Platform and Component Requirements

Here is a list of platforms and components, we were able to build JOGL on,
if not stated otherwise.
  • Java
    One of the following desktop Java SDK's: or you may try one of the following embedded Java SDK's (not yet tested): or even the JavaME SDK's (see notes):
  • Ant 1.8.0 or later
  • Git 1.6.0 or later
  • Optional NVidia Cg 2.2
  • GNU Linux x86, 32- and 64-bit
    You may have to install a few developer packages ...
    • Debian 5.00 or later
      • git
      • gcc
      • libgl1-mesa-dev
      • libglu1-mesa-dev
      • xorg-dev
      • libice-dev
      • libsm-dev
      • libx11-dev
      • libxext-dev
      • libxxf86vm-dev
      • libxinerama-dev
      • libxrandr-dev
      • libxrender-dev
      • libxcursor-dev
      • Optional: Your card vendor's proprietary driver
      apt-get install git gcc libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev xorg-dev libice-dev libsm-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev libxxf86vm-dev libxinerama-dev libxrandr-dev libxrender-dev libxcursor-dev
    • OpenSuSE 10.2 or later
      • git
      • gcc
      • x11-devel
      • mesa-devel
    • CentOS / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 or later
      • git
      • gcc
      • mesa-libGL-devel
      • xorg-x11-proto-devel
      • libICE-devel
      • libSM-devel
      • libX11-devel
      • libXext-devel
      • libXau-devel
      • libXdmcp-devel
      • libXt-devel
      • libXxf86vm-devel
      • libXinerama-devel
      • libXrandr-devel
      • libXrender-devel
      • libXcursor-devel
      • Optional: Your card vendor's proprietary driver
  • OpenSolaris SPARC and x86, 32- and 64-bit
  • MacOSX Intel
    • git, see above
    • Mac OS X 10.3 (note: will not work with earlier releases)
    • Xcode for gcc, etc (included in OSX)
  • Windows/x86 (32 bit)
  • Windows/x86_64 (64-bit)

Additional platforms such as FreeBSD and HP/UX are handled by the build system, but are not officially supported.

Build Steps

Here are the steps that are required in order to build JOGL.

  1. Optain the source code using git:
    It is crucial that you checkout the source code under a common root directory: 
        /home/dude/projects/jogamp> git clone git://jogamp.org/srv/scm/gluegen.git gluegen
    /home/dude/projects/jogamp> git clone git://jogamp.org/srv/scm/jogl.git jogl
    Now you should have following directory structure: 
        /home/dude/projects/jogamp
    /home/dude/projects/jogamp/gluegen
    /home/dude/projects/jogamp/jogl
  2. Unset your CLASSPATH environment variable:
    The Ant build requires that the JOGL jars not be visible on the classpath. On Unix, type unsetenv CLASSPATH into a csh or tcsh shell, or unset CLASSPATH into a Bourne shell. On Windows, type set CLASSPATH= into a command prompt.
  3. Optional Copy and edit gluegen.properties:
    To specify different basic options for components and compilers,
    copy gluegen/make/gluegen.properties into your home directory (pointed to by the Java system property user.home).
  4. Optional Copy and edit jogl.properties:
    To specify different basic options for the build,
    copy jogl/make/jogl.properties into your home directory (pointed to by the Java system property user.home).
    Edit the copy to change desired settings.
  5. Build the source tree:
    Open a command shell in the "gluegen/make" directory of the source tree and type "ant".
    Then open a command shell in the "jogl/make" directory of the source tree and type "ant".
    • An experimental binding to the high-level Cg language by NVidia corporation can be generated by specifying -Djogl.cg=1 to ant; e.g. ant -Djogl.cg=1. The Cg binding has been tested on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
  6. Test your build:
    Stay in your command shell in the "jogl/make" directory of the source tree and type "ant junit.run".
  7. Build Javadoc:
    Stay in your command shell in the "jogl/make" directory of the source tree and type "ant javadoc.all". This will produce the end-user documentation for JOGL along with some auxiliary utility packages.
Note that there are a lot of warnings produced by ANTLR about the C grammar and our modifications to some of the signatures of the productions; the C grammar warnings have been documented by the author of the grammar as having been investigated completely and harmless, and the warnings about our modifications are also harmless.

Common build problems

  1. Your CLASSPATH environment variable appears to be set (some JOGL classes are currently visible to the build.), and $CLASSPATH isn't set. An older version of JOGL was installed into the extension directory of the JDK you're using to build the current JOGL. On Windows and Linux, delete any ANTLR jars from jre/lib/ext, and on Mac OS X, delete them from /Library/Java/Extensions. It is generally not a good idea to drop JOGL directly into the extensions directory, as this can interfere with upgrades via Java Web Start.
  2. CharScanner; panic: ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.gluegen.cgram.CToken This occurs because ANTLR was dropped into the Extensions directory of the JRE/JDK. On Windows and Linux, delete any ANTLR jars from jre/lib/ext, and on Mac OS X, delete them from /Library/Java/Extensions. Use the antlr.jar property in the build.xml to point to a JRE-external location of this jar file.

- Christopher Kline and Kenneth Russell, June 2003 (revised November 2006)
- Sven Gothel and Michael Bien, May 2010