How do I update to Mesa-git safely?

[ProxyZeus]

Hi, first post here I’ll keep it brief

The new Proton-GE 7.10 needs to use the dynamic rendering that has been recently added to the mesa-git drivers to use vkd3d-git. I want to know how to update them safely, if possible.

Thanks in advance

[Aragorn]

Welcome to the forum!

The safest way would be to first update your system to the latest version of everything, like so…

pamac update

… and to then make a full backup of your system. Then, you can install mesa-git from the AUR, like so…

pamac build mesa-git

It will tell you that mesa-git and mesa are in conflict and will offer you the ability to replace the existing mesa. Confirm the replacement, and you’ll be set.

[maycne.sonahoz]

Friendly reminder.

@maycne.sonahoz

Difficulty: ★★★★☆

Some packages have a development version available from AUR, identifiable with the -git suffix. You can install those in place of the “standard version” package in order to have the latest development build available.

Attention! There are several things to take into account when using a development package version:

• Development packages usually do not change version with new commit from the developers. Instead, the version for that package very often simply refer to the build process version. This means those packages are not the updated the same way.
  • When using CLI package managers, the --devel option is usually to be used in order to detect changes to the source, and thus allows to rebuild the package using the latest version.
  • In pamac, you may enable “Check for development packages updates” in the settings.
• Development version is even more bleeding-edge than what is usually in the repositories, as they use a development state before release. You are then very dependent to the developers’ quality in coding.
  • The developers would be grateful if you can then contribute, by signaling them any issue you find.
• Likewise, using a development version usually places you way ahead of the repositories in term of dependency alignment, which can also be source of instability.

For those reasons, using development versions is not recommended, moreso for core packages, unless you are confident with your debugging skills.