KiCad

OpenGL 2.1 or higher is required! on Windows 10

Asked by Lim Phang Moh

Was running KiCad happily previously on Windows 7 and left the view in OpenGL mode. Upgraded to Windows 10 today and PCBnew cannot launch. "OpenGL 2.1 or higher is required!" message pops out and KiCad crashes shortly after that.

Some information on the build I'm currently using:

Application: kicad
Version: (2015-08-16 BZR 6097, Git b384c94)-product release build
wxWidgets: Version 3.0.2 (debug,wchar_t,compiler with C++ ABI 1009,GCC 5.2.0,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Boost version: 1.57.0
         USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
         USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
         KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
         KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
         KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
         USE_FP_LIB_TABLE=HARD_CODED_ON
         BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON

Is there a way to default the PCBnew view to run in Cairo mode at least without launching the PCBnew?
And is there roadmap for compatibility with Windows 10?

Question information

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Status:
Solved
For:
KiCad Edit question
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Solved by:
Maciej Suminski
Solved:
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Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Maciej Suminski (orsonmmz) said : 		#1

Hi Lim,

I am not familiar with Windows 10, but I can tell you the way you can change it in Windows XP, so maybe you can adapt it. Please open folder %APPDATA%\kicad, edit file "pcbnew" and make sure there is a line with "canvas_type=0". If there is a different number, you should change it to 0.

I am afraid that for the moment none of the KiCad developers uses Windows 10, and it might be tricky to support system that is not available by hand. Perhaps the situation will change once the system becomes more popular. I think the only reason why Windows 10 is not supported right now, is lack of resources on our side.

Regards,
Orson

Revision history for this message
Lim Phang Moh (limphangmoh) said : 		#2

Hi Orson,

Thank you for the tip.

While waiting for the answer here, managed to get into Cairo mode by uninstalling and installing back, so it could revert to the default canvas mode. Still no OpenGL for me and had to use the slow Cairo for now.

Currently trying to build from WinBuilder on this Windows 10 machine to see whether there's any different.

Windows 10 is way much lighter to run compared to any of the previous version. The UI of KiCad also looks much better on Windows 10. If support on Windows 10 is still far away, I guess I have to install a Linux side by side Windows to run KiCad in Linux itself. I don't think you guys can ignore Windows 10 any longer looking at how many machine has migrated since the official release.

Thank you.

Revision history for this message
Lim Phang Moh (limphangmoh) said : 		#3

Hi Orson,

Built KiCad using the WinBuilder, same result though.
Also tried running the KiCad in Windows compatibility mode, doesn't help either.
I guess I have to run it in Linux for now until you guys are ready for Windows 10.
Too bad, was getting the hang of it and just finished the 1st board and going for 2nd.

Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Lim Phang Moh (limphangmoh) said : 		#4

Hi Orson,

Forgot to mention, would running this help to get more answers:

http://downloads.kicad-pcb.org/windows/DEBUG/kicad-product-r6132.156d5f5-x86_64-DEBUG.exe

Revision history for this message
Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw) said : 		#5

On 9/6/2015 3:47 AM, Maciej Sumiński wrote:
> Question #271114 on KiCad changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/kicad/+question/271114
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Maciej Sumiński proposed the following answer:
> Hi Lim,
>
> I am not familiar with Windows 10, but I can tell you the way you can
> change it in Windows XP, so maybe you can adapt it. Please open folder
> %APPDATA%\kicad, edit file "pcbnew" and make sure there is a line with
> "canvas_type=0". If there is a different number, you should change it to
> 0.
>
> I am afraid that for the moment none of the KiCad developers uses
> Windows 10, and it might be tricky to support system that is not
> available by hand. Perhaps the situation will change once the system
> becomes more popular. I think the only reason why Windows 10 is not
> supported right now, is lack of resources on our side.
>
> Regards,
> Orson
>

I'm using windows 10 without any issues. Both the OpenGL canvas and the
3D viewer work just fine. I have a pretty standard NVidia video card
using the stock windows drivers for it. It's possible your issue is
video card driver related.

Revision history for this message
Maciej Suminski (orsonmmz) said : 		#6

Hi Lim,

If you are able to use gdb then it would be very appreciated if you could get a backtrace and report a bug [1]. Though I am not sure if this particular installer will generate a backtrace usable for developers (I guess it is missing debug symbols).

If you are really willing to help, and know how to use gdb, then the best way would be to follow the compiling guide for Windows [2] with debug mode enabled, get a backtrace and report it here. If you need any help, please let us know (I sincerely recommend the KiCad IRC channel [3]).

By the way, have you tried other OpenGL applications? If the problem is related to drivers (and there is a huge chance of this happening, as you said everything was fine with Win 7), then it cannot be fixed in KiCad source code. You may also provide a report from glewinfo [4], it may give us a hint of what is going wrong.

Regards,
Orson

1. http://kicad-pcb.org/help/report-a-bug/
2. http://kicad-pcb.org/contribute/build-windows/ see "Developer way"
3. http://kicad-pcb.org/community/irc/
4. https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1473786/comments/5

Revision history for this message
Maciej Suminski (orsonmmz) said : 		#7

Sorry, I have just realized that you build KiCad with Winbuilder. You can modify its configuration file [1] to get a debug build. If you are willing to follow this method, then let me know and I will provide more detailed instructions on how to use gdb that is included with Winbuilder.

Revision history for this message
Lim Phang Moh (limphangmoh) said : 		#8

Hi Wayne,

I tested on another newer machine running Windows 10. It works perfectly and I notice that the graphic card is an Intel HD Graphics and the driver having the same name. While on the older machine, it has a G45/G43 Express Chipset and has the Microsoft WDDM 1.1 driver. Unfortunately both Intel and Microsoft has no plans to provide new drivers for Windows 10 on this older graphic chipset.
Looking at the GlewInfo generated report, I'm shock that Microsoft downgraded the OpenGL to an awful 1.1 of OpenGL. I guess we can't do anything right?

---------------------------
GLEW Extension Info
---------------------------

GLEW version 1.13.0
Reporting capabilities of pixelformat 2
Running on a GDI Generic from Microsoft Corporation
OpenGL version 1.1.0 is supported

GL_VERSION_1_1: OK
---------------

GL_VERSION_1_2: MISSING
---------------
glCopyTexSubImage3D: MISSING
glDrawRangeElements: MISSING
glTexImage3D: MISSING
glTexSubImage3D: MISSING

GL_VERSION_1_2_1: MISSING
-----------------

GL_VERSION_1_3: MISSING
---------------

Other items in the list is missing all the way until end of the file.

Revision history for this message
Best Maciej Suminski (orsonmmz) said : 		#9

Uh, it looks quite miserable.. As you say, unfortunately there is nothing that we can fix in KiCad to make it work on such system.

Revision history for this message
Lim Phang Moh (limphangmoh) said : 		#10

Thanks Maciej Sumiński, that solved my question.

Revision history for this message
Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw) said : 		#11

Unfortunately, OpenGL 2.1 is the minimum. Honestly, 2.1 is a very old
spec. It's hard to believe that window 10 doesn't support anything more
current than 1.13 on your system.

On 9/7/2015 12:31 AM, Lim Phang Moh wrote:
> Question #271114 on KiCad changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/kicad/+question/271114
>
> Lim Phang Moh posted a new comment:
> Hi Wayne,
>
> I tested on another newer machine running Windows 10. It works perfectly and I notice that the graphic card is an Intel HD Graphics and the driver having the same name. While on the older machine, it has a G45/G43 Express Chipset and has the Microsoft WDDM 1.1 driver. Unfortunately both Intel and Microsoft has no plans to provide new drivers for Windows 10 on this older graphic chipset.
> Looking at the GlewInfo generated report, I'm shock that Microsoft downgraded the OpenGL to an awful 1.1 of OpenGL. I guess we can't do anything right?
>
> ---------------------------
> GLEW Extension Info
> ---------------------------
>
> GLEW version 1.13.0
> Reporting capabilities of pixelformat 2
> Running on a GDI Generic from Microsoft Corporation
> OpenGL version 1.1.0 is supported
>
> GL_VERSION_1_1: OK
> ---------------
>
> GL_VERSION_1_2: MISSING
> ---------------
> glCopyTexSubImage3D: MISSING
> glDrawRangeElements: MISSING
> glTexImage3D: MISSING
> glTexSubImage3D: MISSING
>
> GL_VERSION_1_2_1: MISSING
> -----------------
>
> GL_VERSION_1_3: MISSING
> ---------------
>
>
> Other items in the list is missing all the way until end of the file.
>