26 Responses to “Installing X11 on OSX”

1. anonymouse said on May 28th, 2007 at 8:37 am

   Wow, I can’t tell you how many times I looked right past that. Thanks!

2. Xavier Kreiss said on May 29th, 2007 at 3:24 pm

   I have X11 installed, on Mac OS 10.4.9.

   I have been trying to use GIMP and Gimpshop, with no success. X11 launches all right, but Gimp doesn’t -or rather, it does, but I have no Menus (File etc).

   When Gimp is running, the only menus at the top of my screen are for X11. I cannot process any images that way.

   What is at fault? X11 or Gimp?

   Thanks

3. Cherie said on June 1st, 2007 at 5:40 pm

   This solved my problem!!!! I can’t believe I didn’t scroll down, especially since this is the second time I’ve installed X11 (even if it is a year since I did it last).

   *headdesk*

   THANKS!

4. mandy said on June 5th, 2007 at 10:09 pm

   Thanks for the crazy-easy X11 install instructions. I was a little nervous at first, but that was pretty easy. Also, I don’t know if it’s helpful for any of you all, but you also kinda have to go digging within the Optional Install package to find the X11 print drivers.

   Xavier, it’s a little cooky on the GUI side of things, but Gimp actually runs inside X11. So while you won’t see any menu items when you have Gimp as the foremost app, you will see all of its available menu items if you select X11 as the foremost app. (You’ll notice that when you double-click the Gimp icon, it automatically opens X11.) If you’re just installing Gimp, make sure you complete the initial install once you fire it up for the first time. After that, you’ll only be working with the X11 menu items. Hope that helps!

5. andy said on June 8th, 2007 at 11:30 am

   thanks, i missed it the first few times.

6. TG said on June 8th, 2007 at 3:02 pm

   This helped me greatly, I was having the same problems! And wasn’t scrolling down! Thanks a ton@

7. John Kahler said on June 15th, 2007 at 12:35 am

   Damn, I even complained on the Apple website about that. I never even realized anything about scrolling down. The icons seemed arranged as though there was no more below. Thanks a lot. Now I can install Open Office ;-)

8. Lachlan said on June 26th, 2007 at 8:15 pm

   Yes, thank you very much!..

   I’d read a few other tips about the same thing that mentioned scroll down, but in my haste I hadn’t noticed that there even *was* a scrollbar.

   The explanation that because of the icon orientation, it’s tricky made me twig.

   thanks again

9. CyberMunchy said on June 27th, 2007 at 12:19 pm

   Thanks for this!! I’m following your instructions so I don’t cock it up, nice one.

10. Eric said on July 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am

    I also missed this repeatedly. Thanks!

11. Rebeca said on July 4th, 2007 at 12:01 pm

    Yup, I missed that too. Thanks very much!

12. Marco Wobben said on July 22nd, 2007 at 7:34 am

    I simply missed the scrollbar since the ‘optional package file’ was a hidden file. After making these show up in my Finder, the vertical scrollbar was shown and I realized the icon was right there to install X11. Took me several hours of reading forums and website. Thanks for reminding me to look again. ;)

13. Jane said on July 29th, 2007 at 6:21 pm

    I thought I was losing my mind trying to find that. Thank you so much!

14. argos said on August 7th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

    thank you guys for posting these directions in detail! i’ve been pulling my hair out trying to find links and how to install x11 for an entire day. and they are exceptionally clear. thanks

15. Tiffany said on August 15th, 2007 at 6:18 pm

    THANK YOU! That was really making me crazy.

16. Andrecx said on August 18th, 2007 at 7:04 am

    Thanx so much this little piece of information. Sometimes little things can take so much of one’s time! :^)

17. John said on August 31st, 2007 at 11:07 pm

    I wish i had seen your post earlier. I downloaded it

18. Rob M said on September 3rd, 2007 at 4:26 pm

    Thanks a million! I had the same problem, and finding your web page with Google has just saved me from missing it for the third time.

19. Meenakshi said on September 18th, 2007 at 7:19 pm

    thanks a ton…i was struggling with this for the last 2-3 hours…

20. ctran said on September 24th, 2007 at 5:54 pm

    Thanks for the tip!

21. Tamas said on October 2nd, 2007 at 2:27 pm

    Thank you! It was a real time and headache saver!

22. Eric said on October 10th, 2007 at 1:39 pm

    thanks! the only thing i would add for newbies like myself is that nothing bad happens when you insert your install disc. i thought i might be prompted to re-install OSX or something. just like the author said, you just get a finder window. easy! thanks a lot!

23. Juan Caceres said on October 17th, 2007 at 11:57 am

    Do I need to uninstall or delete x11 if I tried installing the previous (Panther) version from Apple on my Tiger? or
    Can I just run the Disk 1 version over whatever is intalled?

24. Sam said on December 10th, 2007 at 7:00 pm

    Thanks! that helped..

25. temhawk said on January 30th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    LOL!

    When I tried to install X11 I just went to /Mac Mini/Mac OS X Install Disk 1/Xcode Tools/Packages/ and ran the X11SDK.pkg file.
    I totally missed the fact that there are more files and folders on that disc due to the window not extending. It somehow doesn’t give the impression that there is more too, maybe in the way the icons are arranged…

    Thanks a lot :)

26. Willem said on March 20th, 2008 at 11:08 am

    Thanks for the tip! Unbelievable that they place those icons there!