--- title: Bifrost meets GNOME: Onward & upward to zero graphics blobs description: Panfrost, the open-source Mesa driver for Mali GPUs, has achieved a major milestone: the Bifrost architecture (Mali G31) can now run GNOME 3 and Wayland... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/bifrost-meets-gnome-onward-upward-to-zero-graphics-blobs-cyeatehe4 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Bifrost meets GNOME: Onward & upward to zero graphics blobs | daily.dev og:description: Panfrost, the open-source Mesa driver for Mali GPUs, has achieved a major milestone: the Bifrost architecture (Mali G31) can now run GNOME 3 and Wayland... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/bifrost-meets-gnome-onward-upward-to-zero-graphics-blobs-cyeatehe4 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/cyeatEhe4.png og:image:alt: Bifrost meets GNOME: Onward & upward to zero graphics blobs og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Bifrost meets GNOME: Onward & upward to zero graphics blobs **[Collabora Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/collabora)** · 10 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Panfrost, the open-source Mesa driver for Mali GPUs, has achieved a major milestone: the Bifrost architecture (Mali G31) can now run GNOME 3 and Wayland compositors with zero-copy graphics using only free software. Key engineering work includes implementing new floating-point and integer ALU opcodes, texture support from vertex shaders, initial control flow/branching support for SIMT, and a redesigned Midgard IR that enables generic modifier inference and 16-bit FP support. Community contributor Icecream95 fixed depth-testing bugs affecting games like SuperTuxKart and OpenMW, optimized tiling routines, and added ASTC/ETC compressed texture support. Performance counter integration with Perfetto is also underway. All changes are upstream in Mesa with no out-of-tree patches required. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I enable Bifrost support in Panfrost/Mesa? Bifrost support in Panfrost is enabled via the environment variable `PAN_MESA_DEBUG=bifrost` on a recent upstream Mesa build. No out-of-tree patches are required — all support is included in upstream Mesa. Experimental 16-bit FP support can similarly be enabled with `PAN_MESA_DEBUG=fp16`, though that flag is considered unstable and not recommended for production use. _Developers targeting Mali Bifrost hardware track upstream Mesa changes on daily.dev._ ### What OpenGL ES features does Panfrost support on Mali Bifrost (G31)? Panfrost on Mali G31 Bifrost supports all major features of OpenGL ES 2.0 and some features of desktop OpenGL 2.1. This includes floating-point and integer ALU operations, texture sampling from vertex shaders, if/else and loop control flow, and zero-copy Wayland compositing. GNOME 3, glmark2-es2 (all scenes), Neverball, mpv, and Kodi all run successfully. _Embedded Linux developers choosing a Mali GPU stack follow Panfrost milestones on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Mesa's Rusticl Now Enables Arm Mali Panfrost Driver Support By Default](https://daily.dev/posts/mesa-s-rusticl-now-enables-arm-mali-panfrost-driver-support-by-default-itpmna5qe) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Imagination Talks Up Their Open-Source Vulkan Driver, Volcanic Architecture Plans](https://daily.dev/posts/imagination-talks-up-their-open-source-vulkan-driver-volcanic-architecture-plans-4jp2nhfyg) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Rust-Based Arm GPU Kernel Driver "Tyr" Begins Running GNOME & Basic Games](https://daily.dev/posts/rust-based-arm-gpu-kernel-driver-tyr-begins-running-gnome-basic-games-8w2bxxznp) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#gpu](https://daily.dev/tags/gpu), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#mesa](https://daily.dev/tags/mesa), [#opengl](https://daily.dev/tags/opengl) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/bifrost-meets-gnome-onward-upward-to-zero-graphics-blobs-cyeatehe4) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Bifrost meets GNOME: Onward & upward to zero graphics blobs","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/bifrost-meets-gnome-onward-upward-to-zero-graphics-blobs-cyeatehe4","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/bifrost-meets-gnome-onward-upward-to-zero-graphics-blobs-cyeatehe4"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:56:16.899Z","dateModified":"2026-10-15T02:18:35.994Z","description":"Panfrost, the open-source Mesa driver for Mali GPUs, has achieved a major milestone: the Bifrost architecture (Mali G31) can now run GNOME 3 and Wayland...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/75e95fbd3084894eef7ae34c5bd0e81a?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/75e95fbd3084894eef7ae34c5bd0e81a?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collabora Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collabora Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZGZ0FjqS--/f_auto,q_auto/v1786438306/logos/collabora?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collabora"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/bifrost-meets-gnome-onward-upward-to-zero-graphics-blobs-cyeatehe4","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"gpu,linux,mesa,opengl","timeRequired":"PT10M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collabora Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collabora"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Bifrost meets GNOME: Onward & upward to zero graphics blobs"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/bifrost-meets-gnome-onward-upward-to-zero-graphics-blobs-cyeatehe4#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I enable Bifrost support in Panfrost/Mesa?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Bifrost support in Panfrost is enabled via the environment variable `PAN_MESA_DEBUG=bifrost` on a recent upstream Mesa build. 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