OpenGL GLX extension not supported by display :0

[Jess Maloney]

...and if i try to alt-tab one more time, im going to go insane..sorry. Im a total newbie running Mandrake 8. I have a Geforce DDR. I downloaded the kernel thingy and the driver from nvidia.com and they installed correctly. (as far as i can tell, they were both RPMs) I am trying to run the gears screensaver thing BTW. When i try to run tux racer in Gnome, it just sits there in the "taskbar" with an hourglass and disappears. What up wif dat?
Thanks!

[demetrius]

Try starting Gears from a terminal and see what GL library it is erroring out on. You may need to tell it which library to use to get it to work.

BTW, you did modify your XF86Config file to load "glx" and change the driver from "nv" to "nvidia" right? Nothing GL based will work until you do that.

[Malakin]

The readme on nvidias site is very good: http://www.nvidia.com/docs/lo/959/SUPP/NVLinuxReleaseNotes_1512.pdf

Note that newer drivers were just released so make sure you're trying to install version 1512.

[random29]

I think you'd be better off installing the nvidia kernel and glx modules by tarball instead of by rpm. First, you need to download the tarballs. Then, cd to where you downloaded the tarballs.
Execute the following commands as root

rpm -e NVIDIA_kernel
rpm -e NVIDIA_GLX
gunzip NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-1251.tar.gz
tar -xvof NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-1251.tar
gunzip NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-1251.tar.gz
tar -xvof NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-1251.tar

In order to compile the kernel and glx modules you'll need to have selected to install the Development and Console packages when you installed Linux Mandrake 8.1. This means you'll need the "make" and "gcc" utilities. You might need other files as well, correct me if I'm wrong. If you type

rpm -q make
rpm -q gcc

This will confirm wether you have these 2 utilities installed, if not, you can use ftp to download the files from ftp.rpmfind.net. If you have these files you will need to type the following to compile the drivers.
Note: Its advisable to compile the drivers in the command promt, not while X is running. You may either type ctrl-alt-backspace to kill the X server, or better still, modify your /etc/inittab file to change the default runlevel from 5 to 3 (bash shell). To do so, open up your favorite text editor, vi, emacs, etc and change the line that reads
id:5:initdefault:
To
id:3:initdefault:

Then run the following commands to compile and install the modules.

cd ~\NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-1251
make install
cd ~\NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-1251
make install

You're almost done, however since you're using Linux Mandrake 8.1, you might have the same problem I had.
I had to change a link named "X" in my /etc/X11 dir to refer to something else. If you cd to /etc/X11. Type
ls -l X
X is a soft link. If the output of the command looks like this:

X -> /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86_SVGA

then X is using the XF86Config file. What you want the output of the command to look like is this:

X -> /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86

So long as X is linked to XFree86, X is using the XF86Config-4 file for setup. To confirm what config file X is using type cat /var/log/XFree86.0.log | less. It will say (==) Using config file "/etc/X11/XF86Config-4" or (==) Using config file "/etc/X11/XF86Config".
If X is linked to XFree86_SVGA then you'll need to install XFree86-server-4.0.3-7mdk and XFree86-server-common-4.0.3-7mdk. Both are in rpm format. You can either download them from ftp.rpmfind.net or from your Linux Mandrake cd.
Once you have those rpms installed. Type the following as root to change the symbollic link X

cd /etc/X11
rm -f X
ln -s /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 X

Now you'll be able to modify your XF86Config-4 file by adding the line
load "glx"
under the Modules section of your XF86Config-4 file
and then you have to change
driver "nv"
to
driver "nvidia"
Now, start up X by typing startx.
You should be greeted by the Nvidia splash screen.
To verify that both the NVdriver module and the GLX extensions are running, type the followin 2 commands as root:
lsmod
If you see "NVdriver" listed in the output of this command, it means the kernel module is loaded.
Now, type:

glxinfo

You should see a bunch of number within a table displayed. If so, you may proceed to install your games.
Also, if you're still have problems take a look at your /var/log/XFree86.0.log file. Look for any errors listed there. Things proceeded by (EE) indicate an error has occured. Note the error and post those error messages.
Either myself, or some Linux guru will be able to help resolve the problems for you.

Hope this helps
random29 :)