Gamers can update to Mesa 17-git via Padoka or Oibaf PPAs

Jan 19, 2017 01:55 GMT  ·  By

Moments ago, Paulo Miguel Dias updated his Padoka PPA (Personal Package Archive) for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 16.10 operating systems to the latest Mesa 17.0.0-git, bringing us OpenGL 4.5 support for Intel Haswell GPUs.

Yes, we're aware of the fact that just last week we told you Intel Haswell graphics cards supported OpenGL 4.2 for better gaming, thanks to a set of recent patches submitted by developer Juan A. Suarez Romero to implement support for 64-bit vertex attributes, which enabled OpenGL 4.2 for Intel Haswell.

Think that was big news for Intel Haswell users? Think again, because Intel's senior graphics software engineer Kenneth Graunke published a new patch for the open-source Intel i965 graphics driver to enable OpenGL 4.5 on Intel Haswell GPUs, and since it soon landed in Mesa Git, you can have it on Ubuntu.

How? It's simple, by installing either the Padoka or Oibaf PPAs, which are well known among the Ubuntu gaming community for providing up-to-date open-source graphics drivers for Intel, AMD Radeon, and Nvidia GPUs. These PPAs offer frequent updates of the latest Mesa 17.0.0-git 3D Graphics Library.

Better gaming for Intel Haswell users on Ubuntu Linux

To install the Oibaf of Padoka PPA, open the Terminal app on your Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) or Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) operating systems and copy/paste the following commands, one by one, hitting the Enter key after each one. There's no need to reboot your computer, and OpenGL 4.5 will be automatically enabled.

Padoka PPA
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paulo-miguel-dias/mesa -y
sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade
Oibaf PPA
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers -y
sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade
With OpenGL 4.5 enabled for your on-board Intel Haswell graphics chipset, you'll be able to play a lot more games than you've been able to play with OpenGL 4.2 or the previously supported OpenGL version. However, if you want a much better gaming experience, you'll have to rely on your discrete graphics card. Here's to better gaming on Ubuntu Linux!