---
~~Title: Installing EFL on XXXXX ~~
---

# Installing EFL on XXXXX #
[The *Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL)*](/about-efl.md) power millions of systems from mobile phones to set-top boxes, desktops, laptops, game systems and more. You will need EFL if you want to develop apps for Enlightenment and for any of the devices that use Enlightenment for its visual interface. 

This tutorial describes several ways of installing EFL on your system. You will only need one, so use the index on the right to navigate to the most useful method for you.

Many distributions offer EFL as an installable package from their default repositories. It is only a question of using your distribution's software management system to choose EFL and have the system install it. However, most versions of EFL in default repositories are very out of date and will not compile the more modern Enlightenment applications. If this is something you can live with, you look at the ["From  Distribution Repositories"](#From_Distribution_Repositories) section below.

Often distributions provide a special repository maintained by users, or a method of integrating a bleeding edge version of EFL with your software management system. This has the advantage of that, once set up, you can maintain your EFL installation up to date simply along with the updates of the rest of your system. If your distribution provides this service, take look at the ["Installing from a Special Repository"](#Installing_from_a_Special_Repository) section.

The Enlightenment developers provide a pre-packaged source of EFL. Although not bleeding edge, it is up to date and considered stable for production environments. You can download it, compile and install it yourself by following the instructions in ["Installing from Packaged Source"](#Installing_from_Packaged_Source).

You can also download the source code, but this time the most recent bleeding edge version, from our git repositories. This will provide you with the latest code that is updated on a nightly basis. To get the most recent and bleeding edge version of EFL, read the ["Installing from Git"](#Installing_from_Git) section.

Whichever installation method you use in ["Compiling EFL Applications"](#Compiling_EFL_Applications) you can read about how you can compile your Enlightenment applications.

## From  Distribution Repositories ##

[Instructions on how to install from official repo if available]

## Installing from a Special Repository ##

[Instructions on how to install from a special repo if available]

## Installing from Packaged Source ##

There are two versions available form the Enlightenment website. One is a packaged and available from the [EFL's download site](https://download.enlightenment.org/rel/libs/efl/). The other is the nightly bleeding edge version which you can [download using git](#Installing_from_Git). This section deals with installing with the packaged version available from the [EFL's download site](https://download.enlightenment.org/rel/libs/efl/).

### Step 1: Downloading Stable Version ###

[Download the latest version of EFL](https://download.enlightenment.org/rel/libs/efl/) and check it against its SHA256 hash:

```bash
wget https://download.enlightenment.org/rel/libs/efl/efl-X.XX.X.tar.xz
wget https://download.enlightenment.org/rel/libs/efl/efl-X.XX.X.tar.xz.sha256
cat efl-X.XX.X.tar.xz.sha256; sha256sum efl-X.XX.X.tar.xz
```

Note that you will have to change ``X.XX.X`` for the actual version of EFL.

### Step 2: Unpacking ###

Once you have the archive file containing EFL in your hard disk, unpack it with:

```bash
tar xvf efl-X.XX.X.tar.xz
```

This will produce a folder called *efl-X.XX.X*.

### Step 3: Installing Dependencies ###

Before you can compile and install EFL, you will have to install some software packages EFL needs:

```bash
[Install dependencies]

```

### Step 4: Building and Installing ###

Once you have installed all the packages EFL needs, ``cd`` into the *efl-X.XX.X* folder and run 

```bash
./configure
make
sudo make install
```

This will configure the files needed for compiling, actually compile the software, and then install it.

### Step 5: Carrying out Post Installation Tasks ###

As you are not installing to */usr* but to */usr/local*, you will have to ensure that some files are visible to *dbus*:

```bash
sudo ln -s /usr/local/share/dbus-1/services/org.enlightenment.Ethumb.service /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.enlightenment.Ethumb.service
```

You may also need to refresh your library path to make sure your apps can find the EFL libraries:

```bash
sudo ldconfig
```

## Installing from Git ##

You can also get the bleeding edge version of EFL by cloning it from the git repository.

### Step 1: Installing git and Cloning ###

By default, *git* is not installed in XXXXX, so the first step is to install it:

```bash
[install git]
```

Next clone EFL's source code:

```bash
git clone https://git.enlightenment.org/core/efl.git
```

This will create a a directory called *efl/*.

### Step 2: Installing Dependencies ###

You will need to install some tools to build the configuration file:

```bash
[Install autoconf autopoint libtool etc]
```

As well as the dependencies specific for EFL:

```bash
[Install dependencies]
```

### Step 3: Configuring the Software ###

Now you can ``cd`` into the *efl\* directory and run the *autoreconf* script to create and configure the software ready for compilation:

```bash
./autogen.sh
```

Once configured, you can compile the software with:

```bash
make
sudo make install
```

### Step 4: Carrying out Post Installation Tasks ###

As you are not installing to */usr* but to */usr/local*, you will have to ensure that some files are visible to *dbus*:

```bash
sudo ln -s /usr/local/share/dbus-1/services/org.enlightenment.Ethumb.service /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.enlightenment.Ethumb.service
```

You may also need to refresh your library path to make sure your apps can find the EFL libraries:

```bash
sudo ldconfig
```

## Troubleshooting ##

If you are having problems compiling and installing EFL, you can come and seek advice on any of [our IRC channels](https://www.enlightenment.org/contact) or [post a ticket to our Phabricator](https://phab.enlightenment.org).

## Installing on Other Distros ##

If you would like to install EFL on a different distro visit the [Installing EFL](start) page.