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Cross-platform builds (macOS / Linux) — porting notes

Status: planning note, not yet implemented. Lyra ships Windows-only through v0.2.1. This captures what it takes to build for macOS and Linux so the plan isn't lost when TX work lands.

Recommendation: do the port AFTER TX/RX is stable on Windows. TX work touches hl2_stream.cpp heavily (the same file that carries the Windows-specific socket/timer code below), so porting now would mean maintaining a 3-OS abstraction while the protocol layer is still moving.

Why it's feasible

The app is C++23 + Qt6 + CMake — inherently cross-platform. CMakeLists.txt already guards the Windows bits behind if(WIN32).

Qt's RHI auto-selects the graphics backend per OS, so the panadapter / waterfall Quick scene needs no code changes:

OS RHI backend
Windows Direct3D 11/12 → OpenGL fallback
macOS Metal
Linux Vulkan → OpenGL fallback

Already portable (no work)

  • All C++/QML UI, panels, meters, bands, TCI server
  • QSettings — adapts automatically (registry → plist → INI)
  • Paths — QStandardPaths is per-OS already
  • hl2_discovery.cpp — uses QUdpSocket
  • FFTW / rnnoise / specbleach — portable C (apt / Homebrew / build)

The work (4 items)

1. WDSP native engine — the biggest external chunk

build/_native/ ships Windows binaries: wdsp.dll, libfftw3-3.dll, libfftw3f-3.dll, rnnoise.dll, specbleach.dll. WDSP is GPL C source (Warren Pratt NR0V); it must be compiled per-OS into .so (Linux) / .dylib (macOS). FFTW/rnnoise/specbleach come from package managers or build from source. macOS should target a universal (arm64 + x86_64) build.

2. hl2_stream.cpp — the hot wire path (real code work)

Deliberately uses raw Windows APIs for tight EP2/EP6 cadence:

  • WinSock2 (winsock2.h, WSA*) → POSIX sockets (<sys/socket.h>)
  • CreateWaitableTimerExW (timer-paced EP2 writer) → timerfd / clock_nanosleep (Linux), dispatch/mach timers (macOS)
  • timeBeginPeriod(1) (winmm, 1 ms scheduler tick) → not needed / use the high-res timer directly on Unix

Cleanest approach: a thin udp_socket + wire_timer shim with #ifdef _WIN32 branches, leaving the wire/cadence logic untouched. This shim is actually cleaner than the current Windows-only path.

3. wdsp_native.cpp

LoadLibrary/GetProcAddress → dlopen/dlsym (a few lines, #ifdef).

4. usb_bcd.cpp (FTDI external-amp BCD control)

Uses FTDI D2XX (windows.h). FTDI ships Mac/Linux libftd2xx, OR #ifdef-stub it on those platforms first (most testers don't use external-amp BCD).

CMake

Mirror the existing if(WIN32) blocks with if(APPLE) / if(UNIX): drop ws2_32/winmm/d3d*/mpr/userenv/src/lyra.rc/WIN32_EXECUTABLE on non-Windows; find_library/pkg_check_modules the native libs per OS.

Packaging

OS Deploy tool Artifact Notes
Windows windeployqt + Inno Setup Lyra-Setup-X.Y.Z.exe current
macOS macdeployqt .app → .dmg Developer-ID codesign + notarize to avoid Gatekeeper warnings
Linux linuxdeploy --plugin qt AppImage (most portable), or .deb/Flatpak

Building without owning the hardware

You can't build a Mac without a Mac — but you don't need to own one:

  • GitHub Actions matrix (windows-latest + ubuntu-latest + macos-latest) builds all three on every v* tag push and attaches artifacts to the Release automatically. Use jurplel/install-qt-action for Qt.
  • Linux can also be built locally in WSL2 for quick iteration.

This is the scalable path: tag → CI builds 3 platforms → assets land on the GitHub Release.

When the time comes, two deliverables

  1. Portability audit — punch-list of every Windows API call + effort estimate.
  2. GitHub Actions build matrix — Mac/Linux binaries out of CI, no hardware needed.