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Disable Impeller on Linux - #2080
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Impeller became the default Linux renderer in Flutter 3.47. With the Mesa SVGA3D driver (VMware with 3D acceleration) it draws blank and partial frames, so the whole window flickers (flutter/flutter#192915). Release builds ignore FLUTTER_ENGINE_SWITCHES, so users cannot opt out themselves. Go back to Skia, the renderer used before 3.47.
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Summary
Flutter 3.47 made Impeller the default Linux renderer. On the Mesa SVGA3D driver (VMware with 3D acceleration) Impeller draws blank and partial frames, so the whole window keeps flickering. Upstream: flutter/flutter#192915 (open, P2).
Release builds ignore
FLUTTER_ENGINE_SWITCHES, so--no-enable-impelleris not available to users. The runner opts out instead:g_autoptr(FlDartProject) project = fl_dart_project_new(); fl_dart_project_set_dart_entrypoint_arguments(project, self->dart_entrypoint_arguments); +fl_dart_project_set_enable_impeller(project, FALSE);This covers every Flutter view in the app:
Evidence
VMware Fusion, Ubuntu 24.04.3 aarch64, GNOME Wayland, Mesa 25.2.8
SVGA3D. Release 6.3.2 binary, 8 screenshots in a burst per run.LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1After: stable frames. The differences in the burst were only the unread count changing.
The "Impeller disabled" run injected
fl_dart_project_set_enable_impeller(project, FALSE)into the existing release binary withLD_PRELOAD. A build from this branch has not been run yet. CIflutter build linuxchecks that it compiles.Merge Danger
Door: two-way
Revert the line to go back to Impeller, for example once #192915 is fixed.
Blast Radius: Linux
All Linux users render with Skia again, as before 3.47. flutter/flutter#194433 reports Impeller jank on AMD radeonsi that Skia does not have, so real GPUs should not get slower. macOS and Windows are not touched.