The purpose of this page is to describe how the ARM MALI driver is integrated into Xilinx

Overview

Driver access and license

• 2019.1
  • Summary
    • The variable to toggle different backend has been decoupled from DISTRO_FEATURES. A new variable "MALI_BACKEND_DEFAULT" is used to set select backend.
    • Customer can now toggle libMali backend at runtime using update-alternatives. (details can be found below)

• 2018.3
  • Summary
    • In addition to fbdev and X11, Mali now supports wayland/GBM and Headless-EGL backend. (details can be found below)
    • Mali kernel driver patches can be found https://gitenterprise.xilinx.com/Yocto/meta-xilinx/blob/rel-v2018.3/meta-xilinx-bsp/recipes-graphics/mali/kernel-module-mali.bb

• 2018.1
  • Summary
    • Upgrade to r8p0-01rel0: https://developer.arm.com/products/software/mali-drivers/utgard-kernel
    • Fix for compatibility with 4.14 Linux kernel
    • Patches available in https://github.com/Xilinx/meta-xilinx/tree/rel-v2018.1/meta-xilinx-bsp/recipes-graphics/mali/kernel-module-mali
• 2017.3
  • Summary
    • No change in kernel module
    • Fixed the linker issue in the user space library
• 2017.1
  • Summary
    • The in-tree source code has been deprecated
    • Upgrade to r7pp: https://developer.arm.com/products/software/mali-drivers/utgard-kernel#
    • Fix for compatibility with 4.9 Linux kernel
    • Patches available in https://github.com/Xilinx/meta-xilinx/tree/rel-v2017.1/recipes-graphics/mali/kernel-module-mali
• 2016.3
  • Summary
    • Remove compilation warning
    • Fix build error when profiling is enabled
  • Commits
    • 51056e4 staging: mali: r5p1-01rel0: Don't include mali_read_phys() for zynq/zynqmp
      dadb5e4 staging: mali: r5p1-01rel0: Remove unused trace macros

Selecting particular backends:

Wayland/GBM backend:

2019.1:

From 2019.1 release, selecting Mali backend is decoupled from 'DISTRO_FEATURES', another variable is introduced 'MALI_BACKEND_DEFAULT' to create proper link. By default, plnx build system will try to package all the backends in the rootfs and depending upon the value of 'MALI_BACKEND_DEFAULT' we create a link to the correct backend. For example: select libmali and add following parameters to <plnx-proj-root>/project-spec/meta-user/conf/petalinuxbsp.conf to select wayland. Fbdev, X11, wayland and headless are choices we have, assigning incorrect name would yield a link to headless.(Always check for typo).

MALI_BACKEND_DEFAULT = "wayland"

Users can still modify DISTRO_FEATURES, in order to reduce the size of rootfs, but remember selecting Mali backend wont be impacted.

2018.3:

From 2018.3 release, Mali will support wayland/GBM backend in addition to fbdev and X11. Inorder to enable wayland backend support, please add following parameters to <plnx-proj-root>/project-spec/meta-user/conf/petalinuxbsp.conf and unselect 'packagegroup-petalinux-matchbox' and 'packagegroup-petalinux-x11' from 'petalinux-config -c rootfs' and perform a 'petalinux-build'

DISTRO_FEATURES_append = " wayland"
IMAGE_INSTALL_append = " packagegroup-petalinux-weston"

This packagegroup ensures all the essential wayland/weston packages are packaged into the root filesystem for having a wayland/weston application work out of the box. On boot, export following parameter in your terminal console.

export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/0/

Now, you can run sample benchmarking application glmark2-es2-wayland. Similarly, you can glmark2-es2-drm application, but ensure that weston is not running as weston also uses drm backend.

X11 backend:

By default, Mali supports X11 backend. Just select libmali-xlnx package from 'petalinux-config -c rootfs'. The root filesystem should now have libmali with X11 support. Also, please select atleast one of the window manager for example, packagegroup-petalinux-matchbox.