overte/BUILD_LINUX.md

Build Linux

Last Updated on 2025-05-21

Please read the general build guide for information on dependencies required for all platforms. Only Linux specific instructions are found in this file.

You can use the Overte Builder to build on Linux more easily. Alternatively, you can follow the manual steps below. (Currently outdated.)

This documentation assumes that you are running our current target distribution, which is currently Ubuntu 22.04. The target distribution is usually the latest Ubuntu LTS still receiving standard support, though we may upgrade a little sooner if we require certain newer packages. Ubuntu version numbers are date codes and standard support is 5 years, meaning that Ubuntu 22.04 leaves standard support after around 2027-04.

Install build tools:

• First update the package cache and your system:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

• Install git and g++

sudo apt install git g++

• Install CMake We require a newer CMake version than 3.22.1, which is shipped in Ubuntu 22.04, so we install CMake packages provided by upstream here: https://apt.kitware.com/

• Install Conan Get the Conan "Ubuntu / Debian installer" from https://conan.io/downloads and install it using:

sudo apt install ./conan-*.deb

Verify Conan was installed by running conan --version.

Install build dependencies:

Most dependencies will be automatically installed by Conan. This section only lists dependencies which might not be handled by Conan.

• OpenGL:

sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dev -y

Verify OpenGL:

• First install mesa-utils with the command sudo apt install mesa-utils -y.

• Then run glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version".

• QT 5:

sudo apt-get install -y qtbase5-dev \
                        qtbase5-private-dev \
                        qtwebengine5-dev \
                        qtwebengine5-dev-tools \
                        qtmultimedia5-dev \
                        libqt5opengl5-dev \
                        libqt5webchannel5-dev \
                        libqt5websockets5-dev \
                        qtxmlpatterns5-dev-tools \
                        qttools5-dev \
                        libqt5xmlpatterns5-dev \
                        libqt5svg5-dev \
                        qml-module-qtwebchannel \
                        qml-module-qtquick-controls \
                        qml-module-qtquick-controls2 \
                        qml-module-qt-labs-settings \
                        qml-module-qtquick-dialogs \
                        qml-module-qtwebengine

Extra dependencies to compile Interface on a server

• Install the following:

sudo apt install libpulse0 libnss3 libnspr4 libfontconfig1 libxcursor1 libxcomposite1 libxtst6 libxslt1.1

• Misc dependencies:

sudo apt install libasound2 libxmu-dev libxi-dev freeglut3-dev libasound2-dev libjack0 libjack-dev libxrandr-dev libudev-dev libssl-dev zlib1g-dev

• Install Python 3 and required packages:

sudo apt install python python3 python3-distro

• Install Node.js as it is required to build the jsdoc documentation:

sudo apt install nodejs

Get code and checkout the branch you need

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/overte-org/overte.git

Then checkout the master branch with:

git checkout master

If you need a different branch, you can get a list of all tags with:

git fetch --tags
git tag

Architecture support

If the build is intended to be packaged for distribution, the OVERTE_CPU_ARCHITECTURE CMake variable needs to be set to an architecture specific value.

By default, it is set to -march=native -mtune=native, which yields builds optimized for a particular machine, but these builds will not work on machines lacking same CPU instructions.

For packaging, it is recommended to set it to a different value, for example -msse3. This will help ensure that the build will run on all reasonably modern CPUs.

Setting OVERTE_CPU_ARCHITECTURE to an empty string will use the default compiler settings and yield maximum compatibility.

Prepare conan

The next step is setting up conan

First, create a conan profile

conan profile detect --force

Next, add the overte remote to conan

conan remote add overte https://artifactory.overte.org/artifactory/api/conan/overte -f

Optionally you can let conan automatically install the required system packages

echo "tools.system.package_manager:mode = install" >> ~/.conan2/global.conf
echo "tools.system.package_manager:sudo = True" >> ~/.conan2/global.conf

Compiling

Install the dependencies with conan

cd overte
conan install . -s build_type=Release -b missing -pr:b=default -of build

On systems with GCC 15 additional parameter is needed:

cd overte
conan install . -s build_type=Release -b missing -pr:b=default -of build -c tools.build:cxxflags="['-include', 'cstdint']"

Prepare makefiles:

cmake --preset conan-release

Server

To compile the Domain server:

make domain-server assignment-client

Note: For a server, it is not necessary to compile the Interface.

Interface

To compile the Interface client:

make interface

The commands above will compile with a single thread. If you have enough memory, you can decrease your build time using the -j flag. Since most x64 CPUs support two threads per core, this works out to CPU_COUNT*2. As an example, if you have a 2 core machine, you could use:

make -j4 interface

Running the software

Domain server

Running Domain server:

./domain-server/domain-server

Assignment clients

Running assignment client:

./assignment-client/assignment-client -n 6

Interface

Running Interface:

./interface/interface

Go to "localhost" in the running Interface to visit your newly launched Domain server.