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| Debian 11 comes with Mesa 20.1 which supports the Mali 400 and 450 GPUs via the Lima driver, and Mali Gxx/T6xx/T7xx/T8xx GPUs via the Panfrost driver. This will cover most modern ARM !SoCs, including those found in the Pinebook and Pinebook Pro devices. Mali Gxx devices (also known as "Bifrost" chips) are supported experimentally and require an extra environment variable to be set before they'll use the Panfrost driver, as documented in the Configuration section below. |
Debian 11 comes with Mesa 20.3 which supports the Mali 400 and 450 GPUs via the Lima driver, and various Mali G-series and T-series GPUs via the Panfrost driver. This will cover most modern ARM !SoCs, including those found in the Pinebook and Pinebook Pro devices. Mali Gxx devices (also known as "Bifrost" chips) are supported experimentally and require an extra environment variable to be set before they'll use the Panfrost driver, as documented in the Configuration section below. |
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| In terms of specifically supported !SoCs, anything using an RK3288, RK3399, S912, Exynos 7580, MT6735, or MT6753 chip should certainly work without any issues. But as long as your GPU isn't too particularly new or old (Midgard and Bifrost being the most comprehensively supported revisions), you should expect it to function. |
In terms of specifically supported GPUs, Panfrost mainly supports the Mali T720 (only up to OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0), Mali T760, Mali T820, Mali T860, Mali G72, Mali G31, and Mali G52. Other Midgard and Bifrost chips (T604, T620, T830, T880, G71, G51, G76) may work but may be buggy. |
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| Most of the hardware in question theoretically supports OpenGL ES 3.0, Vulkan 1.1, and OpenGL 4.6. In reality, the drivers have mainly targeted and optimized for OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 so far. |
Most of the hardware in question theoretically supports OpenGL ES 3.0, Vulkan 1.1, and OpenGL 4.6. Currently, the Panfrost driver only officially supports OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES 3.0 at this time. |
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| OpenGL ES 3.0 is experimentally available but may have worse performance than OpenGL ES 2.0 and may not support the full specification, leading to strange rendering issues in applications expecting certain features to be available. |
The Panfrost driver stack implementations of OpenGL and OpenGL ES are '''non-conformant''', as per the official documentation. OpenGL 3.1 is experimentally available but may still have other miscellaneous issues, potentially leading to strange rendering issues in applications expecting certain features to be available. |
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| Between the Panfrost/Lima driver and the non-free drivers also packaged and in Debian/non-free, the Panfrost/Lima driver is almost always recommended. However, incomplete support for OpenGL ES 3.0 and nonexistent support for Vulkan may be a concern for some use-cases. |
Between the Panfrost/Lima driver and the non-free drivers also packaged and in Debian/non-free,the Panfrost/Lima driver is almost always recommended. However, incomplete support for OpenGL and nonexistent support for Vulkan may be a concern for some use-cases. |
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| and even demonstrating better performance than the non-free driver in Panfrost/Lima with many workloads. | and even demonstrating better performance than the non-free driver in Panfrost/Lima with many workloads. |
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| Experimentation is recommended if you're in a performance or compatibility-critical environment, however average desktop users should stick with the Panfrost/Lima drivers to see the best stability. |
Experimentation is recommended if you're in a performance or compatibility-critical environment, however average desktop users should stick with the Panfrost/Lima drivers to see the best stability. |
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| For OpenCL support, you'll need to also install the DebianPkg:mesa-opencl-icd package. Install the DebianPkg:mesa-va-drivers and DebianPkg:mesa-vdpau-drivers packages for hardware video acceleration. |
OpenCL support is not implemented yet. Hardware video acceleration is not within the scope of the Panfrost or Lima drivers. |
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| Support for GPUs from the Bifrost series, often the Mali-Gxx chips, is still in-development and requires some extra effort to enable. All major features should be there, and a typical GNOME or KDE Plasma desktop running on Xorg or Wayland should have no issues. OpenGL ES 3.0 support is currently unimplemented however, restricting it to only OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenGL 2.1. |
Support for GPUs from the Bifrost series, the Mali-Gxx chips, is still in-development and requires some extra effort to enable. All major features should be there, and a typical GNOME or KDE Plasma desktop running on Xorg or Wayland should have no issues. |
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| by setting the appropriate environment variable in a {{{/etc/environment.d/panfrost-enable-bifrost.conf}}} file and add the text: | by setting the appropriate environment variable in a {{{/etc/environment.d/panfrost-enable-bifrost.conf}}} file and add the text: |
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| == Enable OpenGL ES 3.0 support == | == Enable OpenGL 3.1 support == |
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| In the version of Mesa that comes with Debian 11 (Mesa 20.1), Panfrost supports OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 without any further tweaks necessary. Support for OpenGL ES 3.0 is available albeit unfinished, and does require a tweak to enable. |
In the version of Mesa that comes with Debian 11 (Mesa 20.3), Panfrost supports OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES 3.0 without any further tweaks necessary. Support for OpenGL 3.1 is available albeit unfinished, and does require a tweak to enable. |
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| Set the {{{PAN_MESA_DEBUG}}} environment variable to {{{gles3}}}. | Set the {{{PAN_MESA_DEBUG}}} environment variable to {{{gl3}}}. |
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| export PAN_MESA_DEBUG=gles3 | export PAN_MESA_DEBUG=gl3 |
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| PAN_MESA_DEBUG=gles3 supertuxkart | PAN_MESA_DEBUG=gl3 supertuxkart |
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| you can create a {{{/etc/environment.d/panfrost-enable-gles3.conf}}} file and add the text then reboot your PC: | you can create a {{{/etc/environment.d/panfrost-enable-gl3.conf}}} file and add the following text, then reboot your PC: |
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| PAN_MESA_DEBUG="gles3" | PAN_MESA_DEBUG="gl3" |
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| * The Panfrost documentation - https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/blob/master/docs/drivers/panfrost.rst |
Translation(s): none
Applies to an unreleased Debian version
Panfrost and Lima are only included in Debian 11 and newer, which is currently unreleased. All information here is tentative, and is subject to change as Debian 11 is developed.
Detailed information on Mali GPUs, and instructions on installing the proprietary drivers, can be found on the MaliGraphics page. This page is dedicated to documenting the new open-source Panfrost and Lima drivers introduced in Debian 11, including any tweaks and issue workarounds.
The free and open-source Panfrost and Lima drivers for Mali GPUs are part of Mesa and are fully free software. Compared to the proprietary drivers, they have much better stability and software compatibility and are recommended for the average user.
The Lima driver provides support for the older "Utgard" Mali GPUs, while Panfrost provides support for the newer Midgard and Bifrost GPUs. Valhall support is pending.
Contents
Hardware support
Debian 11 comes with Mesa 20.3 which supports the Mali 400 and 450 GPUs via the Lima driver, and various Mali G-series and T-series GPUs via the Panfrost driver. This will cover most modern ARM SoCs, including those found in the Pinebook and Pinebook Pro devices. Mali Gxx devices (also known as "Bifrost" chips) are supported experimentally and require an extra environment variable to be set before they'll use the Panfrost driver, as documented in the Configuration section below.
In terms of specifically supported GPUs, Panfrost mainly supports the Mali T720 (only up to OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0), Mali T760, Mali T820, Mali T860, Mali G72, Mali G31, and Mali G52.
Other Midgard and Bifrost chips (T604, T620, T830, T880, G71, G51, G76) may work but may be buggy.
Software support
Most of the hardware in question theoretically supports OpenGL ES 3.0, Vulkan 1.1, and OpenGL 4.6. Currently, the Panfrost driver only officially supports OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES 3.0 at this time.
The Panfrost driver stack implementations of OpenGL and OpenGL ES are non-conformant, as per the official documentation.
OpenGL 3.1 is experimentally available but may still have other miscellaneous issues, potentially leading to strange rendering issues in applications expecting certain features to be available. See the "Configuration" section below for instructions on how to use it.
Which driver should I use?
Between the Panfrost/Lima driver and the non-free drivers also packaged and in Debian/non-free,the Panfrost/Lima driver is almost always recommended. However, incomplete support for OpenGL and nonexistent support for Vulkan may be a concern for some use-cases. Some workloads may also see better performance with the non-free driver, though successive Mesa versions are closing this gap and even demonstrating better performance than the non-free driver in Panfrost/Lima with many workloads.
Experimentation is recommended if you're in a performance or compatibility-critical environment, however average desktop users should stick with the Panfrost/Lima drivers to see the best stability.
Installation
Both the Panfrost and Lima drivers are included in Mesa and should work out-of-the-box after installing the relevant packages (which are, in practice, libglx-mesa0 and libgl1-mesa-dri).
OpenCL support is not implemented yet. Hardware video acceleration is not within the scope of the Panfrost or Lima drivers.
Configuration
Enable support for Mali "Bifrost" GPUs
Support for GPUs from the Bifrost series, the Mali-Gxx chips, is still in-development and requires some extra effort to enable. All major features should be there, and a typical GNOME or KDE Plasma desktop running on Xorg or Wayland should have no issues.
It's best to enable system-wide support by setting the appropriate environment variable in a /etc/environment.d/panfrost-enable-bifrost.conf file and add the text:
PAN_MESA_DEBUG="bifrost"
Then reboot your system to activate your GPU.
Enable OpenGL 3.1 support
In the version of Mesa that comes with Debian 11 (Mesa 20.3), Panfrost supports OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES 3.0 without any further tweaks necessary. Support for OpenGL 3.1 is available albeit unfinished, and does require a tweak to enable.
Set the PAN_MESA_DEBUG environment variable to gl3. This can be done temporarily for a given terminal session by running
export PAN_MESA_DEBUG=gl3
Or by prefixing a single command with it in order to apply it just for that application, as with:
PAN_MESA_DEBUG=gl3 supertuxkart
To set it persistently across your whole system, you can create a /etc/environment.d/panfrost-enable-gl3.conf file and add the following text, then reboot your PC:
PAN_MESA_DEBUG="gl3"
See also
The Lima project page - https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/lima/
The Panfrost project page - https://panfrost.freedesktop.org/
The Panfrost documentation - https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/blob/master/docs/drivers/panfrost.rst