How to enable OpenGL 3.3 using Mesa 10.1 on Ubuntu

Question

I am trying to get an OpenGL-based rendering engine that relies on OpenGL 3.3 and GLSL 3.3 to run on Ubuntu 13.10 using an AMD Radeon 6950. I want to use the open source drivers (`radeon`), which rely on Mesa for their OpenGL implementation. Ubuntu 13.10 only provides Mesa 9.2 (implementing OpenGL 3.1) "out of the box". It is however possible to install Mesa 10.1 (implementing OpenGL 3.3) from this PPA as explained in this thread: StackOverflow: OpenGL & GLSL 3.3 on an HD Graphics 4000 under Ubuntu 12.04 I used the exact same steps as explained there: ``` 1.) Add the PPA Repository $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers 2.) Update sources $ sudo apt-get update 3.) Dist-upgrade (rebuilds many packages) $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade 4.) Then I rebooted. ``` Mesa 10.1 was successfully installed. However, `glxinfo`, while it now reports that Mesa 10.1 is in use, still reports only OpenGL 3.0 (compat profile) and OpenGL 3.1 (core profile): ``` $ glxinfo | grep OpenGL OpenGL ven…

Accepted Answer

What they do not tell you, but indirectly imply ("Some drivers don't support all the features required in OpenGL 3.3."), is that in the last official release of Mesa (10.0), GL 3.3 only works on Intel hardware. This is one of the joys of Intel's close involvement with the Mesa project. If you want reliable GL 3.3 support in any form on AMD hardware, you should use `fglrx` (the proprietary AMD driver) for the time being.

The development release of Mesa 10.1 may implement GL 3.3 on radeon drivers, but you need to request a 3.3 core profile. You are not doing this currently.

This:

```
glfwOpenWindowHint(GLFW_OPENGL_PROFILE, 0);
```

Actually needs to be this:

```
glfwOpenWindowHint(GLFW_OPENGL_PROFILE, GLFW_OPENGL_CORE_PROFILE);
```

Also, there is no such thing as a GL 3.0 compatibility profile or 3.1 core profile. Profiles were not introduced into OpenGL until 3.2. There is a concept of `GL_ARB_compatibility` in GL 3.1, but that is not the same thing as a profile; `glxinfo` is giving misleading information.

How to enable OpenGL 3.3 using Mesa 10.1 on Ubuntu

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