Mesa 19.1.4 Available to Install in Ubuntu 18.04 / 19.04

Mesa 3D graphics library 19.1.4, which was released a week ago, now is made into PPA for Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu 19.04.

For those sticking to the open-source RadeonSI / RADV / Intel / Nouveau drivers, Mesa 19.1.4 is the latest stable release with following release highlights:

  • Vulkan 24/48 bit formats are now not supported on Ivybridge.
  • R8G8B8_UNORM_SRGB is not supported on Haswell.
  • A fix for hair artifacts in Max Payne 3 on AMD/RADV.
  • Vulkan transform feedback extension is disabled on Intel gen7.

Canonical’s Timo Aaltonen has made Mesa 19.1.4 package into “Ubuntu-X” team PPA, available to install in Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 19.04.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut or by searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/updates

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. After adding the PPA, do system update via command:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

apt-get update is not required any more in Ubuntu 18.04 since adding PPA automatically refreshes system package cache.

3. Finally check your driver version via command:

glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version"

Uninstall:

To restore changes and downgrade to the default drives shipped in Ubuntu 18.04, run command:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/updates