Mesa 26.1 has been released as the latest feature update to the open-source graphics stack, bringing new Vulkan and OpenGL driver work across several components used on Linux systems.
A key update in this release is the status of VirGL. This driver, used for accelerated graphics in virtualized environments with virglrenderer, is now unmaintained. The release notes indicate that without a new maintainer, the code may be removed in the future.
Mesa 26.1 adds native-context VirtIO-GPU support for Intel’s Iris, Crocus, and ANV drivers, thereby improving Intel GPU support in paravirtualized virtual machines by enabling a more direct driver path.
Moreover, this release introduces extensive new Vulkan and OpenGL extension support. RADV now supports:
- VK_KHR_internally_synchronized_queues
- VK_KHR_copy_memory_indirect on GFX8 and newer hardware
- VK_VALVE_shader_mixed_float_dot_product on supported AMD GPUs
- VK_KHR_device_address_commands
- VK_EXT_primitive_restart_index
- Experimental VK_EXT_descriptor_heap support enabled via the RADV_EXPERIMENTAL=heap environment variable
Additional Vulkan driver updates are available for NVK, Turnip, ANV, PanVK, V3DV, lavapipe, and PowerVR. VK_EXT_present_timing is now supported across RADV, NVK, Turnip, ANV, Honeykrisp, and PanVK. PanVK also receives numerous new extensions related to present, display, memory, swapchain, shader, and command-buffer functionality.
Mesa 26.1 continues Zink development, adding OpenGL ES 2.0 support for PowerVR GPUs via the Zink OpenGL-on-Vulkan driver. The release also features Rusticl OpenCL improvements, low-latency encode and decode options for RADV Vulkan Video, experimental Intel Nova Lake P support, and further KosmicKrisp enhancements for Vulkan over Apple’s Metal API.
Rusticl also introduces OpenCL-related updates. Several cl_khr_subgroup extensions are now available across drivers including Asahi, Iris, llvmpipe, radeonsi, and Zink, depending on the extension.
For more details, check out the announcement. Distribution packages will be released first through rolling-release and testing repositories.
