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Ubuntu now has a more official PPA to get Mesa updates

By - | Views: 27,109
Timo Aaltonen noted on his blog that the 'Ubuntu-X' team now have an 'Updates' PPA for you to get the latest Mesa on Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 16.10.

This is likely a result of Feral Interactive's call for a PPA for this exact purpose. So it's good to see something proper come out of it.

Note: I have not tested this, since I use Antergos. I'm sure it has been thoroughly tested by the Ubuntu team involved in it.

If you don't know what Mesa is, I wrote an article explaining Mesa in a little more detail recently, so check that out. You will usually want it for Intel or AMD graphics, but you likely want the proprietary drivers for NVIDIA.

It's good to see a slightly more official way to do it on Ubuntu, as users were relying on the 'Padoka Stable Mesa' PPA which seems to be a version behind.

So now on Ubuntu you can do this to get the latest Mesa version for 16.04 and 16.10:
Quotesudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/updates

Then run:
Quotesudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

If you want to revert the changes you can do this:
Quotesudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/updates


Hopefully in future adding a PPA just to update Mesa won't be needed. For now though, if you want to keep playing the latest Linux game ports you will likely need an up to date Mesa. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Drivers, Mesa
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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12 comments
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natewardawg Mar 27, 2017
Nice, even though I'm not currently a Mesa user, I'm really glad to know they've done this in case I do become one in the future.
M@GOid Mar 27, 2017
Nice. And I just checked and Ubuntu 17.04 just got Mesa 17.0.2, so it looks like this is the year that when you install a modern Linux distro and get (almost) all your hardware supported to the fullest. Kudos for all that made this possible.
hardpenguin Mar 27, 2017
QuoteNote: I have not tested this, since I use Antergos. I'm sure it has been thoroughly tested by the Ubuntu team involved in it.

niarbeht Mar 27, 2017
Quoting: hardpenguin
QuoteNote: I have not tested this, since I use Antergos. I'm sure it has been thoroughly tested by the Ubuntu team involved in it.


Speech bubble points to wrong character. Liam runs the website.
thegh0st Mar 27, 2017
Quoting: prueba_holai'm confused

what ppa i should use?
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/ubuntu/updates

or

https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/ubuntu/pkppa

Help please

You should use the first one, which is an "official" PPA run by Ubuntu developers.
Second one is yet-another-user-who-created-a-ppa PPA.
prueba_hola Mar 27, 2017
Quoting: thegh0st
Quoting: prueba_holai'm confused

what ppa i should use?
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/ubuntu/updates

or

https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/ubuntu/pkppa

Help please

You should use the first one, which is an "official" PPA run by Ubuntu developers.
Second one is yet-another-user-who-created-a-ppa PPA.
Thanks!
STiAT Mar 27, 2017
Nice. About time.

But I'll keep going with Solus for now. I like the distro, it's reasonably up to date, Budgie is actually the first desktop to draw me away from KDE without missing anything (rather the opposite: I'm missing the issues I so often had with pulse in KDE :D). Though, I should work on fixing qt pathing finally which I promised :D.
calexil Mar 27, 2017
currently this breaks vlc, in case you use that.

probably wanna stick on pkppa until Timo fixes it
tuxintuxedo Mar 27, 2017
Quoting: thegh0st
Quoting: prueba_holai'm confused

what ppa i should use?
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/ubuntu/updates

or

https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/ubuntu/pkppa

Help please

You should use the first one, which is an "official" PPA run by Ubuntu developers.
Second one is yet-another-user-who-created-a-ppa PPA.
Actually, not that easy. When the whole discussion started, Ubuntu devs said they are willing to provide a place for it if someone does the work. Then came this guy "yet-another-user-who-created-a-ppa", who already has years behind him as a mesa-git ppa provider, creating a stable ppa too. Now, it seems someone from the Ubuntu devs decided to also work on it. For me it was a big surprise, as the x-swat ppa was basically abandoned for at least a year now, if not even more. Don't misunderstand, I am thankful to Timo and it's better to have more ppas, just don't take it as some great achievement or at least don't belittle the work of others on this field.


Last edited by tuxintuxedo on 27 March 2017 at 7:52 pm UTC
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