Portal 2 won't launch

Question

Usually I can figure this stuff out on my own, but I am stumped with this one:

When trying to open portal 2 in steam, I get the preparing to launch portal 2 message, the message closes, then nothing. The game does not launch, there are no error messages. I tried verifying the game files, with success. But I still cannot launch portal. I tried running the portal2.sh file in the terminal. here is the output:

libGL error: unable to load driver: nouveau_dri.so
libGL error: driver pointer missing
libGL error: failed to load driver: nouveau
libGL error: unable to load driver: swrast_dri.so
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast
SDL video target is 'x11'
SDL video target is 'x11'

SDL failed to create GL compatibility profile (whichProfile=0!
SDL failed to create GL compatibility profile (whichProfile=0!

PROBLEM: You appear to have OpenGL 1.4.0, but we need at least 2.0.0!
Could not find required OpenGL entry point 'glGetError'! Either your video card is unsupported, or your OpenGL driver needs to be updated.
Could not find required OpenGL entry point 'glGetError'! Either your video card is unsupported, or your OpenGL driver needs to be updated.

I can play Team Fortress 2 just fine, so I don't think openGL is the issue. I read somewhere that updating video card drivers might help, but I can't figure out how to update my drivers on ubuntu. my video card is: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 8400 GS Rev. 3] (rev a2)

UPDATE: I just confirmed I have openGL 10.3.2. This easily fits portal 2's requirement of 2.0.0 or later.

Answer 1

I had this problem on 64 bit Ubuntu 14.04 and fixed it by doing the following

1. Delete SteamApps/common/Portal 2/bin/libstdc++.so.6
2. Run the Steam client
3. cd "SteamApps/common/Portal 2"
4. LD_LIBRARY_PATH=bin ./portal2_linux -game portal2 -windowed

After running it once this way I could start it from the normal library window

I am sorry that I do not remember the attribution of this answer, but you may be able to google it up if you wish.