[GRASS-user] Compiling NVIZ / OpenGL with nVidia drivers

[Glynn Clements]

John Stevenson wrote:

> Perhaps more a general Linux question than a specific grass one, but  
> does anyone know how to compile GRASS with OpenGL and NVIZ support?
> 
> I am running Ubuntu 9.04 with the proprietary nVidia drivers for my  
> graphics card.  Whenever I try to install OpenGL it breaks my nVidia  
> settings.  NVIZ works fine when I download the binary in a  
> pre-compiled version of grass.

It's more of an Ubuntu question than a general Linux question.

To compile source code which uses OpenGL, You need the headers and and
an unversioned library symlink (i.e. libGL.so).

These are often provided in a separate "development" package, as you
don't need them to run the program, only to compile it.

If there are separate OpenGL packages for nVidia and X.org, there may
be separate development packages, or there may be a single package for
use with either version.

The worst case is if the headers are only available as part of a
package which includes the X.org (or Mesa) OpenGL libraries. In which
case, you'll need to sort out the mess manually.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>