Building expe3000 on Linux

This guide covers installing dependencies and building the project on various Linux distributions.

1. Prerequisites: Build Tools

Regardless of your distribution, you will need cmake, pkg-config, and a C compiler (gcc or clang).

Ubuntu / Debian / Mint / Pop!_OS

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config git

Fedora / RHEL / CentOS

sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"
sudo dnf install cmake pkg-config git

Arch Linux / Manjaro

sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S base-devel cmake pkg-config git

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2. Option A: Installing via Package Manager

As SDL3 is relatively new, it may only be available in the “edge” or “testing” repositories of some distributions.

Ubuntu 24.10+ / Debian Trixie+

sudo apt install libsdl3-dev libsdl3-image-dev libsdl3-ttf-dev

Arch Linux (AUR)

If not in the official repos, you can use an AUR helper like yay:

yay -S sdl3-git sdl3_image-git sdl3_ttf-git

Fedora 41+

sudo dnf install sdl3-devel sdl3_image-devel sdl3_ttf-devel

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3. Option B: Compiling SDL3 from Source (Universal)

If your distribution does not yet provide SDL3 packages, you must compile it from source.

Install Library Dependencies first:

• Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libdbus-1-dev libwayland-dev libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libxext-dev libxi-dev libxinerama-dev libxrandr-dev libxss-dev libxtst-dev libjpeg-dev libpng-dev libwebp-dev libfreetype6-dev libharfbuzz-dev
• Fedora: sudo dnf install alsa-lib-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel libX11-devel libXcursor-devel libXext-devel libXi-devel libXinerama-devel libXrandr-devel libXScrnSaver-devel libXtst-devel wayland-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel libpng-devel libwebp-devel freetype-devel harfbuzz-devel

Build SDL3 Core

git clone https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL.git
cd SDL
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install
cd ../..

Build SDL3_image

git clone https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL_image.git
cd SDL_image
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install
cd ../..

Build SDL3_ttf

git clone https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL_ttf.git
cd SDL_ttf
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install
cd ../..

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4. Compiling expe3000

Once the libraries are installed:

1. Navigate to the project directory.

2. Configure and Build: It is highly recommended to perform an out-of-source build. Using Ninja is recommended for faster builds if you installed it.

   # Configure
   cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
   
   # Build
   cmake --build build
   

   The binary expe3000 will be created in the build/ directory.

5. Troubleshooting

• Library not found: If you installed SDL3 to /usr/local/lib (the default for source builds), you may need to update the linker cache:

  sudo ldconfig
  

• Permission Denied: Ensure your user is part of the audio or video group if you encounter issues accessing hardware, though this is rarely needed on modern distros using PipeWire/Wayland.