1.3.  Software Required to Build Optional Components of Geant4

Geant4 has several optional components which if enabled require further software to be preinstalled on your system. These components and their requirements are listed below.

On Linux, it is strongly recommend that you use the binary packages as supplied through the package management system of your distribution. If you require a component that uses OpenGL, we also recommend that you install the OpenGL package supplied for your video card (e.g. NVIDIA). You should consult the documentation of your distribution for information on the packages that provide the needed software libraries and headers.

On Mac and Windows, we strongly recommend installing any required packages through binary dmg/exe installers supplied through the vendor links above. Note that Visual Studio supplies an install of OpenGL on Windows. Mac OS X supplies OpenGL, but if you need X11 you will need to install the XQuartz app. Installation and use of packages on Mac through homebrew, MacPorts or fink is not tested or supported, but you may build Geant4 using packages supplied by these package management systems with that caveat.