Qt 5.x and OS X 10.6

[René J.V. Bertin]

On Tuesday September 20 2016 08:35:18 Ken Cunningham wrote:

Hi Ken,

> Thought I'd report progress. Short answer - it's not working so far.
> 
> Installed Qt 5.4.2 on a 10.11 machine into the /opt/local/libexec/qt directory, then tarballed it and installed it onto a 10.6 machine in the same directory.
> 
> The big apps (QTDesigner, etc) don't run on 10.6 due to some missing functionality, to no great surprise:
> Dyld Error Message:
>  Symbol not found: _NSPreferredScrollerStyleDidChangeNotification
>  Referenced from: /opt/local/libexec/qt/5.4/clang_64/lib/QtWidgets.framework/Versions/5/QtWidgets
>  Expected in: /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/AppKit
> in /opt/local/libexec/qt/5.4/clang_64/lib/QtWidgets.framework/Versions/5/QtWidgets

To be honest, I tried with an install made on 10.7 . I'm not sure if Qt's installer manager pulls in a different build on 10.11 as it does on 10.7 , and of course I cannot easily check this.

> sudo /opt/local/libexec/qt/5.4/clang_64/bin/qmake -spec macx-clang
> 
> does generate a makefile and a .qmake.stash file
> 
> the .qmake.stash file has to be edited to change the compiler to macports clang, and after the initial try failed, I also removed the SDK spec to use system roots (as per the troubles with 10.6 with libcxx and qt4-mac)

It would probably be possible to do this in the mkspec itself, and/or a module.pri file.

> Ultimately, though, running the example application hits an abort() trap in the QT core code

> 2   org.qt-project.QtCore         	0x00000001005df119 qt_message_fatal(QtMsgType, QMessageLogContext const&, QString const&) + 9

You may actually get to see that message by running the application (the one in XXX.app/Contents/MacOS) from a Terminal... 

> I think 5.3.2 might install on 10.6 (it does for homebrew, I understand). But I assume if we/I could get 5.4.x running instead then more qt5 apps might make it to 10.6 someday.

Yes, that's almost certain. But remember that this is a war that's lost in advance, no matter how many battles you win...

R.