I'm configuring like this: env CC="i686-apple-darwin10-gcc-4.2.1 -mmacosx-version-min=10.5" ./configure --host=i686-apple-darwin --build=i686-apple-darwin --with-ns It all compiles ok until it gets to macfont.m: i686-apple-darwin10-gcc-4.2.1 -mmacosx-version-min=10.5 -std=gnu99 -c -Demacs -I. -I/Users/david/src/emacs-dev/emacs-bzr/build-2013-09-20/src -I../lib -I/Users/david/src/emacs-dev/emacs-bzr/build-2013-09-20/src/../lib -I/usr/include/libxml2 -MMD -MF deps/macfont.d -MP -g3 -O2 macfont.m macfont.m: In function 'macfont_draw': macfont.m:2712: error: incompatible type for argument 2 of 'CGContextFillRect' make[1]: *** [macfont.o] Error 1 make: *** [src] Error 2 On further examination, I found this: http://cocoadev.com/CGRect which says that you need NSRectToCGRect() on 32 bit Mac OS X platforms (which explains only the 32 bit compile is failing). Luckily there is CGRectMake which analagous to NSMakeRect: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/GraphicsImaging/Reference/CGGeometry/Reference/reference.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30000955-CH1g-F17161 The following patch fixes the issue: === modified file 'src/macfont.m' --- src/macfont.m 2013-09-15 19:36:20 +0000 +++ src/macfont.m 2013-10-02 01:32:30 +0000 @@ -2708,7 +2708,7 @@ { CG_SET_FILL_COLOR_WITH_GC_BACKGROUND (context, s); CGContextFillRect (context, - NSMakeRect (x, y, + CGRectMake (x, y, s->width, FONT_HEIGHT (s->font))); }