RK3576 Armsom Sige5 - Panfrost GPU Not Working Despite Recent Build Fix

[Mallikarjun Modi]

Hello,
 

I am trying to enable Panfrost GPU acceleration on a new Armsom Sige5 board running the latest edge kernel (6.1.115), but glxinfo -B still shows llvmpipe.
 

I have been troubleshooting this for some time and have discovered that the kernel module (panfrost.ko) loads correctly with modprobe, but it is not binding to the GPU hardware on boot.
 

I believe I have found the reason why. A recent commit to the Armbian build system (https://github.com/armbian/build/commit/836def3d11699537e6289dedfbc766c2050d422d) changes the method for enabling Panfrost. It removes the panfrost overlay and adds KERNEL_TARGET_CONFIG="panfrost-all" instead.
 

It appears that the current edge kernel available through armbian-config does not yet include this essential fix.
 

Can you please advise when a kernel with this change will be available for download, or if there is a manual way I can apply this fix?
 

Thank you.

[laibsch]

@Igor is probably in the best position to answer when a new image for your board might be available.

  

2 hours ago, Mallikarjun Modi said:

or if there is a manual way I can apply this fix

 

This is actually fairly easy to do by building your own image: "git clone https://github.com/armbian/build.git;cd build;./compile.sh"

 

https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Building-with-Docker/

https://evilolaf.github.io/docupreview/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQcEFsXEJEE

[Werner]

2 hours ago, laibsch said:

https://evilolaf.github.io/docupreview/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/

This is severely outdated. Use this one instead: https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/

[Werner]

5 hours ago, Mallikarjun Modi said:

edge kernel (6.1.115),

edge = 6.16.y

vendor = 6.1.115

Which kernel do you actually use?

Also isn't panthor the backported gpu driver for rk35xx?

[Igor]

On 10/1/2025 at 12:12 PM, laibsch said:

is probably in the best position to answer when a new image for your board might be available.

Sige5 is community supported and those boards receive automatic generated images only - once per week. Since GitHub introduced additional limitations few months ago, we can't (auto)produce desktop images anymore - only one Debian stable minimal per CSC build target. However, this might change in the future.

[laibsch]

Thank you for that additional information, Igor.

 

The lack of desktop images is only a minor inconvenience, I'd say.  Easy enough to install the required packages after installation of the base image to the SBC itself.