MATLAB Central Newsreader - Mac Intel OpenGL error

Mac Intel OpenGL error

Steve Sell — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 15:41:49 -0400

Hello,

I just installed the beta and when I try to run bench I get an OpenGL
error. I then ran the "opengl info" command and get:

Warning: Could not access OpenGL library

I am running on a 15" MacBook Pro 2GB Ram, OSX 10.4.8

Any ideas?

-Steve

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Brian Arnold — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 19:53:16 -0400

Hi,

The library glren.dylib, which is MATLAB's OpenGL library, is not in the
beta, due to threading issues which we are investigating.

Brian

Steve Sell wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I just installed the beta and when I try to run bench I get an OpenGL
> error. I then ran the "opengl info" command and get:
>
> Warning: Could not access OpenGL library
>
> I am running on a 15" MacBook Pro 2GB Ram, OSX 10.4.8
>
> Any ideas?
>
> -Steve

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Alessandro Malatesta — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 06:15:56 -0500

So...what?
Is there a solution or it is necessary to wait until you fix it? And,
in that case, how long is it going to take?
--Alex

Brian Arnold wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> The library glren.dylib, which is MATLAB's OpenGL library, is not
> in the
> beta, due to threading issues which we are investigating.
>
> Brian
>
> Steve Sell wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I just installed the beta and when I try to run bench I get an
> OpenGL
>> error. I then ran the "opengl info" command and get:
>>
>> Warning: Could not access OpenGL library
>>
>> I am running on a 15" MacBook Pro 2GB Ram, OSX 10.4.8
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> -Steve
>

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

man — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 08:42:28 -0500

Alessandro Malatesta wrote:
>
>
> So...what?
> Is there a solution or it is necessary to wait until you fix it?
> And,
> in that case, how long is it going to take?
> --Alex
>
> Brian Arnold wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> The library glren.dylib, which is MATLAB's OpenGL library, is
not
>> in the
>> beta, due to threading issues which we are investigating.
>>
>> Brian
>>
>> Steve Sell wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I just installed the beta and when I try to run bench I get
> an
>> OpenGL
>>> error. I then ran the "opengl info" command and get:
>>>
>>> Warning: Could not access OpenGL library
>>>
>>> I am running on a 15" MacBook Pro 2GB Ram, OSX 10.4.8
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>>
>>> -Steve
>>

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Brian Arnold — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 10:20:55 -0500

Hi Alessandro,

This has been addressed. You may download the R2007a pre-release for
Intel-based Mac, or you may contact support@mathworks.com to find out
how to obtain the OpenGL support library for the beta.

I recommend the pre-release, as it has numerous other fixes and
enhancements.

- Brian

Brian Arnold
Mac Developer
The MathWorks, Inc.

Alessandro Malatesta wrote:
> So...what?
> Is there a solution or it is necessary to wait until you fix it? And,
> in that case, how long is it going to take?
> --Alex
>
> Brian Arnold wrote:
>
>>
>>Hi,
>>
>>The library glren.dylib, which is MATLAB's OpenGL library, is not
>>in the
>>beta, due to threading issues which we are investigating.
>>
>>Brian
>>
>>Steve Sell wrote:
>>
>>>Hello,
>>>
>>>I just installed the beta and when I try to run bench I get an
>>
>>OpenGL
>>
>>>error. I then ran the "opengl info" command and get:
>>>
>>>Warning: Could not access OpenGL library
>>>
>>>I am running on a 15" MacBook Pro 2GB Ram, OSX 10.4.8
>>>
>>>Any ideas?
>>>
>>>-Steve
>>

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Brian Powell — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:01:44 -0500

Greetings Brian,

I just installed the R2007a release on my MacBook Pro (core duo)
2.0GHz, and when I run 'bench' in matlab, I get:

Warning: Mac X11-based OpenGL rendering is currently unavailable.

I never tried the 2007a beta, only the 2006b beta release. Is there a
setting I must update?

Thanks!

Brian Arnold wrote:
>
>
> Hi Alessandro,
>
> This has been addressed. You may download the R2007a pre-release
> for
> Intel-based Mac, or you may contact support@mathworks.com to find
> out
> how to obtain the OpenGL support library for the beta.
>
> I recommend the pre-release, as it has numerous other fixes and
> enhancements.
>
> - Brian
>
> Brian Arnold
> Mac Developer
> The MathWorks, Inc.
>
> Alessandro Malatesta wrote:
>> So...what?
>> Is there a solution or it is necessary to wait until you fix
it?
> And,
>> in that case, how long is it going to take?
>> --Alex
>>
>> Brian Arnold wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>The library glren.dylib, which is MATLAB's OpenGL library,
is not
>>>in the
>>>beta, due to threading issues which we are investigating.
>>>
>>>Brian
>>>
>>>Steve Sell wrote:
>>>
>>>>Hello,
>>>>
>>>>I just installed the beta and when I try to run bench I
get an
>>>
>>>OpenGL
>>>
>>>>error. I then ran the "opengl info" command and get:
>>>>
>>>>Warning: Could not access OpenGL library
>>>>
>>>>I am running on a 15" MacBook Pro 2GB Ram, OSX 10.4.8
>>>>
>>>>Any ideas?
>>>>
>>>>-Steve
>>>
>

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Brian Arnold — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:22:02 -0500

Hi Brian,

This warning is an indication that we are starting to deprecate
X11-based graphics from the Mac version in this release. In R2007a, we
eliminated the X11-based OpenGL renderer on the Mac, leaving just the
native OpenGL renderer, so using OpenGL for graphics requires running
with the Java JVM. You are also now not able to set
feature('javafigures',0) to get X11 figures with the JVM. If you try,
you will get a link to information regarding this change. In a future
release, you will not be able to use X11 for graphics.

I realize this may upset some customers. If you really, really love X11
graphics, consider switching to the Linux version. There is a much
larger number of Mac customers who are impacted by the fact that we
continue to depend on X11, and we regularly deal with install issues,
runtime issues, and other basic usability issues. My goal is to
eventually drive X11 out of the Mac version.

To run bench with the native OpenGL renderer without this warning, you
must run with the Java JVM.

Let me know if this helps,

- Brian

Brian Arnold
Mac Developer
The MathWorks, Inc.

Brian Powell wrote:
> Greetings Brian,
>
> I just installed the R2007a release on my MacBook Pro (core duo)
> 2.0GHz, and when I run 'bench' in matlab, I get:
>
> Warning: Mac X11-based OpenGL rendering is currently unavailable.
>
> I never tried the 2007a beta, only the 2006b beta release. Is there a
> setting I must update?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Brian Arnold wrote:
>
>>
>>Hi Alessandro,
>>
>>This has been addressed. You may download the R2007a pre-release
>>for
>>Intel-based Mac, or you may contact support@mathworks.com to find
>>out
>>how to obtain the OpenGL support library for the beta.
>>
>>I recommend the pre-release, as it has numerous other fixes and
>>enhancements.
>>
>>- Brian
>>
>>Brian Arnold
>>Mac Developer
>>The MathWorks, Inc.
>>
>>Alessandro Malatesta wrote:
>>
>>>So...what?
>>>Is there a solution or it is necessary to wait until you fix
>
> it?
>
>>And,
>>
>>>in that case, how long is it going to take?
>>>--Alex
>>>
>>>Brian Arnold wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hi,
>>>>
>>>>The library glren.dylib, which is MATLAB's OpenGL library,
>
> is not
>
>>>>in the
>>>>beta, due to threading issues which we are investigating.
>>>>
>>>>Brian
>>>>
>>>>Steve Sell wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Hello,
>>>>>
>>>>>I just installed the beta and when I try to run bench I
>
> get an
>
>>>>OpenGL
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>error. I then ran the "opengl info" command and get:
>>>>>
>>>>>Warning: Could not access OpenGL library
>>>>>
>>>>>I am running on a 15" MacBook Pro 2GB Ram, OSX 10.4.8
>>>>>
>>>>>Any ideas?
>>>>>
>>>>>-Steve
>>>>

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Brian Powell — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:44:52 -0500

Brian, Thank you for the reply. Maybe I'm just stuck in my ways, but
I dislike the java desktop environment, and use the terminal for
matlab. I use the "matlab -nodesktop" option, which I would think
triggers Java for the graphics; however, it still uses X11. I could
care less about X11, but I like the terminal command window.

I tried 2007a with the java desktop and the menus aren't even in the
menubar, is this supposed to happen? Using opengl with that
environment was *stinking* fast! Kudos on that. My average bench
scores for 3D were 0.32. I'm not sure why the mac intel bench scores
so poorly on SPARSE. Everything else it does well.

Brian Arnold wrote:
>
>
> Hi Brian,
>
> This warning is an indication that we are starting to deprecate
> X11-based graphics from the Mac version in this release. In
> R2007a, we
> eliminated the X11-based OpenGL renderer on the Mac, leaving just
> the
> native OpenGL renderer, so using OpenGL for graphics requires
> running
> with the Java JVM. You are also now not able to set
> feature('javafigures',0) to get X11 figures with the JVM. If you
> try,
> you will get a link to information regarding this change. In a
> future
> release, you will not be able to use X11 for graphics.
>
> I realize this may upset some customers. If you really, really
> love X11
> graphics, consider switching to the Linux version. There is a much
>
> larger number of Mac customers who are impacted by the fact that we
>
> continue to depend on X11, and we regularly deal with install
> issues,
> runtime issues, and other basic usability issues. My goal is to
> eventually drive X11 out of the Mac version.
>
> To run bench with the native OpenGL renderer without this warning,
> you
> must run with the Java JVM.
>
> Let me know if this helps,
>

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Brian Arnold — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:58:42 -0500

Hi,

I might be hopelessly optimistic but I think the MATLAB Desktop
(Java-based) has been getting better in each release, but I'll agree we
could be aiming higher. It's worth noting that Apple's Java uses Cocoa
under the skin and we sprinkle in native Cocoa code where it makes
sense, but it remains to be seen whether our efforts will ever be seen
as "truly native" (a true Cocoa app).

As for the menus not being in the screen menu bar, that's a dead
giveaway we're not close yet. With each release, we try putting them
there, but we keep finding issues preventing us from leaving them this
way. In the Intel Mac beta, screen menus were actually enabled, and
customers found several issues, some of which will require Apple
updates, so we had to go back...again. Not all of our problems have
been Apple-related, but we depend a lot on Apple and Sun support for
some of the more complicated things we do. We have worked with Apple
(and sometimes Sun) and both have been very supportive of our work; wish
me luck that we get this right some day.

We are investigating the relatively poor result with SPARSE in bench on
Intel-based Mac (this was reported by 7a pre-release customers and by
internal users).

Thanks,

Brian

Brian Powell wrote:
> Brian, Thank you for the reply. Maybe I'm just stuck in my ways, but
> I dislike the java desktop environment, and use the terminal for
> matlab. I use the "matlab -nodesktop" option, which I would think
> triggers Java for the graphics; however, it still uses X11. I could
> care less about X11, but I like the terminal command window.
>
> I tried 2007a with the java desktop and the menus aren't even in the
> menubar, is this supposed to happen? Using opengl with that
> environment was *stinking* fast! Kudos on that. My average bench
> scores for 3D were 0.32. I'm not sure why the mac intel bench scores
> so poorly on SPARSE. Everything else it does well.
>
> Brian Arnold wrote:
>
>>
>>Hi Brian,
>>
>>This warning is an indication that we are starting to deprecate
>>X11-based graphics from the Mac version in this release. In
>>R2007a, we
>>eliminated the X11-based OpenGL renderer on the Mac, leaving just
>>the
>>native OpenGL renderer, so using OpenGL for graphics requires
>>running
>>with the Java JVM. You are also now not able to set
>>feature('javafigures',0) to get X11 figures with the JVM. If you
>>try,
>>you will get a link to information regarding this change. In a
>>future
>>release, you will not be able to use X11 for graphics.
>>
>>I realize this may upset some customers. If you really, really
>>love X11
>>graphics, consider switching to the Linux version. There is a much
>>
>>larger number of Mac customers who are impacted by the fact that we
>>
>>continue to depend on X11, and we regularly deal with install
>>issues,
>>runtime issues, and other basic usability issues. My goal is to
>>eventually drive X11 out of the Mac version.
>>
>>To run bench with the native OpenGL renderer without this warning,
>>you
>>must run with the Java JVM.
>>
>>Let me know if this helps,
>>

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Brian Powell — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 21:59:28 -0500

Brian,

I don't mean to diminish your optimism. I was trying (inelegantly) to
say that I hadn't even tried to use the matlab desktop for opengl.
When I did try it, I noticed that the menus weren't there. I wish you
the best in the continued evolution of the code.

I did notice that when R2006b (beta) was started with "matlab
-nodesktop" it ran in the terminal with java graphics. There is a bug
in 2007a (final) that when run with "matlab -nodesktop" it uses X11
graphics. I think it should use java graphics unless run with "matlab
-nojvm". Any word on this?

Brian Arnold wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I might be hopelessly optimistic but I think the MATLAB Desktop
> (Java-based) has been getting better in each release, but I'll
> agree we
> could be aiming higher. It's worth noting that Apple's Java uses
> Cocoa
> under the skin and we sprinkle in native Cocoa code where it makes
> sense, but it remains to be seen whether our efforts will ever be
> seen
> as "truly native" (a true Cocoa app).
>
> As for the menus not being in the screen menu bar, that's a dead
> giveaway we're not close yet. With each release, we try putting
> them
> there, but we keep finding issues preventing us from leaving them
> this
> way. In the Intel Mac beta, screen menus were actually enabled,
> and
> customers found several issues, some of which will require Apple
> updates, so we had to go back...again. Not all of our problems
> have
> been Apple-related, but we depend a lot on Apple and Sun support
> for
> some of the more complicated things we do. We have worked with
> Apple
> (and sometimes Sun) and both have been very supportive of our work;
> wish
> me luck that we get this right some day.
>
> We are investigating the relatively poor result with SPARSE in
> bench on
> Intel-based Mac (this was reported by 7a pre-release customers and
> by
> internal users).
>

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Tim Davis — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 19:54:03 -0500

Brian Powell wrote:
>> We are investigating the relatively poor result with SPARSE in
>> bench on
>> Intel-based Mac (this was reported by 7a pre-release customers
> and
>> by
>> internal users).

Is this real? I assume you're not comparing the old bench results
with the new ones. If so, take a close look at the old bench. The
new bench has a much larger matrix and does perhaps 40 times the work
as the old one. This is because the new sparse Cholesky is many
times faster than the old one. See page 6 of my paper: <http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~davis/techreports/cholmod/tr06-005.pdf>
where more details are given.

To get a better look at the performance, do

n = 300 ;
A=delsq(numgrid(’L’,n)) ;
p = amd (A) ;
fl = sum (symbfact (A (p,p)).^2) ;
b = rand (size(A,1),1) ;
tic
x = A\b ;
t = toc
mflops = 1e-6 * fl / t

You can do this in any version of MATLAB. The results in 7a should
be better than MATLAB 7.1 (R200whatever, I can't recall).

If the performance degradation is real, then I would guess it's a
BLAS problem.

Thanks,
Tim Davis (author of sparse chol in MATLAB).

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Tim Davis — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 19:58:06 -0500

Tim Davis wrote:

> p = amd (A) ;

Correction ... on older MATLAB's (7.2 or earlier, I think) you'll
need to use symamd instead, since amd wasn't a user-callable routine
in those versions of MATLAB.

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Brian Powell — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:13:36 -0400

It appears I was doing something stupid (most likely my aliased
command), as this seems to work just fine. Please ignore.

Brian Powell wrote:
> I did notice that when R2006b (beta) was started with "matlab
> -nodesktop" it ran in the terminal with java graphics. There is a
> bug
> in 2007a (final) that when run with "matlab -nodesktop" it uses X11
> graphics. I think it should use java graphics unless run with
> "matlab
> -nojvm". Any word on this?

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Felix Morsdorf — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:49:33 -0400

yup, using -nodesktop works fine in terminal (or emacs shell) while enabling
OpenGL rendering. Great ! I thought I had to wait for R2007b when i discovered
this thread. Now I am a happy MacMatlabIntel user again, after the first the
"printing OpenGL figures->X11-quits" bug and then missing OpenGL made me
suffer ;-)

"Brian Powell" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
<ef42ae2.12@webcrossing.raydaftYaTP>...
> It appears I was doing something stupid (most likely my aliased
> command), as this seems to work just fine. Please ignore.
>
> Brian Powell wrote:
> > I did notice that when R2006b (beta) was started with "matlab
> > -nodesktop" it ran in the terminal with java graphics. There is a
> > bug
> > in 2007a (final) that when run with "matlab -nodesktop" it uses X11
> > graphics. I think it should use java graphics unless run with
> > "matlab
> > -nojvm". Any word on this?

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Felix Morsdorf — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:47:31 -0400

I was a bit too quick, the JVM OpenGL rendering seems to be inconsistent.
When I try to animate a 3d scene, the objects "jitter" around when I change
the view angles (I usually let the scene rotate around z, thus alter the view
azimuth from -180 to 180)

see this movie as example:

http://www.geo.unizh.ch/~morsdorf/control_trans_sm.mov

if you change the renderer to zbuffer or do not use the JVM, this behavior is
gone, but of course, the transparency is gone as well.

Any workarounds ?

"Felix Morsdorf" <felix.morsdorf@geo.uzh.ch> wrote in message <fa3jud$nrl
$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> yup, using -nodesktop works fine in terminal (or emacs shell) while
enabling
> OpenGL rendering. Great ! I thought I had to wait for R2007b when i
discovered
> this thread. Now I am a happy MacMatlabIntel user again, after the first the
> "printing OpenGL figures->X11-quits" bug and then missing OpenGL made
me
> suffer ;-)
>
> "Brian Powell" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
> <ef42ae2.12@webcrossing.raydaftYaTP>...
> > It appears I was doing something stupid (most likely my aliased
> > command), as this seems to work just fine. Please ignore.
> >
> > Brian Powell wrote:
> > > I did notice that when R2006b (beta) was started with "matlab
> > > -nodesktop" it ran in the terminal with java graphics. There is a
> > > bug
> > > in 2007a (final) that when run with "matlab -nodesktop" it uses X11
> > > graphics. I think it should use java graphics unless run with
> > > "matlab
> > > -nojvm". Any word on this?
>

Re: Mac Intel OpenGL error

Felix Morsdorf — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:40:44 -0400

again, i might have been too quick in posting, first study the problem, then
post ...

well, it seems that the problem is related to the large x and y values used in
my coordinate system and the precision to which these variables are stored in
Matlabs renderer. My variables are something like this
x = 666203.2436 and y = 4823034.6374 (meters), if I now only use the
values up to 1000 (my data patches are some tens of meters in size), e.g.
203.2436 and 034.6374 the jitter goes away.

This leads me to the conclusion that zbuffer can handle larger values than
OpenGL, since the "jitter" problem appears only using OpenGL as a renderer.

Is that correct and why is it like that ?

"Felix Morsdorf" <felix.morsdorf@geo.uzh.ch> wrote in message <fa41sj
$t66$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> I was a bit too quick, the JVM OpenGL rendering seems to be inconsistent.
> When I try to animate a 3d scene, the objects "jitter" around when I change
> the view angles (I usually let the scene rotate around z, thus alter the view
> azimuth from -180 to 180)
>
> see this movie as example:
>
> http://www.geo.unizh.ch/~morsdorf/control_trans_sm.mov
>
> if you change the renderer to zbuffer or do not use the JVM, this behavior is
> gone, but of course, the transparency is gone as well.
>
> Any workarounds ?
>
>
> "Felix Morsdorf" <felix.morsdorf@geo.uzh.ch> wrote in message <fa3jud
$nrl
> $1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> > yup, using -nodesktop works fine in terminal (or emacs shell) while
> enabling
> > OpenGL rendering. Great ! I thought I had to wait for R2007b when i
> discovered
> > this thread. Now I am a happy MacMatlabIntel user again, after the first
the
> > "printing OpenGL figures->X11-quits" bug and then missing OpenGL
made
> me
> > suffer ;-)
> >
> > "Brian Powell" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
> > <ef42ae2.12@webcrossing.raydaftYaTP>...
> > > It appears I was doing something stupid (most likely my aliased
> > > command), as this seems to work just fine. Please ignore.
> > >
> > > Brian Powell wrote:
> > > > I did notice that when R2006b (beta) was started with "matlab
> > > > -nodesktop" it ran in the terminal with java graphics. There is a
> > > > bug
> > > > in 2007a (final) that when run with "matlab -nodesktop" it uses X11
> > > > graphics. I think it should use java graphics unless run with
> > > > "matlab
> > > > -nojvm". Any word on this?
> >
>