Comment 68 for bug 446632

I installed the mesa drivers from Ubuntu-X Updates PPA at https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates as recommended by Geir Ove Myhr on post #47. My mesa drivers have been updated to version 7.6.1~git20091217.20ee2759-0ubuntu0~xup~1(i386)

After updating, I have removed the line for "DRI" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, thus allowing "DRI" to be set to the default value of "true".

I confirm that with the new drivers, Blender works for v2.49b and v2.5-alpha0.

However, 3D programs such as "dreamchess", "pouetChess" and "extremetuxracer" are still not able to work. But I guess those are bugs for another day...

Thanks all for your help.