Configuring Eclipse and freeglut on Windows and Ubuntu Linux to

start programming in OpenGL

Gerhard Burger
February 19, 2010

Installation

When you start to program in OpenGL, you might need a decent Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Being free, open-source and platform independent, Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.
org/) is an excellent choice. Although officially a Java Development Environment, Eclipse can
work with C, C++, COBOL, Python, Perl, PHP, and other programming languages by means
of an extensible plug-in system. This section will offer a step-by-step guide on how to configure
Eclipse for C++ and OpenGL on Windows and Ubuntu (Linux). At the time of writing the version
of Eclipse is 3.5.1 (Galileo), and I used Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Linux Mint 8 32bit (based on
Ubuntu 9.10). Getting everything to work on Ubuntu is easier and less time consuming, so if you
wanted to try Linux at some point, now might be the right time.

1.1

Installing Eclipse

Go to http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. At the bottom of the page there is an entry

for Eclipse Classic, choose the version corresponding to your operating system.1 Download
the file and extract using your favorite extraction tool. Eclipse does not have to be installed
so you can move the eclipse folder to a location of your liking and start working.
Since Eclipse is working we move on to configure Eclipse for using C/C++. Start Eclipse
and go to help and select Install New Software.... Under Programming Languages select
and install the package called Eclipse C/C++ Development Tools. After the installation is
done restart Eclipse when prompted.

1.2

Installing a compiler

Since installing a compiler is different for Windows and Ubuntu, both are explained separately.
1.2.1

Windows

As compiler for Windows we will use MinGW. MinGW is a contraction of Minimalist GNU for
Windows, and is a port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), and GNU Binutils.
1

On Ubuntu you can also install Eclipse using the standard package repositories

 To download MinGW go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/ and download the latest MinGW-x.x.x.exe. Also download the latest MSYS-x.x.x.exe which you can
find under MSYS Base System.
First install MinGW using the current packages and make sure to select only the MinGW
base tools and the g++ compiler. Be careful not to install to a directory containing spaces.
Then install MSYS making sure you fill in the path to MinGW correctly using forward slashes
(/).
Go to Environment Variables in Windows and add the bin directory of both MinGW and
MINSYS to the PATH variable in System variables. In my case I had to add:
;C:\msys\1.0\bin;C:\mingw\bin
Finally open a command prompt (cmd) and test the installation with the following commands:
make --version
g++ --version
Now you are ready to execute your first program in C++. In Eclipse go to Window
Open Perspective Other and choose C/C++. Go to File New C++ Project. In
the window that opens, enter a project name and choose Hello World C++ Project under
Executable. If you dont have a folder called Executable uncheck Show project types
and toolchains only if they are supported on the platform. Now you also have to select a
toolchain for your project, choose MinGW GCC. Click Finish. If you did everything right,
your project is automatically build and a Debug folder is created with an .exe executable.
Now right click on your project and choose Properties and go to Run/Debug Settings. If
there are no configurations available, create a new one using the default settings. Exit the
properties.
Important! You have to repeat this step for every new project you create.
Now right click on your project and choose Run As 1 Local C/C++ Application. Now
the building is done again and the program executed in the console showing
Hello World!!!
meaning you just successfully compiled and ran your first program.2 If you are asked about
a debugger, choose gdb/mi, although the others will probably work as well.
2
If you are receiving the error Launch Failed. Binary Not Found. you have probably selected the wrong
toolchain. You can create a new project with the correct toolchain, but there is a quicker way to fix this problem:
right click on your project folder and choose Properties. Go to C/C++ Build Tool Chain Editor. Change your
Current toolchain to MinGW GCC. Now go to Settings and select the tab Binary Parser. Uncheck all but check
PE Windows Parser. Exit the properties and try to run again.

1.2.2

Ubuntu

For Ubuntu you have to install the GCC C++ compiler, which is contained in the package
build-essential.
Open a terminal and enter:
sudo apt-get install build-essential
Or, go to the Synaptic Package Manager and enter essential in the search field. Select
build-essential and press apply.
Open a terminal and test the installation with the following commands:
make --version
g++ --version
Now you are ready to execute your first program in C++. In Eclipse go to Window
Open Perspective Other and choose C/C++. Go to File New C++ Project. In
the window that opens, enter a project name and choose Hello World C++ Project under
Executable. Choose Linux GCC. Click Finish. If you did everything right, your project is
automatically build and a Debug folder is created with an .exe executable.
Now right click on your project and choose Run As 1 Local C/C++ Application. Now
the building is done again and the program executed in the console showing
Hello World!!!
meaning you just successfully compiled and ran your first program.

1.3

Installing freeglut

Now that we can program in C++ we need to install freeglut. freeglut is an open-source alternative
to the GLUT (OpenGL Utility Toolkit) library. Mark Kilgard wrote GLUT originally to support
the sample programs of the OpenGL Redbook, the official guide to learning OpenGL. freeglut was
developed because the most recent version of the GLUT library (3.7) dates back to August 1998,
and needed improvement.
Again installing freeglut is very different on Windows and Ubuntu, so they are explained separately.
1.3.1

Windows

For Windows you have to download and extract Martin Paynes binaries for MinGW which are
available at http://www.transmissionzero.co.uk/software/freeglut-devel/.
Copy the file freeglut.dll to
C:\Windows\System32
Copy the contents of include\GL to the same folder of your MinGW installation, typically
3

C:\MinGW\include\GL
Finally, also copy the contents of lib to the same folder of your MinGW installation, typically
C:\MinGW\lib
Open or restart Eclipse. Now we need to link the freeglut binaries to our compiler. Right
click on you project and select Properties. Go to C/C++ Build Settings and select the
tab Tool Settings. Now select Libraries under MinGW C++ Linker. Add the following
entries to the libraries:
glu32
opengl32
freeglut
Important! You also need to repeat this step for every project you create.
You should now be able to run the example program in Sec. 1.4. Create a new empty project
with the correct toolchain and properties. Create a new source file (with extension .cpp)
and copy paste the code into your source file. Now save, and run the program. If nothing
happens, check the instructions on the run and debug settings in Sec. 1.2.1.
Important! Remember that if you want to share your program with other people, they need
to have the same freeglut.dll as you do.
1.3.2

Ubuntu

Again, it is easier to install freeglut in Ubuntu than it is in Windows.

Open a terminal and enter:
sudo apt-get install freeglut3 freeglut3-dev
Or, go to the Synaptic Package Manager and enter glut in the search field. Select freeglut3
and freeglut3-dev and press apply.
Open or restart Eclipse. Now we need to link the freeglut binaries to our compiler. Right
click on you project and select Properties. Go to C/C++ Build Settings and select the
tab Tool Settings. Now select Libraries under GCC C++ Linker. Add the following entry
to the libraries:
glut
Important! You need to repeat this step for every project you create.
You should now be able to run the example program in Sec. 1.4. Create a new empty project
with the correct toolchain and properties. Create a new source file (with extension .cpp) and
copy paste the code into your source file. Now save, and run the program.

1.4

Sample Program

Fig. 1 contains a sample program to test your configuration:

4

#include <GL/glut.h>
#define window_width 640
#define window_height 480
// Main loop
void main_loop_function()
{
// Z angle
static float angle;
// Clear color (screen)
// And depth (used internally to block obstructed objects)
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
// Load identity matrix
glLoadIdentity();
// Multiply in translation matrix
glTranslatef(0,0, -10);
// Multiply in rotation matrix
glRotatef(angle, 0, 0, 1);
// Render colored quad
glBegin(GL_QUADS);
glColor3ub(255, 000, 000); glVertex2f(-1, 1);
glColor3ub(000, 255, 000); glVertex2f( 1, 1);
glColor3ub(000, 000, 255); glVertex2f( 1, -1);
glColor3ub(255, 255, 000); glVertex2f(-1, -1);
glEnd();
// Swap buffers (color buffers, makes previous render visible)
glutSwapBuffers();
// Increase angle to rotate
angle+=0.25;
}
// Initialize OpenGL perspective matrix
void GL_Setup(int width, int height)
{
glViewport( 0, 0, width, height );
glMatrixMode( GL_PROJECTION );
glEnable( GL_DEPTH_TEST );
gluPerspective( 45, (float)width/height, .1, 100 );
glMatrixMode( GL_MODELVIEW );
}
// Initialize GLUT and start main loop
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
glutInit(&argc, argv);
glutInitWindowSize(window_width, window_height);
glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_RGB | GLUT_DOUBLE);
glutCreateWindow("GLUT Example!!!");
glutIdleFunc(main_loop_function);
GL_Setup(window_width, window_height);
glutMainLoop();
}
Figure 1: A sample program to test your configuration.