Re: OpenGL 3.3 support working for ubuntu guest/mac host?

Ok. Full disclosure I know nothing about linux, I know nothing about graphical drivers, and I know nothing about vmware.

But stay with me. I have spent the last 24 hours pouring over the internet and I have figured out how to make this work.

1. Upgrade Mac OSX to El Capitan. Although vmware hasn't publicly stated this anywhere, I did find a forum post where a vmware employee said that opengl 3+ support is disabled for Mac OSX 10.10 and below because of driver bugs. Also if you have to upgrade your vmware software to fusion 8.0 or better. There is no support for OpenGL3+ in versions of fusion prior to 8.0

2. Download a fresh copy of Ubuntu Linux 15.10 . This is key, although it is possible to upgrade to 15.10, when I tried to do so, I broke my installation. If you want to avoid a headache, just start from scratch. Also you must use Ubuntu Linux 15.10, this is because the repository which will upgrade your drivers no longer offers support for Linux 14. (I'm sort of lying here, they offer support for 14.04 and 14.04.01 but not 14.04.02 and later, just get 15.10 thought ).

3. Boot Ubuntu Linux 15.10 in Fusion 8 using easy install, I don't think you can really screw this step up, but just stick with whatever options they give you.

4. Once Ubuntu Linux 15.10 has completed installation, wait for the software updater to popup and install any necessary upgrades. They will ask you to reboot, so reboot linux.

5. Now make sure everything has been updated by running

$ sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then reboot

$ sudo reboot

6. Now go to virtual Machine >> Settings >> Compatibility. Make sure you are using at least hardware version 12. If you are not using hardware version 12 then shut down linux, and upgrade to hardware version 12. You should be able to find the upgrade button within virtual Machine >> settings >> compatibility. Make sure you follow all their instructions, I didn't have to go through this upgrade process so I'm not quite sure what the steps are.

7. This step is absolutely key. Download linux kernel 4.3 based on your installation. vmware OpenGL3+ support was not introduced until linux kernel 4.3, so 4.2 and below will not support OpenGL3.

First check to see what linux kernel your distribution is using

$ uname -r

If you see output starting with 4.3 then you're already ready to go, so skip to step 8.

If you're output did not start with 4.3 then cd into tmp directory

$ cd /tmp

Then For 64 bit systems

$ wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-headers-4.3.0-040300_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_all.deb $ wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-headers-4.3.0-040300-generic_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_amd64.deb $ wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-image-4.3.0-040300-generic_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_amd64.deb

or For 32 bit systems

$ wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-headers-4.3.0-040300_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_all.deb

$ wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-headers-4.3.0-040300-generic_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_i386.deb $ wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-image-4.3.0-040300-generic_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_i386.deb

7. Install the new linux kernel and reboot

$ sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-4.3.0*.deb linux-image-4.3.0*.deb

$ sudo reboot

(Optional) Check to make sure that the new kernels are working correctly. use

$ uname -r

As long as your output starts with 4.3 you should be fine. If not, google is your friend, but it is absolutely imperative that you get the 4.3 kernel to work. There is no openGL3+ support without it

8. Now update your drivers.

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

$ sudo reboot

9. Finally run

$ glxinfo | grep "OpenGL"

My output looks like the following.

OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.

OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on SVGA3D; build: RELEASE; LLVM;

OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 11.2.0-devel (git-0ef5c8a 2015-12-06 wily-oibaf-ppa)

OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 3.30

OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)

OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile