KhanhDTP

Edit: I'm not sure how to format nicely here... so I updated the related PR. That said, this probably isn't the best reference location for this. In any case, posting in case helpful for anyone else. If it's useful for the project to better community (and potentially automate) some of this I'm happy to get involved, but here's what I've got for now:
 
There are fundamentally two driver paths for RK3588:
libMali path - Enables NPU for ML inference, basic GPU only Panthor path - Enables full GPU acceleration, no NPU
Within each path, you can choose headless or desktop (XFCE/GNOME), but:
libMali + desktop = slow rendering (software only) Panthor + desktop = smooth rendering (hardware accelerated)
Key insight: The NPU and GPU hardware are separate, but the software drivers conflict. You must choose which accelerator matters more for your use case.

Additional constraint:
Kernel matters - NPU only works on 6.1 vendor kernel. Mainline 6.12 has no NPU support but best GPU drivers.
 
This creates a matrix of ~6 viable configurations, each optimized for different workloads (production ML, ML development, desktop, latest kernel, etc).

More detailed breakdown: 
https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8979#issuecomment-3587135022
 

Armbian Trixie XFCE (Edge kernel 6.18.0-rc3-edge-rockchip64)
 + Stable mesa 25.0.7-2
 + box64-rk3588  0.3.9+20251106.dcd3ba0-1 (https://ryanfortner.github.io/box64-debs/)
 + wine-10.18-staging-tkg-amd64-wow64 (https://github.com/Kron4ek/Wine-Builds/releases)
 + dxvk-sarek v1.11.0-sarek-async-writeaccessfix-malifix-5d21d2b (https://github.com/pythonlover02/DXVK-Sarek/actions)
 
Elin ~40fps@720p
 

Thank you @KhanhDTP. I think I have a pretty good handle on how (and your post on that thread was in particular very helpful, thank you). 

It looks like a lot of people here are desktop optimized. My plan is headless, so expectation is 25.11.1 / 6.1 and libMali route but with RKNN (XFCE only for occasional desktop, Gnome is too hungry, XFCE + X11 + software rendering is fine on rare occasions I'd need it). 

I think the question I was trying to ask is more along the lines of understanding what to expect for the default, and if it made sense to enable one of the drivers by default, but I'm realizing there are proprietary dependencies and enough obscure use cases that this gets more challenging.

Thanks to everyone for all of the thoughts, hard to imagine navigating all of this without your contributions.

Armbian 25.8.1 Noble XFCE (BSD Kernel: 6.1.115)
 + PanVk - mesa 25.3 (https://launchpad.net/~kisak/+archive/ubuntu/kisak-mesa)
 + box64 3.9 (https://ryanfortner.github.io/box64-debs/)
 + wine-10.19-staging-tkg-amd64-wow64 (https://github.com/Kron4ek/Wine-Builds/releases/tag/10.19)
 + DXVK-sarek-stripped v1.11.0 (https://github.com/pythonlover02/DXVK-Sarek/actions)
~60fps@1080p 
 
Cat Quest II

Armbian 25.8.1 Noble XFCE (BSD Kernel: 6.1.115)
 + PanVk - mesa 25.3 (https://launchpad.net/~kisak/+archive/ubuntu/kisak-mesa)
 + box64 3.9 (https://ryanfortner.github.io/box64-debs/)
 + wine-10.19-staging-tkg-amd64-wow64 (https://github.com/Kron4ek/Wine-Builds/releases/tag/10.19)
 + DXVK-sarek-stripped v1.11.0 (https://github.com/pythonlover02/DXVK-Sarek/actions)
~60fps@1080p 
 
Cat Quest II

Armbian 25.11.1 Noble XFCE (BSD Kernel: 6.1.115)
+ Stable mesa 25.0.7
Using a native vulkan game:
Serious Sam Classics VK: https://github.com/tx00100xt/SeriousSamClassic-VK
~60fps@1080p
 

I tried Dragon Quest 11S with stripped dxvk 1.11. It failed because the panvk driver does not support Geometry Shader. There's an on-going MR https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/38401 to support it.

Thank you very much! Very useful information.

Hello as this seems really fun I was also trying to get this to work but running into problems so it would be amazing if you could clarify a bit more please?

I have mainline Mesa but that comes with PanVK to level 1.4+
vulkaninfo --summary
Devices:
========
GPU0:
    apiVersion         = 1.4.328
    driverVersion      = 25.2.99
    vendorID           = 0x13b5
    deviceID           = 0xa8670000
    deviceType         = PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_INTEGRATED_GPU
    deviceName         = Mali-G610
    driverID           = DRIVER_ID_MESA_PANVK
    driverName         = panvk
    driverInfo         = Mesa 25.3.0-devel (git-099ac5be1a)
    conformanceVersion = 1.4.1.2
    deviceUUID         = b5130000-0000-67a8-0000-000000000000
    driverUUID         = ac34a6fa-924e-d4b0-3a47-66ccf4729ee5


I then build your dxvk repo
https://github.com/khanh-it

And install like,
export WINEPREFIX=/path/to/wineprefix
cp x64/*.dll $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/windows/system32
cp x32/*.dll $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/windows/syswow64
(its weird that the x64 files go in the system32 folder and opposite too)

I then did the 'Native' override to those libraries mentioned in winecfg.

I downloaded    https://github.com/pythonlover02/DXVK-Sarek/actions
and stuck the dll's in the games x64 folder 
 
But I keep getting a black window and the error that the game can't find a graphics device,
info:  Game: Hades.exe
info:  DXVK-Sarek: v1.11.0
info:  Built-in extension providers:
info:    Win32 WSI
info:    OpenVR
info:    OpenXR
info:  OpenVR: could not open registry key, status 2
info:  OpenVR: Failed to locate module
[BOX64] Using emulated /mnt/net_d/emu/PC/wine-10.15-staging-tkg-ntsync-amd64-wow64/lib/wine/x86_64-unix/winevulkan.so
[BOX64] Using native(wrapped) libvulkan.so.1
info:  Enabled instance extensions:
info:    VK_KHR_surface
info:    VK_KHR_win32_surface
info:  Mali-G610:
info:    Driver: 25.2.99
info:    Vulkan: 1.4.328
info:    Memory Heap[0]: 
info:      Size: 5950 MiB
info:      Flags: 0x1
info:      Memory Type[0]: Property Flags = 0x7
2025-10-22 15:35:50 [MainThread     ]         direct3d11.cpp:833   INFO| Created DXGI1.2 factory.
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_11_1
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_11_0
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_10_1
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_10_0
err:   D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Requested feature level not supported
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_11_0
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_10_1
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_10_0
err:   D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Requested feature level not supported
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_11_1
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_11_0
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_10_1
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_10_0
err:   D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Requested feature level not supported
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_11_0
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_10_1
info:  D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Probing D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL_10_0
err:   D3D11CoreCreateDevice: Requested feature level not supported
2025-10-22 15:35:50 [MainThread     ]         direct3d11.cpp:1012  INFO| gpuCount = 0
2025-10-22 15:35:50 [MainThread     ]            program.cpp:2117   ERR| Failed to initialize ForgeRenderer.
2025-10-22 15:35:50 [MainThread     ]            program.cpp:2118  INFO| Showing MessageBox: No Graphics Device
2025-10-22 15:35:53 [MainThread     ]             luaext.cpp:445   INFO| Lua interface destroyed



Would you please be able to elaborate a bit on the steps if you can see what I'm doing wrong?

Cheers!



UPDATE:  Oh wait! I got it to work now, I copied the 'stripped' x32 dll's from (https://github.com/khanh-it/dxvk/releases
Into the games x64 folder.  (I had previously copied the x64 dll's into the x64 folder. Silly me  obviously that's not how it works)

Cool!  
 

@djtecha6 
 
I have faced the same issue. And it's the Armbian 25.8.2 problem, use the Armbian 25.5.1 image indeed.

I followed the "mesa route" without any kind of problem. I cannot following the "libMail route" due to my window manager choice: I installed the Armbian Ubuntu Noble version, but I'm running X Window (not Wayland) in order to get the remote display of the Orange PI Plus running on a local monitor; I tried to do this using Wayland without success. I'im running lightdm and xfce4 now. So the /dev/mail0 is still useful or the mesa-vulkan-drivers are enough ? I read some documentation about the hardware acceleration but in my opinion it  is too contradictory.
But it is always possible that I'haven't understand anything.....

This is truly incredible. I had no idea Mali and Linux has come this far. Though it's a shame things aren't mainlined.

@MartinB
 
direct from the game's folder (no Steam)
 
no special arguments

Armbian 25.8.1 Noble XFCE (BSD Kernel: 6.1.115)
 + PanVk - mesa 23.0 (https://launchpad.net/~ernstp/+archive/ubuntu/mesaaco)
 + box64 3.9 (https://ryanfortner.github.io/box64-debs/)
 + wine-10.17-staging-tkg-amd64-wow64 (https://github.com/Kron4ek/Wine-Builds/releases/tag/10.17)
 + DXVK-stripped v1.8.1 (https://github.com/khanh-it/dxvk/releases)
~60fps@720p
 

 
@MartinB

Armbian 25.8.1 Noble XFCE (mainline Kernel: 6.16.6-edge-rockchip64)
 + PanVk - mesa 23.0 (https://launchpad.net/~ernstp/+archive/ubuntu/mesaaco)
 + box64 3.7 (https://ryanfortner.github.io/box64-debs/)
 + wine-10.15-staging-tkg-ntsync-amd64-wow64 (https://github.com/Kron4ek/Wine-Builds/releases/tag/10.15)
 + DXVK-stripped v2.7.1
~60fps@720p
 
Hades

What? Sharing various gaming experiences with RK3588 (Orange Pi 5) on Armbian.
Why? Because RK3588 is a capable gaming chipset, Armbian is a good OS; Vulkan on RK3588 is getting better over time (PanVk)
How? Posting your gaming results here (preferably with setup and screenshots/videos) so people can learn more.

What? Sharing various gaming experiences with RK3588 (Orange Pi 5) on Armbian.
Why? Because RK3588 is a capable gaming chipset, Armbian is a good OS; Vulkan on RK3588 is getting better over time (PanVk)
How? Posting your gaming results here (preferably with setup and screenshots/videos) so people can learn more.

Armbian 25.8.1 Noble Gnome (Kernel: 6.1.115)
 + libMali (https://github.com/ginkage/libmali-rockchip)
 + box64 3.7 (https://ryanfortner.github.io/box64-debs/)
 + wine-9.22-staging-tkg-amd64-wow64 (https://github.com/Kron4ek/Wine-Builds/releases/tag/9.22)
 + DXVK-Sarek v1.11.1 - Mali GPU Fix by Ayman-Zeyada (https://github.com/Ayman-Zeyada/DXVK-Sarek/releases/tag/v1.11.1-mali-fix)
~60fps@1080p
 
HK: SilkSong

As the title says, how can I install the ntsync kernel module for use with Wine/Proton?
 
 

@The Tall Man Thanks again, it works
 
 

Terrific! You're welcome!