Edited by klaafstra99 at 2017-10-11 04:13
Did not see the announcement here yet, so I guess it adds something here!
Finally (for what it's worth) the MALI GPU driver is supposed to work with the mainline kernels for our beloved Allwinner SOC's:
click here (link to CNX). Announced kernel revisions are 4.6 - 4.14.
The article on cnx-software also mentions that the LIMA project is not completely dead...
So yes, a couple of years (too little) too late there will be support for your MALI GPU in mainline. There is still need to use the blobs....And no: this will not solve video-player acceleration shortcomings.
More details can be found
here.