Qt for X11 Requirements

Platform Plugin Dependencies

On Linux, the xcb QPA (Qt Platform Abstraction) platform plugin is used. It provides the basic functionality needed by Qt GUI and Qt Widgets to run against X11. Its library dependencies are described the following table. To build Qt from its source code, you will also need to install the development packages for these libraries for your system.

Note: From Qt 5.15 onwards, Qt does require libxcb 1.11. Also, the -qt-xcb configure option got removed that was bundling some of the libs below. Anyhow, you can now configure with -bundled-xcb-xinput to avoid a dependency to system xcb-xinput.

Name	Library	Notes	Configuration options	Minimum working version
XRender	libXrender	X Rendering Extension; used for anti-aliasing and alpha cursor support	-xrender or auto-detected	0.9.0
xcb-render	libxcb-render	X C Bindings for Render extension	auto-detected	1.11
xcb-render-util	libxcb-render-util	Utility library for XCB for Render extension	auto-detected	0.3.9
xcb-shape	libxcb-shape	X C Bindings for Shape extension	auto-detected	1.11
xcb-randr	libxcb-randr	X C Bindings for Resize and Rotate Extension	auto-detected	1.11
xcb-xfixes	libxcb-xfixes	X C Bindings for Fixes Extension	auto-detected	1.11
xcb-xkb	libxcb-xkb	X C Bindings for XKeyboard Extension	auto-detected	1.11
xcb-sync	libxcb-sync	X C Bindings for Sync Extension	auto-detected	1.11
xcb-shm	libxcb-shm	X C Bindings for Shared Memory Extension	auto-detected	1.11
xcb-icccm	libxcb-icccm	X C Bindings for ICCCM Protocol	auto-detected	0.3.9
xcb-keysyms	libxcb-keysyms	Utility library for XCB for keycode conversion	auto-detected	0.3.9
xcb-image	libxcb-image	Utility library for XCB for XImage and XShmImage, used for QBackingStore and cursor support	auto-detected	0.3.9
xcb-util	libxcb-util	Utility library for XCB for atom, aux and event	auto-detected	0.3.9
xkbcommon	libxkbcommon	Keymap handling	-xkbcommon or auto-detected	0.5.0
xkbcommon-x11	libxkbcommon-x11	Keymap handling	auto-detected	0.5.0
Fontconfig	libfontconfig	Font customization and configuration	-fontconfig or auto-detected	2.6
FreeType	libfreetype	Font engine		2.3.0
Xext	libXext	X Extensions		6.4.3
X11	libX11	X11 client-side library		6.2.1
xcb	libxcb	X C Binding library		1.11
X11-xcb	libX11-xcb	Xlib/XCB interface library		1.3.2
SM	libSM	X Session Management	-sm or auto-detected	6.0.4
ICE	libICE	Inter-Client Exchange	-sm or auto-detected	6.3.5
glib	libglib-2.0	Common event loop handling	-glib or auto-detected	2.8.3
pthread	libpthread	Multithreading		2.3.5

Development packages for these libraries contain header files that are used when building Qt from its source code. On Debian-based GNU/Linux systems, for example, we recommend that you install the following development packages:

• libfontconfig1-dev
• libfreetype6-dev
• libx11-dev
• libx11-xcb-dev
• libxext-dev
• libxfixes-dev
• libxi-dev
• libxrender-dev
• libxcb1-dev
• libxcb-glx0-dev
• libxcb-keysyms1-dev
• libxcb-image0-dev
• libxcb-shm0-dev
• libxcb-icccm4-dev
• libxcb-sync-dev
• libxcb-xfixes0-dev
• libxcb-shape0-dev
• libxcb-randr0-dev
• libxcb-render-util0-dev
• libxcb-util-dev
• libxcb-xinerama0-dev
• libxcb-xkb-dev
• libxkbcommon-dev
• libxkbcommon-x11-dev

Some of these packages depend on others in this list, so installing one may cause others to be automatically installed. Other distributions may provide system packages with similar names.

Accessibility Dependencies

The Qt accessibility implementation uses the Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface (AT-SPI). Besides DBUS, the development package libatspi2.0-dev must be installed.

OpenGL Dependencies

Configure attempts to automatically detect OpenGL ES 2.0, or later, or regular desktop OpenGL. You can disable OpenGL support by using the -no-opengl option.

Note: The Qt OpenGL module (which contains classes that start with QGL) has been deprecated in favor of the Qt GUI module (which contains classes that start with QOpenGL).

QDoc Dependencies

QDoc uses Clang to parse C++ code. If you wish to build QDoc manually, refer to Installing Clang for QDoc for specific build requirements.