mwptools on MacOS

[stronnag]

Installing mwptools on MacOS

NOTICE

This post will NOT be updated.
The definitive instructions are now in the User Guide

OS requirements

A version of MacOS supporting homebrew, e.g.

Apple Silicon

• Sequoia
• Sonoma
• Ventura

X86_64

• Sonoma
• Ventura

Although Homebrew does not officially support Sequoia for (most of) the packages required, the required packages (and mwp) work well on Sequoia.

Install HomeBrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

or use the official package from the Homebrew release area.

Dependencies

brew install gtk4 \
 libshumate \
 libsoup \
 git \
 meson \
 libadwaita \
 libsecret \
 vala \
 protobuf-c \
 libpaho-mqtt \
 gstreamer \
 go \
 espeak-ng \
 vte3 \
 adwaita-icon-theme \
 gnuplot

Blueprint compiler

This is not in homebrew, install locally:

git clone https://gitlab.gnome.org/jwestman/blueprint-compiler
cd blueprint-compiler/
meson setup _build
sudo ninja -C _build install

Build mwp

Only local install is "supported"

• Clone the repository
• Checkout the development branch (for now)
• cd mwptools

meson setup _build --buildtype=release --strip --prefix=~/.local
ninja -C _build install

One off post install

• It is necessary to add $HOME/.local/bin to $PATH

mwp's gsettings does not work on MacOS (or more strictly, it does, but mwp and gsettings do not share storage, which is not helpful). Therefore mwp is using a ini file backend on MacOS.

• Prior to 24.12.28, it was necessary copy the template ini file into the config directory

  mkdir -p ~/.config/mwp/
  cp docs/mwp.ini ~/.config/mwp/
  

• To set settings outside of mwp, you may edit ~/.config/mwp/mwp.ini with care as there is no error checking.

Other notes

macOS appears not measure text width in the same was a other OS. A "fudge factor" is included that works on my "Ventura" VM. The user set there own value with the environment variable `MWP_MAC_FACTOR', set to a value greater than 100. Try with values around 125.

e.g.

mwp MWP_MAC_FACTOR=128

Once a suitable value is found:

• Reset panel sizing rm -f ~/.config/mwp/.paned
• Add the environment variable to ~/.config/mwp/cmdopts

NOTICE

This post will NOT be updated.
The definitive instructions are now in the User Guide

[nsstein]

Intel Mac running macos sequoia 15.2

Along with the HomeBrew install dependencies, and Blueprint compiler
I had to install pip install PyGObject (I am using pyenv)

Other instructions were fine....

I will start some testing as time frees up.

Thanks for the great headstart.

(and yes, it is time for a new computer)

[stronnag]

Interesting, that was not necessary on Ventura or Sonoma on Intel (VM). I will add it to the notes.
I note that a number of the dependencies are not officially supported by Homebrew on Sequoia.

[stronnag]

I will be interested to read your test experiences.

[nsstein]

it is probably due to my python setup which is related to a few other projects. I plan in digging in more this weekend.

[stronnag]

Indeed, just done a clean install in a Sequoia VM, No problems with building / running blueprint-compiler. Note added to the User Guide about extant python installations.

[stronnag]

Todo / Known Issues list

• Audio (TTS) libraries are not recognised, however --voice-command=espeak does work. Fixed in 488ca9b.
• Media doesn't play, due to missing gtk libmedia-gstreamer shared library. No workaround at the moment.
• Document / provide template for mwp.app (so it appears in Applications). See User Guide . Requires development branch 24.12.27 or later for files.