OpenGL doesn't seem to work in my Ubuntu

Question

I used to create SFML applications in Windows XP.

When I moved to Ubuntu and set my development environment up, a Segmentation fault error always comes up everytime I compile and run my program. Then I tried to check the OpenGL status by running glxinfo through terminal (as suggested in a website), I got these errors:

root@ubuntu:/# glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual or fbconfig

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
3 GLXFBConfigs:
   visual  x  bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer  ms  cav
 id dep cl sp sz l  ci b ro  r  g  b  a bf th cl  r  g  b  a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Segmentation fault

What should I do?

• Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx
• ATI Radeon 9550

I also have these packages installed:

• libgl1-mesa
• libgl1-mesa-glx
• libglu1-mesa

Any kind of help would be appreciated :)

Answer 1

You need to install the propreitory fglrx drivers. The Ubuntu Community Documentation page has details on how you can proceed with installing it.

Answer 2

Check your /var/log/Xorg.0.log for errors (search for (EE)). If you've installed proprietary drivers before, you could have overwritten your GL libraries. For ATI/AMD cards, the proprietary driver is provided by the fglrx package, nvidia cards use nvidia-current. After uninstallation of these drivers, reinstall the mesa libraries:

sudo apt-get --reinstall install libgl1-mesa-glx

Restart the X server (e.g. by rebooting) and these errors should be gone.

Answer 3

FWIW I have a Radeon 9550 on Ubuntu 10.04 as well without the proprietary drivers. Works just fine.

Your error messages suggest something is wrong with your X configuration. Which is weird, since for me it worked out of the box.

What happens if you try to run glxinfo as a regular user rather than root?