LinuxTent

Rendering Graphics3D using Mathematica on linux generally and specifically on Ubuntu 9.04+ is not fun. The output is not displayed till you rotate the object, and once you rotate the 3D object the cpu usage jump to 100% which gives bad experience using Mathematica for Ubuntu users. This is a driver issue which it is expected to be addressed with the newer Intel graphics drivers which introduces UXA option instead of EXA as an acceleration method. As 9.04 was released this new technology was not stable enough to be enabled by default.

Now, to solve the problem for Mathematica you have two options:

1. Run Mathematica with mesa option
   mathematica -mesa

2. • Modify /etc/X11/xorg.conf to add the UXA option
     Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection

   • Logout to restart the X server

   Notice: Don’t forget to backup your xorg.conf before editing

Sources:

1. UXA option
2. Mesa option

Many people face this error when they try to install Mathematics on Linux :

Error: The installer was unable to check for a valid password file. Your
Mathematica installation may be incomplete or corrupted.

it is because some libraries are missing , just download these :

sudo apt-get install build-essential

sudo apt-get install libstdc++5

Mustafa Mustafa

ENJOY!

Mathematica 6 is a great leap from it is predecessors Mathematica 5 and 5.2 . With many new built-in functions, more dynamic in graphics designs, more enhanced interface, and a way better syntax active annotation. For me i find it very boring to work on old versions. I hope you can enjoy it as well.

Here is how to do it :

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