Stellarium doesn't run on Ubuntu Mate 16.04

[desconocido]

I am considering installing Ubuntu Mate 16.04 on a variety of machines, so I am trying it out on an old laptop first.

This is a Gateway ML6226b with 1 MB of RAM and
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
In 32 bit mode, on startup, after start System Monitor, about 405MiB gets used.
(In 64 bit mode (using the Live DVD), on startup, after start System Monitor, about 525MiB gets used.)

The 32 bit install went fine and I have brought it up to date with Software Updater.

I installed Stellarium from the Software Boutique.

On startup, the program gives the message "Insufficent OpenGL version. Please update driver, or graphics hardware."

I followed the advice I found at [insert name here] to use

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers 
sudo apt-get update 

but the second command did not seem to do much.

Running the program again, it still aborted. A bit odd that a program selected for the Boutique won't run straight out of the box.

The interesting parts of the log file are:

initializeGL
OpenGL supported version: "2.1 Mesa 17.2.0-devel"
Current Format: QSurfaceFormat(version 2.1, options QFlags(0x4), depthBufferSize 24, redBufferSize 8, greenBufferSize 8, blueBufferSize 8, alphaBufferSize 8, stencilBufferSize 8, samples -1, swapBehavior 0, swapInterval 1, profile 0)
StelMainView::init
Detected: OpenGL "2.1"
Driver version string: "2.1 Mesa 17.2.0-devel"
GL vendor is "Mesa Project"
GL renderer is "Gallium 0.4 on i915 (chipset: 945GM)"
GL Shading Language version is "1.20"
MESA Version Number detected: 17.2
Mesa version is fine, we should not see a graphics problem.
GLSL Version Number detected: 1.2
This is not enough: we need GLSL1.30 or later.
You should update graphics drivers, graphics hardware, or use the --mesa-mode option.
Else, please try to use an older version like 0.12.5, and try there with --safe-mode
You can try to run in an unsupported degraded mode by ignoring the warning and continuing.
But more than likely problems will persist.
Aborting due to OpenGL/GLSL version problems.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

[Tristan_VILLERS]

@desconocido

I followed the advice I found at [insert name here] to use

Hi,
Where have you found those command ?
What can you found from Welcome softaware > Start > Drivers ?
Could you please give the result of
sudo lspci | grep "VGA compatible controller"
who will gives to "experts" more informations.

@desconocido

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
sudo apt-get update

Then you should have to install "something" Those command add a PPA then update the repositories list, then you should, i guess, install something from that particular PPA
I could not help more, so i guess some people with full experience are going to come around ...

[Mechanizoid]

Seconding Tristan, running the add-apt-repository and apt-get update commands doesn’t install anything yet. You just added a PPA (short for Personal Package Archive) to the list of repos apt-get will fetch packages from, but didn’t fetch whatever you thought you needed. To actually install something from a PPA, you need to then run apt-get package-name.

As an example, today I installed Terminator (a fancy terminal emulator) by running these commands:

me@linux:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome-terminator/ppa
me@linux:~$ sudo apt update
me@linux:~$ sudo apt install terminator

The add-apt-repository command adds the PPA to the list of repos my computer uses, apt update is needed so the package manager will fetch the list of packages available from the new repo, and apt install whatever installs it as normally (equivalent to apt-get, just gives fancier output). Once a PPA is added to your repo list, you can search for packages and install them from it as you would from the Ubuntu repos.

But I’m not sure if you really want to install from that PPA at all. You should not that PPAs are just that… private, and anyone can create one, so you should be careful about adding packages from just any PPA. Some are quite reputable and safe, others not so much. Read this. You should also be wary of running terminal commands you find in random web tutorials if you don’t entirely understand what they do, too—read the man pages first, at least!

You shouldn’t have to go to a PPA to get drivers in most cases. I would recommend going to the Welcome center -> Getting Started -> Drivers first, if you haven’t already. The Welcome center is set up to help you install necessary drivers with an easy GUI.

I can’t help you with your driver issue specifically, but the Welcome center may be able to resolve it. Otherwise, more knowledgeable people will chime in soon, I hope.

[Bill_MI]

Hi @desconocido. As a big fan of Stellarium I wish I could help more.

Since @Tristan_VILLERS and @Mechanizoid covered PPAs nicely, I can add only how this particular PPA operates because I added it in a virtual machine to see what it does. It gives out a BIG help message when you add it.

I’m not suggesting this PPA - it’s not very friendly for new users. Below is my terminal session.

bill@UM16041vm:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
[sudo] password for bill: 
 PLEASE READ: don't email me to report bugs, unless you are sure it's a packaging bug. Not only is email not a good tool for tracking bugs, it also excludes anybody else from tracking or working on the issue. Please read the section "Debugging and reporting problems" below.

=============

Supported Ubuntu versions:
- 16.04 (xenial)
- 16.10 (yakkety)

For forum support see: http://goo.gl/qoUpWK

=== Introduction ===
This PPA provides updated X (2D) and mesa (3D) free graphics drivers for radeon, intel and nvidia hardware. Updates packages provide:
 * OpenGL 4.5+ support and new OpenGL extensions: http://mesamatrix.net
 * packages built against llvm-3.9
 * gallium-nine support installed by default. Read the specific section below
 * VDPAU, OpenMAX IL Bellagio, VAAPI and XvMC Gallium3D accelerated video drivers (see below)
 * OpenCL support (mesa-opencl-icd package), including updated libclc
 * r600 LLVM compiler, enabled with R600_DEBUG=llvm env var
 * optional GLAMOR acceleration on radeon (>= r300), and nouveau drivers
 * i915 gallium driver replaces by default i915 classic driver
 * experimental ilo (intel) and virgl (virtio-gpu) gallium drivers (see below)

For more details check the changelogs.

=== Basic usage ===
See "Adding this PPA to your system" later on, or just do:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
and update your Ubuntu with the package herein.

=== Using gallium-nine ===
Gallium-nine lets you run DirectX 9 games in a faster way, avoiding the inefficent translation of D3D9 calls to OpenGL. For more info see https://wiki.ixit.cz/d3d9
You need:
 * this PPA with gallium-nine enabled mesa
 * wine from this PPA: https://launchpad.net/~commendsarnex/+archive/ubuntu/winedri3
 * if you want to test latest nine dev tree, including support for debugging problem also add this ppa:  https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/gallium-nine/
 * then to enable gallium-nine run winecfg and enable native DirectX 9 under Graphics tab

=== Using accelerated video ===
Supported VDPAU drivers: r300, r600, radeonsi, nouveau
Supported OpenMAX IL Bellagio drivers: r600, radeonsi
Supported VAAPI drivers: r600, radeonsi
Supported XvMC drivers: r600, nouveau

* First you need to install mesa-vdpau-drivers package:
sudo apt-get install mesa-vdpau-drivers

* Then to test the VDPAU driver with mpv use:
$ mpv --hwdec=vdpau yourvideofile

* To test the XvMC (e.g.) r600 driver edit the file /etc/X11/XvMCConfig and insert:
/usr/lib/dri/libXvMCr600.so

and restart the X server. Then to test it with mplayer:
mplayer -vo xvmc yourvideofile

=== Using alternative drivers ===
To use experimental ilo (intel) gallium driver add this in /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "Device"
 Identifier "Device0"
 Driver "Intel"
 Option "DRI" "ilo"
EndSection

To run your OpenGL program (in this case glxgears -info) with non default drivers:
* classic i915 driver:
$ LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH=/usr/lib/dri-alternates glxgears -info
* gallium llvmpipe software render:
$ LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 glxgears -info
* old non-gallium software render:
$ LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH=/usr/lib/dri-alternates glxgears -info

=== Debugging and reporting problems ===
If you have some problem with the drivers try running the application from the command line and see if there are graphics related warnings. Also type dmesg to see if there are other related informations here.

If you get crashes install the relevant -dbg pacakges (libgl1-mesa-dri-dbg or libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental-dbg for 3D drivers and xserver-xorg-video-intel-dbg , xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-dbg or xserver-xorg-video-radeon-dbg for X drivers) and reproduce the crash with gdb. Example:
$ gdb glxgears
[...make your application crash and then get a backtrace with:]
(gdb) bt

If X.org crashes look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log (or /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old when a new X session is started after the crash).

With the gathered informations try searching at https://bugs.freedesktop.org/query.cgi (also try with google) if someone already reported a similar bug. If not you may want to report a new bug:
for 3D drivers bugs: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Mesa
for X / 2D driver bugs: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=xorg

=== Revert to original drivers ===
To revert to standard Ubuntu drivers type the following in a prompt shell:
$ sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
 More info: https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers
Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel adding it

gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmprps0wl45/secring.gpg' created
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmprps0wl45/pubring.gpg' created
gpg: requesting key A03A4626 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: /tmp/tmprps0wl45/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key A03A4626: public key "Launchpad PPA for Fabio Pedretti" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1  (RSA: 1)
OK
bill@UM16041vm:~$ 

[desconocido]

@Mechanizoid

running the add-apt-repository and apt-get update commands doesn't install anything yet. You just added a PPA (short for Personal Package Archive) to the list of repos apt-get will fetch packages from, but didn't fetch whatever you thought you needed. To actually install something from a PPA, you need to then run apt-get package-name.

Yes, I was a bit surprised that there was no interesting output. However, later I looked at History in Ubuntu Software Centre and found that the packages shown in the screenshot appeared to have been installed. Odd.

To be fair, the Stellarium error log and message were slightly different after attempting to install these packages.

More:

sudo lspci | grep "VGA compatible controller"

gives me
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

System -> Welcome -> Getting Started -> Drivers -> Graphics
gives me the message

Clicking on "Additional Drivers" does not give anything graphics related.

"install Firmware Package" looks a bit scary. Can I back out of that easily?

Maybe the solution is to remove the oibaf stuff and try running Stellarium in software mode only? Or try an earlier version of Stellarium as the author suggests?

GLSL Version Number detected: 1.2
This is not enough: we need GLSL1.30 or later.
You should update graphics drivers, graphics hardware, or use the --mesa-mode option.
Else, please try to use an older version like 0.12.5, and try there with --safe-mode

[Mechanizoid]

@desconocido

Yes, I was a bit surprised that there was no interesting output. However, later I looked at History in Ubuntu Software Centre and found that the packages shown in the screenshot appeared to have been installed. Odd.

Actually, your screenshot confirms that you haven't installed these packages yet. Note that only the three at the top have checkmarks next to them, and the rest have a green "+" sign next to them. They are available to be added to your system, but not installed yet. Until you run apt install or apt-get you don't install anything—adding a repo only makes it available to your system.

I'm still unsure whether this installing from this PPA is a good idea or not, but Bill_MI has covered the contents of it better than I can. It doesn't look flaky—it has recent updates, packages are built for Xenial, and the help message is nicely detailed—but it does not seem particularly easy for beginners, as Bill said.

@desconocido

"install Firmware Package" looks a bit scary. Can I back out of that easily?

I installed the firmware package. It's just some stuff for the CPU if IRC, an intel microcode package or something. Generally I recommend installing everything the Welcome -> Getting Started wants to, since it is meant to help you configure your system easily.

I wish I could help a bit more, I <3 Stellarium. BTW, where did you install Stellarium from? Did you grab the version available in the repos (I'm assuming you did)?

[desconocido]

@Mechanizoid

Actually, your screenshot confirms that you haven't installed these packages yet.

Ah, right. I understand now. I was confused by the right hand column. I took "installed" to mean newly installed and "updated" to mean a previous install had been updated.

So I have to install something. My problem now is that I have little idea of the names of the package(s) in this ppa and the info from the author at launchpad isn't very helpful. He says

just do:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
and update your Ubuntu with the package herein.

Maybe I should be installing "mesa" but that would be a pure guess. There seem to be 24 packages inside the ppa.

A user at how-do-you-update-opengl-drivers-on-ubuntu says

apt-add-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

THANKS IT WORKED THANKS SO MUCH!!!!

but I have no idea what dist-upgrade does. Could that work?

Running from the terminal as
LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 stellarium
works, but slowly, a bit more slowly than I care for.
Log output includes

Detected: OpenGL "3.0"
Driver version string: "3.0 Mesa 12.0.6"
GL vendor is "VMware, Inc."
GL renderer is "Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.8, 128 bits)"
GL Shading Language version is "1.30"
MESA Version Number detected:  12
Mesa version is fine, we should not see a graphics problem.
GLSL Version Number detected:  1.3
GLSL version is fine, we should not see a graphics problem.

@Mechanizoid

BTW, where did you install Stellarium from? Did you grab the version available in the repos

Yes, originally I got it from Software Boutique and I got version 0.15.2. Since then I have been starting from scratch and this time I installed using
sudo apt install stellarium
That gave me version 0.14.3-1

The developers of Stellarium say

Any recent (say, post-2011) hardware should provide sufficient functionality, but you may need to update the driver not just with the built-in Update driver search of your operating system, but with drivers downloadable from the graphic card manufacturer's website. (Sometime drivers for notebooks can only be found at the respective notebook manufacturer's support websites, and using the reference drivers from GPU manufacturers may not be completely compatible.)
...
Graphics cards which are no longer supported by Stellarium 0.13 and later include early ATI/AMD Radeon cards up to and including the Xxxx series (built 2004/05), NVidia up to GeForce FXxxx (2003/04), and Intel GMA before X3000, unfortunately also including the popular Atom-based netbooks of 2010. For such systems, you need the MESA software rendering (circumventing the outdated graphics card on Windows, at cost of very slow performance), or you may use an older version of Stellarium. MESA is also used in many Linux installations, but allows hardware acceleration.

Not sure what to do now.

[sgage]

I have older Intel graphics as well, and Stellarium pre-0.13 won’t work. I have found that Stellarium is quite easy to compile. I grabbed 0.12.8 source from their website and just followed their building instructions (including installing a few dependencies). Works perfectly!