How to Install Mesa Driver on Alpine Linux – Step by step

GNU/Linux Alpine Installing MESA Driver Guide

How to install the latest MESA drivers on Alpine Linux – a step-by-step tutorial for Alpine’s APK-based distribution.

MESA for Alpine Linux (Mesa3D) is an open-source implementation of OpenGL, Vulkan, OpenGL ES, OpenCL and other graphics APIs.

About MESA: The Mesa Project provides GPU drivers for AMD/RADEON, Intel and other hardware on Linux.

⚠️ Important: Alpine’s default “nouveau” driver provides basic NVIDIA support. For full performance on modern NVIDIA cards, install the upstream proprietary driver following Alpine’s NVIDIA on Alpine guide.

1. 1. Open a Shell

   Launch your terminal or switch to a virtual console (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F1).

   If you’re new to Alpine, see the Alpine Quickstart Guide.

2. 2. Update Package Index

   Update Alpine’s repositories:

   sudo apk update

3. 3. Install MESA Drivers

   Install the core MESA libraries, DRI drivers and Vulkan tools:

   sudo apk add mesa-dri-intel mesa-dri-amdgpu mesa-libgl mesa-demos vulkan-tools

   – Replace mesa-dri-intel with mesa-dri-amdgpu if you have an AMD GPU.

4. 4. Verify Installation

   Check OpenGL support:

   glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version"

   Check Vulkan support:

   vulkaninfo | grep "apiVersion"

Now you’re ready to enjoy hardware-accelerated graphics on Alpine Linux!