So, this is a pretty dumb question.

But how do I get Opengl 3.3+ running on linux.

Atm glxinfo gives me the info: 3.0 Mesa 8.0.5

My graphics driver is Nvidia geforce GT 630M (2GB)

I've tried (and still am trying) to get Mesa 9.2.3 running.

I've got problems installing it.

I do know that Mesa 10 will be released quite soon, which supports 3.3.

But there have to be different options.

I also found the linux x64 (amd64/em64t) display driver on Nvidia website. But I don't know whether it supports opengl 3.3+

What I do know is that on my windows partition I got opengl 4.0 running.

Not sure why would you want to use mesa if you have a good graphics card? Just install nvidia's graphics drivers, preferably through your distro's package manager.

nVidia's Linux driver should get you up to OpenGL 4.2 with that card.

Some day I will get these problems people speak about using nVidia's installer and I'll share their pain, but for me right now, it can't get easier than sh'ing the installer and let it do its job.

What actually never worked for me is the dkms that should, in theory, automagically recompile the driver each time I upgrade the kernel. Probably I'm missing something though...

Thanks for all the responses

Mesa is a software renderer http://www.mesa3d.org/

To get OpenGL to work on linux can be an adventure sometimes, since as a developer it's likely you want the latest

In my case I went the hardcore route and failed many times (I had to use terminal shell to fix xorg after completely breaking it)

So goes my warning: Installing the nvidia linux driver manually IS NOT WORTH IT

Fortunately if you have ubuntu, there are some simple and safe ways:

1. Use the nvidia-current branch (which is new enough for most cases)

You will find it in the Ubuntu Software Center

2. Use the edgers repo (from terminal):

a) Add the edgers repo

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

b) Update index files

sudo apt-get update

c) Install any of the nvidia packages, such as the very latest (as of this post):

sudo apt-get install nvidia-331

I'm using debian weezy.

And yes, I tried to install manually. (so bad)

Somehow I messed up my whole system.

Everything was broken, I could barely login (even through recovery mode)

I had to reinstall the system.

I'm searching around the web how I could install the drivers.
But each time I try something, x won't run.

Mesa is a software renderer http://www.mesa3d.org/

Mesa does 3D acceleration for many chips.

Mesa is a software renderer http://www.mesa3d.org/

Mesa does 3D acceleration for many chips.

Um, no. Well, sorta, in that it can use LLVMpipe to JIT the software rendering. Generally, on Linux, the hardware does the hardware acceleration (using the proprietary blobs or the free driver equivalents). Like on Windows, you link against the GL API provided by Mesa but the runtime is provided by the hardware vendors (through kernel DRM -- direct rendering module). That's one reason why installing the nVidia drivers from nVidia is bad: they blow away the Mesa libraries, which means if you're a developer and upgrade the -dev package you will experience open running sores and purulent boils.