Cura running on Virtual Machine

[reubengovender 0]

We have encountered difficulties installing Cura 2.6.2 on a virtual machine. Cura installs, but once we try to open it, an error message pops up that it is unable to access OpenGL libraries, and Cura closes. Our IT person has suggested that because this is a virtual machine, Cura isn't able to access the GPU as it would on a physical machine. We're working on a virtual machine as this creates an image, which is rolled out to the 100+ PCs in our student laboratories. The virtual machine is running Windows 10.

 

Has anyone encountered similar difficulties? Are there possible work arounds, or do we have to run Cura on a physical machine for it to access the GPU?

 

[ahoeben 1,948]

I successfully run Cura on a Ubuntu virtual machine running in a VMWare host on Windows. I have never tried a Windows VM running on a Windows host.

 

When starting Cura, it asks the OS "can you do OpenGL?". If the OS says "no", Cura cannot start.

[reubengovender 0]

Our IT person was able to address the problem. They installed something (not sure if it was new libraries or drivers) on the Virtual Machine which allowed it to access OpenGL, at which point Cura was able to function properly.

 

[Tnomlebela 0]

Hi @reubengovender, do you happen to know what your IT person ended up installing? 

 

Thanks, 

 

AB

[ahoeben 1,948]

I would guess VMWare Tools (or similar on other vm software)

[tornadijo 0]

Hi, you can replace your c:\windows\system32\opengl32.dll of your guest windows 10 by this one provided by this guy:

https://fdossena.com/index.php?p=mesa/index.frag

To do that you previoulsy need to change user owner of file opengl32.dll under system32 folder, and after that, you need also to allow to the user new owner to have all access permissions to file.

 

After that, Cura (at leat Cura 5.1) runs under Windows 10 Guest, in a VirtualBox machine in Ubuntu 22.04

 

 

[gr5 2,173]

@nallath - take note!  

[gr5 2,173]

@nallath?  Does this make sense?  Should this be a change to the cura windows installer?

[gr5 2,173]

@MariMakes - can you get the message above (from tornadijo) to someone on the Cura team?  It sounds like this person figured out something pretty important to change in the cura installer for windows.

[ahoeben 1,948]

It is not that simple. Just replacing opengl32.dll with a specific version downloaded from some website is going to break Cura for more people than that it is going to fix it.

 

A working opengl32.dll is part of the system. No application should be replacing it with a specific version for that application to work.

[gr5 2,173]

rats.