Support XLibre on macOS

[barracuda156]

Hi, great to see this project being started.
What is the intended policy with regard to macOS support?
Official Xorg has killed support for older macOS versions, which has been since then maintained downstream.
Will fixes be accepted here?

[ImGGAAVVIINN]

That would be really cool if it ever happens :D

[theoparis]

I wanted to make a "open-source MacOS DIstro" with the xnu kernel and a u-boot fork, and I am also interested in X11Libre support on MacOS.

[barracuda156]

I wanted to make a "open-source MacOS DIstro" with the xnu kernel and a u-boot fork, and I am also interested in X11Libre support on MacOS.

Totally off-topic, but can that possibly work on PowerPC Macs?

[metux]

Hi, great to see this project being started. What is the intended policy with regard to macOS support? Official Xorg has killed support for older macOS versions, which has been since then maintained downstream. Will fixes be accepted here?

I try not break it, but unfortunately, I have no way of actually testing (not even building) it.
If somebody here likes to maintain it - just go for it and send PRs. I'd be happy to add them.

[fredvs]

XQuartz is still actively maintained.

[metux]

XQuartz is still actively maintained.

Who's doing it ? Jeremy ?

[fredvs]

XQuartz is still actively maintained.

Who's doing it ? Jeremy ?

https://github.com/XQuartz
There is indeed a Jeremy in the team: @jeremy

XQuartz works perfectly even on the last MacOSX.
And further proof that X11 is universal (and I'm very curious if a WayQuartz will ever appear ;) ).

Some X11 apps cross-compiled for the Mac and run by XQuartz:
mse-org/mseide-msegui#65 (comment)

[barracuda156]

XQuartz is still actively maintained.

Who's doing it ? Jeremy ?

He definitely does not maintain any ongoing support for older macOS, but he seemed to be willing to offer some limited help if someone takes over that.

I don’t think there is any active maintenance though, unless something is done privately.

[fredvs]

I hope this project continues. In any case, brew still offers it in its packages for macOS 15 Sequoia and it works out-of-the-box.
> brew install xquartz

[barracuda156]

I hope this project continues. In any case, brew still offers it in its packages for macOS 15 Sequoia and it works out-of-the-box. > brew install xquartz

This is a side topic, but while Homebrew does offer a more recent version than MacPorts for this specific port, a) not everyone wants to use Homebrew (well, I won’t, regardless of the OS version) and b) their support policy is abysmal and you can be sure nothing gonna even build on anything than a few latest macOS versions.

[mSparks43]

I use xquartz reasonably often to connect to my workstation, works well. I wouldn't imagine it needs much special attention, macos and linux are pretty similar.

[barracuda156]

I use xquartz reasonably often to connect to my workstation, works well. I wouldn't imagine it needs much special attention, macos and linux are pretty similar.

They aren’t in this particular case, since on macOS completely different code is used for the OS support (hw/xquartz).
Since that code is heavily relying on SDK features and, unfortunately, uses non-portable clangisms, its current version is broken on a lot of macOS versions either.
The old one still works though. I cannot say for sure whether there is much to gain from fixing the latest one, since I have not done that, at least not yet.

[mSparks43]

I use xquartz reasonably often to connect to my workstation, works well. I wouldn't imagine it needs much special attention, macos and linux are pretty similar.

They aren’t in this particular case, since on macOS completely different code is used for the OS support (hw/xquartz). Since that code is heavily relying on SDK features and, unfortunately, uses non-portable clangisms, its current version is broken on a lot of macOS versions either. The old one still works though. I cannot say for sure whether there is much to gain from fixing the latest one, since I have not done that, at least not yet.

similar not the same, not saying xquartz isnt very macos specific.

But if you look at e.g.

https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver/blob/master/hw/xquartz/xpr/dri.c

there is nothing really in there that you can say is very macos specific in the way you would for anything trying to do the same on windows.

running X11 applications on a powerful linux workstation while they appear as native apps on a low end macbooks via X11 forwarding is very compelling offering that people don't make enough use of, and many people could benefit from if they knew you can.

side benefit, xlibre would benefit far more from tapping into mac developers rather than winblows noobs.

[callmetango]

Thank you for your contribution! We currently restructured the "Ideas" discussions and accordingly this discussion will be moved to the X11Libre 4 Good Ideas For Later category.