mslgd, the display server
What draws Linux windows on your Mac, and why each app gets its own process.
On this page 3 sections
Linux apps draw through mslgd, an X11 display server written for MSL. It is not XQuartz and does not need it: a Linux app connects to mslgd, and mslgd puts a real Mac window on your screen.
One process per app#
Every Linux app runs in its own process on the Mac side. That is what gives each one its own Dock tile, its own icon, its own name in the menu bar and its own tiles in Mission Control — instead of everything appearing as "MSL".
It has one visible consequence: two Linux apps cannot see each other's clipboard directly, because X11 clipboards pass between programs rather than being stored anywhere. The shared clipboard is what joins them up, through the Mac's.
What it supports#
Enough of X11 that ordinary desktop applications work: windows, input, fonts, images, shaped windows, the extensions toolkits check for on startup, and OpenGL through GLX. GTK, Qt and the toolkits built on them are what it is tested against.
Turning it off for one instance#
The Sandbox tab's Graphics gate stops an instance opening new windows at all — see The four gates. Windows already open keep drawing.