MySQL Workbench FAQ Listing
This is a collection of the questions that have been asked frequently.
Hardware
Q.1: What is the minimum hardware system requirement for MySQL Workbench?
MySQL Workbench requires a current system to run smoothly. Running on a three year old machine might work but can result in slow performance. The minimum hardware requirements are:
- CPU: Intel Core or Xeon 3GHz (or Dual Core 2GHz) or equal AMD CPU
- Cores: Single (Dual/Quad Core is recommended)
- RAM: 4 GB (6 GB recommended)
- Graphic Accelerators: nVidia or ATI with support of OpenGL 1.5 or higher
- Display Resolution: 1280×1024 is recommended, 1024×768 is minimum.
Q.2: Will Workbench run on my laptop?
That depends on whether you have a nVidia or ATI graphic card with OpenGL 1.5 support or higher. If not, MySQL Workbench can only be used in Software Rendering mode.
Q.3: Will MySQL Workbench be available on SPARC, PowerPC, MIPS, PA-RISC, etc?
No, MySQL Workbench will only be available on x86 (with multiple operating systems).
Operating Systems
Q.1: Which Operating Systems are supported?
MySQL Workbench is officially supported on the following list of client platforms. Please note that MySQL Workbench is a GUI client application and therefore the list of supported platforms is not as long as for the MySQL Server.
- Windows 7 (64bit, Professional or higher)
- Mac OS X 10.6.1+
- Ubuntu 9.10 (64bit)
- Ubuntu 8.04 (32bit/64bit)
Apart from the officially supported list of platforms we provide a number of builds for other platforms for your convenience. This is the current list of binary builds of Workbench 5.2 (as of 2009-11-18):
- Windows XP/Vista
- Mac OSX (10.5 and 10.6) intel
- Ubuntu 8.04 (i386/x64)
- Ubuntu 9.04 (i386/x64)
- Fedora 11 (i386/x64)
You can grab the files from our official download pages.
Windows
Q.1: Which versions of Windows are supported?
Starting with MySQL Workbench 5.2 only Windows 7 is officially supported. Nevertheless MySQL Workbench is know to work on Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista when the .Net 3.5 framework has been installed (Windows 2000 is not supported.)
Q.2: Do I need the .Net framework?
Yes, in order to run MySQL Workbench you need the .Net 3.5 framework installed. Windows XP users need to manually install the .Net 3.5 framework – it can be downloaded from here. If you run on Windows Vista you do not need to install anything because it is included in OS.
Q.3: Do I need special drivers for my graphics card on Windows?
Yes, you need the latest drivers for your nVidia or ATI graphics card to be installed. Windows itself only ships with OpenGL 1.1 support which is too old for MySQL Workbench. If you do not install dedicated drivers MySQL Workbench will only work in Software Rendering mode.
Linux
Q.1: When will Linux support become available?
Linux is supported starting with MySQL Workbench 5.1.
Q.2: Which Linux distributions are supported?
Only Ubuntu 9.10 (64bit) and 8.04 (32bit & 64bit) are officially supported. Further we do offer binaries for the following distributions.
- Ubuntu 8.04 (32 & 64 bit)
- Ubuntu 9.04 (32 & 64 bit)
- Fedora 11 (32 & 64 bit)
Further, there are unofficial builds for other Linuxes available through the community.
Q.3: When will Unix support become available?
The Linux version will run on any *nix that has support for the latest GTKmm.
Mac OS X
Q.1: When will OS X support become available?
OS X will be supported starting with MySQL Workbench 5.1.
Q.2: Which OS X versions will be supported?
As of MySQL Workbench 5.2, Mac OS X Snow Leopard is supported.