Using the latest and previous MFiX version, I get the following GUI error. I have tried to solve this myself by trying older Ubuntu versions, but this did not solve it (Ubuntu version 18 was mentioned in the documentation as being supported.) I am currently running this in VirtualBox.
ERROR: In ../Rendering/OpenGL2/vtkShaderProgram.cxx, line 447
vtkShaderProgram (0x5570b086ace0): 0:1(10): error: GLSL 1.50 is not supported. Supported versions are: 1.10, 1.20, and 1.00 ES
This points to your VM needing a newer OpenGL, or access to your host os graphics card. You could also try mesa.
You can run the GUI without vtk:
mfix --novtk
Thanks. It already has access to the graphics card. Would it make sense to try older MFiX versions, that might have lower version requirements for OpenGL?
@kjetilbmoe : Can you tell me a little more about your setup? What OS and hardware are you running VirtualBox on? Does mfix work if you install it in native mode? Why are you running it in a VM?
I’ve found that I get the same error running on my old Thinkpad x201 laptop, without VirtualBox in the picture - it’s because the graphics hardware is just too old. There may be workarounds for this but it would be helpful to know more about your environment.
You may indeed find that older versions of MFiX may work, but it would be nice to be able to run the latest version, even on relatively older machines.
– Charles
I am an experienced Linux user, but I’m unable to use this natively in my current work setup. I wanted to use a Linux distro to have the chance to run in parallel - running in serial on Windows works fine. So I have to get this to work inside Windows somehow, and then WSL or Virtualbox seems like the best options. I’ve tried both. I got about the same vtk error when using WSL and Xming, and then I moved on to Virtualbox. Been trying some different Ubuntu and Fedora releases, but seems the bottleneck is the graphics, which when using the “3D acceleration” seems to limit the “shading language version” to version 1.20, which is the only I can find to be lower than the required version 1.50. I will give this one more try, not using the vmsvga graphics controller, which seems to be what’s limiting this, and instead use the VBoxSVGA for a less graphics intensive window manager.
This is on Windows 10, release 1909.
OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: SVGA3D; build: RELEASE; LLVM;
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 21.0.2
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 2.0 Mesa 21.0.2
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 1.0.16
OpenGL ES profile extensions:
Ok, I have found a solution to this, specifically for Virtualbox. Leave the “Enable 3D acceleration” unticked. If enabled, it will limit the OpenGL somehow. I assume leaving this off might limit the graphic performance somewhat, but MFiX at least performs without any further hiccups. Parallel runs also works fine.
Thanks for all the details. I’m glad you got this working.
I think in general VBoxSVGA is preferable to VMSVGA, see for example this posting.
You might also want to look into “guest additions” if you haven’t installed that.
– Charles
(Sorry for the late response, my user was all of a sudden not able to use this forum, and I had to get support.)
VMSVGA is default for Linux, according to the manual. Guest Additions are also installed, so I believe everything is as they should be.
Thanks for following up!
Hi @kjetilbmoe , I am using CentOS7 system and also meeting the vtk problem due to OpenGL. Which graphics controller are you using in your Linux system, VMSVGA or VBoxSVGA? As you mentioned, guest additions are also installed in your system. Guest additions are used for the virtualbox, so the vtk error is not solved in VBoxSVGA. The vtk error only disappear when you deselected enable 3D acceleration in VMSVGA. I am just checking whether my understanding is right. Thank you.
I have used VMSVGA without 3D acceleration. That was what worked best for me in Virtualbox.