Wiki-Page "Building XLibre"

[callmetango]

This is the discussion thread of the wiki page "Building XLibre". If you are unsure whether to add something or make a change to the page, just talk about it. You can also leave a message if you see something that is not quite right or you are planning a major change.

[Samq64]

I fixed a few package typos but didn't realize there was no write protection on the page, I thought it would prompt to fork the repository or something.

Anyway here are the changes I made:

• 11proto-dev -> x11proto-dev
• libglu-mesa-dev -> libglu1-mesa-dev
• libeproxy-dev -> libepoxy-dev

[callmetango]

Yes, the wiki is open for the community to add and change what and when needed. Thank you for your corrections!

[wretchedneo]

Do I also need to build the needed xf86 ddx drivers from the xlibre repos?

I tried to do that, but ended up locking myself out of the xsession and found no fix for it. xorg still works

[metux]

Do I also need to build the needed xf86 ddx drivers from the xlibre repos?

yes.

I tried to do that, but ended up locking myself out of the xsession and found no fix for it. xorg still works

can you tell what exactly you've done ?
have you checked whether there's already a xlibre repo for your distro ?

[stefan11111]

@wretchedneo
Did you also install the drivers?

[wretchedneo]

have you checked whether there's already a xlibre repo for your distro ?

I am using void linux, there's no packaging available there for xlibre.

I have a question, do we need to also remove xorg [and it's ddx drivers] in order for xlibre [and it's ddx drivers] to work correctly?

[callmetango]

Probaly yes! Xorg Server and it's drivers are very likely incompatible with XLibre Xserver and it's drivers. Please also have a look at Compatibility of XLibre · X11Libre/xserver Wiki.

[wretchedneo]

@metux @stefan11111
sorry for not providing enough info, here are the steps I did for each of the drivers that DID NOT have a meson build option.

1. $ ./autogen.sh
2. $ ./configure --prefix=/opt/xlibre
3. $ doas make install

for the meson builds, the base meson setup command for the xserver as well as the drivers that support it i.e. video-intel, input-libinput etc.
$ meson setup --prefix=/opt/xlibre build

[wretchedneo]

@wretchedneo Could you please create a new discussion at X11Libre Xlibre On Other Distributions · Discussions · GitHub? We look forward to helping you there with your specific issue!

That would be much more coherent I believe, will do that once i get free- mostly within 1 or 2 hours

[wretchedneo]

@callmetango
Here is the newly created one

[stefan11111]

@wretchedneo Could you please create a new discussion at X11Libre Xlibre On Other Distributions · Discussions · GitHub? We look forward to helping you there with your specific issue!

@metux @callmetango
The readme and the Wiki should be updated regarding nvidia.
Ignoreabi is no longer needed with the proprietary nvidia driver.
There is also the modesetting driver, which works on nvidia, but isn't listed.

[callmetango]

There is an issue Document new Xserver loader behaviour regarding Nvidia driver · Issue #533 · X11Libre/xserver.

There is also the modesetting driver, which works on nvidia, but isn't listed.

On which page the modesetting driver isn't listed? At Graphics devices & drivers · X11Libre/xserver Wiki it is.

[stefan11111]

There is an issue Document new Xserver loader behaviour regarding Nvidia driver · Issue #533 · X11Libre/xserver.

There is also the modesetting driver, which works on nvidia, but isn't listed.

On which page the modesetting driver isn't listed? At Graphics devices & drivers · X11Libre/xserver Wiki it is.

Here, it isn't: https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver/wiki/Compatibility-of-XLibre

[pugly-tech]

I consolidated the install instructions for Ubuntu/Debian based distros, this shoudl work with Debian 12/13, Ubuntu 24.04/25.04, and anything downstream of them. does this look right?

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y ca-certificates curl

sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://xlibre-deb.github.io/key.asc | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/xlibre-deb.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/xlibre-deb.asc

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xlibre-deb.sources
Types: deb deb-src
URIs: https://xlibre-deb.github.io/$(. /etc/upstream-release/lsb-release  && echo "$DISTRIB_ID)/
Suites: $(. /etc/upstream-release/lsb-release  && echo "$DISTRIB_CODENAME")
Components: main
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/xlibre-deb.asc
EOF

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xlibre

Debian 12 and anything based on it will have to install libdrm libraries and enable backports, some derivatives such as LMDE6 have backports enabled by default and adding a second entry can cause a conflict for apt

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-backports.sources
Types: deb deb-src
URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian
Suites: bookworm-backports
Components: main
Enabled: yes
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
EOF

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y -t bookworm-backports 'libdrm*'

The proprietary repository drivers for Nvidia aren't compatible, and you may need to install the drivers directly from Nvidia.

1. (optional) use the driver manager to identify your GPU and the newest driver Ubuntu has offered for your system.
2. go to https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/ type in your gpu name and click on the Linux option.
3. download the driver version you prefer, either the newest, the newest that Ubuntu provided, or an older one if you prefer.
4. in terminal navigate to your downloads folder and sudo chown +x the nvidia .run file to make it executable and run sudo ./drivername.run
5. choose the MIT/GPL kernel module
6. Continue installation when it warns you about X11 running, and click ok if it detects a different Nvidia driver
7. if it asks to install the 32 bit compatibility libraries click yes, if you have Steam installed you should have those.
8. click ok to register the kernel model sources with DKMS. that will let Mint recompile the Nvidia driver when your kernel updates
9. it's problably safe to click ok when it says it is unable to determine the path for libglvnd config files
10. click yes to update the X configuration file
11. IMPORTANT: now edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf as root and add the following to the end of the file:

Section "ServerFlags"
     Option "IgnoreABI" "1"
EndSection

17. save and now you may reboot, and at this point everything should work.

referenced from:
https://github.com/xlibre-deb/ubuntu
https://github.com/xlibre-deb/debian
xlibre-deb/ubuntu#2 (comment)

[callmetango]

Thank you! I think this information should be added to xlibre-deb/debian resp. xlibre-deb/ubuntu since it is closely related.

[vandys]

I tried to note what I had to apt install while building Xlibre, and my package list added:

cmake, libinput-dev, meson, ninja-dev, and pkg-config

[algrid]

Followed the instructions on a fresh Debian box in Virtualbox. Was able to build & install from sources, but the test run returns an error:

root@vbox:~/x11libre/image# ./testx.sh 
./testx.sh: 3: _pid=9381: not found

XLibre X Server 1.25.0
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Current Operating System: Linux vbox 6.12.41+deb13-arm64 #1 SMP Debian 6.12.41-1 (2025-08-12) aarch64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.12.41+deb13-arm64 root=UUID=a86bb0ee-611f-4b83-a45a-4dfce2fcb449 ro quiet
 
Current version of pixman: 0.44.0
	Before reporting problems, check https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/root/x11libre/image/var/log/Xorg.1.log", Time: Sat Aug 30 20:59:03 2025
(==) Using system config directory "/root/x11libre/image/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
VMware: No 3D enabled (0, Success).
XKB: Failed to compile keymap
Keyboard initialization failed. This could be a missing or incorrect setup of xkeyboard-config.

Fatal server error:
Failed to activate virtual core keyboard: 2

Please consult the XLibre support 
	 at https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver
 for help. 
Please also check the log file at "/root/x11libre/image/var/log/Xorg.1.log" for additional information.

(EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

and in the log:

[2025-08-30 21:00:54] (EE) XKB: Couldn't open rules file /root/x11libre/image/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev
[2025-08-30 21:00:54] (EE) XKB: Failed to load keymap. Loading default keymap instead.
[2025-08-30 21:00:54] (EE) XKB: Couldn't open rules file /root/x11libre/image/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev
[2025-08-30 21:00:54] XKB: Failed to compile keymap
[2025-08-30 21:00:54] Keyboard initialization failed. This could be a missing or incorrect setup of xkeyboard-config.
[2025-08-30 21:00:54] 
Fatal server error:
[2025-08-30 21:00:54] Failed to activate virtual core keyboard: 2

I indeed don't have those ...xkb/rules/evdev dirs. Do I need to install something additionally to be able to run the server?

[algrid]

@cepelinas9000 No, I only installed what’s mentioned in the wiki and several other dev packages to make it compile. The idea was to get a minimal working installation without Xorg. Was it a bad idea? 😀

[algrid]

Also I wonder how all that additional stuff (like xkb/rules) will get into my install dir (defined by prefix)? Is the install command supposed to do it? Currently I even had to create the log directory manually, otherwise the server wouldn’t start. Sorry, I am absolutely new to this stuff.

[cepelinas9000]

These wikis assumes you want to replace Xorg ... :)

Now i checked how these directories are defined (mystery solved for me too ), it is in meson.build :

excerpt from mesonlog.txt

Called: `/usr/bin/pkg-config --variable=xkbconfigdir xkbcomp` -> 0
stdout:
/usr/share/X11/xkb

defined: https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver/blob/d6cd58e04c4e62be5ab9ef8cc18236e339d551cb/meson.build#L125

[algrid]

These wikis assumes you want to replace Xorg ... :)

Ahh, I see, thanks, that's starting to make sense now! :) Will proceed with Xorg installed. A completely independent installation will be an exercise for later.

[algrid]

Just installed Xorg and it worked.

[cliquesoft]

Hi all!

I wanted to reach out to see if anyone would be interested in creating a "builder" profile for this project. This would allow an end user to simply type something like "builder -n xlibre" and it would fetch the packages, compile, install, etc. Of course it would be up to this community to incorporate all these steps first. It would also save on creating an enormous wiki for everything, including caveats.

There are multiple hooks during the construction that could determine distros (to fetch appropriate packages) and other things (like uninstalling existing bits of an existing system as described above) and more. That way the wiki could just say "click to download the builder profile" and "here to download builder" (builder itself is just a single shell script). If interested, it's here https://github.com/cliquesoft/builder and I'd be more than happy to help with it.

[cliquesoft]

I have expanded the project a bit over the last couple of days. It was originally build to assist package maintainers to create packs for distros, but I've hacked it a bit to now be useful to end users who just want to compile software. This could greatly reduce the amount of effort for them by simply typing in "builder xlibre" and it will take care of all the work.

[callmetango]

@cliquesoft Thank you for mentioning your project! Would you mind to create a new idea at X11Libre 1 New Ideas · Discussions · GitHub and cut your comments here and paste them there? The "New Ideas" section would be the best fit.