[rcore][drm] Link failure for `eglGetPlatformDisplay()` on Mali GPUs with stripped EGL symbol tables

[KamilloDev]

Issue description

When compiling raylib 6.0 with PLATFORM=PLATFORM_DRM on devices with Mali GPUs (specifically Mali-G52), the build fails with:

/usr/bin/ld: /usr/local/lib/libraylib.a(rcore.o): in function `InitPlatform':
rcore.c:(.text+0x1dfa4): undefined reference to `eglGetPlatformDisplay'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Root Cause
In src/platforms/rcore_drm.c, the #if defined(EGL_VERSION_1_5) check is a compile-time preprocessor check. Since libegl1-mesa-dev defines EGL_VERSION_1_5 in its headers, the preprocessor always takes the top branch and compiles a direct call to eglGetPlatformDisplay.
However, the Mali driver ships libEGL.so as a stripped binary, the function physically exists in the binary but the symbol table is removed, so the linker cannot resolve it by name at link time even though it would work at runtime.

This can be confirmed with:

nm /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libEGL.so
# nm: no symbols

strings /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libEGL.so.1 | grep eglGetPlatformDisplay
# eglGetPlatformDisplay

Because of this the existing #else fallback to eglGetDisplay never makes it into the compiled binary at all, the preprocessor removes it before compilation.

Workaround

Until fixed, patching rcore_drm.c line 1417 to use eglGetDisplay directly works:
platform.device = eglGetDisplay((EGLNativeDisplayType)platform.gbmDevice);

Environment

Device: Powkiddy RGB30
GPU: Mali-G52
OS: dArkOS (Debian Trixie based)
EGL: Mesa 25.0.7 (pkg-config --modversion egl reports 1.5)

Code Example

#include "raylib.h"

int main(void)
{
    InitWindow(720, 720, "raylib example - basic window");

    while (!WindowShouldClose())
    {
        BeginDrawing();
            ClearBackground(RAYWHITE);
            DrawText("Congrats! You created your first window!", 190, 200, 20, LIGHTGRAY);
        EndDrawing();
    }

    CloseWindow();

    return 0;
}

[raysan5]

I see, this is a tricky issue because eglPlatformDisplay() should be available when EGL_VERSION_1_5 defined... not sure how to address it...

[tommego]

On rockchip buildoort linux version, it works on this way: (rcore_drm.c)

// init extra egl proc addresses
#include <GLES2/gl2ext.h>

static PFNEGLCREATEIMAGEKHRPROC eglCreateImageKHR;
static PFNEGLDESTROYIMAGEKHRPROC eglDestroyImageKHR;
static PFNGLEGLIMAGETARGETTEXTURE2DOESPROC eglEGLImageTargetTexture2DOES;
static PFNGLEGLIMAGETARGETRENDERBUFFERSTORAGEOESPROC eglImageTargetRenderbufferStorageOES;
static PFNEGLCREATESYNCKHRPROC eglCreateSyncKHR;
static PFNEGLCLIENTWAITSYNCKHRPROC eglClientWaitSyncKHR;
static PFNEGLDESTROYSYNCKHRPROC eglDestroySyncKHR;
static PFNEGLGETPLATFORMDISPLAYEXTPROC eglGetPlatformDisplayExt;
static PFNEGLCREATEPLATFORMWINDOWSURFACEEXTPROC eglCreatePlatformWindowSurfaceEXT;
void init_egl_procs()
{
    // egl procs
    if(!eglGetPlatformDisplayExt)
    {
        // Use this address to create a display context
        eglGetPlatformDisplayExt                   = (PFNEGLGETPLATFORMDISPLAYEXTPROC)eglGetProcAddress("eglGetPlatformDisplayEXT");

       // This function is used to do something like zero copy texture uploading (dma buffer, for examples rkmpp h264/h265 decode->dma texture)
        eglCreateImageKHR                       = (PFNEGLCREATEIMAGEKHRPROC)eglGetProcAddress("eglCreateImageKHR");
        eglDestroyImageKHR                      = (PFNEGLDESTROYIMAGEKHRPROC)eglGetProcAddress("eglDestroyImageKHR");
        
        // If you need to create a render texture with anti-aliasing(MSAA)...
        eglEGLImageTargetTexture2DOES           = (PFNGLEGLIMAGETARGETTEXTURE2DOESPROC)eglGetProcAddress("glEGLImageTargetTexture2DOES");
        eglImageTargetRenderbufferStorageOES    = (PFNGLEGLIMAGETARGETRENDERBUFFERSTORAGEOESPROC)eglGetProcAddress("glEGLImageTargetRenderbufferStorageOES");
        
       //  Sync procs
        eglCreateSyncKHR                        = (PFNEGLCREATESYNCKHRPROC)eglGetProcAddress("eglCreateSyncKHR");    
        eglDestroySyncKHR                       = (PFNEGLDESTROYSYNCKHRPROC)eglGetProcAddress("eglDestroySyncKHR");
        eglClientWaitSyncKHR                    = (PFNEGLCLIENTWAITSYNCKHRPROC)eglGetProcAddress("eglClientWaitSyncKHR");
      
      // Not sure when to use it, I forgot.  
      eglCreatePlatformWindowSurfaceEXT       = (PFNEGLCREATEPLATFORMWINDOWSURFACEEXTPROC)eglGetProcAddress("eglCreatePlatformWindowSurfaceEXT");
    }
}

int InitPlatform(void)
{
    init_egl_procs();
    // raylib inner init flow codes...

    // Get an EGL device connection
    // platform.device = eglGetDisplay((EGLNativeDisplayType)platform.gbmDevice); // this way cannot work
    platform.device = eglGetPlatformDisplayExt(EGL_PLATFORM_GBM_MESA, (EGLNativeDisplayType)platform.gbmDevice, NULL); // nice!
    if (platform.device == EGL_NO_DISPLAY)
    {
        TRACELOG(LOG_WARNING, "DISPLAY: Failed to initialize EGL device");
        return -1;
    }
    // raylib inner init flow codes...
}

// it works well on rockchip linux platform

on rockchip platform, you must add -EGL -GLESv2 -mali links to your project