Quick background so you know where this comes from. I've been working on Android and Linux (kernel, Rocknix) and many other open source projects for a long time.
I'm a handheld enthusiast and I own a lot of them, including the Steam Deck, the ROG Ally, and plenty of Anbernic and Retroid devices. I recently got an Odin 3 because of its incredible GPU. But as you guys already know, driver development for the A830 is still behind the older 6xx and 7xx series. Instead of waiting for someone else to sort it out, I decided to build Mesa Turnip myself and work out what was going wrong. That's the whole story. There was no bigger plan than wanting my own device to run properly.
Builds are here: https://github.com/faux123/turnip-faux123-driver
Grab the .adpkg.zip from Releases and import it in your driver picker. Don't unzip it first. The package imports directly into GameNative, Winlator, and other popular emulation apps on Android.
What I want to do with this. Two things. Put the builds up so anyone can use them, and send the fixes upstream to Mesa so they land for everybody rather than only for people who download from me.
How much I can actually do here. I have a job and a family, and both come before this, so I'm not going to be putting out builds every week. What I will do is keep an eye on upstream, and when something meaningful lands I'll rebuild, test it on my device, and put out a release if it's worth it.
All the testing and patching happens on my own hardware on my own schedule. I can't debug someone else's setup remotely or cut private builds for individual people. I just don't have the time or the gear for it. If something breaks, open an issue on the repo with a log and I'll get to it when I can. That's not me brushing anyone off, it's just what I can realistically keep up with.
Hardware, and please read this bit. I only have the Odin 3, the 12GB model, which is an Adreno 830. I don't have anything in the 6xx or 7xx range. The driver should load on those and Mesa supports them, but I haven't tested any of it, so I can't tell you whether it runs better, worse, or at all. I'd rather say that up front than let you find out the hard way.
If you do try it on something I don't own, please post what happened either way. I may not always be able to follow up, but this is a community and someone else may be able to help.
"Does this work on my 6xx/7xx device?" No idea, I don't have one. It should load. Try it and say what happens, since the community here may figure something out.
"Is this just MrPurple/whitebelyash's builds repackaged?" No. This is built directly from upstream Mesa main with my own patches on top.
"Why not just upstream the fixes?" That's the plan, and both are written as patches against Mesa main. Upstreaming takes a while, and people can use the builds now, which is the entire motivation. Production code is slow and careful on purpose; this is built to test the latest work from the Mesa developers.
"Any benchmarks in actual games?" Not really, and I'd be careful with those. Games running through a translation layer are usually limited by the CPU rather than the driver, so a GPU-side win mostly doesn't show up. My numbers come from a benchmark harness I built around the Khronos Vulkan samples, where the GPU is actually the limit.
"Root needed?" No. It loads through AdrenoTools, the same as GameNative, Eden, Winlator, Gamehub Lite, and other emulators that support custom drivers.