Qt's support for different Linux platforms is extensive and mature.

Downloading and Installing Qt

There are two ways to install Qt:

1. through the Qt Installers - downloads and installs Qt
2. through the Qt sources.

You can download the Qt 5 installers and sources from the Downloads page. For more information, visit the Getting Started with Qt page.

Requirements for Development Host

The Qt installers for Linux assume that a C++ compiler, debugger, make, and other development tools are provided by the host operating system. In addition, building graphical Qt applications requires OpenGL libraries and headers installed. Most Linux distributions do not install all of these by default, but setting up a development environment is still straightforward.

Use the following commands to install the basic requirements for building Qt applications:

Debian/Ubuntu (apt-get)

sudo apt-get install build-essential libgl1-mesa-dev

Fedora/RHEL/CentOS (yum)

sudo yum groupinstall "C Development Tools and Libraries"
sudo yum install mesa-libGL-devel

openSUSE (zypper)

sudo zypper install -t pattern devel_basis

Building Qt 5 from Source

You can also build Qt 5 from the source package and configure it according to your target platform. The source packages are obtained from http://www.qt.io/download/.

Below, you will find more information about building Qt from source.

• Qt for X11 Requirements
• Qt for Linux/X11 - Building from Source

Deployment and Other Issues

The pages below covers specific issues and recommendations for creating Linux/X11 applications.

• Qt for Linux/X11 - Deployment
• Qt for Linux/X11 - Specific Issues

Where to Go from Here

We invite you to explore the rest of Qt. We prepared overviews which help you decide which APIs to use and our examples demonstrate how to use our API.

• Qt Overviews - list of topics about application development
• Examples and Tutorials - code samples and tutorials
• Qt Reference Pages - a listing of C++ and QML APIs
• Qt X11 Extras - provides additional APIs for X11

Qt's vibrant and active community site, http://qt.io houses a wiki, a forum, and additional learning guides and presentations.