Member Avatar for geezer

Am I the only one who found that installing X11 from the install disks needed "Pacifist" 3rd party (4th party?) software just to find the X11 software?!

As a mac newbie, before today I had no Idea what X11 is...

Got it sorted though and open office seems to be running nicely...

What a palarva!;)

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by gn0m3

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— that confusion is very common. X11 is the X Window System: a Unix-style graphics/server layer that some cross‑platform or Linux‑ported apps use to draw windows and handle input. macOS uses a different native graphics stack, so those X11 apps need an X server on the Mac to run.

For modern macOS the maintained, recommended X server is XQuartz. Install the package from the official site, log out or restart after installation, then launch the X server from /Applications/Utilities before starting the X‑dependent application. The X runtime files are placed under /opt/X11, so checking that folder (for example with ls /opt/X11) is a quick way to confirm a successful install.
XQuartz

If a more “native” Mac experience is preferred, look for office suites distributed as macOS‑specific installers rather than X11 builds. Current community builds (for example LibreOffice) offer mac installers that behave like normal mac apps; choose the DMG that matches your hardware.
LibreOffice

Quick troubleshooting checklist: make sure the X server is running before launching the app, confirm the /opt/X11 tree exists, and restart the machine if an installer reported it modified system links. ’s point about using the right runtime and ’s reminder about native ports both apply — either get the correct X server or pick a native mac build to avoid the X11 layer.

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Member Avatar for John A

X11 is included as an installation option when installing Mac OS X. If you choose not to install it, the only way you can get X11 is by installing a third party application like you did.

It's generally better to use Apple's implementation of it, so the next time you reinstall OS X, make sure that X11 is checked in the "advanced install" section of the installer.

Member Avatar for gn0m3

or you could use NeoOffice which is a port of OpenOffice, its pretty stable and you dont have to use X11.....

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