OpenGL doesn't work with COMSOL 5.3

[fergusson]

Hi,

I have just installed COMSOL 5.3 on Linux Mint 17.3 Xfce 64bit, on my laptop Dell Inspiron 1501.
It works, but by default it is configured to use OpenGL. When the program was started for the first time, it gave this error message, and it had to be restarted:

Code: Select all

Graphics Initialization Failed
Could not initialize 3D graphics. When you restart, software rendering will be used. Required texturize is not fulfilled.

Next time it started with software rendering, which is slow. Does anybody know how to get OpenGL to work with COMSOL on this OS?

Thanks for help in advance.

Fergusson

[thx-1138]

...you should consult the Comsol people first (needs log-in):
https://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/933/
&
https://www.comsol.com/forum

Edit - obviously also check:
https://www.comsol.com/system-requireme ... al#gpu-req
Take special note to the following part:

For hardware acceleration on Linux®, use proprietary drivers from your graphics card vendor, such as NVIDIA®; otherwise, use COMSOL® software rendering. The Nouveau video driver is only supported for software rendering.

So, try switching to the proprietary driver (if such is available for your card, Control Center - Driver Manager), and see if that helps.

[Hoser Rob]

... obviously also check:
https://www.comsol.com/system-requireme ... al#gpu-req
Take special note to the following part:

For hardware acceleration on Linux®, use proprietary drivers from your graphics card vendor, such as NVIDIA®; otherwise, use COMSOL® software rendering. The Nouveau video driver is only supported for software rendering.

So, try switching to the proprietary driver (if such is available for your card, Control Center - Driver Manager), and see if that helps.

Oh dear ... I just looked at that link and it does appear they only really support Nvidia in Linux. This often happens with Steam games. As mentioned, you should try comsol support.

[fergusson]

Thank you guys!

It looks like this is a no-go for this old hardware:

description: VGA compatible controller
product: RS482M [Mobility Radeon Xpress 200]
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
physical id: 5
bus info: pci@0000:01:05.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=radeon latency=66 mingnt=8
resources: irq:17 memory:c8000000-cfffffff ioport:9000(size=256) memory:c0100000-c010ffff memory:c0120000-c013ffff

I have googled my fingers off in hope to find some kind of trick, or hack that could circumvent this issue, with no luck.

The proprietary driver ati-driver-installer-9-3-x86.x86_64.run is not supported by the recent versions of Linux Mint, and the driver and OpenGl that comes with Linux is not supported by COMSOL.

This is how software producers force people to buy new hardware, even though the old equipment is still quite capable to handle certain tasks. This laptop is 10 years old, but it is still in very good condition, and it works very well with Windows, and Linux as well, as long as artificially introduced software and driver incompatibility issues don't stand in the way.

Anyway, I will run COMSOL for the time being with software rendering, and later I will have to retire my good old "friend".

Cheers,
Fergusson