diff --git a/gapic/src/platform/BUILD.bazel b/gapic/src/platform/BUILD.bazel
index 9ca9c30840..0f7e2a668d 100644
--- a/gapic/src/platform/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/gapic/src/platform/BUILD.bazel
@@ -24,4 +24,32 @@ java_library(
         "//gapic/third_party:lwjgl",
         "//gapic/third_party:swt",
     ],
+    resources = select({
+        "//tools/build:linux": [":liblinux_glcanvas.so"],
+        "//conditions:default": [],
+    }),
+    resource_strip_prefix = "gapic/src/platform/",
+)
+
+cc_binary(
+    name = "liblinux_glcanvas.so",
+    srcs = ["linux/glcanvas.cc"],
+    deps = [
+        ":jni.h",
+        ":jni_md.h"
+    ],
+    linkopts = ["-lGL", "-lX11"],
+    linkshared = 1,
+)
+
+cc_library(
+    name = "jni.h",
+    hdrs = ["@local_jdk//:jni_header"],
+    strip_include_prefix = "/external/local_jdk/include",
+)
+
+cc_library(
+    name = "jni_md.h",
+    hdrs = ["@local_jdk//:jni_md_header-linux"],
+    strip_include_prefix = "/external/local_jdk/include/linux",
 )
diff --git a/gapic/src/platform/linux/com/google/gapid/glcanvas/GlCanvas.java b/gapic/src/platform/linux/com/google/gapid/glcanvas/GlCanvas.java
index a731fc6639..6e28cdfbbb 100644
--- a/gapic/src/platform/linux/com/google/gapid/glcanvas/GlCanvas.java
+++ b/gapic/src/platform/linux/com/google/gapid/glcanvas/GlCanvas.java
@@ -15,36 +15,204 @@
  */
 package com.google.gapid.glcanvas;
 
-import org.eclipse.swt.opengl.GLCanvas;
-import org.eclipse.swt.opengl.GLData;
+import static java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE;
+
+import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
+import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Rectangle;
+import org.eclipse.swt.internal.DPIUtil;
+import org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.GdkWindowAttr;
+import org.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.OS;
+import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Canvas;
 import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite;
+import org.lwjgl.PointerBuffer;
+import org.lwjgl.opengl.GL;
+import org.lwjgl.opengl.GLX;
+import org.lwjgl.opengl.GLX13;
+import org.lwjgl.opengl.GLX14;
+import org.lwjgl.opengl.GLXCapabilities;
+import org.lwjgl.system.Library;
+import org.lwjgl.system.MemoryStack;
+import org.lwjgl.system.linux.X11;
+import org.lwjgl.system.linux.XVisualInfo;
+
+import java.nio.IntBuffer;
+import java.util.logging.Logger;
+
+public abstract class GlCanvas extends Canvas {
+  private static final Logger LOG = Logger.getLogger(GlCanvas.class.getName());
+
+  private static final boolean jniLibraryLoaded;
+
+  static {
+    boolean loaded = false;
+    try {
+      Library.loadSystem("linux_glcanvas");
+      loaded = true;
+    } catch (UnsatisfiedLinkError e) {
+      LOG.log(SEVERE, "Failed to load GlCanvas JNI library", e);
+    }
+    jniLibraryLoaded = loaded;
+  }
+
+  private long gdkWindow;
+  private long xWindow;
+  private long context;
 
-// On linux, simply use the SWT GLCanvas as it works fine out of the box.
-public abstract class GlCanvas extends GLCanvas {
   public GlCanvas(Composite parent, int style) {
-    super(parent, style, getGlData());
-    // TODO: hook in the the terminate - currently the dispose event would always be *after* the
-    // parent's dispose handling, which destroys the context and looses the context pointer. The
-    // below can thus lead to crashes if any context is bound on the current thread (UI thread, so
-    // this does indeed happen).
-    //addListener(SWT.Dispose, e -> terminate());
+    super(parent, style);
+    if (jniLibraryLoaded && createContext()) {
+      addListener(SWT.Resize, e -> {
+        Rectangle clientArea = DPIUtil.autoScaleUp(getClientArea());
+        OS.gdk_window_move(gdkWindow, clientArea.x, clientArea.y);
+        OS.gdk_window_resize(gdkWindow, clientArea.width, clientArea.height);
+      });
+      addListener(SWT.Dispose, e -> {
+        long display = getXDisplay();
+        if (context != 0) {
+          terminate();
+          GLX.glXMakeCurrent(display, 0, 0);
+          GLX.glXDestroyContext(display, context);
+          context = 0;
+        }
+        if (gdkWindow != 0) {
+          OS.gdk_window_destroy(gdkWindow);
+          gdkWindow = 0;
+        }
+      });
+    }
   }
 
-  private static GLData getGlData() {
-    GLData result = new GLData();
-    result.doubleBuffer = true;
-    result.sampleBuffers = 1;
-    result.samples = 4;
-    return result;
+  private boolean createContext() {
+    OS.gtk_widget_realize(handle);
+    long display = getXDisplay();
+    int screen = X11.XDefaultScreen(display);
+
+    GLXCapabilities glxCaps = GL.createCapabilitiesGLX(display, screen);
+    if (!glxCaps.GLX13 || !glxCaps.GLX_ARB_create_context || !glxCaps.GLX_ARB_create_context_profile) {
+      LOG.log(SEVERE, "Inssufficient GLX capabilities. GLX13: " + glxCaps.GLX13 +
+          " GLX_ARB_create_context: " + glxCaps.GLX_ARB_create_context +
+          " GLX_ARB_create_context_profile: " + glxCaps.GLX_ARB_create_context_profile);
+      return false;
+    }
+
+    long config = chooseConfig(glxCaps, display);
+    if (config == -1) {
+      return false;
+    }
+
+    if (!createWindow(display, config)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+
+    context = createContext0(display, config);
+    if (context == 0) {
+      LOG.log(SEVERE, "Failed to create an OpenGL 3.2 Core context");
+      return false;
+    }
+
+    return true;
   }
 
-  public boolean isOpenGL() {
-    // TODO: do our own initialization, so we can handle the failure case.
+  private static long chooseConfig(GLXCapabilities glxCaps, long display) {
+    try (MemoryStack stack = MemoryStack.stackPush()) {
+      IntBuffer attr = stack.mallocInt(60);
+      set(attr, GLX13.GLX_X_RENDERABLE, 1);
+      set(attr, GLX13.GLX_DRAWABLE_TYPE, GLX13.GLX_WINDOW_BIT);
+      set(attr, GLX13.GLX_RENDER_TYPE, GLX13.GLX_RGBA_BIT);
+      set(attr, GLX13.GLX_X_VISUAL_TYPE, GLX13.GLX_TRUE_COLOR);
+      set(attr, GLX.GLX_DOUBLEBUFFER, 1);
+      set(attr, GLX.GLX_RED_SIZE, 8);
+      set(attr, GLX.GLX_GREEN_SIZE, 8);
+      set(attr, GLX.GLX_BLUE_SIZE, 8);
+      set(attr, GLX.GLX_DEPTH_SIZE, 24);
+      if (glxCaps.GLX14 || glxCaps.GLX_ARB_multisample) {
+        set(attr, GLX14.GLX_SAMPLE_BUFFERS, 1);
+        set(attr, GLX14.GLX_SAMPLES, 4);
+      }
+      set(attr, X11.None, X11.None);
+
+      attr.flip();
+      PointerBuffer configs = GLX13.glXChooseFBConfig(display, X11.XDefaultScreen(display), attr);
+      if (configs == null || configs.capacity() < 1) {
+        LOG.log(SEVERE, "glXChooseFBConfig returned no matching configs");
+        return -1;
+      }
+
+      long config = configs.get(0);
+      X11.XFree(configs);
+      return config;
+    }
+  }
+
+  private boolean createWindow(long display, long config) {
+    try (XVisualInfo visual = GLX13.glXGetVisualFromFBConfig(display, config)) {
+      if (visual == null) {
+        LOG.log(SEVERE, "glXGetVisualFromFBConfig returned null");
+        return false;
+      }
+
+      GdkWindowAttr attrs = new GdkWindowAttr();
+      attrs.width = 1;
+      attrs.height = 1;
+      attrs.event_mask = OS.GDK_KEY_PRESS_MASK | OS.GDK_KEY_RELEASE_MASK |
+          OS.GDK_FOCUS_CHANGE_MASK | OS.GDK_POINTER_MOTION_MASK |
+          OS.GDK_BUTTON_PRESS_MASK | OS.GDK_BUTTON_RELEASE_MASK |
+          OS.GDK_ENTER_NOTIFY_MASK | OS.GDK_LEAVE_NOTIFY_MASK |
+          OS.GDK_EXPOSURE_MASK | OS.GDK_POINTER_MOTION_HINT_MASK;
+      attrs.window_type = OS.GDK_WINDOW_CHILD;
+      attrs.visual =
+          OS.gdk_x11_screen_lookup_visual(OS.gdk_screen_get_default(), (int)visual.visualid());
+      gdkWindow = OS.gdk_window_new(OS.gtk_widget_get_window(handle), attrs, OS.GDK_WA_VISUAL);
+      if (gdkWindow == 0) {
+        LOG.log(SEVERE, "Failed to create the GDK window");
+        return false;
+      }
+      OS.gdk_window_set_user_data(gdkWindow, handle);
+    }
+
+    xWindow = (OS.GTK3) ?
+        OS.gdk_x11_window_get_xid(gdkWindow) : OS.gdk_x11_drawable_get_xid(gdkWindow);
+    OS.gdk_window_show(gdkWindow);
     return true;
   }
 
+  private static void set(IntBuffer buf, int name, int value) {
+    buf.put(name).put(value);
+  }
+
+  private static native long createContext0(long display, long config);
+
+  public boolean isOpenGL() {
+    return context != 0;
+  }
+
+  public void setCurrent() {
+    if (context == 0) {
+      return;
+    }
+
+    checkWidget();
+    GLX.glXMakeCurrent(getXDisplay(), xWindow, context);
+  }
+
+  public void swapBuffers () {
+    if (context == 0) {
+      return;
+    }
+
+    checkWidget();
+    GLX.glXSwapBuffers(getXDisplay(), xWindow);
+  }
+
   /**
    * Override to perform GL cleanup handling.
    */
   protected abstract void terminate();
+
+  private long getXDisplay() {
+    long window = OS.gtk_widget_get_window(handle);
+    return (OS.GTK_VERSION >= OS.VERSION(2, 24, 0)) ?
+        OS.gdk_x11_display_get_xdisplay(OS.gdk_window_get_display(window)) :
+        OS.gdk_x11_drawable_get_xdisplay(window);
+  }
 }
diff --git a/gapic/src/platform/linux/glcanvas.cc b/gapic/src/platform/linux/glcanvas.cc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bf00dcc8e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gapic/src/platform/linux/glcanvas.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2017 Google Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+#include <jni.h>
+#include <GL/glx.h>
+
+#include <stdio.h>
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+extern "C" {
+#endif
+
+/**
+ * Native JNI helper function to create an OpenGL 3.2 Core context.
+ * This is done in native code to catch the X11 error, when creating
+ * the context, to prevent it from taking down the whole process.
+ */
+JNIEXPORT jlong JNICALL Java_com_google_gapid_glcanvas_GlCanvas_createContext0(
+    JNIEnv* env, jlong clazz, Display* display, GLXFBConfig config) {
+  PFNGLXCREATECONTEXTATTRIBSARBPROC glXCreateContextAttribsARB =
+      (PFNGLXCREATECONTEXTATTRIBSARBPROC)glXGetProcAddress(
+        (const GLubyte*)"glXCreateContextAttribsARB");
+  if (glXCreateContextAttribsARB == nullptr) {
+    // This shouldn't really happen, as we check this Java side.
+    return 0;
+  }
+
+  const int attr[] = {
+      GLX_RENDER_TYPE, GLX_RGBA_TYPE,
+      GLX_CONTEXT_MAJOR_VERSION_ARB, 3,
+      GLX_CONTEXT_MINOR_VERSION_ARB, 2,
+      GLX_CONTEXT_PROFILE_MASK_ARB, GLX_CONTEXT_CORE_PROFILE_BIT_ARB,
+      None,
+  };
+  auto oldHandler = XSetErrorHandler([](Display*, XErrorEvent*)->int{ return 0; });
+  auto context = glXCreateContextAttribsARB(display, config, 0, true, attr);
+  XSetErrorHandler(oldHandler);
+
+  return (jlong)context;
+}
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+}
+#endif