Nvidia OpenGL Configuration mini-HOWTO

Nvidia OpenGL Configuration mini-HOWTONvidia-OpenGL-Configuration-mini-HOWTORobertEasterB

reaster@reaster.com

v1.102002-01-31rbe This mini-HOWTO 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. Note that some of this material may be out of date. The author has attempted to update this material but has not had time to test all the procedures. Nevertheless, this document should still provide a decent overview of what is involved. If you spot errors please contact the author. New Versions of this Document The latest version of this mini-HOWTO can be found at: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Nvidia-OpenGL-Configuration/ Copyright and Licenses

Copyright (c) 2001, 2002 Robert B. Easter. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

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 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. ContributorsI thank the following contributors for their input into this document:Jan De Luyck (jandeluyck at gmx.net) -- Provided information about tweaking os-registry.c to change AGP settings and how to monitor the nv settings with cat /proc/nv/card0. Thanks ! Introduction The installation of the NVIDIA drivers under Linux can be quite easy in itself. However, there is a little more to it sometimes than just unpacking the driver files. Since certain versions of the NVIDIA drivers require upgrading your XFree86 to work, I've included some material on installing XFree86. If upgrading XFree86 is necessary for you, you can read this document but also carefully read the information at XFree86.org. The NVIDIA driver is only concerned with installing the OpenGL libGL library. But since there is more to a complete OpenGL installation than just libGL, I cover the installation of defacto standard OpenGL add-on libraries like GL Utility (libGLU) and GL Utility Toolkit (libglut). Going a little beyond the basics, I cover the installation of some other libraries you might want to consider: TrollTech's Qt C++ Library and the Java language Java 3D API. Download the software packagesLinux Kernel ent= 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. Recent releases of kernel 2.4.x are supported and are recommended since most new development happens in the 2.4 kernels. If you don't have it, then you will have to upgrade your system's Linux kernel; see The Linux Kernel HOWTO for details. The Linux kernel can be downloaded at: http://www.kernel.org/ XFree86 4.0 or later The current version of XFree86 is 4.2.0 as of this writing. It can be downloaded as source or binaries. It is generally recommended to download the binaries these days. See http://www.XFree86.org for the lastest official information on installation of XFree86. Later in this document, I describe only the very basic procedure for compiling and installing from the source. XFree86 source code comes in three files: X420src-1.tgzX420src-2.tgzX420src-3.tgzdoctools-1.3.tgzutils.tgz Doctools is the DocBook SGML package used by XFree86 to prepare the X documentation. Utils contains the source for the "extract" program, which is a modified GNU tar with gzip support. Extract is only important if you are installing a binary distribution of XFree86 on top of your existing XFree86 to upgrade it. Extract unlinks old existing files that are being extracted/updated instead of skipping them. Extract comes with the binary distributions so utils.tgz is only important for making your own binary distribution. You can download XFree86 from its ftp site: ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/ XFree86 includes GLX, the OpenGL X interface functions. Each window system has to provide the platform-specific interfaces between OpenGL and the window system for mapping a GL rendering context to a window system widget. Recent versions of XFree86, like version 4.2.0, now also include libGLU and the OpenGL manual pages. OpenGL man pages XFree86 prior to version 4.2.0 comes with only the GLX and (maybe) GLU man pages. If you wanted a full set of OpenGL man pages, you had to get them yourself. mangl.tar.Zmanglu.tar.Zmanglx.tar.Z (you don't need this one) If you are using XFree86 4.2.0 or later, you should already have the manglx OpenGL interface extension man pages, mangl OpenGL library man pages, and the manglu GL Utility library pages too. If you are using XFree86 prior to 4.2.0, you'll have to see what you have included with your XFree86 version and get some of the packages above. As time goes on, XFree86 has been including more of these manual pages and other standard OpenGL add-on libraries. These packages can be found at: ftp://ftp.sgi.com/sgi/opengl/doc/ These man page packages are in a format ready to be unpacked into the XFree86 source distributions (if needed/missing), see below. Mesa 3D MesaLib-4.0.1.tar.gzMesaDemos-4.0.1.tar.gz http://mesa3d.sourceforge.net/ Mesa is the library that provides the foundation for the 3D support included in XFree86. Originally, Mesa included a software-only libGL that only claims to be "similar to that of OpenGL." Mesa now also supports hardware acceleration for a growing number of cards (see their site for details). The Mesa package also includes an implementation of the libGLU Utility library and the libglut GL Utility Toolkit library. Some versions of XFree86 only included the libGL from Mesa and some header files. With recent releases of XFree86, like 4.2.0, more has been added from Mesa, like libGLU and the manual pages. libglut may still be missing from your XFree86 distribution, so you may still like to get it from the Mesa distribution or from the GLUT distribution directly. As shipped, XFree86 will support software OpenGL rendering (painfully slow) using the Mesa libGL. It may also support hardware accelerated OpenGL for some cards that have a fully open source driver. But for NVIDIA, the subject of this document, there is no fully open sourced hardware accelerated OpenGL driver included in XFree86. The NVIDIA GLX/OpenGL driver we download from NVIDIA.com is a binary, closed source driver that is a drop-in hardware accelerated replacement for the Mesa libGL.so file. 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. While GLUT is bundled with MesaDemos, it is also available as separate packages: glut-3.7.tar.gz glut_data-3.7.tar.gz from http://www.opengl.org/developers/documentation/glut/index.html You may use either the GLUT included with MesaDemos (preferred and easier) or the GLUT from its project website. Don't install both! It's 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 man pages. Qt qt-x11-2.2.4.tar.gz or later version 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/). 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). NVIDIA drivers (Mesa libGL replacement)NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2314.tar.gzNVIDIA_GLX-1.0-2313.tar.gz Note that XFree86 4.0.1 and later is required with driver 0.9-6 and later. If you have XFree86 4.0.0, then you'll have to download the older 0.9-4 version. You should try to use the lastest XFree86 and NVIDIA drivers. Download the drivers at: http://www.nvidia.com/ See the updated FAQ at Nvidia.com while you are downloading. It has important installation information not in this HOWTO. The NVIDIA drivers provide a kernel driver: /lib/modules/kernel.version.number/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. Java 2 SDK, Java 3D extension, and Java PlugIn for Netscape (optional) The following file is available at http://www.blackdown.org/: java3d-1.2.1_01-fcs-linux-i386-sdk.tar.bz2 Note that to install these Java files, your system needs to have glibc 2.1.3 or later. To check your version of glibc: ls -l /lib/libc* On rpm-based systems (like RedHat and Mandrake), you can try: rpm -q glibc To use any Java on your system, you must also install the Java Software Development Kit (JSDK) 1.3.1 or later from java.sun.com. The Blackdown version of the JSDK will also work. 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 internally. The demos run as normal Java applications and also as applets inside Netscape via the Java PlugIn, or inside KDE's Konqueror by directly using the Java runtime (JRE). Install SoftwareREADME and INSTALL files During the installation of all these packages, always read the README and INSTALL files etc. that come with them for the lastest, most authoritative information. Take some time to browse the website for each package for additional documentation. Install XFree86 Installation of the software packages requires root login, which can be obtained easily via the superuser/setuser command: su - (see, man su). The following explains the installation of XFree86 from source in only the most basic terms. Make sure to read all the XFree86 documentation to learn about special options. 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 X420src-1.tgz tar -xvzf X420src-2.tgz tar -xvzf X420src-3.tgz tar -xvzf doctools-1.3.tar.gz If you are using an old version of XFree86 for some reason, you may want to use the man page packages. XFree 4.2.0 and later has all these man pages already. Skip using the man page packages if you don't need them. Check in /usr/src/release/xc/doc/man to see what all is included with your XFree86. # unpack the man pages if they are missing. 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 # 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 cd xc/config/cf vi host.def # add the following three lines to host.def: # #define HasSgmlFmt YES # #define BuildAllDocs YES # #define HasZlib YES # See the README file in doctools and xc/config/cf. # HasZlib YES instructs XFree86 not to build and install # it's own old zlib. If you do not have zlib installed # (check /usr/lib/libz*), then omit the HasZlib line or # go download it and install it first: # http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/ # A common zlib conflict occurs when a system already # has zlib installed and XFree86 installs it's also. # In this case, deleting /usr/X11R6/lib/libz.a fixes # the problem. 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 the command 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 might point to manindex5x.html, but the filename may actually be manindex5.html. Just make a symlink to fix it if needed: 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 man-page browsing. Install Mesa Note: This gives you the libGLU* and libglut* files that may be missing in XFree86. XFree86 used to only come 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. You should look in /usr/X11R6/lib to see if you already have libglut.* and libGLU.*. If you do, you can skip installing Mesa. Recent releases of XFree86 have been including more of Mesa as standard. It's best to uninstall any old Mesa version you may have installed before installing a new Mesa. Uninstalling software can be a dangerous operation, so know what you are doing! If you have software depending on your old Mesa, you might need to keep it and just install the new Mesa along with it. To completely uninstall any Mesa libs that may have come with Slackware: removepkg mesa For rpm-based systems (like RedHat and Mandrake), try: # see what will be removed first rpm -e --test Mesa | less # if ok, proceed rpm -e Mesa For Debian, you can try: apt-get remove 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-4.0.1.tar.gz tar -xvzf MesaDemos-4.0.1.tar.gz cd Mesa-4.0.1 ./configure --prefix=/usr make make install ldconfig Important: 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 Install Nvidia OpenGL driversInstall NVIDIA kernel driver package First, unpack the kernel driver source. cd /usr/src tar -xvzf NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2314.tar.gz tar -xvzf NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-2313.tar.gz cd NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2314 Now, before building and installing this kernel driver, it has some AGP options that can affect performance. You shouldn't really attempt to use these options during your first attempt at getting your card working and not unless you are using a very recent 2.4 kernel and the lastest nvidia drivers. The Linux kernel source can be compiled with an AGP character device that the Nvidia driver can use to get better performance. If your kernel does not have the AGP driver for your motherboard chipset compiled in, then the Nvidia kernel driver uses its own built-in AGP support if your video card is an AGP card. If you want to experiment with the Linux kernel AGP support, you should be able to rebuild and install your kernel with the appropriate support: cd /usr/src/linux make menuconfig # Go to Character devices and put a * by /dev/agpgart support # and also put a * by your motherboard chipset type. # Go to the Processor type and features and put a * by # MTTR support. # Save the config. make make modules make install make modules_install reboot Futher tweaking can be done to the file os-registry.c in the NVIDIA kernel source. Looking though this file, you will see many flag variables (they can be set to 0 or 1) to control options that affect performance and stability! You should try your configuration with this file unmodified first to see that your system works. If it does, you can try these options. Among the options you can try here are: Enabling AGP 4x on VIA chipsets (by default constrained to only 2x)Enabling Side Band Addressing (your card needs to support this)Enabling Fast Writes (IIRC, this must be enabled in your motherboard BIOS too) 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. After you have tweaked (or not tweaked) your Linux kernel and os-registry.c file, you can build and install the kernel module. # The make command will build and install the driver: make After the driver is loaded, you can see the driver configuration with cat /proc/nv/card0 Install NVIDIA GLX package Installing the Nvidia OpenGL library package is nothing too special. First you need to clean up some old files. # delete the libGL.* files that come with XFree86 / Mesa ... # the nvidia libGL.* should replace them # The more recent Nvidia Makefile installer does this for you. cd /usr/X11R6/lib rm libGL.* cd modules/extensions rm libGL* rm libglx* cd /usr/lib rm libGL.* With the conflicting old files gone, you can begin the installation. cd .. cd NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-2313 make ldconfig # make might not install the C header files that come with # the libraries in the NVIDIA_GLX package so, do this: cd usr/include/GL cp *.h /usr/include/GL # usr/include/GL is a subdirectory in the NVIDIA_GLX package. # /usr/include/GL should be a symlink to /usr/X11R6/include/GL # so you could copy to there instead if you want. # 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 before you startx. It can be loaded with: # to load it insmod NVdriver # If you need to unload it: rmmod NVdriver You should not have to use insmod manually. The NVdriver installation should have inserted a line into /etc/modules.conf (or conf.modules) that looks something like: alias char-major-195 NVdriver If this line is present, NVdriver is loaded automatically when X is started. You can check if its loaded using the command, lsmod. In my experience, your video system will become unstable if you compile, load, and unload the NVdriver module. You should reboot your system after rebuilding this module to help make sure your system doesn't lock inside X. Its possible that your screen will go black and the keyboard will become unresponsive after switching NVdriver. It is advisable to always have another computer with telnet or ssh that you can use to get into your Linux box to shut it down properly if this happens. 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-x11-2.2.4.tar.gz ln -s qt-2.2.4 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 ent", use # "CTRL-ALT-F1" to get to a console, start an xterm as # "xterm -display localhost:0.0 ent", 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. Install GLUT 3.7 Distribution (optional) If you installed the MesaDemos/MesaLib package, 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. Install Java 3D (optional) If you already have a Java Software Development Kit (JSDK) or Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed, then you can skip parts of this section. If you are using a JRE only, you'll have to get the JRE version of the Java 3D package and adapt these instructions. It is recommended that you have the lastest version of Netscape, which at this time of writing is 6.2.1, 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. KDE Konqueror can also be used to view Java 3D applets. If you have not installed the Java SDK yet, you should have downloaded it already at least. Installing the JSDK is simple. You should follow the instructions that comes with it or follow my example below, based on using the Sun download. # The Sun download is a type of binary shell archive (man shar). # Make it executable and run it to unpack its contents chmod 744 j2sdk-1_3_1_02-linux-i386.bin ./j2sdk-1_3_1_02-linux-i386.bin mv jdk1.3.1_02 /usr/local cd /usr/local ln -s jdk1.3.1_02 jdk Next is to unpack Java 3D and finish setting up the environment for the Java SDK. cd jdk tar -xvyf ~/java3d-1.2.1_01-fcs-linux-i386-sdk.tar.bz2 cd jre/lib/ext cp j3d* .. cp vecmath.jar .. cd /usr/local chown -R root:root jdk1.3.1_02 Edit /etc/profile or, as on many systems, you can add a new file like java.sh to the directory /etc/profile.d/. To either file, add: JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/jdk PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin MANPATH=$MANPATH:$JAVA_HOME/man export JAVA_HOME PATH MANPATH If you used a separate file java.sh, remember to make it executable. Start a new login terminal for these changes to take affect. This completes the installation of the Java 2 SDK, which includes the JRE and the Java 3D extension. You can install the Java PlugIn for netscape: # go to where netscape is installed cd $MOZILLA_HOME cd plugins ln -s /usr/local/jdk/jre/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so libjavaplugin_oji.so # This installs it globally for all users # Each user can run ControlPanel to customize the Java Plugin preferences. ControlPanel # Then try it out: netscape ent When netscape loads, go to EditPreferencesAdvanced and Enable Java and Enable Java Plugin, then exit Netscape. Test Java 3D demos: cd $JAVA_HOME/demo/java3d/GearTest java GearBox ent # runs as normal java application netscape GearBox_plugin.html ent # 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/ for further information about Java and the Java 3D extension. 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-4.0.1/{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! GNU Free Documentation LicenseGNU FDL Version, and Copyright NoticeVersion 1.1, March 2000

Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

PREAMBLEThe purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other written document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others.This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONSThis License applies to any manual or other work that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. The "Document", below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you".A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language.A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject. (For example, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them.The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License.The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License.A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specification is available to the general public, whose contents can be viewed and edited directly and straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup has been designed to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. A copy that is not "Transparent" is called "Opaque".Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML designed for human modification. Opaque formats include PostScript, PDF, proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML produced by some word processors for output purposes only.The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title Page" means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.VERBATIM COPYINGYou may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display copies.COPYING IN QUANTITYIf you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than 100, and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material, which the general network-using public has access to download anonymously at no charge using public-standard network protocols. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.MODIFICATIONSYou may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has less than five).State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.Include an unaltered copy of this License.Preserve the section entitled "History", and its title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section entitled "History" in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the "History" section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.In any section entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications", preserve the section's title, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.Delete any section entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not be included in the Modified Version.Do not retitle any existing section as "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.You may add a section entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.COMBINING DOCUMENTSYou may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice.The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.In the combination, you must combine any sections entitled "History" in the various original documents, forming one section entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections entitled "Acknowledgements", and any sections entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections entitled "Endorsements."COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTSYou may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKSA compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, does not as a whole count as a Modified Version of the Document, provided no compilation copyright is claimed for the compilation. Such a compilation is called an "aggregate", and this License does not apply to the other self-contained works thus compiled with the Document, on account of their being thus compiled, if they are not themselves derivative works of the Document.If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one quarter of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on covers that surround only the Document within the aggregate. Otherwise they must appear on covers around the whole aggregate.TRANSLATIONTranslation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License provided that you also include the original English version of this License. In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original English version of this License, the original English version will prevail.TERMINATIONYou may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSEThe Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.How to use this License for your documentsTo use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:

Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

If you have no Invariant Sections, write "with no Invariant Sections" instead of saying which ones are invariant. If you have no Front-Cover Texts, write "no Front-Cover Texts" instead of "Front-Cover Texts being LIST"; likewise for Back-Cover Texts.If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free software.