Notes for macOS¶
Mesa builds on macOS without modifications. However, there are some details to be aware of.
Mesa has a number of build-time dependencies. Most dependencies, including Meson itself, are available in homebrew, which has a Mesa package for reference. The exception seems to be Mako, a Python module used for templating, which you can install as
pip3 install mako
.macOS is picky about its build-time environment. Type
brew sh
before building to get the Homebrew dependencies in your path.
Mesa’s default builds with the Apple GLX uses Mesa as a front for the hardware-accelerated system OpenGL framework, to provide hardware acceleration to X11 applications on macOS running via XQuartz.
Mesa’s software rasterizers also work on macOS. To build, set the build options
-Dosmesa=true -Dglx=xlib
and select an appropriate Gallium software
rasterizer.