Files
marfrit-packages/arch/mesa-panvk-bifrost/README.md
T
marfrit a36cf85e06 mesa-panvk-bifrost: iter10 polish — drop sandbox bypass, pin sha256, tighten loader select
iter10 of the panvk-bifrost campaign. Eliminates the cosmetic
'--disable-gpu-sandbox' warning at brave-vulkan launch + pins the
Mesa tarball hash + makes the Vulkan ICD selection deterministic
across filesystems.

PKGBUILD changes (pkgrel: 1 -> 2):
  - install ICD JSON at /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/00-panvk-bifrost.json
    (was: /usr/lib/panvk-bifrost/icd.json — required VK_ICD_FILENAMES,
    which the GPU sandbox would strip, forcing --disable-gpu-sandbox)
  - libvulkan_panfrost.so install path unchanged at /usr/lib/panvk-bifrost/
  - sha256sums[0] pinned to 1d3c3b8a8363b8cc354175bb4a684ad8b035211cc1d6fa17aeb9b9623c513f89
    (mesa-26.0.6.tar.xz from archive.mesa3d.org); patches + brave-vulkan +
    icd.json remain SKIP since they're in-tree (git-tracked)

brave-vulkan changes:
  - dropped --no-sandbox + --disable-gpu-sandbox: env vars MESA_VK_VERSION_OVERRIDE
    and PAN_I_WANT_A_BROKEN_VULKAN_DRIVER survive the GPU sandbox boundary
    (Mesa loader reads them pre-seccomp-lockdown)
  - dropped VK_ICD_FILENAMES (loader auto-picks via icd.d/ directory scan)
  - added VK_LOADER_DRIVERS_SELECT='00-panvk-bifrost*' for deterministic
    ICD selection — Vulkan loader's readdir order is implementation-defined
    per Khronos LoaderDriverInterface, so the '00-' filename prefix is
    not spec-backed (ext4 happens to give insertion-order, other filesystems
    may not). VK_LOADER_DRIVERS_SELECT short-circuits readdir ambiguity.
    (Phase 5 review hardening.)

Test result on ohm (pre-push validation):
  - brave-vulkan launches Brave without sandbox bypass
  - seccomp-bpf sandboxes activate normally for utility/renderer processes
  - 'panvk is not a conformant Vulkan implementation' fires ONCE (loader-select
    excluded stock ICD from enumeration — only patched driver loads)
  - GPU process boots, no 'Exiting GPU process' error
  - Brave runs through full test timeout cleanly

README updated to reflect the new install layout + simplified wrapper.

Campaign artifacts: ~/src/panvk-bifrost/{phase0_findings_iter10.md,
phase8_iteration9_close.md (which iter10 polishes)}.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-05-20 12:28:29 +02:00

3.7 KiB

mesa-panvk-bifrost

Patched Mesa libvulkan_panfrost.so exposing Bifrost-gen Mali GPUs (Mali-G31/G52/G72/G76, PAN_ARCH 6/7) to Chromium-family browsers' Vulkan compositor.

Result of the panvk-bifrost campaign (~/src/panvk-bifrost/), iter9 close 2026-05-20 (technical milestone — operator-confirmed Brave window) followed by this package as the actual delivery.

What it solves

Stock Chromium / Brave on Bifrost SBCs (PineTab2, etc.) currently dies at GL bindings init:

ERROR: ui/gl/gl_context_egl.cc:120  GLES3 is unsupported and ES version fallback is disabled
ERROR: ui/gl/init/gl_factory.cc:111  Requested GL implementation not found
ERROR: components/viz/service/main/viz_main_impl.cc:189  Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization

This package makes Brave's Vulkan compositor path work on Bifrost, side-stepping the failing GL stack. Browser chrome and standard page rendering work.

Known limitations (not addressed)

  • WebGL / WebGL2 in-page: blocked. ANGLE needs VK_EXT_transform_feedback to expose GLES3 contexts; PanVk-Bifrost doesn't currently support that. Sites using WebGL will degrade or refuse.
  • VAAPI hardware video decode: unrelated to this package — see the libva-v4l2-request-fourier package for that path.

Install

# Ensure [marfrit] is in /etc/pacman.conf, then:
sudo pacman -Sy mesa-panvk-bifrost

Use

brave-vulkan                                    # launches Brave with Vulkan
brave-vulkan https://www.example.com
brave-vulkan --your-flags-here                  # extra args passed through

The launcher sets:

  • PAN_I_WANT_A_BROKEN_VULKAN_DRIVER=1 (Mesa upstream gate)
  • MESA_VK_VERSION_OVERRIDE=1.2 (apiVersion bump for ANGLE)
  • Brave flags: --use-gl=disabled --enable-features=Vulkan --use-vulkan=native --ozone-platform=x11 --ignore-gpu-blocklist

iter10 dropped VK_ICD_FILENAMES (ICD now at /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/00-panvk-bifrost.json so the Vulkan loader auto-picks it, pinned deterministically via VK_LOADER_DRIVERS_SELECT='00-panvk-bifrost*') and --no-sandbox / --disable-gpu-sandbox (env vars survive the GPU sandbox boundary without bypass).

What's in the package

  • /usr/lib/panvk-bifrost/libvulkan_panfrost.so — patched Mesa Vulkan driver (Mesa 26.0.6 + 2 sed-applied patches)
  • /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/00-panvk-bifrost.json — Vulkan ICD JSON pointing at the patched .so (Vulkan loader picks it deterministically via VK_LOADER_DRIVERS_SELECT='00-panvk-bifrost*' set by the launcher)
  • /usr/bin/brave-vulkan — launcher script

System Mesa's binary /usr/lib/libvulkan_panfrost.so is untouched. The stock panfrost_icd.json is also untouched and continues to enumerate the same Mali-G52 device — apps see both drivers in vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices and pick by index (ANGLE picks first, which becomes ours by alphabetical priority).

Co-existence

Both stock Mesa and this package can be installed. Stock Vulkan apps (vulkaninfo, vkcube, etc.) use the stock driver by default. Only apps started via brave-vulkan (or with VK_ICD_FILENAMES manually set to our path) use the patched driver.

Campaign close criterion

Per feedback_package_done_means_installable three-point check:

  1. PR merged to marfrit-packages
  2. CI green AND packages.reauktion.de/arch/aarch64/mesa-panvk-bifrost-*.pkg.tar.zst exists
  3. pacman -Ss mesa-panvk-bifrost on a fresh consumer host (e.g. ohm after pacman -Syu from clean state) returns the package + brave-vulkan launches

When all three pass, panvk-bifrost iter9 closes.