I am having a very similar issue. I compiled vmtk from source and have the latest nvidia drivers installed and what I believe is the correct OpenGL version. I messed with several of the CMake VTK build settings to no avail. I also ran glxinfo which lists
Executing vmtklevelsetsegmentation ...
Please choose initialization type:
0: colliding fronts;
1: fast marching;
2: threshold;
3: isosurface;
4: seed
GL_Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.6.5
ERROR: In /home/ksansom/build/vmtk/vmtk-build/VTK/Rendering/OpenGL2/vtkOpenGLRenderWindow.cxx, line 545
vtkOSOpenGLRenderWindow (0x4a61440): GL version 2.1 with the gpu_shader4 extension is not supported by your graphics driver but is required for the new OpenGL rendering backend. Please update your OpenGL driver. If you are using Mesa please make sure you have version 10.6.5 or later and make sure your driver in Mesa supports OpenGL 3.2.
ERROR: In /home/ksansom/build/vmtk/vmtk-build/VTK/Rendering/OpenGL2/vtkShaderProgram.cxx, line 369
vtkShaderProgram (0x3ade100): 1: #version 120
2: #extension GL_EXT_gpu_shader4 : require
...
103:
ERROR: In /home/ksansom/build/vmtk/vmtk-build/VTK/Rendering/OpenGL2/vtkShaderProgram.cxx, line 370
vtkShaderProgram (0x3ade100): 0:2(12): error: extension `GL_EXT_gpu_shader4' unsupported in fragment shader