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

GNU/Linux Gentoo Installing MESA Driver Guide

How to install or upgrade the MESA drivers on Gentoo Linux – a step-by-step tutorial.

MESA for Gentoo (Mesa3D) provides open-source implementations of OpenGL, Vulkan, OpenGL ES, OpenCL and other graphics APIs.

About MESA: The Mesa Project supplies unified GPU drivers for AMD/RADEON and Intel hardware. On Gentoo, these are managed via the Portage tree.

⚠️ Important: For modern NVIDIA cards, MESA’s “nouveau” support may lack performance. To use NVIDIA’s proprietary driver, emerge nvidia-drivers instead.

1. 1. Sync the Portage Tree

   As root or with sudo, update your repository snapshot:

   emerge --sync

2. 2. Select USE Flags

   Ensure your /etc/portage/make.conf includes the appropriate USE flags for your GPU:

   # For Intel:
   USE="... dri intel"
   # For AMD/ATI:
   USE="... dri radeonsi vulkan"
   # For full OpenCL support:
   USE="... opencl"
       

3. 3. Install or Upgrade MESA

   Build and install the MESA package:

   emerge --ask --verbose media-libs/mesa

   If you use Vulkan:

   emerge --ask --verbose media-libs/vulkan-loader media-libs/vulkan-tools

4. 4. Verify Installation

   Check OpenGL version:

   glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version"

   Check Vulkan support:

   vulkaninfo | grep "apiVersion"

5. 5. Rebuild Dependent Packages (Optional)

   If other packages depend on MESA, rebuild them to pick up changes:

   emerge --ask --verbose @preserved-rebuild

You’re all set! Enjoy up-to-date MESA drivers on your Gentoo system.