[Development] Dynamic OpenGL option on Linux?

[Dmitry Shachnev]

Hi all,

I filed https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-72128 today, but some people
suggested that it’s better to discuss this on the mailing list first.

In Debian we are having a long discussion [1] on whether to build Qt with
‘-opengl desktop’ or ‘-opengl es2’ on ARM64 (aarch64) and some other
architectures.

There are users who want the desktop implementation (for desktops and some
boards), and there are users who want the OpenGL ES implementation (for
mobile devices and other boards).

We are currently considering shipping two (conflicting) sets of Qt libraries,
but that is a hacky and not ideal solution. It would be much better if Qt
had an option to select OpenGL version at runtime (via dlopen or some other
mechanism), similar to what is provided on Windows with ‘-opengl dynamic’
option [2].

Is there a chance to have such an option? It would allow Linux distributions
to offer best-in-class support for both mobile- and desktop-class computers.

Maybe I will be happy to help with implementing this if someone tells me that
it is possible and what will need to be done in the code to allow it.

[1]: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2018/11/thrd2.html#00457
[2]: https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/windows-requirements.html#dynamically-loading-graphics-drivers

--
Dmitry Shachnev
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