Nvidia OpenGL Configuration mini-HOWTO Robert B Easter         reaster@comptechnews.com          Revision History Revision v1.7 2001-01-21 Revised by: rbe This miniHOWTO is about how to install the OpenGL drivers for Nvidia graphics cards on Linux. In addition to just installing the Nvidia drivers, this mini-HOWTO also explains how to install XFree86, the OpenGL Utility library (part of Mesa), the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (glut), the full set of OpenGL manpages, Qt and its OpenGL extension, and Java and its Java 3D extension so that a user can have a complete runtime and development environment for OpenGL applications on Linux. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1. New Versions of this Document 1.2. Copyright Information 1.3. Disclaimer 2. Download the software packages 2.1. Linux Kernel >= 2.2.12 Required 2.2. XFree86 4.0 or later 2.3. OpenGL man pages 2.4. Mesa 2.5. Qt 2.6. NVIDIA drivers (Mesa libGL replacement) 2.7. Java 2 SDK, Java 3D extension, and Java PlugIn for Netscape (optional) 3. Install Software 3.1. Install XFree86 3.2. Install Mesa 3.3. Install Nvidia OpenGL drivers 3.4. Install Qt 3.5. Install GLUT 3.7 Distribution (optional) 3.6. Install Java 3D (optional) 4. Final comments ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Introduction This miniHOWTO is about how to install the OpenGL drivers for Nvidia graphics cards on Linux. In addition to just installing the Nvidia drivers, this mini-HOWTO also explains how to install XFree86, the OpenGL Utility library (part of Mesa), the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (glut), the full set of OpenGL manpages, Qt and its OpenGL extension, and Java and its Java 3D extension so that a user can have a complete runtime and development environment for OpenGL applications on Linux. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.1. New Versions of this Document The lastest version of this mini-HOWTO can be found at: [http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Nvidia-OpenGL-Configuration-mini-HOWTO/] http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Nvidia-OpenGL-Configuration-mini-HOWTO/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.2. Copyright Information This document is copyrighted (c) 2000 Robert B. Easter and is distributed under the terms of the Linux Documentation Project (LDP) license, stated below. Unless otherwise stated, Linux HOWTO documents are copyrighted by their respective authors. Linux HOWTO documents may be reproduced and distributed in whole or in part, in any medium physical or electronic, as long as this copyright notice is retained on all copies. Commercial redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would like to be notified of any such distributions. All translations, derivative works, or aggregate works incorporating any Linux HOWTO documents must be covered under this copyright notice. That is, you may not produce a derivative work from a HOWTO and impose additional restrictions on its distribution. Exceptions to these rules may be granted under certain conditions; please contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator at the address given below. In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright on the HOWTO documents, and would like to be notified of any plans to redistribute the HOWTOs. If you have any questions, please contact ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.3. Disclaimer No liability for the contents of this documents can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and other content at your own risk. All copyrights are held by their by their respective owners, unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Download the software packages 2.1. Linux Kernel >= 2.2.12 Required First of all, the OpenGL drivers for the Nvidia cards currently require a system with Linux kernel 2.2.12 or later. If you don't have it, then you will have to upgrade your system's Linux kernel and that is the topic of other HOWTOs! But nevertheless, the first step would be do download a new kernel at: [http://www.kernel.org/] http://www.kernel.org/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.2. XFree86 4.0 or later XFree86 4.0 or later, preferably 4.0.2 as of this writing, is also required. Its installation will be covered later. Software packages. XFree86 4.0.2. XFree86 comes in three files:   * X402src-1.tgz   * X402src-2.tgz   * X402src-3.tgz   * doctools-1.2.tgz Doctools is something it uses to prepare the X documentation. [ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/] ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/ Includes glX, the OpenGL X interface functions. Each window system (MS Windows, X etc) has to provide the platform-specific interfaces between OpenGL and the window system to provide for mapping a GL rendering context to a window system window. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.3. OpenGL man pages XFree86 comes with only the glX man pages. If you want a full set of OpenGL man pages, you have to get them yourself.   * mangl.tar.Z   * manglu.tar.Z   * manglx.tar.Z (don't need this one) [ftp://ftp.sgi.com/sgi/opengl/doc/] ftp://ftp.sgi.com/sgi/opengl/doc/ These man pages are in a format ready to be unpacked into the XFree86 source distributions, see below. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.4. Mesa   * MesaLib-3.4.tar.gz   * MesaDemos-3.4.tar.gz [http://mesa3d.sourceforge.net/] http://mesa3d.sourceforge.net/ Mesa provides the foundation for the 3d support included in XFree86, which comes only with the libGL OpenGL core library component. To enable hardware accelerated performance, many 3d hardware manufacturers provide a drop-in replacement for Mesa's standard software-only libGL rendering library. For this document, we are only interested in NVIDIA's libGL drop-in replacement library. MesaLib provides a software OpenGL implementation consisting of libGL. It also provides libGLU (GL Utility). libGLU is a library built on top of libGL to provide some higher-level functions for applications. OpenGL itself, libGL, is considered a low-level library. GLU is a standard part of most OpenGL installations and many programs make use of it. MesaDemos provides many OpenGL demo programs and, more importantly, the GL Utility Toolkit (libglut) library. GLUT provides a window system independent interface between OpenGL and any supported window system. For instance, on the X Window System, it hides the details of using glX functions to setup a window. Programmers can write code once and can compile it to work on MS Windows or X, etc provided that a GLUT library is available on the target platform. Like libGLU, libglut is a standard part of most OpenGL installations and is required by many programs even though it is not packaged with XFree86. While GLUT is bundled with MesaDemos, it is also available as a separate package from its original project website: glut-3.7.tar.gz glut_data-3.7.tar.gz [http://reality.sgi.com/mjk/glut3/] http://reality.sgi.com/mjk/glut3/ You may use *either* the GLUT included with MesaDemos (preferred and easier) or the GLUT from its project website. Don't install both! Its recommended at this time to go with the GLUT packaged with MesaDemos, but instructions on how to install the other GLUT are still provided in the next section as an option. Note that MesaDemos does not include the glut manpages, so you may want to download the project GLUT package just to install its manpages. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.5. Qt qt-x11-2.2.3.tar.gz or later version [http://www.troll.no/] http://www.troll.no/ Qt is a cross-platform GUI library that makes it easy to create X applications with standard GUI elements (widgets) like menubars, scollbars, dropdown lists, checkboxes, buttons, multiple document interface, and many other GUI things. Using Qt, a program can be compiled for both MS Windows and X without changing any code. Its a very popular GUI library and is used to create the core libraries of KDE ([http://www.kde.org/] http://www.kde.org/). Qt has functions (previously as an extension in $QTDIR/extensions/opengl) for OpenGL that provides for creating OpenGL rendering contexts in Qt windows. This provides some alternative to both GLUT and using the glX functions directly, plus the added benefit of full access to the excellent qt widgets and cross-platform portability. This is useful if you want to compile or develop programs based on Qt (e.g., KDE2 and its apps). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.6. NVIDIA drivers (Mesa libGL replacement)   * NVIDIA_kernel-0.9-6.tar.gz   * NVIDIA_GLX-0.9-6.tar.gz Note that XFree86 4.0.1, and later, is required with 0.9-6. If you have XFree86 4.0.0, then you'll have to download the older 0.9-4 version. [http://www.nvidia.com/] http://www.nvidia.com/ Tip: See the updated faq at Nvidia.com while you are downloading. It may have some important information not in this HOWTO. These make a kernel driver: /lib/modules/2.2.16/video/NVdriver and libGL.so and libGLcore.so files that go into /usr/lib/ to replace and Mesa ones that might be in there. libGL.so is OpenGL. These files are Nvidia's own hardware accelerated OpenGL implementation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.7. Java 2 SDK, Java 3D extension, and Java PlugIn for Netscape (optional) The following files are available at [http://www.blackdown.org/] http:// www.blackdown.org/:   * j2sdk-1.2.2-FCS-linux-i386-glibc-2.1.3.tar.bz2   * java3d1_2-FCS-linux-i386-sdk.tar.bz2   * JavaPlugIn-1.2.2-FCS-linux-i386-glibc-2.1.3.run Note that to install these Java files, your system needs to have glibc 2.1.3 or better. To check your version of glibc: ls -l /lib/libc* Java2 1.3.0 FCS can also be used and it includes the JavaPlugin. If you use it, you don't have to get JavaPlugin-1.2.2-FCS. Installation of this Plugin is different and you'll have to see it's docs. Installation of Java2 1.3.0 itself, and Java3D, is the same as with Java2 1.2.2. The Java 3D media extension contains many 3D demo programs/applets and takes advantage of the OpenGL hardware acceleration on the system. The Java 3D API uses the OpenGL API or, on Windows, the DirectX/3D API internally. The demos run as normal java applications and also as applets inside netscape (4.7x) via the Java PlugIn! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Install Software 3.1. Install XFree86 Installation of the software packages requires root login, which can be obtained easily via the superuser/setuser command: "su -" (see, man su). If you have a version of XFree86 installed already, you may want to move it or delete it. However, installing over an existing X is generally OK and preserves any programs or libraries you might have installed into the X directories (not that you should really do that): cd /usr mv X11R6 X11R6-old cd /etc mv X11 X11-old -- you may have an X directory in /var also cd /var mv X11R6 X11R6-old If these locations are not correct for your distribution of Linux, you will have to look around your filesystem a bit - try looking in /var cd /usr/src mkdir release cd release tar -xvzf X402src-1.tgz tar -xvzf X402src-2.tgz tar -xvzf X402src-3.tgz tar -xvzf doctools-1.2.tar.gz -- unpack the man pages (actually, glx pages are already present) cd /usr/src tar -xvzf mangl.tar.Z tar -xvzf manglu.tar.Z A file has to be edited to allow these man pages to compile/install with the rest of the distribution: cd /usr/src/release/xc/doc/man/GL Edit the file: Imakefile SUBDIRS = glx gl glu When you unpacked the man*.tar.Z files above, two new directories where added: gl glu cd /usr/src/release cd doctools -- Having this variable set confuses the sgml docs build. -- With it unset, the build uses the proper defaults. unset $SGML_CATALOG_FILES make make install cd .. cd xc/config/cf vi host.def -- add the following two lines to host.def: -- #define HasSgmlFmt YES -- #define BuildAllDocs YES -- See the README file in doctools. -- Note: doctools installs the perl program sgmlfmt to -- /usr/local/bin. It looks for the perl executable -- at /usr/local/bin/perl. If perl is installed -- on your system at /usr/bin/perl, then it will not -- find perl and the sgml docs build will fail! -- Make a symlink if needed (or edit the script): cd /usr/local/bin ln -s /usr/bin/perl perl cd /usr/src/release/xc make World -- before installing, make sure you have moved -- or deleted prior installation of X -- unless you are sure you want to just overwrite make install make install.man -- make symlinks cd /usr/include ln -s ../X11R6/include/DPS DPS ln -s ../X11R6/include/GL GL ln -s ../X11R6/include/X11 X11 ln -s ../X11R6/include/bitmaps bitmaps cd .. ln -s X11R6 X11 Add /usr/X11R6/lib to your /etc/ld.so.conf file, then run "ldconfig" to update /etc/ld.so.cache so the libraries will be visible. The GL/GLX/GLU HTML documentation is located at /usr/src/release/xc/doc/ hardcopy/GL. This directory can be copied as follows: cd /usr/src/release/xc/doc/hardcopy cp -r GL /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/html The index.html file in the docs points to manindex5x.html, but the filename may actually be manindex5.html. Just make a symlink to fix it: cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/html ln -s manindex5.html manindex5x.html When X is up and running (later), try using the xman program to see that the gl,glx,glu and glut man pages are in section 3. If you have KDE2, khelpcenter allows manpage browsing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.2. Install Mesa Note: This gives you the libGLU* and libglut* files that are missing in XFree86. XFree86 only comes with the OpenGL core library, libGL (based on Mesa). This also installs Mesa's libGL, but we will delete that since it is to be replaced by the Nvidia libGL. To completely uninstall any Mesa libs that may have come with Slackware: removepkg mesa Procedures vary for other distributions. If there is no clear way to uninstall an existing Mesa, then at least confirm where it is installed: normally either under /usr or /usr/local. The example below assumes that Mesa is installed (or going to get installed) under /usr. Installing over an old version is probably harmless. Look for /usr/lib/libMesa* or /usr/local/lib/ libMesa* and delete them unless you have programs that need them. -- IF you are going to use the project GLUT distribution of GLUT, then -- unpack the Glut-3.7 packages ... -- Mesa's compile looks for it cd /usr/src tar -xvzf glut-3.7.tar.gz tar -xvzf glut_data-3.7.tar.gz -- IF you are using this GLUT, use the --with-glut=/usr/src/glut-3.7 -- parameter with Mesa's ./configure below in addition to the --prefix cd /usr/src tar -xvzf MesaLib-3.4.tar.gz tar -xvzf MesaDemos-3.4.tar.gz cd Mesa-3.4 ./configure --prefix=/usr make make install ldconfig At this point, Mesa installed its own version of the glx.h include files over the ones that XFree86 installed. This will cause some programs to fail to compile and is corrected by copying the XFree86 GL include files from the X source back to your system: cp /usr/src/release/xc/include/GL/*.h /usr/X11R6/include/GL ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.3. Install Nvidia OpenGL drivers -- delete the libGL.* files that come with XFree86 / Mesa 3.4 ... -- the nvidia libGL.* should replace them cd /usr/X11R6/lib rm libGL.* cd modules/extensions rm libGL* rm libglx* cd /usr/lib rm libGL.* cd /usr/src tar -xvzf NVIDIA_kernel-0.9-6.tar.gz tar -xvzf NVIDIA_GLX-0.9-6.tar.gz cd NVIDIA_kernel-0.9-6 Tip: If you experience problems starting X, see the files TNT_USERS_README and M64_USERS_README. These files explain how to tweak the kernel driver. They were written to fix problems with TNT and TNT2 M64 cards but these tweaks are reported to help the GeForce2 MX also. Try bypassing the BIOS as explained in M64_USERS_README. make cd .. cd NVIDIA_GLX-0.9-6 make ldconfig -- Make a basic XF86Config file using the "nv" driver: cd /etc/X11 xf86config -- Follow the prompts and fill in the information xf86config asks for. -- Select the Nvidia GeForce or appropriate name. -- You can test X with this XF86Config file, or continue for OpenGL: -- You must edit XF86Config and set the following: vi XF86Config Load "glx" Replace 'driver "nv"' with 'driver "nvidia"' Put "1600x1200" first (or your preferred screen resolution) Copy ttf fonts from Windows into a font directory and add a font path. Use ttmkfdir (check freshmeat.net) to a fonts.dir file. A good place to keep your own fonts is /usr/local/share/fonts ... -- Nvidia drivers do NOT use the dri module - don't load it. -- You may like to edit /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc to have run "startkde" -- or "gnome-session" instead of twm. -- Note: /usr/include/GL should be a symlink to /usr/X11R6/include/GL Specifying "nvidia" for the driver in the XF86Config makes that take effect each time you startx. But the NVdriver kernel driver will have to be loaded each time your system boots using: insmod NVdriver You can place this command in one of the system startup files, like /etc/rc.d /rc.modules. But this may not be necessary if the following line is present in /etc/modules.conf: alias char-major-195 NVdriver If this line is present, NVdriver is loaded automatically when X is started (autoclean). You can check if its loaded using the command, lsmod. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.4. Install Qt -- for Qt, there is no "make install", just place the source -- where you want it to live: cd /usr/local tar -xvzf qt-x11-2.2.3.tar.gz ln -s qt-2.2.3 qt cd qt Read the INSTALL file about environment variables to setup before you try to build Qt. You can add the following to /etc/profile: QTDIR=/usr/local/qt PATH=$PATH:$QTDIR/bin MANPATH=$MANPATH:$QTDIR/man LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$QTDIR/lib export QTDIR PATH MANPATH LD_LIBRARY_PATH LD_LIBRARY_PATH is optional if you include an entry in /etc/ld.so.conf for the library path: /usr/local/qt/lib, then run "ldconfig" to update /etc/ ld.so.cache. -- note: configure has some options you can try, to see them -- see ./configure --help ./configure -- NOTE: when you run make as suggested on the next line, you may -- encounter a make error that halts the build IF you run make -- from outside X. The program $QTDIR/bin/uic (the User Interface Compiler) -- may Segmentation Fault when run from a Linux console. You can run -- "startx" and use the twm (tiny window manager) and xterm (or whatever you -- might have setup for X) to run the rest of the Qt build. If for some -- reason twm is not even available, then you can run "XFree86 &", use -- "CTRL-ALT-F1" to get to a console, start an xterm as -- "xterm -display localhost:0.0 &", then switch back to X with "ALT-F7". make -- Only for old versions of Qt before 2.1.0 or so ... -- compile the opengl extension -- Note that in qt 2.2.0 on, the OpenGL support has been moved out of extensions -- and is now a standard part of the library that is installed if configure -- finds OpenGL installed on your system. If you were to not want OpenGL -- support in Qt, you'd have to pass the -no-opengl option to configure. cd extensions/opengl/src -- Check the Makefile and ensure there are not Mesa references. make ldconfig cd ../examples -- Try compiling and running the examples. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.5. Install GLUT 3.7 Distribution (optional) If you installed the MesaDemos package along the Mesa 3.4, then you have already installed GLUT 3.7 since it is included with MesaDemos. However, you may be interested in installing the GLUT manpages and you can skip right to the "Install GLUT manual pages", below ... Installing GLUT is a bit tricky. I'm not too familiar with imake, the program that it uses to manage the Makefiles, and didn't quite see how to get GLUT to install to where I wanted it (/usr/lib, but MesaDemos will do this without any trouble though). It can be done manually anyhow: cd /usr/src tar -xvzf glut-3.7.tar.gz cd glut-3.7 Read the file: README.linux cd linux READ the file: README cp Glut.cf .. cd .. Edit Glut.cf: remove any Mesa references. Replace any -lMesaGL -lMesaGLU with -lGL -lGLU if needed. In particular, replace: OPENGL = $(TOP)/../lib/libMesaGL.so GLU = $(TOP)/../lib/libMesaGLU.so with: OPENGL = -lGL GLU = -lGLU ./mkmkfiles.imake cd lib/glut cp /usr/src/glut-3.7/linux/Makefile . Edit the Makefile: remove any Mesa references. Replace any -lMesaGL -lMesaGLU with -lGL -lGLU if needed. In particular, replace: OPENGL = $(TOP)/../lib/libMesaGL.so GLU = $(TOP)/../lib/libMesaGLU.so with: OPENGL = -lGL GLU = -lGLU make ln -s libglut.so.3.7 libglut.so ln -s libglut.so.3.7 libglut.so.3 cp -d libglut.* /usr/lib cd .. cd gle -- make a shared lib for libgle make gcc -shared -o libgle.so.3.7 *.o ln -s libgle.so.3.7 libgle.so ln -s libgle.so.3.7 libgle.so.3 cp -d libgle.* /usr/lib cd .. cd mui -- make a shared lib for libmui make gcc -shared -o libmui.so.3.7 *.o ln -s libmui.so.3.7 libmui.so ln -s libmui.so.3.7 libmui.so.3 cp -d libmui.* /usr/lib -- Install the GLUT manual pages (not included with MesaDemos) cd /usr/src/glut-3.7 make SUBDIRS=man Makefile cd man/glut make install.man ldconfig cd ../../progs/demos/ideas -- edit the Makefile, change OPENGL = -lGL and GLU = -lGLU make ./ideas -- test compiling some demos -- take a look at which libraries have to be linked (-lX11 ...) in -- the Makefiles. Qt's tmake program available at www.troll.no -- is a quick way to make a Makefile but you have to edit it -- and add the -l needed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.6. Install Java 3D (optional) If you already have a Java JDK/SDK or JRE, that is, a Java/Software Development Kit or Java Runtime Environment, installed, then you may have to take care to uninstall them or leave them alone! It is recommended that you have the lastest version of Netscape 4.7x, which at this time of writing, is 4.76, if you plan to install the Java PlugIn for netscape. It works, but you may (or may not) experience Segmentation Faults when leaving a page that contained a Java 3D applet. Assuming your are logged in as root and have downloaded the Java packages from blackdown.org into the root home directory, /root, do: Install the Java 2 SDK (1.2.2) and Java 3D (1.2) extension: cd /usr/local tar -xvyf ~/j2sdk-1.2.2-FCS-linux-i386-glibc-2.1.3.tar.bz2 ln -s jdk1.2.2 jdk cd jdk tar -xvyf ~/java3d1_2-FCS-linux-i386-sdk.tar.bz2 cd jre/lib/ext cp j3d* .. cp vecmath.jar .. cd /usr/local chown -R root:root jdk1.2.2 Edit /etc/profile, add: JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/jdk PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin export JAVA_HOME PATH This completes the installation of the Java 2 SDK, which includes the JRE, and the Java 3D 1.2 extension. Install the Java PlugIn for netscape: -- source profile to set JAVA_HOME and PATH source /etc/profile cd chmod u+x JavaPlugIn-1.2.2-FCS-linux-i386-glibc-2.1.3.run ./JavaPlugIn-1.2.2-FCS-linux-i386-glibc-2.1.3.run -- each user has to run this file to install the plugin -- it is per user, not global netscape & When netscape loads, go to Edit/Preferences/Advanced and Enable Java and Enable Java Plugin, then exit netscape. The next step is to configure the Java PlugIn. It comes with a configuration applet. netscape ~/.netscape/java/ControlPanel.html & -- the Control Panel for JavaPlugIn should load Again, netscape will load. Click the "Advanced" tab, select "Other ..." and type for Path: /usr/local/jdk1.2.2/jre Then click "Apply" and exit Netscape. By changing this, it tells the Plugin to use the system Java Runtime Environment instead of the JRE it installed under ~/.netscape. The system JRE is where the Java 3D API extension is installed. Test Java 3D demos: cd $JAVA_HOME/demo/java3d/GearTest java GearBox & -- runs as normal java application netscape GearBox_plugin.html & -- runs in netscape as an applet If you experience trouble with Java, you can try deleting ~/.java and related files in your home directory, then try again. These files left over from a prior Java installation can cause problems. If all works well, you should have a complete Java Developement and Runtime Environment for both normal apps and high-performance 3D apps. See [http:// java.sun.com/] http://java.sun.com/ for further information about Java and the Java 3D extension. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Final comments I believe that is about it! At this point you should have a fully functioning OpenGL system for running and developing OpenGL apps. You can try building the demos in /usr/src/Mesa-3.4/{demos, xdemos} by using the Makefile.X11 as Makefile and running "make targets" or "make teapot" etc. They should build and link with the hardware accelerated libGL and run very fast! Qt has a OpenGL example in $QTDIR/examples/gear, that you should be able to run as simply as "make;./gear". Just about any standard GL/GLX/GLU/glut app should run fine, such as WolfGL, GLQuake, glqwcl.glx (GLQuakeWorld), quake2, and of course ... quake3!!! HAVE FUN!