Introduction to Mesa
Mesa is an OpenGL compatible 3D
graphics library.
![[Note]](../images/note.png)
Note
Mesa is updated relatively
often. You may want to use the latest available 21.3.x mesa
version.
This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-11.1
platform.
Package Information
Additional Downloads
Mesa Dependencies
Required
Xorg
Libraries, libdrm-2.4.110, and Mako-1.1.6
Recommended
libva-2.13.0 (to provide VA-API support for some
gallium drivers, note that there is a circular dependency. You must
build libva first without EGL and
GLX support, install this package, and rebuild libva), libvdpau-1.4 (to
build VDPAU drivers), LLVM-13.0.1 (required for Gallium3D,
nouveau, r300, and radeonsi drivers and for swrast, the software
rasterizer which is sometimes referred to as llvmpipe. See
https://docs.mesa3d.org/systems.html
for more information), and wayland-protocols-1.25 (required for
Plasma-5.24.0, GNOME, and recommended for
GTK+-3.24.31)
Optional
libgcrypt-1.10.0, lm-sensors-3-6-0 , Nettle-3.7.3,
Valgrind-3.18.1, mesa-demos
(provides more than 300 extra demos to test Mesa; this includes the same programs added by
the patch above), Bellagio OpenMAX Integration
Layer (for mobile platforms), libunwind,
libtizonia, and libvulkan (for the zink driver)
Note
The instructions below assume that LLVM with the r600/amdgpu and host backends
and run-time type information (RTTI - needed for nouveau) are
installed. You will need to modify the instructions if you choose
not to install all of these. For an explanation of Gallium3D see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium3D.
User Notes: https://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/mesalib
Installation of Mesa
If you have downloaded the xdemos patch (needed if testing the Xorg
installation per BLFS instructions), apply it by running the
following command:
patch -Np1 -i ../mesa-21.3.6-add_xdemos-1.patch
Note
The measurements above, and the Contents below, are for a full
build. Many people will not wish to install drivers they cannot
use, so the following paragraphs explain how to limit the
drivers, and give an example which can be be reduced or amended
as necessary.
Now, select the drivers you wish to install. For the X86
architecture, the available gallium drivers are auto (in 21.2.1 this does not select crocus ),
or alternatively a choice
from crocus, i915, iris, nouveau, r300, r600, radeonsi,
svga, swrast, and virgl. The latter can provide acceleration in
qemu-6.2.0 if that has been linked against
virglrenderer
(you will need a freedesktop.org account to get to that page, you
can download the 0.9.1 release without an account from
virglrenderer-0.9.1).
The (non-gallium) DRI drivers available in X86 are auto,
or alternatively a choice
from i915, i965, nouveau, r100, r200, and swrast. Use
'auto' to build all available DRI drivers, or use an empty string
(DRI_DRIVERS="") if you wish to only build gallium drivers.
The platforms ("window systems") available for X86 linux are x11,
wayland, and surfaceless. By not specifying anything, the meson
build-system will build for all these platforms if you have the
dependencies, identical to if you had specified '-Dplatforms=auto'.
Modify the commands below for your desired drivers. The drivers
listed below will cover most modern video cards and virtual
machines. For help in selecting drivers see https://docs.mesa3d.org/systems.html.
For intel drivers, specify crocus for i965 gen 4 through to
haswell, iris for broadwell and later.
Note
Although the nouveau drivers can be built for both gallium and
dri, the i915 driver can only be built for one or the other.
GALLIUM_DRV="crocus,i915,iris,nouveau,r600,radeonsi,svga,swrast,virgl"
DRI_DRIVERS="i965,nouveau"
Note
If you are using a NVIDIA GPU in your system, a special patch has
been created that allows for proper multi-threading in the Mesa
driver. This fixes issues with multi-threaded Qt applications, as
well as with starting some GNOME Applications. This patch is also
essential if you plan to use KDE Plasma. Apply the patch using
the following command:
patch -Np1 -i ../mesa-21.3.6-nouveau_fixes-1.patch
Install Mesa by running the
following commands:
mkdir build &&
cd build &&
meson --prefix=$XORG_PREFIX \
--buildtype=release \
-Ddri-drivers=$DRI_DRIVERS \
-Dgallium-drivers=$GALLIUM_DRV \
-Dgallium-nine=false \
-Dglx=dri \
-Dvalgrind=disabled \
-Dlibunwind=disabled \
.. &&
unset GALLIUM_DRV DRI_DRIVERS &&
ninja
If you built the tests (see 'Command Explanations'), to run them
issue: ninja test.
One test, mesa:
intel/anv_state_pool, is known to fail.
Now, as the root user:
ninja install
If desired, install the optional documentation by running the
following commands as the root
user:
install -v -dm755 /usr/share/doc/mesa-21.3.6 &&
cp -rfv ../docs/* /usr/share/doc/mesa-21.3.6
Command Explanations
--buildtype=release: This
switch ensures a fully-optimized build, and disables debug
assertions which will severely slow down the libraries in certain
use-cases. Without this switch, build sizes can span into the 2GB
range.
-Ddri-drivers="...": This
parameter controls which (non-gallium) dri drivers should be built.
-Dgallium-drivers="...":
This parameter controls which Gallium3D drivers should be built.
-Dgallium-nine=false:
Prevents building support for (MS Windows) games designed for DX9.
Set it to true if this support is desired.
-Dvalgrind=disabled: This
parameter disables the usage of Valgrind during the build process.
Remove this parameter if you have Valgrind installed, and wish to
check for memory leaks.
-Dlibunwind=disabled: This
parameter disables the usage of libunwind.
-Dbuild-tests=true: This option will
cause the test code to be enabled. To run the tests, issue:
ninja test.
-Dvulkan-drivers=...: This option
allows choosing which Vulkan drivers are built. Since those drivers
depend on the corresponding Gallium3D drivers, do not enable
drivers that are not enabled in Gallium3D drivers. Furthermore,
since BLFS does not use Vulkan, it is safe to leave the list of
Vulkan drivers empty.