Gallium3D Drivers Might Lose The EGL State Tracker, OpenVG

Marek Olšák this week volleyed a controversial proposal to effectively knock off the EGL state tracker for Gallium3D drivers.

The open-source AMD employee explains that the EGL state tracker is redundant with EGL windowing system support already done better by the DRI state tracker and egl_dri2. The EGL state tracker lacks features and really the only positive side to it is allowing software rasterizer support on Wayland (although alternatives are possible) and it would break the OpenVG state tracker, albeit that's really not a popular Gallium3D component by end-users.

Marek is proposing the EGL state tracker be disabled from the Autoconf build system. The EGL state tracker isn't be eliminated outright but will be maintained for support for non Linux DRI platforms like Android and Windows. From other developers though there is concern about some niche projects using the EGL state tracker, etc. There's mixed interest in killing the EGL ST code due to it being "stale" while others want it maintained for the future with its cross-platform focus, etc. The OpenVG state tracker is being talked about for dropping from mainline Mesa unless some developer were to step up and port it to use egl_dri2 rather than the EGL state tracker.

The mailing list discussion is still ongoing but we'll see where it ends.