TDM running on the Raspberry Pi 5 - is it possible?

[HairlessHeBald]

Hello all,

I get TDM errors about not being able to creating a GL window, and then it quits.

I've checked the Mesa drivers and get the rotating cube  kmscube  to verify that all is up to date.

Has anyone else actually managed to get this running on a pi 5 8GB?

 

Many thanks,

 

 

 

 

[BOX64] Using native(wrapped) libX11-xcb.so.1
Initializing OpenGL display
Borderless fullscreen - using current video mode for monitor 0: 1920 x 1080
[BOX64] Using native(wrapped) libGLX.so.0
Failed creating window
Retrying OpenGL initialization in safe mode
Initializing OpenGL display
Failed creating window
--------- Game Map Shutdown ----------
--------- Game Map Shutdown done -----
idRenderSystem::Shutdown()
[BOX64] 282970|Ask to run at NULL, will segfault
signal caught: Segmentation fault
si_code 1
Was in fatal error shutdown: Unable to initialize OpenGL
Trying to exit gracefully..

 

 

 

[Bikerdude]

"Was in fatal error shutdown: Unable to initialize OpenGL"

On a windows PC this error normally means the GPU driver isnt installed. I assume your running Raspberry OS, does this come with an OpenGL stack installed on the desktop version of that linux distro..? @Dragofer might be able to answer/help with this..

Edited February 15 by Bikerdude

[covert_caedes]

Does glxgears work?

If it does, what does glxgears -info print to the console?

[HairlessHeBald]

I didn't have those installed, now installed... 

sudo snap install graphics-test-tools

sudo apt-get install mesa-utils

and now I get the 3 spinning cogs (chuffed with that!)

glxgears -info

 

but running ./thedarkmod.x64 

Quits with...

Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
GL_RENDERER   = V3D 7.1.7.0
GL_VERSION    = 3.1 Mesa 25.0.7-2+rpt3
GL_VENDOR     = Broadcom
GL_EXTENSIONS = GL_ARB_multisample GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_blend_color GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_blend_subtract

.....lots of GL_s.....

GL_EXT_EGL_image_storage_compression GL_NV_ES1_1_compatibility 
VisualID 415, 0x19f
X connection to :0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).

Any thoughts?  Has anyone ever got it running on a pi 5?  I've got a 4 around here somewhere....

 

[HairlessHeBald]

apologies, running darkmod puts this out now..

BOX64] Using native(wrapped) libX11-xcb.so.1
Initializing OpenGL display
Borderless fullscreen - using current video mode for monitor 0: 1024 x 768
[BOX64] Using native(wrapped) libGLX.so.0
Failed creating window
Retrying OpenGL initialization in safe mode
Initializing OpenGL display
Failed creating window
--------- Game Map Shutdown ----------
--------- Game Map Shutdown done -----
idRenderSystem::Shutdown()
[BOX64] 449357|Ask to run at NULL, will segfault
signal caught: Segmentation fault
si_code 1
Was in fatal error shutdown: Unable to initialize OpenGL
Trying to exit gracefully..
About to exit with code 0

 

[stgatilov]

I think TDM currently requires GL 3.3 core:

#define QGL_REQUIRED_VERSION_MAJOR 3
#define QGL_REQUIRED_VERSION_MINOR 3

[nbohr1more]

I think you would need to use the DIII4a port which includes an ARM \ Android friendly engine:

 

[HairlessHeBald]

Wow...AI came back with

MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=3.3 box64 ./thedarkmod.x64

 

and it works!

 

Bikerdude, time for me to catchup thieving where I left off a few years ago... this is gonna be fun!

 

Thanks to all for the help.

 

 

[covert_caedes]

Does it have playable performance?

 

By the way, you might be able to build TDM natively from source (https://github.com/stgatilov/darkmod_src), which should decrease CPU overhead (no translation from x86 to ARM).

No idea if TDM works (or even builds) on ARM though.

[HairlessHeBald]

It's certainly playable after using all the suggestions for bloom, soft shadows etc.  While not as fast as the PC 5800X3d with the 2060 super ...the pi 5 is always on...and I don't need to turn the heating off to balance the fridge working overtime.

Thanks covert_caedes, I'm gonna give the build on ARM a go...

[stgatilov]

On 2/17/2026 at 8:12 PM, covert_caedes said:

No idea if TDM works (or even builds) on ARM though.

I believe I made some cleaning regarding this in the past.
Also, it was built successfully on Elbrus at some moment... but its compiler is more like x86 because it can translate some x86 intrinsics.

But the hardest problem will be building all the third-party libs I think.
CiScripts/conan_build.py shows how to use "conan build" to build both TDM and third-party libs.
But if something does not work, troubleshooting it will be painful.