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

The pinned upstream commit, hash, version, and date are the single source of truth in version.json (branch main). The daily update.yml workflow runs the custom scripts/update.sh — which also regenerates wraps.json for the Rust crate dependencies — and commits the new pin to main.

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 upstream gallium drivers	all upstream vulkan 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	<mesa-version>-<short-rev> (mesa-version + commit from version.json)
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 daily 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
├── scripts/update.sh           # Custom updater: pin latest main + regenerate wraps.json
├── 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.