How to install OpenCV without nVidia drivers
- by Subhamoy Sengupta
I have a laptop with on-board Intel graphics. I have been using OpenCV for years with this machine and I have managed to avoid manual compilation so far. But in Ubuntu 13.10, when I try to install libopencv-dev from the repositories, it brings along libopencv-ocl, which seems to be dependent on nvidia drivers. Letting the driver install messes up my xserver completely and when I do glxinfo afterwards, I get this:
name of display: :0.0
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual or fbconfig
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
To solve this, I purge all nVidia drivers and reinstall xserver, much like it has been suggested here, and when I purge the nvidia drivers, OpenCV development libraries are also removed, as apt-get tells me they are no longer needed. This is foreign to me, because I expected a warning that I have installed packages that depend on this, but how can removing a dependency automatically remove the package I installed without warnings or asking? I understand it has something to do with nVidia being the provider of the libopencv-ocl in the repo. How could I get around it? I would rather not compile OpenCV if I can help it. I have seen similar questions, but not a suitable answer.