Migration Guide: macOS 10.15 Catalina

[dominiklohmann]

Migration Guide

macOS 10.15 Catalina is now available and there are a few things to note when using yabai on Catalina.

Known Bugs

• Window server crash on wake when window opacity was changed on Catalina #277 IMPORTANT: Disable window_opacity_duration for now, as the window server crashes completely on wake when window opacity was previously changed (yabai -m config window_opacity_duration 0.0).
• Crash in event tap code on Catalina #276 There is a totally random crash happening in processEventTapData. It's harmless, but yabai might restart once a week or so.
• Unable to read window titles on Catalina #278 Window titles can no longer be read using the private function used previously. A fix for this has been implemented on the master branch, but has not yet been released.

Before Updating

• Make sure to update yabai to the latest release (≥2.0.1)
• If you're using the scripting addition, make sure to reinstall it (sudo yabai --install-sa). If you have not done this in a while, note that the path for the scripting addition has changed from /System/Library/ScriptingAdditions to /Library/ScriptingAdditions in preparation for Catalina a while back.

[bangedorrunt]

I thought #276 has been fixed already

[dominiklohmann]

I thought #276 has been fixed already

There hasn't been a new release yet since that change was made.

[bangedorrunt]

@dominiklohmann oh, my bad, 😅

[koenhendriks]

I'm having the following issue on 10.15.1

yabai-msg: failed to connect to socket..

I installed using homebrew:
brew install --HEAD yabai

and run sudo yabai --install-sa

Any tips on what I'm missing? i tried brew services restart yabai

Edit: Didn't work because of a missing config file ~/.config/yabai/yabairc, leaving this for reference.

[koekeishiya]

Didn't work because of a missing config file ~/.config/yabai/yabairc, leaving this for reference.

This is no longer a requirement in v2.2.3 and newer.

[OJFord]

In case it helps anyone else searching for an issue - after upgrading 10.15.3 -> 10.15.4 I found that moving a window to a different space, e.g.:

$ yabai -m window --space  1

worked, but switching space, e.g.:

$ yabai -m space --focus 1

did not.

Reinstalling the scripting additions with:

$ sudo yabai --install-sa

fixed it.

[LazerJesus]

thx

[nuynait]

In case it helps anyone else searching for an issue - after upgrading 10.15.3 -> 10.15.4 I found that moving a window to a different space, e.g.:

$ yabai -m window --space  1

worked, but switching space, e.g.:

$ yabai -m space --focus 1

did not.

Reinstalling the scripting additions with:

$ sudo yabai --install-sa

fixed it.

When I reinstall it says payload doesn't support this macOS version. I guess I might need an upgrade?

---

Fixed the issue by uninstall and reinstall yabai then do:

sudo yabai --install-sa

[dominiklohmann]

I'm unpinning this to make room for the Big Sur thread. Nothing much has come up here for a while, so I think this can be considered done.

[rohni]

FYI: I just wanted to add that for my upgrade from 10.15.6 -> 10.15.7 (I'm avoiding Big Sur :-)) I had exactly the same problem which was solved as above with the

sudo yabai --install-sa

[rigarcia]

How do I install Yabai on Catalina? I get this error when trying to install.

yabai: This software does not run on macOS versions older than Big Sur.
Error: yabai: An unsatisfied requirement failed this build.

I used "brew install koekeishiya/formulae/yabai"

[24unix]

yabai: This software does not run on macOS versions older than Big Sur.

What is so unclear on that sentence?

Catalina: macOS 10.15
Big Sur: macOS 11

11 is greater than 10. Just go to the control center and make an update, if your Mac is too old, try OpenCore.