--- title: Panfrost update: A new kernel driver | daily.dev description: After two months of development, Rob Herring and Tomeu Vizoso have produced a new kernel driver for Arm Midgard and Bifrost GPUs (Panfrost) that is close to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/panfrost-update-a-new-kernel-driver-b2wpkaibn twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Panfrost update: A new kernel driver | daily.dev og:description: After two months of development, Rob Herring and Tomeu Vizoso have produced a new kernel driver for Arm Midgard and Bifrost GPUs (Panfrost) that is close to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/panfrost-update-a-new-kernel-driver-b2wpkaibn og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/B2WPkAiBN.png og:image:alt: Panfrost update: A new kernel driver 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. # Panfrost update: A new kernel driver **[Collabora Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/collabora)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary After two months of development, Rob Herring and Tomeu Vizoso have produced a new kernel driver for Arm Midgard and Bifrost GPUs (Panfrost) that is close to being accepted into the mainline Linux kernel. The existing Arm out-of-tree driver lacks DRM ABI compliance and other design requirements for mainline inclusion. The new driver targets T760 and T860 GPUs on the RK3399 SoC, with most Panfrost Mesa code already upstream and the DRM-interfacing code under review. Remaining tasks include further kernel and Mesa work before formal submission. Alyssa Rosenzweig is credited for leading the reverse-engineering and userspace implementation effort. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why can't the existing Arm Mali out-of-tree driver be merged into mainline Linux? The existing Arm out-of-tree driver, despite having an acceptable open source license, does not implement the DRM ABI and has several design considerations that make it unsuitable for mainline Linux inclusion. Without a mainline driver, users cannot keep kernels up-to-date, integration with the free software stack suffers, and SoC/BSP vendors are discouraged from submitting their code upstream. _Developers working on embedded Linux GPU support track mainline driver progress like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Prominent Mesa Developer Now Working For Arm On PanVK & Panfrost Code](https://daily.dev/posts/prominent-mesa-developer-now-working-for-arm-on-panvk-panfrost-code-xsqflqtlc) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [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 - [Open-Source NVIDIA "Nova" Driver Sees More Functionality For Linux 7.3](https://daily.dev/posts/open-source-nvidia-nova-driver-sees-more-functionality-for-linux-7-3-hijym86mc) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Verisilicon DC8200 & Coreboot Framebuffer Drivers Sent To DRM-Next For Linux 7.1](https://daily.dev/posts/verisilicon-dc8200-coreboot-framebuffer-drivers-sent-to-drm-next-for-linux-7-1-qrbcx21oa) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Initial AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 FRL Support Successfully Merged For Linux 7.2](https://daily.dev/posts/initial-amdgpu-hdmi-2-1-frl-support-successfully-merged-for-linux-7-2-nryz9ynsz) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#gpu](https://daily.dev/tags/gpu), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#mesa](https://daily.dev/tags/mesa) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/panfrost-update-a-new-kernel-driver-b2wpkaibn) ```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":"Panfrost update: A new kernel driver","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/panfrost-update-a-new-kernel-driver-b2wpkaibn","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/panfrost-update-a-new-kernel-driver-b2wpkaibn"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:57:23.651Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T02:28:04.345Z","description":"After two months of development, Rob Herring and Tomeu Vizoso have produced a new kernel driver for Arm Midgard and Bifrost GPUs (Panfrost) that is close to...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/0281d591c5fd699e4cb8fc02aa1455ff?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/0281d591c5fd699e4cb8fc02aa1455ff?_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/panfrost-update-a-new-kernel-driver-b2wpkaibn","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"gpu,linux,mesa","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@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":"Panfrost update: A new kernel driver"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/panfrost-update-a-new-kernel-driver-b2wpkaibn#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why can't the existing Arm Mali out-of-tree driver be merged into mainline Linux?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The existing Arm out-of-tree driver, despite having an acceptable open source license, does not implement the DRM ABI and has several design considerations that make it unsuitable for mainline Linux inclusion. 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