Welcome to the XQuartz project

Intro

The XQuartz project is an open-source effort to develop a version of the  X.org X Window System that runs on Mac OS X. Together with supporting libraries and applications, it forms the X11.app that Apple has shipped with OS X since version 10.5.

Latest Release

2009.08.14

X11.pkg version 2.4.0 released

Support

There are three ways to get support for XQuartz.

SnowLeopard Notice

1.6 contains version 2.3.4 of X11. Not surprisingly, this version lies between 2.3.3.2 and 2.4.0. It contains all the fixes that went into Xplugin, quartz-wm, and most of the server fixes, but it is still on the 1.4 server branch. Most of the userland libraries were updated to what was shipped in 2.4.0 with a few exceptions.

2.4.0 will not be released for SnowLeopard. 2.4.1 will be the first release that can be installed on SnowLeopard. There will be separate Leopard and SnowLeopard packages for 2.4.1 and later. On SnowLeopard, X11 will no longer install over the system's X11. It will install in its own prefix to allow side-by-side use with the Apple-provided X11.

OS-X Software/Security Updates and XQuartz

OS-X Software Updates have included some of the work done in this project. It is suggested that you install the latest XQuartz release after installing an update to OS-X Leopard.

10.5.7

10.5.7 updates the X11 server to match what shipped with 2.3.2. Most of the userland, however, only saw security updates. The version reported by X11 in 10.5.7 is 2.1.6 to distinguish it from the 2.3.x series which contains a much newer userland. Users have reported some issues with the updated X11 in 10.5.7:

  • X11 starts fullscreen for some users
    • Hit cmd-opt-a to leave fullscreen and edit your preferences
  • Clipboard doesn't work after editing preferences
  • Keyboard mapping is sometimes incorrect
    • This only occurs if you installed xquartz 2.2.x and have not installed newer releases. Install the latest release from this site.

Site Map

General X11 Information

X11 on the Mac