 2.50
	automake 1.4-p2
	libtool 1.4


1) Run the configure script

	./configure [options]

For Linux, it is recommended that you use:
	./configure --prefix=/usr
So that the headers and libs are located according to the Linux/OpenGL
standard spec at http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/ABI/

Possible options are:

--prefix=DIR
	The toplevel directory of the hierachy in which Mesa
	will be installed (DIR/include,DIR/lib etc.).
	The default is "/usr/local".

--sysconfdir=DIR
	The directory where Mesa configuration files
	will be stored.	The default is "$prefix/etc".
	You may want to overwrite the default with --sysconfdir=/etc.

--enable-static
	Enable building of static libraries.
	Static libraries are NOT built by default.
	
--disable-shared
	Disable building of shared libraries.
	Shared libraries are built by default.

--with-pic
--without-pic
	In normal operation, libtool will build shared libraries from
	PIC objects and static archives from non-PIC objects, except where one
	or the other is not provided by the target host.  By specifying
	--with-pic you are asking libtool to build static archives from
	PIC objects, and similarly by specifying --without-pic you are asking
	libtool to build shared	libraries from non-PIC objects.
	libtool will only honour this flag where it will produce a
	working library, otherwise it reverts to the default.
	
--enable-debug
	Enable debugging messages (disabled by default).
	
--enable-profile
	Enable profiling (disabled by default).
	
--disable-optimize
	Disable extra optimizations (enabled by default,
	i.e., optimize for maximum performance).
	
--enable-warn
	Enable extended compiler warnings (disabled by default).
	
--enable-x86[=ARG]
--disable-x86
	Enable/disable x86 assembler support to speed up Mesa
	(autodetected by default). You may set `on' or `off'.
	
--enable-3dnow[=ARG]
--disable-3dnow
	Enable/disable 3Dnow support to speed up Mesa
	(autodetected by default). You may set `on' or `off'.
	
--enable-mmx[=ARG]
--disable-mmx
	Enable/disable MMX support to speed up Mesa
	(autodetected by default). You may set `on' or `off'.
	
--enable-sse[=ARG]
--disable-sse
	Enable/disable SSE support to speed up Mesa
	(autodetected by default). You may set `on' or `off'.
	If you have a PentiumIII and want to use SSE make sure you have the
	PIII Linux kernel-patch installed or things will fail!
	You can get the patch from http://www.redhat.com/~dledford/linux_kernel.html
	
--with-glide[=DIR]
--without-glide
	Enable/disable support for Glide (disabled by default).
	DIR is the installation directory of Glide.
	If Glide cannot be found, the driver won't be built.
	
--with-glut[=DIR]
--without-glut
	Don't/use already-installed GLUT (autodetected by default).
	DIR is the installation directory of Glut.
	If GLUT cannot be found, the version shipped with Mesa will be built.
	
--with-ggi[=DIR]
--without-ggi
	Enable/disable support for GGI (autodetected by default).
	DIR is the installation directory of GGI.
	If GGI cannot be found, the driver won't be built.

--disable-ggi-fbdev
	Don't build the GGI fbdev target (autodetected by default).
	
--disable-ggi-genkgi
	Don't build the GGI generic KGI driver (autodetected by default).
	
--disable-ggi-savage4
	Don't build the GGI Savage4 KGI driver (autodetected by default).
	
--disable-osmesa
	Disable OSmesa (offscreen rendering) support (enabled by default).

--with-svga[=DIR]
--without-svga
	Enable/disable support for SVGALib (autodetected by default).
	DIR is the installation directory of SVGALib.
	If SVGALib cannot be found, the driver won't be built.

--x-includes=DIR
	Search for the X include files in DIR.
	
--x-libraries=DIR
	Search for the X library files in DIR.

User specific compiler options can be set using the shell variable
CFLAGS. For instance,
	CFLAGS="-g -O2" ./configure
(on some systems: env CFLAGS="-g -O2" ./configure)
sets the compiler flags to "-g -O2".

For more options run "./configure --help" and read INSTALL.GNU.

2) To build the Mesa libraries run:

	make

When finished, libGL.so will be in src/.libs/, libGLU.so will be in
si-glu/.libs/, etc.

Optionally, you can strip the libraries using

	make strip
	
Now make sure that you have the permissions to install Mesa in the 
specified directories, for example, by becoming super user ("su")
Then run:

	make install

Mesa is now installed.
Please don't move the installed files but rerun all installation
steps if you want to use other directories.


3) To test whether Mesa works properly you might want to run the Mesa demos:

	make check
	
Builds all demos.

	make exec

Builds and executes all demos.

OLD-STYLE compilation and installation

This procedure usually works when ./configure ; make fails.

Note: If you tried ./configure ; make but it failed, first copy the top-level Makefile.X11 file over Makefile.

First, just type make alone. You'll see a list of supported system configurations. Choose one and type make config. The Mesa libraries and demo programs will be compiled.

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)

LD_LIBRARY_PATH

On Linux and similar operating systems the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable can be used to indicate a list of directories to search for shared libraries. If you don't install Mesa in /usr/lib/ you may have to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable in order to use the Mesa libraries.