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

Overview

Driver access and license

• 2020.1
  • Summary

    • Mali headless egl backend now supports pixmap surface (particularly arm specific handle for dmabuf).

    • Should see incremental performance change over render to texture.

    • Customers can fetch the binaries from github repo: https://github.com/Xilinx/mali-userspace-binaries/tree/rel-v2020.1

• 2019.2
  • Summary

    • Upgrade to r9p0-01rel0: 

      • Kernel patches can be found here: https://github.com/Xilinx/meta-xilinx/tree/rel-v2019.2/meta-xilinx-bsp/recipes-graphics/mali/kernel-module-mali

    • Note: From 2019.2 onwards Xilinx will not host the binaries in the lounge

    • Customers can fetch the binaries from github repo: https://github.com/Xilinx/mali-userspace-binaries/tree/rel-v2019.2

•  2019.1
  • Summary
    • The variable to toggle different backend has been decoupled from DISTRO_FEATURES. A new variable "MALI_BACKEND_DEFAULT" is used to select backend.
    • Customer can now toggle libMali backend at runtime using update-alternatives. (details can be found below)
    • LibMali (wayland implementation) is made compatible with wayland 1.15
    • wayland-egl implementation will now come from wayland (>=1.14)
    • Bug fix in gbm implementaion  (API: gbm_bo_import)
    • Mali kernel space patches: https://github.com/Xilinx/meta-xilinx/tree/rel-v2019.1/meta-xilinx-bsp/recipes-graphics/mali/kernel-module-mali

• 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://github.com/Xilinx/meta-xilinx/tree/rel-v2018.3/meta-xilinx-bsp/recipes-graphics/mali/kernel-module-mali

• 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. Fbdev, X11, wayland and headless are the choices we have, assigning incorrect name would yield a link to headless.

For example: Once you have selected libmali through 'petalinux-config -c rootfs', add following parameters to <plnx-proj-root>/project-spec/meta-user/conf/petalinuxbsp.conf to select wayland. 

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.

For example: Once you have selected libmali through 'petalinux-config -c rootfs' unselect 'packagegroup-petalinux-matchbox' and 'packagegroup-petalinux-x11' and add following parameters to <plnx-proj-root>/project-spec/meta-user/conf/petalinuxbsp.conf 

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

This packagegroup ensures all the essential wayland/weston packages are packaged into the rootfs 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 and glmark2-es2-drm.

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 at least one window manager.

For example: packagegroup-petalinux-matchbox.