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What libraries or packages does Mathematica require on Linux?

Mathematica is tested and confirmed to work with a wide variety of Linux distributions. On some Linux distributions, Mathematica’s front end may fail to start and will display the following error:

Qt issued a fatal error: This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized.

This error is most likely due to missing library dependencies for the Qt5 framework platform plugins, which the Mathematica front end requires. While these dependencies are present on typical Linux desktop installations, some may need to be added manually.

To resolve this issue, please make sure the following packages are installed, in whatever manner is appropriate for your particular Linux operating system:

RedHat-Based Distributions (RHEL, CentOS, AlmaLinux, Fedora)

  • fontconfig
  • freetype
  • libX11
  • libxcb
  • libXext
  • libxkbcommon
  • libxkbcommon-x11
  • xcb-util-image
  • xcb-util-keysyms
  • xcb-util-renderutil
  • xcb-util-wm

Debian-Based Distributions (Debian, Ubuntu)

  • libfontconfig1
  • libfreetype6
  • libx11-6
  • libxcb-icccm4
  • libxcb-image0
  • libxcb-keysyms1
  • libxcb-render-util0
  • libxcb-xfixes0
  • libxcb1
  • libxext6
  • libxkbcommon-x11-0
  • libxkbcommon0

SUSE-Based Distributions (OpenSUSE Leap, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server)

  • fontconfig
  • libfreetype6
  • libX11-xcb1
  • libxcb-icccm4
  • libxcb-image0
  • libxcb-keysyms1
  • libxcb-render-util0
  • libxcb-xfixes0
  • libxcb1
  • libXext6
  • libxkbcommon-x11-0
  • libxkbcommon0
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