blog: Building Mesa for Driver Bisection

content/blog/mesa-bisection-build.md

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+---
+title: "Building Mesa for Driver Bisection"
+date: 2023-03-07T16:16:09-08:00
+draft: true
+author: "Caleb Callaway"
+tags: ["tech", "linux", "gaming"]
+---
+
+For recent Ubuntu releases:
+
+## 1. Build
+
+```bash
+# install dependencies
+sudo apt build-dep mesa
+# create source directory
+mkdir -p ~/src && cd ~/src
+# checkout source
+git clone https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa.git && cd mesa
+# build and deploy
+mkdir build-`git describe --always --tags`
+cd build-`git describe --always --tags`
+meson .. --prefix=/usr/local-`git describe --always --tags`
+sudo ninja install
+# symlink deployment directory to /usr/local
+sudo ln -sfn /usr/local-`git describe --always --tags` /usr/local
+```
+
+## 2. Configure
+
+Add the following lines to `/etc/environment`:
+
+```bash
+# Override GL driver path.
+# The Steam UI and some game launchers require 32-bit libraries,
+# so we include the 32-bit system library path.
+LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH=/usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri
+
+# Override Vulkan ICD path.
+# Here Intel is used; replace with other vendor ICDs as needed.
+VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/local/share/vulkan/icd.d/intel_icd.x86_64.json
+```
+
+## 3. Reload Environment
+
+The Gnome Desktop Environment must be reloaded using the new environment. Rebooting works, but it's slow. To reload faster, switch to a new [virtual console](https://www.makeuseof.com/what-are-linux-virtual-consoles/) and start a new session, then restart the Gnome session manager with the following command:
+
+```bash
+sudo systemctl restart gdm3
+```
+
+## Debug
+
+```bash
+# Check that Vulkan is using correct the driver revision.
+vulkaninfo --summary | grep driverInfo
+
+# Display sorted environment variables;
+# verify LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH and VK_ICD_FILENAMES are set.
+env | sort
+
+# Check journalctl for errors.
+journalctl -b | grep gdm-x-session
+```