XQuartz is the Mac software package to display X11 graphical applications from remote servers, primarily Unix/Linux. Many graphical applications use a display library called OpenGL, which is supported by XQuartz but not enabled by default. It is not exposed to the preferences menu, and must be enabled by the defaults tool. It is used particularly by chemistry and GIS applications.
Step-by-Step
- Download and install XQuartz from www.xquartz.org. This takes a few minutes to complete.
- Log out and back in to your Mac.
- Open
Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and paste this complete line in and then press RETURN. This enables GLX
defaults write org.macosforge.xquartz.X11 enable_iglx -bool true
Upgrading 2.7.x to 2.8.x
If you're upgrading from 2.7.x to 2.8.x, we have found it is best to remove the 2.7.x configuration files by running the following:
cd ~/Library
rm -rf Caches/org.macosforge.xquartz.X11
rm -f Logs/X11/org.macosforge.xquartz.log.old
rm -f Preferences/org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.plist
rm -f HTTPStorages/org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.binarycookies
rm -f Logs/X11/org.macosforge.xquartz.log