A patch was merged at present to Mesa 23.0 as a part of the trouble for constructing the Intel OpenGL and Vulkan Linux drivers for non-x86/x86_64 architectures. That is a part of the continuing effort to allow Intel discrete GPUs to ultimately work on the likes of AArch64, POWER, and RISC-V programs.
As a part of an effort courting again months there was Intel Linux driver work for constructing on non-x86 architectures. There was some work taking place to their kernel driver whereas merged at present was the assist for constructing their OpenGL and Vulkan open-source drivers for non-x86 CPUs.
Whereas most open-source Linux graphics drivers work quite nicely throughout CPU architectures, because of the character of open-source and the Linux group, within the case of Intel’s graphics driver stack they’ve historically not wanted to care about non-x86 assist. For the years of offering built-in graphics assist, they had been clearly tied to their x86/x86_64 CPUs. However now that they’re within the discrete GPU sport with Arc Graphics and their Ponte Vecchio / Max Collection, it is an entire completely different sport. With the potential for putting in a discrete Intel GPU on a ARM64 server, RISC-V desktop, libre POWER9 desktop, and so forth, their graphics drivers want to handle the x86’isms which have constructed up of their code-base over time.
It is an ongoing effort getting the open-source Intel Linux graphics driver for discrete GPUs engaged on non-x86/x86_64 programs.
The latest step on this quest is at present including “SUPPORT_INTEL_INTEGRATED_GPUS” to their Mesa code for the Iris Gallium3D and ANV Vulkan drivers. This enables stripping out the built-in graphics driver code and simply leaving the discrete GPU assist.
The difficulty with leaving the built-in graphics driver assist current for non-x86 builds that moreover it being unused/not-possible, the driving force code explicitly requires the Intel x86/x86_64 CLFLUSH instruction for clearing cache strains. So by including “SUPPORT_INTEL_INTEGRATED_GPUS” with the flexibility to disable the iGPU assist, these CLFLUSH bits of code usually are not constructed for non-x86 programs and thereby avoiding the construct failures.
The code was a part of this merge request now in Mesa 23.0. Whereas it is sufficient to get the Intel Mesa drivers constructing for non-x86 targets, it isn’t essentially going to run but. There’s nonetheless the remainder of the kernel driver compatibility and in flip what different extra Mesa driver adjustments could also be wanted for the run-time assist on different architectures. The MR merely commented, “Solely fixing construct, extra adjustments could also be wanted. Additionally i915 kernel assist is required.“
