# ERROR: Cannot compile a minimal program. The toolchain or QMakeSpec is broken. While building ParaView to execute Qt custom apps

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/error-cannot-compile-a-minimal-program-the-toolchain-or-qmakespec-is-broken-while-building-paraview-to-execute-qt-custom-apps/3053
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [November 26, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/error-cannot-compile-a-minimal-program-the-toolchain-or-qmakespec-is-broken-while-building-paraview-to-execute-qt-custom-apps/3053 "2019-11-26T17:22:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![maria\_vlas](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/maria_vlas/32/2385_2.png) [@maria\_vlas](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/maria_vlas)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/error-cannot-compile-a-minimal-program-the-toolchain-or-qmakespec-is-broken-while-building-paraview-to-execute-qt-custom-apps/3053/1 "2019-11-26T17:22:55Z")

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I have been trying to build ParaView to test the custom apps examples at `https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/tree/master/Examples/CustomApplications` on MacOS.

I have followed the site instructions at `https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild`

Then executed

```auto
$ mkdir pv
$ cd pv
$ git clone https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild.git
$ cd paraview-superbuild
$ git fetch origin # ensure you have the latest state from the main repo
$ git submodule update

$ cd ..
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake ../paraview-superbuild
$ ccmake -DCMAKE_OSX_SDK=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.14.sdk ../paraview-superbuild

```

I enabled:

```auto
ENABLE_qt5
ENABLE_python
ENABLE_python2

```

 ![53%20PM](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/2/2ccf92e5491fe1c79ea91f5dc5a404472e93fce7.png)

 ![00%20PM](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/1/149f10cd6f61b5747d065a3c9ea8408f1421b276.png)

 ![06%20PM](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/6/68e4eec0851128ade64472ae8230490f9228b8d2.png)

Then

```auto
$ make

```

 ![30%20PM](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/3/38d32107c6ccbdb7aca2fd7e7ade72d032993e63.png)

 ![17%20PM](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/f/f7fbe66946a7189929f0ee3fbffa50bfa8b7c0e1.png)

Any ideas on what should I do?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ben.boeckel](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/error-cannot-compile-a-minimal-program-the-toolchain-or-qmakespec-is-broken-while-building-paraview-to-execute-qt-custom-apps/3053/2 "2020-03-20T18:41:34Z")

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Sorry for the delay. For macOS, I suggest downloading binaries from Qt upstream and using them rather than trying to build it from the superbuild. [https://download.qt.io/official\_releases/qt/](https://download.qt.io/official_releases/qt/)