Works fine for me on Ubuntu 13.04. Could be a graphics driver issue on your side. For instance, does the following work for you?
sudo apt-get install vtk-examples cd /usr/share/vtk/Tutorial/Step1/Python/ python Cone.py
Works fine for me on Ubuntu 13.04. Could be a graphics driver issue on your side. For instance, does the following work for you?
sudo apt-get install vtk-examples vtk/Tutorial/ Step1/Python/
cd /usr/share/
python Cone.py