"Missing GL version" dialog cannot be closed (respawns again and again)

Software
1

Hi there!

I read a lot about problems regarding getting this popup dialog - for me it happens rather often. The solution seems to be to update the graphics card driver. I have to an Onboard AMD Radeon Graphics unit (part of the processing unit) and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti. Both units have the latest drivers installed that are available.

image

The point is that once I get this pop-up I have to force close KiCad via Windows Task manager and doing so I loose content if I have not saved the second right before.

If I e.g. get the popup after opening the 3D Viewer the popup shows up and no matter how often I will click “ok”, it respawns. The schematic and board windows of KiCad cannot be accessed so that I could save recent changes before force closing KiCad.

I think that in no case should this happen (no matter whether I have the newest graphics card driver or not, I should be able to close that popup and gracefully close/restart KiCad, right? =)

Application: KiCad x64 on x64

Version: 9.0.2, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.6
FreeType 2.13.3
HarfBuzz 10.2.0
FontConfig 2.15.0
libcurl/8.11.1-DEV Schannel zlib/1.3.1

Platform: Windows 10 (build 19045), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW

Build Info:
Date: May 7 2025 02:29:49
wxWidgets: 3.2.6 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.86.0
OCC: 7.8.1
Curl: 8.11.1-DEV
ngspice: 44
Compiler: Visual C++ 1942 without C++ ABI
KICAD_IPC_API=ON

Locale:
Lang: en_AT
Enc: UTF-8
Num: 1.234,5
Encoded кΩ丈: D0BACEA9E4B888 (sys), D0BACEA9E4B888 (utf8)

2

Can you run The OpenGL Hardware Capability Viewer, click “Save xml” and post the xml here?

Also have you tried changing to high-performance GPU for all KiCad binaries in Windows Graphics settings?

3

“Missing GL version” is only returned by GLEW on any of the following:

  • Pointer to glGetString function is not set (borked opengl32.dll?)
  • GL_VERSION does not contain a dot
  • Characters before and after the first dot in GL_VERSION are not digits
4

This is the output when using context type: OpenGL default
glCapsViewer_Report.xml (37.1 KB)

5

The latest AMD drivers version seem to be 25.10.13.01. Your xml shows 22.20.27.09.

You can try updating them from https://www.amd.com/en/support/download/drivers.html

Also:

  • What’s your exact processor model?
  • Does Accelerated graphics work in Schematic/PCB editors?
6

Oh, sorry - just Windows had the opinion that I had the latest driver. Thanks for pointing that out. I will now install the latest version yuo have pointed me to and try again a few times. Also I just have changed to “high-performance GPU for all KiCad binaries”, i.e. it should use the NVIDIA Card now

I have the issue more or less in all “tools” (schematic, pcb, 3D viewer) - it happens sporadically but rather often (every 30 minutes or so)

CPU is an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with Radeon Graphics, 3900 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)

7

With explicit “high performance” settings for tue kicad binaries, i.e. making explicit use of nvidia geforce that is in the PC, the errors seem to be gone.
With “automatic” setting (letting the OS choose which defaults to AMD onboard) shoes the error also with newest AMD drivers.
Have to investigate further …

8

You might want to report it to AMD then.

9

Glad it is stable with the nvidia card. Thanks for the hint !