libQGLViewer installation
Unix systems

» Installation on Linux and Unix : libQGLViewer and Qt
» Installation on Macintosh : libQGLViewer and Qt
» Designer plugin installation
» Troubleshooting

Linux and Unix

Compilation and installation

You can either use the pre-compiled RPM (Mandrake 10.1 build. See the source repository for Mdk 9.1 and Fedora Core 2 binaries):

rpm -Uvh libQGLViewer-1.3.9-2.i586.rpm libQGLViewer-devel-1.3.9-2.i586.rpm

Or rebuild the RPM from the sources and then install it using:

rpmbuild --rebuild libQGLViewer-1.3.9-2.src.rpm
cd /usr/src/RPM/RPMS/i586/ (or /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i586, see the rpmbuild last log lines)
rpm -Uvh libQGLViewer-*1.3.9-2.i?86.rpm

or compile the tarball sources:

tar -xzf libQGLViewer-1.3.9.tar.gz (release 2)
cd libQGLViewer-1.3.9/QGLViewer
qmake
make
make install

You may have to be logged as root user to install the library, since default install paths are system directories.

Compilation of the examples

Once the library is installed, compile the examples and test them:

cd ../examples
qmake
make

Customizing installation

The following files are installed:

The library (libQGLViewer-1.3.9.so) in /usr/lib
The header files in /usr/include/QGLViewer
The documentation and the examples in /usr/share/doc/QGLViewer

If you want to change the RPM installation prefix, say to /usr/local instead of the default /usr, use rpm -Uvh --prefix /usr/local ... in the rpm command line instead.

Optional qmake parameters let you customize your make install installation directories:

qmake [PREFIX=...] [INCLUDE_DIR=...] [LIB_DIR=...] [DOC_DIR=...]

A typical usage would be qmake PREFIX=$HOME. Default values are:

- Param -      - Default value -
PREFIX         /usr
LIB_DIR        PREFIX/lib
INCLUDE_DIR    PREFIX/include
DOC_DIR        PREFIX/share/doc

Use the same qmake parameters when you compile the examples.

If your Qt version is lower than 3.1, you need to link with the glut library : uncomment a line in QGLViewer.pro as explained. glut can be installed with a rpm or apt-get libglut3-dev.

Qt installation

You need to have the Qt library installed in order to run libQGLViewer. Qt is probably already installed on your machine, or available on your distribution CDs. You may however have to install the qt3-devel (Mandrake and redhat rpm) or aptget libqt3-mt-dev (debian) development package. The complete Qt/X11 non commercial version can also freely be downloaded from Trolltech.

Try to compile a simple Qt example and check the Qt FAQ page in case of problem.

If your shell is tcsh or csh (use echo $SHELL to know), add these lines to your .login:

setenv QTDIR /usr/lib/qt3 (/usr/share/qt on debian)
setenv PATH ${PATH}:${QTDIR}/bin/
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${QTDIR}/lib

With bash, zsh or sh, add these lines to your .profile:

export QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt3 (/usr/share/qt on debian)
export PATH=${PATH}:${QTDIR}/bin/
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${QTDIR}/lib

Source this file or open a new shell to take these values into account. If you installed libQGLViewer in a custom directory, add the path to this directory in LD_LIBRARY_PATH as is done above for ${QTDIR}/lib.

Mac OS X

The installation procedure is essentially identical to the one described in the Linux section:

tar -xzf libQGLViewer-1.3.9.tar.gz (release 2)
cd libQGLViewer-1.3.9/QGLViewer
qmake
make
make install

See the Linux section for details and install paths customization. Once the library is installed, compile the examples and test them:

cd ../examples
qmake
make

Threads are activated with the darwin-g++ version and disabled with macx. Add or remove thread in the CONFIG section of .pro files if this does not correpond to your configuration.

If your Qt version is lower than 3.1, you need to link with the glut library. Install glut and uncomment a line in QGLViewer.pro as explained.

Qt installation

Qt is available under two versions for the mac architecture :

The Qt/Mac native version (also called macx) designed for Aqua, and released as a GPL Free Edition. It can freely be downloaded from Trolltech.
The darwin version, that relies on the X11 implementation. You need to launch the X11 application to run your programs and have to install Qt using the free X11 edition.

You have to define some variables as is detailed in the Qt linux section. Check their current values first.
If your shell is tcsh or csh (use echo $SHELL to know), add these lines to your .login:

setenv QTDIR /sw (or where ever Qt was installed)
setenv PATH ${PATH}:${QTDIR}/bin/
setenv DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH ${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${QTDIR}/lib
setenv QMAKESPEC darwin-g++ (or macx-g++ or macx-mwerks or macx-pbuilder)

With bash, zsh or sh, add these lines to your .profile:

export QTDIR=/sw (or where ever Qt was installed)
export PATH=${PATH}:${QTDIR}/bin/
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${QTDIR}/lib
export QMAKESPEC=darwin-g++ (or macx-g++ or macx-mwerks or macx-pbuilder)

Your QMAKESPEC should correspond to your Qt installation : macx-g++ for Qt/Mac (or macx-mwerks with CodeWarrior, macx-pbuilder with Project Builder) and darwin-g++ for X11. Compile a simple Qt example to check your configuration.

If you installed libQGLViewer in a custom directory, add the path to this directory in DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH as is done above for ${QTDIR}/lib.

Installation of the designer plugin

This installation is optional. Compile and install the QGLViewer designer plugin:

cd designerPlugin
qmake
make
make install

The make install step requires root priviledges since the plugin is installed in $QTDIR/plugins/designer, which is usually a system directory.

Such a plugin eases the creation of user interfaces that feature a QGLViewer using designer. It makes a GLViewer icon appear in the designer's Display widget tab, as a standard Qt widget. When added to your user interface, the widget displays the standard spiral, which can be rotated when you test your interface (using Ctrl+T).

All the viewers' signals and slots are available and can be connected to the rest of your interface.

Note that an alternative to this plugin is to add a "Custom Widget" using the Tools/Custom designer menu. Load Descriptions... and provide the qglviewer.cw custom widget description file, located in the QGLViewer header files directory. You can customize this description with your own signals and slots and change the header file path.

See the interface example for an illustration of a user interface that includes a QGLViewer.

Troubleshooting

When installing the QGLViewer library, you may be prompted some dependency error messages. Missing RPMs can be downloaded from these sites : rpmfind.net, pbone.net and Google.

uic: File generated with too recent version of Qt Designer : try to change the version="" in the first line of the ui file.
libGLcore.so.1, libnvidia-tls.so.1 : These library dependencies may be missing when you install a re-compiled RPM. Since the nVidia install scripts do not use RPM, this message is normal : RPM is not aware of the presence of these libraries. Use rpm -Uvh --nodeps ... to solve the problem.
Error while loading shared libraries : You must add the path to libQGLViewer.so in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH : export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:/path/to/libQGLViewer.so (use DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on mac)
No FPS display : Qt has problems to display text in OpenGL on some architectures. Disable font antialissing using qtconfig to fix this. This has been solved in Qt 3.3.
Qt-devel : Qt is usually shipped in the distribution CDs. You may however have to install the qt3-devel package (ls $QTDIR/lib to find your Qt version).
Random or no display : This may come from a bug in your compiler. A patch is automatically applied to gcc 3.2 and gcc 3.3.1. If it fails, edit QGLViewer/QGLViewer.pro, replace release by debug in the CONFIG line, and re-compile.
lib3ds : This library is needed to compile the 3dsViewer example. Download the patched lib3ds-1.2.0-1.i686.rpm or the sources lib3ds-1.2.0-1.src.rpm or lib3ds-1.2.0.tar.gz.
libX3DTK : This library is needed to compile the x3dViewer example. Download the library from the X3DTK web site.
The indicated type is incomplete error message in qvaluevector.hkeyFrameInterpolator.cpp : include frame.h (see top of keyFrameInterpolator.cpp).
overloading cannot distinguish from previous declaration : Some compilers (HP UX aCC) complain like this when compiling translate and rotate in Frame.h. Simply comment the const versions of these functions.
cp: illegal option -- P : This option is very useful but may not be available on your machine. Remove the QMAKE_COPY_FILE modification in QGLViewer.pro
gcc 2.95: ostream operator << with QString : Uncomment the patch in config.h
Undefined reference to QString::QString : Check whether your Qt library (ls $QTDIR/lib) is threaded (libqt-mt.so) or not (libqt.so). If you have libqt.so installed, edit QGLViewer/QGLViewer.pro, remove thread in the CONFIG line and re-compile.

Please let me know if you encountered specific installation problems that could be reported on this page.

Last modified on Friday, November 26, 2004.

libQGLViewer installation Unix systems

Linux and Unix

Compilation and installation

Compilation of the examples

Customizing installation

Qt installation

Mac OS X

Qt installation

Installation of the designer plugin

Troubleshooting

libQGLViewer installation
Unix systems