diff --git a/src/gallium/drivers/panfrost/pan_screen.c b/src/gallium/drivers/panfrost/pan_screen.c
index 7422ca75c93..d8bf73de53d 100644
--- a/src/gallium/drivers/panfrost/pan_screen.c
+++ b/src/gallium/drivers/panfrost/pan_screen.c
@@ -776,9 +776,10 @@ panfrost_create_screen(int fd, struct renderonly *ro)
                 return NULL;
 
         struct panfrost_device *dev = pan_device(&screen->base);
-        panfrost_open_device(screen, fd, dev);
 
+        /* Debug must be set first for pandecode to work correctly */
         dev->debug = debug_get_flags_option("PAN_MESA_DEBUG", panfrost_debug_options, 0);
+        panfrost_open_device(screen, fd, dev);
 
         if (dev->debug & PAN_DBG_NO_AFBC)
                 dev->quirks |= MIDGARD_NO_AFBC;
@@ -812,9 +813,6 @@ panfrost_create_screen(int fd, struct renderonly *ro)
                 return NULL;
         }
 
-        if (dev->debug & (PAN_DBG_TRACE | PAN_DBG_SYNC))
-                pandecode_initialize(!(dev->debug & PAN_DBG_TRACE));
-
         screen->base.destroy = panfrost_destroy_screen;
 
         screen->base.get_name = panfrost_get_name;
diff --git a/src/panfrost/lib/pan_props.c b/src/panfrost/lib/pan_props.c
index d125aa3e4bf..be13c7d907b 100644
--- a/src/panfrost/lib/pan_props.c
+++ b/src/panfrost/lib/pan_props.c
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@
 #include "panfrost-quirks.h"
 #include "pan_bo.h"
 #include "pan_texture.h"
+#include "wrap.h"
+#include "pan_util.h"
 
 /* Abstraction over the raw drm_panfrost_get_param ioctl for fetching
  * information about devices */
@@ -247,6 +249,10 @@ panfrost_open_device(void *memctx, int fd, struct panfrost_device *dev)
         for (unsigned i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(dev->bo_cache.buckets); ++i)
                 list_inithead(&dev->bo_cache.buckets[i]);
 
+        /* Initialize pandecode before we start allocating */
+        if (dev->debug & (PAN_DBG_TRACE | PAN_DBG_SYNC))
+                pandecode_initialize(!(dev->debug & PAN_DBG_TRACE));
+
         /* Tiler heap is internally required by the tiler, which can only be
          * active for a single job chain at once, so a single heap can be
          * shared across batches/contextes */