Update to latest version of OpenGL

Question

I recently installed TF2 and CS:S on my Ubuntu and it was showing nothing but a black screen (I could still hear the sounds) and after searching a bit I found out it may be my OpenGL version.

After entering glxinfo|grep "OpenGL version" in the terminal it shows

OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 9.0

The thing is I don't know how to update it, I searched for additional drivers in software resources and none were listed (which isn't normal in my opinion) and after checking for drivers on my laptop's website I couldn't install anything because they don't have linux support.

My laptop is: Acer Aspire 5732z Graphics Card: Intel GMA 4500M

Answer 1

OpenGL (and its versions) are just specifications that both drivers and applications follow to allow certain access to graphics hardware... It's not something you can upgrade directly, you upgrade the graphics driver [and/or] the application.

The application (TF2 et al) already support the later versions of OpenGL. Assuming the hardware can support the version of OpenGL we're talking about, it's just the Intel driver that is lagging behind at the moment.

The drive for serious gaming on Linux is relatively new so you could be waiting a while. If you need to play games Nvidia currently offer the most comprehensive solution, with ATI/AMD following them up. Don't get me wrong, Intel are working on this.

---

If you want to get ahead of the curve you can use PPA repositories to get the latest version of the graphics stack. I am not making any guarantee that this will fix your problem.

• https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates
• https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

The first will upgrade graphics drivers only. The second contains the full kernel-driver-X stack. Both can destabilise a system and even make it unbootable. If you're unfamiliar with rescuing systems (and ppa-purge) I strongly suggest you stay away from these packages.