# Building from source doesn't work **URL:** \ **Category:** Bugs / FRs / Support\ **Tags:** question, help, hyprland, other\ **Created:** [August 28, 2026, 5:45am UTC](http://forum.hypr.land/t/building-from-source-doesnt-work/2122 "2026-08-28T05:45:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pink9320](http://forum.hypr.land/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@pink9320](http://forum.hypr.land/u/pink9320)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 5:45am UTC](http://forum.hypr.land/t/building-from-source-doesnt-work/2122/1 "2026-08-28T05:45:55Z")
FYI I’m doing this on Mint - I know cmake on apt is deprecated, I already removed and rebuilt that from source so that’s not the problem Was just trying to build Hyprland from source, and it’s saying ```auto CMake Error: The source directory "/home/hermes/Hyprland/build" does not exist. ``` Any idea what I’m supposed to do now? It sounds like the make instructions and the current version of the git aren’t working together ![image-18](http://forum.hypr.land/uploads/default/original/2X/8/8d9217999c782ba0de28b7c8e8644f32870f4c88.png) ---
**Author:** ![vito](http://forum.hypr.land/user_avatar/forum.hypr.land/vito/32/1354_2.png) [@vito](http://forum.hypr.land/u/vito)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 6:05am UTC](http://forum.hypr.land/t/building-from-source-doesnt-work/2122/2 "2026-08-28T06:05:42Z")
The instructions i see [for Ubuntu](https://wiki.hypr.land/Getting-Started/Installation/#cmake-recommended) (closest there to mint) are: ```sh sudo apt install -y meson wget build-essential ninja-build cmake-extras cmake gettext gettext-base fontconfig libfontconfig-dev libffi-dev libxml2-dev libdrm-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev libxkbregistry-dev libxkbcommon-dev libpixman-1-dev libudev-dev libseat-dev seatd libxcb-dri3-dev libegl-dev libgles2 libegl1-mesa-dev glslang-tools libinput-bin libinput-dev libxcb-composite0-dev libavutil-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libxcb-ewmh2 libxcb-ewmh-dev libxcb-present-dev libxcb-icccm4-dev libxcb-render-util0-dev libxcb-res0-dev libxcb-xinput-dev libtomlplusplus3 libre2-dev xdg-desktop-portal-wlr git clone --recursive https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland cd Hyprland make all && sudo make install ``` Looking at both the makefile and your error, it looks like make clear is removing build, then make release is failing. maybe try a fresh clone, and then just `make release`? ```auto mkdir hypr-working && cd hypr-working git clone --recursive https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland cd Hyprland make release && sudo make install ``` ---
**Author:** ![pink9320](http://forum.hypr.land/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@pink9320](http://forum.hypr.land/u/pink9320)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 10:43pm UTC](http://forum.hypr.land/t/building-from-source-doesnt-work/2122/3 "2026-08-28T22:43:03Z")
But the /build/ directory isn’t there to begin with, so the commands you sent didn’t work either - is this make just broken? ---
**Author:** ![vito](http://forum.hypr.land/user_avatar/forum.hypr.land/vito/32/1354_2.png) [@vito](http://forum.hypr.land/u/vito)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2026, 10:14pm UTC](http://forum.hypr.land/t/building-from-source-doesnt-work/2122/4 "2026-08-29T22:14:44Z")
Did you start with a recursive clone? I can build off main without issue. But I’m on arch, so there is possibly a difference with some of the dependencies… ---
**Author:** ![pink9320](http://forum.hypr.land/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@pink9320](http://forum.hypr.land/u/pink9320)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2026, 10:42pm UTC](http://forum.hypr.land/t/building-from-source-doesnt-work/2122/5 "2026-08-29T22:42:48Z")
Yes, I followed the instructions that include the `--recursive` flag. Looking inside the make file, I don’t think I see anything for actually making the build directory, right? (I could be wrong, because this is my first time seeing inside a make file) ![Screenshot from 2026-08-29 23-16-01](http://forum.hypr.land/uploads/default/original/2X/2/2799c397b11f1e79b4de13433fc9f9bc00e7ab72.png) (`make all` runs `make clear` and `make release` in sequence) I attempted to see what happens when I do this on my Cachy PC, only to get hit with this preventing me from finding out if it works: ```auto -> Failed to install the following packages. Manual intervention is required: hyprland-guiutils-git - exit status 8 hyprcursor-git - exit status 8 hyprtoolkit-git - exit status 8 ``` (This did not happen on Mint) Anyway I have a new idea: I only just learned Mint uses the LTS kernel today, and there’s an installation path for LTS Ubuntu - so of course, I think I should try to use that next time I don’t have time to continue this right now for IRL reasons, so I’ll come back in a few days or maybe a week ---
**Author:** ![vito](http://forum.hypr.land/user_avatar/forum.hypr.land/vito/32/1354_2.png) [@vito](http://forum.hypr.land/u/vito)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2026, 11:55pm UTC](http://forum.hypr.land/t/building-from-source-doesnt-work/2122/6 "2026-08-29T23:55:45Z")
Oh for sure mate. You enjoy ur rl 🙂 Once ur back troubleshooting id love an update. Just very interesting to me how different this can be on different distros.