Qt5.12 LTS with OpenGL for Raspberry

This package installs Qt5.12 LTS "long term support" with desktop OpenGL on a raspberry pi 4 running Raspbian Buster. The package is suitable for compiling desktop-style, windowed Qt apps under X11. The OpenGL support is in software, using Mesa.

Optionally the QtCreator 4.9.1 IDE can be installed as well.

Install Instructions

Install Qt5.12 libraries and includes

To install, download qt5-opengl-dev_5.12.5_armhf.deb and type:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ./qt5-opengl-dev_5.12.5_armhf.deb

This installs Qt5 in /usr/lib/qt5.12/.

This also creates the qtchooser configuration file /usr/share/qtchooser/qt5-opengl.conf. If qtchooser has been installed on the system, you can select Qt5.12 LTS with

export QT_SELECT=qt5-opengl

To remove:

dpkg -r qt5-opengl-dev

Install qtcreator

If, after installing Qt5.12 libraries and includes, you wish to install the qtcreator IDE as well, download qt5-opengl-qtcreator_4.9.1_armhf.deb and type:

sudo apt install ./qt5-opengl-qtcreator_4.9.1_armhf.deb

This installs qtcreator in /usr/lib/qt5.12/bin/.

To remove:

dpkg -r qt5-opengl-qtcreator

This completes the installation instructions.

Build Notes

These are notes for a native build of Qt5 on a Raspberry Pi 4, 4GB ram.

Beginning with a clean 2019-09-26-raspbian-buster-lite

Prerequisite Packages

For Mesa:

apt update
apt install libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev mesa-common-dev

For Qt:

apt install build-essential git libfontconfig1-dev libdbus-1-dev libfreetype6-dev libicu-dev libinput-dev libxkbcommon-dev libsqlite3-dev libssl-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libglib2.0-dev libraspberrypi-dev libcups2-dev libasound2-dev

For QtWebengine:

apt install libXdamage-dev libfontconfig1-dev libfreetype6-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev libxfixes-dev libxi-dev libxrender-dev libxcb1-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-glx0-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev libxcb-image0-dev libxcb-shm0-dev libxcb-icccm4-dev libxcb-sync0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-render-util0-dev libnss3-dev libxcomposite-dev libxcursor-dev libxtst-dev libxrandr-dev gperf bison flex ninja-build 

Build qt5

Download sources

mkdir src
cd src
wget http://download.qt.io/official_releases/qt/5.12/5.12.5/single/qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5.tar.xz
tar xf qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5.tar.xz

Get qt5 mkspecs for raspberry

git clone https://github.com/oniongarlic/qt-raspberrypi-configuration.git
cd qt-raspberrypi-configuration
make install DESTDIR=../qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5
cd ..

Compile

In src directory, patch qt:

ls qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5
patch -p0 << EOD
diff -rBNu qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5/qtbase/src/plugins/platforms/xcb/gl_integrations/xcb_egl/qxcbeglwindow.cpp qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5.OLD/qtbase/src/plugins/platforms/xcb/gl_integrations/xcb_egl/qxcbeglwindow.cpp
--- qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5/qtbase/src/plugins/platforms/xcb/gl_integrations/xcb_egl/qxcbeglwindow.cpp	2019-09-03 20:52:35.000000000 +0200
+++ qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5.OLD/qtbase/src/plugins/platforms/xcb/gl_integrations/xcb_egl/qxcbeglwindow.cpp	2019-09-30 16:03:17.831619246 +0200
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@
 {
     QXcbWindow::create();
 
-    m_surface = eglCreateWindowSurface(m_glIntegration->eglDisplay(), m_config, m_window, 0);
+    m_surface = eglCreateWindowSurface(m_glIntegration->eglDisplay(), m_config, (void*)m_window, 0);
 }
 
 QT_END_NAMESPACE
diff -rBNu qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5/qtscript/src/3rdparty/javascriptcore/JavaScriptCore/wtf/Platform.h qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5.OLD/qtscript/src/3rdparty/javascriptcore/JavaScriptCore/wtf/Platform.h
--- qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5/qtscript/src/3rdparty/javascriptcore/JavaScriptCore/wtf/Platform.h	2019-08-23 12:28:19.000000000 +0200
+++ qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5.OLD/qtscript/src/3rdparty/javascriptcore/JavaScriptCore/wtf/Platform.h	2019-10-01 15:52:01.966516814 +0200
@@ -367,7 +368,8 @@
 #    define WTF_CPU_ARM_TRADITIONAL 1
 #    define WTF_CPU_ARM_THUMB2 0
 #  else
-#    error "Not supported ARM architecture"
+#    define WTF_CPU_ARM_TRADITIONAL 1
+#    define WTF_CPU_ARM_THUMB2 0
 #  endif
 #elif CPU(ARM_TRADITIONAL) && CPU(ARM_THUMB2) /* Sanity Check */
 #  error "Cannot use both of WTF_CPU_ARM_TRADITIONAL and WTF_CPU_ARM_THUMB2 platforms"
EOD

Configure qt for opengl "desktop".

mkdir build-qt
cd build-qt
PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/pkgconfig:/usr/share/pkgconfig \
../qt-everywhere-src-5.12.5/configure -platform linux-rpi3-g++ \
-v \
-opengl desktop -eglfs \
-no-gtk \
-opensource -confirm-license -release \
-reduce-exports \
-force-pkg-config \
-nomake examples -no-compile-examples \
-skip qtwayland \
-no-feature-geoservices_mapboxgl \
-qt-pcre \
-no-pch \
-ssl \
-evdev \
-system-freetype \
-fontconfig \
-glib \
-prefix /usr/lib/qt5.12  \
-qpa eglfs

Check the configuration summary

To reduce memory usage when compiling, edit build-qt/qtwebengine/src/core/Makefile.gn_run and change the options to ninja from

build-qt/qtwebengine/src/3rdparty/ninja/ninja -v -C 

to

build-qt/qtwebengine/src/3rdparty/ninja/ninja -j2 -v -C 

To build, in build-qt type:

make

Compilation takes less than a day.

Create debian package

In the src/build-qt directory:

mkdir deb
INSTALL_ROOT=$PWD/deb make install

Create the configuration file for qtchooser:

mkdir -p deb/usr/share/qtchooser/
cat > deb/usr/share/qtchooser/qt5-opengl.conf <<EOD
/usr/lib/qt5.12/bin/
/usr/lib/qt5.12/lib/
EOD

Create the debian control file:

mkdir deb/DEBIAN
cat > deb/DEBIAN/control <<EOD
Package: qt5-opengl-dev
Version: 5.12.5
Maintainer: Koen <koen@mcvax.org>
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Bugs: https://github.com/koendv/qt5-opengl-raspberrypi/issues
Homepage: https://github.com/koendv/qt5-opengl-raspberrypi
Depends: libgl1-mesa-dev, libglu1-mesa-dev, mesa-common-dev, libfontconfig1-dev, libdbus-1-dev, libfreetype6-dev, libicu-dev, libinput-dev, libxkbcommon-dev, libsqlite3-dev, libssl-dev, libpng-dev, libjpeg-dev, libglib2.0-dev, libraspberrypi-dev, libcups2-dev, libasound2-dev, libfontconfig1-dev, libfreetype6-dev, libx11-dev, libxext-dev, libxfixes-dev, libxi-dev, libxrender-dev, libxcb1-dev, libx11-xcb-dev, libxcb-glx0-dev, libxkbcommon-x11-dev, libxcb-keysyms1-dev, libxcb-image0-dev, libxcb-shm0-dev, libxcb-icccm4-dev, libxcb-sync0-dev, libxcb-xfixes0-dev, libxcb-shape0-dev, libxcb-randr0-dev, libxcb-render-util0-dev, libnss3-dev, libxcomposite-dev, libxcursor-dev, libxtst-dev, libxrandr-dev, gperf, bison, flex, ninja-build
Architecture: armhf
Description: Qt5.12 LTS with desktop OpenGL
 Qt5.12 LTS "long term support" with desktop OpenGL,
 compiled for raspberry pi 4 running 2019-09-26-raspbian-buster[-lite.]
 The package is suitable for compiling desktop-style, windowed Qt apps under X11. The OpenGL support is in software, using Mesa.
EOD

Create the debian package:

fakeroot dpkg-deb -b ./deb/ .

This produces the debian package file qt5-opengl-dev_5.12.5_armhf.deb

This completes the build notes.

See Also

For convenience, I build software like this in a chroot and bundle the applications as an AppImage. Setting up a chroot on raspbian.

Building Qt 5.12 LTS for Raspberry Pi on Raspbian