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Open source Linux GPU drivers Mesa 21.2 released

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Here we go, we have another big upgrade for open source graphics drivers with Mesa 21.2 officially out now.

Announced by the developer Dylan Baker, they noted in the announcement "This has been a pretty smooth release cycle so far, and we've had very few release-blocking issues, as such We've actually released on time with no additional RCs! As usual, this is a .0 release, and those of you seeking stability over features likely want to wait 2 weeks for 21.2.1.".

From the release notes here's what's new and has been hooked up:

  • zink supports GL_ARB_texture_filter_minmax, GL_ARB_shader_clock
  • VK_EXT_provoking_vertex on RADV.
  • VK_EXT_extended_dynamic_state2 on RADV.
  • VK_EXT_global_priority_query on RADV.
  • VK_EXT_physical_device_drm on RADV.
  • VK_KHR_shader_subgroup_uniform_control_flow on Intel and RADV.
  • VK_EXT_color_write_enable on RADV.
  • 32-bit x86 builds now default disable x87 math and use sse2.
  • GL ES 3.1 on GT21x hardware.
  • VK_EXT_acquire_drm_display on RADV and ANV.
  • VK_EXT_vertex_input_dynamic_state on lavapipe
  • wideLines on lavapipe
  • VK_EXT_line_rasterization on lavapipe
  • VK_EXT_multi_draw on ANV, lavapipe, and RADV
  • VK_KHR_separate_depth_stencil_layouts on lavapipe
  • VK_EXT_separate_stencil_usage on lavapipe
  • VK_EXT_extended_dynamic_state2 on lavapipe
  • NGG shader based primitive culling is now supported by RADV.
  • Panfrost supports OpenGL ES 3.1
  • New Asahi driver for the Apple M1
  • GL_ARB_sample_locations on zink
  • GL_ARB_sparse_buffer on zink
  • GL_ARB_shader_group_vote on zink
  • DRM format modifiers on zink
  • freedreno+turnip: Initial support for a6xx gen4 (a660, a635)

See more about Mesa on the official site. How soon you get an update will be distribution dependent. Arch pulls it in quite quickly, while the likes of Ubuntu would need a PPA added like the kisak-mesa fresh PPA.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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9 comments

Naib Aug 5, 2021
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Is the missing piece for Wayland and Nvidia ?

We have the driver (470). We have Xwayland (21.1.2). But there was still something missing
AsciiWolf Aug 5, 2021
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I wonder what is the state of Ray tracing support on AMD GPUs with Mesa. Does anyone have more info?
kon14 Aug 5, 2021
Quoting: NaibIs the missing piece for Wayland and Nvidia ?

We have the driver (470). We have Xwayland (21.1.2). But there was still something missing

You can use Gnome and KDE on Wayland with Nvidia ever since 470, but you're doing so using the suboptibal EGL Streams backends while also being limited to these two compositors.

Mesa merged external GBM support so that Nvidia can finally work as expected on every sincle compositor, but we're still missing a new driver release adding Nvidia-side support for this.
whizse Aug 5, 2021
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Quoting: AsciiWolfI wonder what is the state of Ray tracing support on AMD GPUs with Mesa. Does anyone have more info?
If you missed it: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/07/ray-tracing-with-amd-radv-on-linux-gets-closer-with-the-worlds-slowest-raytracer
pete910 Aug 5, 2021
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Quoting: NaibIs the missing piece for Wayland and Nvidia ?

We have the driver (470). We have Xwayland (21.1.2). But there was still something missing

An AMD GPU
Naib Aug 5, 2021
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Quoting: kon14
Quoting: NaibIs the missing piece for Wayland and Nvidia ?

We have the driver (470). We have Xwayland (21.1.2). But there was still something missing

You can use Gnome and KDE on Wayland with Nvidia ever since 470, but you're doing so using the suboptibal EGL Streams backends while also being limited to these two compositors.

Mesa merged external GBM support so that Nvidia can finally work as expected on every sincle compositor, but we're still missing a new driver release adding Nvidia-side support for this.

Thats what I thought... I won't go near GNOME/KDE. You can launch sway/wayfire with 470 but it is slightly laggy and equally Xwayland is laggy... the missing part was obviously Nvidia accepting GBM so this mesa release closes it but yes... a new nvidia driver is needed. hopefully something soon to replace 470.57.02, maybe nvidia was waiting for mesa
TheRiddick Aug 6, 2021
Quoting: AsciiWolfDoes anyone have more info?

Probably at least 6months away. RADV isn't making leaps and bounds type of progress with RT support unfortunately, at least at playable functional levels where you could enable it in games (inc proton).

I really wanted to enable it in The Ascent but I guess we'll have to wait.
kon14 Aug 6, 2021
Quoting: NaibThats what I thought... I won't go near GNOME/KDE. You can launch sway/wayfire with 470 but it is slightly laggy and equally Xwayland is laggy... the missing part was obviously Nvidia accepting GBM so this mesa release closes it but yes... a new nvidia driver is needed. hopefully something soon to replace 470.57.02, maybe nvidia was waiting for mesa

You can't launch wlroots compositors at all with 470, not without relying on the wlroots-eglstreams fork anyway.

Thankfully, driver-side support is supposed to be coming soon enough.


Last edited by kon14 on 6 August 2021 at 11:11 am UTC
Grinder Aug 8, 2021
Perhaps this is in my opinion the biggest problem in development, new features instead of solving past problems. Always encouraging for new hardware where it is often unnecessary.
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