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Last active February 28, 2026 05:31
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How to install opengl in ubuntu
What Is OpenGL?
OpenGL is a Graphics rendering API which is operating system independent, window system independent and has high-quality color images composed of geometric and image primitives.
OpenGL APIs can use following …
Gl
OpenGL API implementation (http://www.opengl.org)
Glu
OpenGL Utility
Glut – GLUT (OpenGL Utility Toolkit) – Glut is portable windowing API and it is not officially part of OpenGL.
OpenGL Utility Toolkit (http://www.opengl.org/resources/libraries/glut/)
FLTK
FlashLight ToolKit (http://www.fltk.org/)
GLEW…
Now lets see How to install OpenGL on out Ubuntu OS.
Now because GLUT (OpenGL Utility Toolkit) depends upon OpenGL and a number of other related libraries, if we install GLUT then OpenGL will be automatically be installed.
Run the following commands to install OpenGL.
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install libglu1-mesa-dev freeglut3-dev mesa-common-dev
Now to test if OpenGl libraries are working fine on our Linux, we will create a C++ program and test it.
So create a following C++ Program.
#include <GL/glut.h>
void displayMe(void)
{
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
glBegin(GL_POLYGON);
glVertex3f(0.5, 0.0, 0.5);
glVertex3f(0.5, 0.0, 0.0);
glVertex3f(0.0, 0.5, 0.0);
glVertex3f(0.0, 0.0, 0.5);
glEnd();
glFlush();
}
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
glutInit(&argc, argv);
glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_SINGLE);
glutInitWindowSize(400, 300);
glutInitWindowPosition(100, 100);
glutCreateWindow("Hello world!");
glutDisplayFunc(displayMe);
glutMainLoop();
return 0;
}
Now give the command below to compile your code.
$ g++ main.cpp -o firstOpenGlApp -lglut -lGLU -lGL
Now run your OpenGl program with following command
$ ./firstOpenGlApp
@Murnomous24
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thx bro. so clean and impressive!

@Lucas-Masaba
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Easier than the other articles and videos I walked through and it works. Thank you

@valFortD
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The instruction was very easy to understand for a newbie like me. Thank you.

@robinaar
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Great example and working fine too, thank you.

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