Xlibe – A serverless Xlib (X11) compatibility layer for Haiku
Hello HN, While there are some projects that implement partial versions of Xlib APIs on non-X11 platforms for compatibility (most notably, Tk), I don't know of any others sophisticated enough to run Cairo and GTK applications (albeit with a few hacks). So I figured this might be technically interesting. As of now it just implements the base Xlib APIs, it doesn't implement XRender, GLX, XInput2, etc. (though it's more than possible, I just didn't see a need yet.) Cross-program interaction is also very limited, and there are plenty of X11 features that likely can't be implemented; but this…
In plain words
Xlibe is a serverless Xlib compatibility layer that brings X11 application support to Haiku OS. It implements core Xlib APIs without advanced features like XRender or GLX, enabling sophisticated applications such as Cairo and GTK to run on the platform. The layer has enabled GTK3, GIMP, and Inkscape to function on Haiku, though cross-program interaction remains limited and some X11 features cannot be fully replicated.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hello HN, While there are some projects that implement partial versions of Xlib APIs on non-X11 platforms for compatibility (most notably, Tk), I don't know of any others sophisticated enough to run Cairo and GTK applications (albeit with a few hacks). So I figured this might be technically interesting. As of now it just implements the base Xlib APIs, it doesn't implement XRender, GLX, XInput2, etc. (though it's more than possible, I just didn't see a need yet.) Cross-program interaction is also very limited, and there are plenty of X11 features that likely can't be implemented; but this works sufficiently well that GTK3 is now in Haiku's default package repositories, with GIMP and Inkscape atop it to boot, using this. And for the fun of it, I did try to compile Xnest (the X.org server variant running on top of Xlib) on top of this; it crashed on startup in the keyboard handlers. However, that could potentially be because I didn't have the necessary data files and not because of anything missing in Xlibe; I didn't investigate too far (or it could be an actual incompatibility; Xlibe's keyboard subsystem is rather primitive and is most of the reason I had to patch GTK for full functionality.) (A few more screenshots, including GTK and WINE running atop Xlibe: https://www.haiku-os.org/blog/waddlesplash/2022-01-10_haiku_...)
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