14 DAY TRIAL // After it has been delayed twice, the highly anticipated Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS update is finally launching today, February 9, 2017, but it will include an older version of the Mesa 3D Graphics Library.
Many have hoped that the latest Mesa 13.0 series of the open source graphics stack will be included by default in this second point release to the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) series, which comes with updated kernel (Linux 4.8) and graphics stacks from Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak), but that's not going to happen according to Canonical's Adam Conrad.
When user Mard Ward suggested Ubuntu developers to ship Mesa 13.0.4 by default in Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS, Adam Conrad replied, "That's not how this works. [Ubuntu] 16.04.2 will ship with the 16.10 X stack (including Mesa 12.0.6), and [Ubuntu] 16.04.3 will ship with the 17.04 stack, which will include Mesa 13.0.x."
Therefore, as Ubuntu 16.10 is still using Mesa packages from the Mesa 12.0.x branch, more precisely Mesa 12.0.6, so will Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS. As we reported last month, Mesa 12.0.6 is the last maintenance update in the series, which is now marked as EOL (End of Life) and users have been urged to move to Mesa 13.0 since then.
Here's how to use Mesa 13.0 on Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS
Of course, a newer Mesa version is critical for AMD Radeon and Intel gamers, so if you want to enjoy the best gaming experience with these type of graphics cards, you need to install Mesa 13.0 or later. After updating to Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS later today, follow the next instructions to install Mesa 13.0.3 3D Graphics Library.
It's a good thing that we have a great community, and there's always a solution for everything. Developer Paulo Miguel Dias is maintaining a stable Mesa PPA for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) and Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak), which currently serves Mesa 13.0.3 packages compiled against LLVM 3.9.1.
All you have to do to use these Mesa 13.0.3 packages is to open the Terminal app and paste the following commands, one by one, hitting the Enter key after each one. We've adjusted the commands to make the installation of the PPA and the Mesa packages fully automatic, and you don't have to reboot your computer to use them. Enjoy!
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paulo-miguel-dias/pkppa -y
sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade
Update: We forgot to tell you that if you use the above PPA, you'll also be upgraded to the newer Mesa 17.0.0 as soon as it's out, which should happen in the coming days. Mard Ward took the liberty to ask Paulo Miguel Dias if he is going to upgrade his PPA to Mesa 13.0.4, and he replied "Mesa 17.0 should go gold this week, I'm upgrading directly to 17 and LLVM 4.0." Thanks Mard for the info!