Re: OpenGL & Linux XServer

Steve Lamont (spl@szechuan.ucsd.edu)
Thu, 5 Dec 96 05:55:00 PST

To subscribers of the xforms list from spl@szechuan.ucsd.edu (Steve Lamont) :

> I have guys using XFORMS on SGI systems, but displaying via an
> X-Server on Linux (they can't afford a real SGI!).
>
> However, when they come to use an OpenGL canvas (glcanvs in v0.81)
> the program barfs saying that Xlib: Server does not support GLX
> extension.
>
> So, is this a problem, i.e. can it be fixed if they get an update
> to their Linux XServer software or whatever ...

I don't think that there is such a beast -- at least I've never heard
of one. The GLX extension to the X server is something that's
proprietary to SGI.

I suspect what you're going to have to do is build two versions of the
program: one with OpenGL and one with MesaGL, the freely available
OpenGL clone. The primary Mesa ftp site is iris.ssec.wisc.edu in the
pub/Mesa directory. Mesa is also mirrored on sunsite in the directory
pub/packages/development/graphics/mesa.

Mesa will run on just about anything that supports X and even some
things that dont (like Macintoshes and MockroSoft Windoze).

The difference is that OpenGL and the GLX server use proprietary
hardware (mostly) to do their thing and the Mesa clone emulates
everything in software (so it is commensurately slower).

"Joe Bob says check it out."

spl
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