mesa-git-nix

Bleeding-edge Mesa from the main branch, packaged as a Nix flake.

Overrides nixpkgs' mesa via overrideAttrs — no derivation rewrite needed. Provides an overlay (mesa-git / mesa-git-32), vendor-aware driver presets, and a NixOS module to swap the system graphics driver in one line.

Upstream

Project	https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa
License	MIT
Tracked	Git HEAD (main)

Why?

nixpkgs-unstable tracks Mesa stable releases. Mesa main often contains unreleased driver optimizations weeks or months before a stable cut:

• RDNA 4 / GFX12: RadeonSI compute dispatch, buffer/image clears, shader improvements
• RADV: Vulkan driver fixes, new extensions, performance tuning
• NVK / ANV / etc.: Ongoing Vulkan and OpenGL improvements across all drivers

Chaotic-Nyx (the previous community mesa-git source) was archived in December 2025 with no maintained replacement.

Pinned Commit

Field	Value
Branch	main
Rev	5674327297af
Version	26.2.0-devel
Date	2026-05-06

Updated automatically every 12 hours by CI. See version.json for the full commit SHA.

Installation

Add as a flake input:

{
  inputs.mesa-git = {
    url = "github:Daaboulex/mesa-git-nix";
    inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
  };
}

Then add the overlay:

nixpkgs.overlays = [ inputs.mesa-git.overlays.default ];

Import the NixOS module:

imports = [ inputs.mesa-git.nixosModules.default ];

Usage

Flake Input

# flake.nix
{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    mesa-git-nix = {
      url = "github:daaboulex/mesa-git-nix";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
  };
}

Option A: NixOS Module (Recommended)

The included NixOS module sets hardware.graphics.package and hardware.graphics.package32 for you, with optional vendor-based driver selection.

# configuration.nix or host config
{ inputs, ... }: {
  imports = [ inputs.mesa-git-nix.nixosModules.default ];

  nixpkgs.overlays = [ inputs.mesa-git-nix.overlays.default ];

  mesa-git = {
    enable = true;
    drivers = [ "amd" ];  # Only compile AMD drivers (see Driver Presets below)
  };
}

Option B: Overlay Only

If you manage hardware.graphics.package yourself or want to integrate mesa-git into your own module system:

{ inputs, pkgs, lib, ... }: {
  nixpkgs.overlays = [ inputs.mesa-git-nix.overlays.default ];

  # All drivers (default)
  hardware.graphics.package = lib.mkForce pkgs.mesa-git;
  hardware.graphics.package32 = lib.mkForce pkgs.mesa-git-32;

  # Or with vendor selection (AMD-only)
  hardware.graphics.package = lib.mkForce (pkgs.mkMesaGit { vendors = [ "amd" ]; });
  hardware.graphics.package32 = lib.mkForce (pkgs.mkMesaGit32 { vendors = [ "amd" ]; });
}

Option C: Standalone Build

nix build github:daaboulex/mesa-git-nix
nix eval github:daaboulex/mesa-git-nix#mesa-git.version

Driver Presets

By default, mesa-git builds all drivers (same as nixpkgs). Set drivers to only compile what your hardware needs — this dramatically reduces build time.

Vendor Presets

Vendor	drivers	Gallium	Vulkan
AMD	[ "amd" ]	radeonsi, r600, r300	RADV
Intel	[ "intel" ]	iris, crocus, i915	ANV, HasVK
NVIDIA	[ "nvidia" ]	nouveau, tegra	NVK
All	[ ] (default)	all 24 drivers	all 14 drivers

Common Essentials (Always Included)

Regardless of vendor selection, these are always built:

• Gallium: llvmpipe (software fallback), softpipe, zink (OpenGL-over-Vulkan), virgl (VM)
• Vulkan: Lavapipe/swrast (software fallback), virtio (VM)

Multi-GPU / Integrated Graphics

For systems with multiple GPUs (e.g., Intel iGPU + NVIDIA dGPU), list all vendors:

mesa-git.drivers = [ "intel" "nvidia" ];  # Builds Intel + NVIDIA + common essentials

Custom Driver Lists

For full control, use mkMesaGit / mkMesaGit32 directly:

hardware.graphics.package = lib.mkForce (pkgs.mkMesaGit {
  galliumDrivers = [ "radeonsi" "llvmpipe" "zink" ];
  vulkanDrivers = [ "amd" "swrast" ];
});

How It Works

The overlay applies overrideAttrs to nixpkgs' mesa derivation, changing only what's necessary:

Attribute	Change
version	26.1.0-dev-<short-rev>
src	Pinned git main commit from version.json
patches	Cleared (nixpkgs patches target release line numbers)
postPatch	Replicates opencl.patch effects via substituteInPlace + sed; skips mesa-gl-headers validation
mesonFlags	Driver lists replaced when vendor presets are used
env.MESON_PACKAGE_CACHE_DIR	Rebuilt from wraps.json (Rust crate deps matching git main)

Everything else (build inputs, outputs, postInstall, postFixup) is inherited from nixpkgs.

What the postPatch Does

1. clang-libdir meson option — nixpkgs' opencl.patch adds a custom meson option so Nix can control the clang library search path. We replicate this with substituteInPlace on meson.build and append the option definition from clang-libdir-option.meson.
2. Rusticl ICD install — disables auto-installing the .icd file (nixpkgs reconstructs it with an absolute Nix store path in postInstall).
3. mesa-gl-headers check — skipped entirely, since git main headers diverge from the pinned release headers package.

Development

git clone https://github.com/Daaboulex/mesa-git-nix
cd mesa-git-nix
nix develop                       # enter dev shell, installs pre-commit hooks
nix fmt                           # format flake + module
nix flake check --no-build        # eval check
nix build .#mesa-git              # build the package
nix eval .#mesa-git.version       # confirm pinned commit + version string

Updating the pin

./scripts/update.sh

This script:

1. Fetches the latest commit SHA from gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa main
2. Computes the source hash with nix-prefetch-git
3. Sparse-clones subprojects/*.wrap to regenerate wraps.json (Rust crate dependencies)
4. Writes version.json

After updating, test with:

nix build .#mesa-git
nix eval .#mesa-git.version

CI runs the same chain every 12 hours via .github/workflows/update.yml, so manual updates are rarely needed.

Verification

After nixos-rebuild switch:

# OpenGL version should show the git version string
glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version"

# Vulkan driver info should show RADV with git version
vulkaninfo | grep driverInfo

Repository Structure

mesa-git-nix/
├── flake.nix                   # Flake: overlay + NixOS module + packages
├── flake.lock
├── overlay.nix                 # Nixpkgs overlay: mesa-git, mkMesaGit, driver presets
├── module.nix                  # NixOS module: mesa-git.enable + drivers option
├── clang-libdir-option.meson   # Meson option snippet (avoids Nix string escaping)
├── version.json                # Pinned commit: rev, hash, version, date
├── wraps.json                  # Rust crate deps for MESON_PACKAGE_CACHE_DIR
├── update.sh                   # Script to pin latest mesa main commit
├── pkgs/
│   └── mesa-git.nix            # Package documentation (build via overlay)
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

Options

This module declares options under mesa-git. See module.nix for all available options.

License

This packaging flake is MIT licensed. Mesa itself is distributed under the MIT license.

---

Maintained as part of the Daaboulex NixOS ecosystem.