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-<center>
<h1>Mesa Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
-Last updated: 21 August 2006
-</center>
+Last updated: 19 September 2018
<br>
<br>
<h2>Index</h2>
-<a href="#part1">1. High-level Questions and Answers</a>
-<br>
-<a href="#part2">2. Compilation and Installation Problems</a>
-<br>
-<a href="#part3">3. Runtime / Rendering Problems</a>
-<br>
-<a href="#part4">4. Developer Questions</a>
-<br>
+<ol>
+ <li><a href="#part1">High-level Questions and Answers</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#part2">Compilation and Installation Problems</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#part3">Runtime / Rendering Problems</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#part4">Developer Questions</a></li>
+</ol>
<br>
<br>
<p>
Mesa is an open-source implementation of the OpenGL specification.
OpenGL is a programming library for writing interactive 3D applications.
-See the <a href="http://www.opengl.org/">OpenGL website</a> for more
+See the <a href="https://www.opengl.org/">OpenGL website</a> for more
information.
</p>
<p>
-Mesa 6.x supports the OpenGL 1.5 specification.
+Mesa 9.x supports the OpenGL 3.1 specification.
</p>
<h2>1.2 Does Mesa support/use graphics hardware?</h2>
<p>
Yes. Specifically, Mesa serves as the OpenGL core for the open-source DRI
-drivers for XFree86/X.org. See the <a href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/">DRI
-website</a> for more information.
-</p>
-<p>
-There have been other hardware drivers for Mesa over the years (such as
-the 3Dfx Glide/Voodoo driver, an old S3 driver, etc) but the DRI drivers
-are the modern ones.
+drivers for X.org.
</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>See the <a href="https://dri.freedesktop.org/">DRI website</a>
+ for more information.</li>
+ <li>See <a href="https://01.org/linuxgraphics">01.org</a>
+ for more information about Intel drivers.</li>
+ <li>See <a href="https://nouveau.freedesktop.org">nouveau.freedesktop.org</a>
+ for more information about Nouveau drivers.</li>
+ <li>See <a href="https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature">www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature</a>
+ for more information about Radeon drivers.</li>
+</ul>
<h2>1.3 What purpose does Mesa serve today?</h2>
<p>
Still, Mesa serves at least these purposes:
</p>
<ul>
-<li>Mesa is used as the core of the open-source XFree86/X.org DRI
+<li>Mesa is used as the core of the open-source X.org DRI
hardware drivers.
</li>
<li>Mesa is quite portable and allows OpenGL to be used on systems
</ul>
-<h2>1.4 What's the difference between"Stand-Alone" Mesa and the DRI drivers?</h2>
+<h2>1.4 What's the difference between "Stand-Alone" Mesa and the DRI drivers?</h2>
<p>
<em>Stand-alone Mesa</em> is the original incarnation of Mesa.
On systems running the X Window System it does all its rendering through
<h2>1.6 Are there other open-source implementations of OpenGL?</h2>
<p>
Yes, SGI's <a href="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/index.html">
-OpenGL Sample Implemenation (SI)</a> is available.
+OpenGL Sample Implementation (SI)</a> is available.
The SI was written during the time that OpenGL was originally designed.
Unfortunately, development of the SI has stagnated.
Mesa is much more up to date with modern features and extensions.
</p>
<p>
-<a href="http://ogl-es.sourceforge.net">Vincent</a> is
+<a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/ogl-es/">Vincent</a> is
an open-source implementation of OpenGL ES for mobile devices.
<p>
is a subset of OpenGL for PalmOS devices.
<p>
-<a href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/TinyGL/">TinyGL</a>
+<a href="http://bellard.org/TinyGL/">TinyGL</a>
is a subset of OpenGL.
</p>
<p>
-<a href="http://softgl.studierstube.org/">SoftGL</a>
+<a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/softgl/">SoftGL</a>
is an OpenGL subset for mobile devices.
</p>
<h2>2.4 Where is the GLw library?</h2>
<p>
-GLw (OpenGL widget library) is now available from a separate <a href="http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/glw/">git repository</a>. Unless you're using very old Xt/Motif applications with OpenGL, you shouldn't need it.
+GLw (OpenGL widget library) is now available from a separate <a href="https://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/glw/">git repository</a>. Unless you're using very old Xt/Motif applications with OpenGL, you shouldn't need it.
</p>
Mesa version number.
</li></ul>
<p>
-After installing XFree86/X.org and the DRI drivers, some of these files
-may be symlinks into the /usr/X11R6/ tree.
-</p>
-<p>
-The old-style Makefile system doesn't install the Mesa libraries; it's
-up to you to copy them (and the headers) to the right place.
+When configuring Mesa, there are three meson options that affect the install
+location that you should take care with: <code>--prefix</code>,
+<code>--libdir</code>, and <code>-D dri-drivers-path</code>. To install Mesa
+into the system location where it will be available for all programs to use, set
+<code>--prefix=/usr</code>. Set <code>--libdir</code> to where your Linux
+distribution installs system libraries, usually either <code>/usr/lib</code> or
+<code>/usr/lib64</code>. Set <code>-D dri-drivers-path</code> to the directory
+where your Linux distribution installs DRI drivers. To find your system's DRI
+driver directory, try executing <code>find /usr -type d -name dri</code>. For
+example, if the <code>find</code> command listed <code>/usr/lib64/dri</code>,
+then set <code>-D dri-drivers-path=/usr/lib64/dri</code>.
</p>
<p>
-The GLUT header and library should go in the same directories.
+After determining the correct values for the install location, configure Mesa
+with <code>meson configure --prefix=/usr --libdir=xxx -D dri-drivers-path=xxx</code>
+and then install with <code>sudo ninja install</code>.
</p>
<br>
<br>
<h2>3.1 Rendering is slow / why isn't my graphics hardware being used?</h2>
<p>
-Stand-alone Mesa (downloaded as MesaLib-x.y.z.tar.gz) doesn't have any
-support for hardware acceleration (with the exception of the 3DFX Voodoo
-driver).
-</p>
-<p>
-What you really want is a DRI or NVIDIA (or another vendor's OpenGL) driver
-for your particular hardware.
+If Mesa can't use its hardware accelerated drivers it falls back on one of its software renderers.
+(eg. classic swrast, softpipe or llvmpipe)
</p>
<p>
You can run the <code>glxinfo</code> program to learn about your OpenGL
library.
-Look for the GL_VENDOR and GL_RENDERER values.
-That will identify who's OpenGL library you're using and what sort of
+Look for the <code>OpenGL vendor</code> and <code>OpenGL renderer</code> values.
+That will identify who's OpenGL library with which driver you're using and what sort of
hardware it has detected.
</p>
<p>
+If you're using a hardware accelerated driver you want <code>direct rendering: Yes</code>.
+</p>
+<p>
If your DRI-based driver isn't working, go to the
-<a href="http://dri.sf.net/">DRI website</a> for trouble-shooting information.
+<a href="https://dri.freedesktop.org/">DRI website</a> for trouble-shooting information.
</p>
<p>
Make sure the ratio of the far to near clipping planes isn't too great.
Look
-<a href="http://www.opengl.org/resources/faq/technical/depthbuffer.htm#0040">here</a>
+<a href="https://www.opengl.org/resources/faq/technical/depthbuffer.htm#0040">here</a>
for details.
</p>
<p>
will fix the problem.
</p>
-<h2>3.6 How can I change the maximum framebuffer size in Mesa's
-<tt>swrast</tt> backend?</h2>
-<p>
-These can be overridden by using the <tt>--with-max-width</tt> and
-<tt>--with-max-height</tt> options. The two need not be equal.
-</p><p>
-Do note that Mesa uses these values to size some internal buffers,
-so increasing these sizes will cause Mesa to require additional
-memory. Furthermore, increasing these limits beyond <tt>4096</tt>
-may introduce rasterization artifacts; see the leading comments in
-<tt>src/mesa/swrast/s_tritemp.h</tt>.
-</p>
-
<br>
<br>
<h2>4.1 How can I contribute?</h2>
<p>
-First, join the <a href="http://www.mesa3d.org/lists.html">Mesa3d-dev
-mailing list</a>.
+First, join the <a href="lists.html">mesa-dev mailing list</a>.
That's where Mesa development is discussed.
</p>
<p>
-The <a href="http://www.opengl.org/documentation">
-OpenGL Specification</a> is the bible for OpenGL implemention work.
+The <a href="https://www.opengl.org/documentation">
+OpenGL Specification</a> is the bible for OpenGL implementation work.
You should read it.
</p>
<p>Most of the Mesa development work involves implementing new OpenGL
<p>
The best way to get started is to use an existing driver as your starting
point.
-For a software driver, the X11 and OSMesa drivers are good examples.
-For a hardware driver, the Radeon and R200 DRI drivers are good examples.
+For a classic hardware driver, the i965 driver is a good example.
+For a Gallium3D hardware driver, the r300g, r600g and the i915g are good examples.
</p>
<p>The DRI website has more information about writing hardware drivers.
The process isn't well document because the Mesa driver interface changes
-over time, and we seldome have spare time for writing documentation.
+over time, and we seldom have spare time for writing documentation.
That being said, many people have managed to figure out the process.
</p>
<p>
<h2>4.3 Why isn't GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc implemented in Mesa?</h2>
<p>
-The <a href="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/registry/EXT/texture_compression_s3tc.txt">specification for the extension</a>
-indicates that there are intellectual property (IP) and/or patent issues
-to be dealt with.
+Oh but it is! Prior to 2nd October 2017, the Mesa project did not include s3tc
+support due to intellectual property (IP) and/or patent issues around the s3tc
+algorithm.
</p>
-<p>We've been unsucessful in getting a response from S3 (or whoever owns
-the IP nowadays) to indicate whether or not an open source project can
-implement the extension (specifically the compression/decompression
-algorithms).
+<p>
+As of Mesa 17.3.0, Mesa now officially supports s3tc, as the patent has expired.
</p>
<p>
-In the mean time, a 3rd party <a href="http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/S3TC">
-plug-in library</a> is available.
+In versions prior to this, a 3rd party <a href="https://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/S3TC">
+plug-in library</a> was required.
</p>
</div>
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