How to run GNS3 on Mac OS X

March 2nd, 2010 by Jeremy Grossmann Leave a reply »

Here are instructions to run GNS3 from the sources (not the standalone compiled DMG version) on your favorite operating system. You will have to install or compile dependencies like Qt, Sip and PyQt. This will allow you to use the latest development version of GNS3 that you can download from http://code.gns3.net.

Method 1

  • Install the Apple Devs Tools (on your Mac OS X DVD or download it on ADC account). Run and install XcodeTools.mpkg.
  • Download SIP, open a terminal and go in the folder where you downloaded the tar file and compile using the following commands (example for SIP 4.9.3):
Macintosh:$  tar xvzf sip-4.9.3.tar.gz
Macintosh:$  cd sip-4.9.3
Macintosh:sip-4.9.3$  python configure.py
Macintosh:sip-4.9.3$  make
Macintosh:sip-4.9.3$  make install
  • Download PyQt and run the following commands to decompress and compile PyQt (example for PyQt 4.6.2):
Macintosh:$  tar xvzf PyQt-mac-gpl-4.6.2.tar.gz
Macintosh:$  cd PyQt-mac-gpl-4.6.2
Macintosh:PyQt-mac-gpl-4.6.2$  python configure.py
Macintosh:PyQt-mac-gpl-4.6.2$  make
Macintosh:PyQt-mac-gpl-4.6.2$  make install

Method 2

This method can take a few hours as everything is compiled but this is the most flexible as you can switch between dependencie versions very easilly.

  • Open a terminal and install GNS3 dependencies.
Macintosh:$ sudo port install python26
Macintosh:$ sudo port install python_select
Macintosh:$ sudo python_select python26
Macintosh:$ sudo port install py26-sip
Macintosh:$ sudo port install py26-pyqt4
Macintosh:$ sudo port install qt4-mac

Notes about MacPorts

Optionnaly, to prevent MacPorts to install the last version of the dependencies (which may not work properly with GNS3), you can force a specified version with @.

Example:

Macintosh:$ sudo port install py26-sip @4.9.3_0
Macintosh:$ sudo port install py26-pyqt4 @4.6.2_0
Macintosh:$ sudo port install qt4-mac @4.5.3_0

Also, let say you have installed the latest version of Qt but this one doesn’t work very well with GNS3, you can revert back to your previous Qt version using the comand sudo port activate qt4-mac @version_number. This will automatically deactivate the current version of Qt and activate the one you want.

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12 comments

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  1. The Evangelist says:
    March 6, 2010 at 03:08

    Hi,

    Compiling qt4-mac can be painful because it did cost to me about 1 hour to compile.

    I have two Apple computers so compile two times would be horrible.

    Is there some tip or howto to compile everything ONE TIME and then make a DMG o a package to copy to other Apple computers or to share to someone ?

    Thanks.

  2. Jeremy Grossmann says:
    March 6, 2010 at 10:31

    A DMG is almost done, so soon you won’t need to compile excepting if your Mac OS X is < 10.5 (Leopard).

  3. Amit Chopra says:
    March 7, 2010 at 17:42

    Hi Jeremy

    My Mac OS X is 10.5 (Leopard) , is it DMG work on it? if not what option is there? should I use old 5.0 DMG for Mac

  4. naner says:
    March 16, 2010 at 03:00

    Hi,

    I went through the thing and found that I got an error message after running “make”.

    ld: symbol(s) not found
    collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
    make[1]: *** [libpythonplugin.dylib] Error 1
    make: *** [all] Error 2

    the first post was the error message after running “make install”.

    please help! thanks!

  5. naner says:
    March 16, 2010 at 16:20

    hi,

    i tried to ignore the error messages and proceeded to install gns3. ran it and it worked fine! thanks!

  6. Del says:
    March 25, 2010 at 06:36

    Hi,
    It’s not clear enough about what to do to use the DMG file.

    - do we still need to install sip?
    - do we still need to install QT?
    - do we still need to install PyQT?

    thank you
    RGDS

  7. Tokanizar says:
    May 10, 2010 at 16:07

    I’ve downloaded DMG file (Python included) and Gns.app to Applications. GNS3 runs well but it could not find dynamips to start.

    I read in forum that I have to point Executable Path to “/Applications/GNS3.app/Contents/Resources/dynamips-0.2.8-RC2-OSX-Leopard.intel.bin” but I could not found the binary file within this path.

    What should I do?

  8. Tokanizar says:
    May 25, 2010 at 20:22

    This link may help. I now could run GNS3 in my Snow Leopard laptop.

    http://etherealmind.com/install-gns3-on-max-os-x-leopard/

  9. Billy says:
    September 15, 2010 at 01:18

    Grrrr! 10.5.8 problem also.

    Sep 14 10:58:44 wbl [0x0-0x9f09f].net.gns3[1040]: no suitable image found. Did find:
    Sep 14 10:58:44 wbl [0x0-0x9f09f].net.gns3[1040]: /Applications/GNS3.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Python: unknown required load command 0×80000022
    Sep 14 10:58:46 wbl com.apple.launchd[98] ([0x0-0x9f09f].net.gns3[1040]): Exited with exit code: 255

    Kinda looks like I need some ‘framework’ for Python 2.6. Ill try just installing Py 2.6

    Because:
    wbl:Dynamips wbl$ python -V
    Python 2.5.1

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