Since Intel provides and supports open source drivers, Intel graphics are essentially plug-and-play.
For a comprehensive list of Intel GPU models and corresponding chipsets and CPUs, see Wikipedia:List of Intel graphics processing units.
Note: PowerVR-based graphics (GMA 3600 series) are not supported by open source drivers.
According to someone on the gentoo forums, 'X -configure does not work with KMS.' This might explain the immediate cause but not the entire cause. According to the Intel GPU page, KMS is a modesetting method used by newer Intel drivers. The Xorg configuration wizard does not list any monitor or video card. These fields are greyed out. Just be patient. If absolutely necessary, then it is possible to use the epatchuser command with the nvidia-drivers ebuilds: this allows the user to patch nvidia-drivers to somehow fit in with the latest, unsupported kernel release. Do note that neither the nvidia-drivers maintainers nor NVIDIA will support this situation.
- 2Loading
- 4Module-based options
- 5Tips and tricks
- 6Troubleshooting
Installation
Install the mesa package, which provides the DRI driver for 3D acceleration.
- For 32-bit application support, also install the lib32-mesa package from the multilib repository.
- For the DDX driver (which provides 2D acceleration in Xorg), install the xf86-video-intel package. (Often not recommended, see note below.)
- For Vulkan support (Ivy Bridge and newer), install the vulkan-intel package.
Also see Hardware video acceleration.
Note: Some (Debian & Ubuntu, Fedora, KDE) recommend not installing the xf86-video-intel driver, and instead falling back on the modesetting driver for Gen4 and newer GPUs (GMA 3000 from 2006 and newer). See [1], [2], Xorg#Installation, and modesetting(4). However, the modesetting driver can cause problems such as Chromium Issue 370022.
Loading
The Intel kernel module should load fine automatically on system boot.
If it does not happen, then:
- Make sure you do not have
nomodeset
orvga=
as a kernel parameter, since Intel requires kernel mode-setting. - Also, check that you have not disabled Intel by using any modprobe blacklisting within
/etc/modprobe.d/
or/usr/lib/modprobe.d/
.
Enable early KMS
Kernel mode setting (KMS) is supported by Intel chipsets that use the i915 DRM driver and is mandatory and enabled by default.
Refer to Kernel mode setting#Early KMS start for instructions on how to enable KMS as soon as possible at the boot process.
Enable GuC / HuC firmware loading
For Skylake and newer processors, some video features (e.g. CBR rate control on SKL low-power encoding mode) may require the use of an updated GPU firmware, which is currently (as of 4.16) not enabled by default. Enabling GuC/HuC firmware loading can cause issues on some systems; disable it if you experience freezing (for example, after resuming from hibernation).
Note: See Gentoo:Intel#Feature support for an overview of Intel processor generations.
For those processors it is necessary to add
i915.enable_guc=2
to the kernel parameters to enable both GuC and HuC firmware loading. Alternatively, if the initramfs already includes the i915
module (see Kernel mode setting#Early KMS start), you can set these options through a file in /etc/modprobe.d/
, e.g.:This article or section is out of date.
Reason: GuC submission has been completely disabled in the kernel, due to it reducing performance and causing bugs. Setting
enable_guc=3
has no effect. (Discuss in Talk:Intel graphics#)Note: It is possible to enable both GuC/HuC firmware loading and GuC submission by using the
enable_guc=3
module parameter, although this is generally discouraged and may even negatively affect your system stability.You can verify both are enabled by using dmesg:
Alternatively, check using:
Warning: Using GVT-g graphics virtualization by setting
enable_gvt=1
is not supported as of linux 4.20.11 when GuC/HuC is also enabled. The i915 module would fail to initialize as shown in system journal.Xorg configuration
There may be no need for any configuration to run Xorg.
However, if Xorg does not start, and to take advantage of some driver options, you can create an Xorg configuration file similar to the one below:
![Gentoo Intel Graphics Drivers Gentoo Intel Graphics Drivers](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125880789/964885637.png)
Additional options are added by the user on new lines below
Note:Driver
.For the full list of options, see the intel(4) man page.- You may need to indicate
Option 'AccelMethod'
when creating a configuration file, even just to set it to the default method (currently'sna'
); otherwise, X may crash. - You might need to add more device sections than the one listed above. This will be indicated where necessary.
Module-based options
The
i915
kernel module allows for configuration via module options. Some of the module options impact power saving.A list of all options along with short descriptions and default values can be generated with the following command:
To check which options are currently enabled, run
You will note that many options default to -1, resulting in per-chip powersaving defaults. It is however possible to configure more aggressive powersaving by using module options.
Warning: Diverting from the defaults will mark the kernel as tainted from Linux 3.18 onwards. This basically implies using other options than the per-chip defaults is considered experimental and not supported by the developers.
Framebuffer compression (enable_fbc)
Making use of Framebuffer compression (FBC) can reduce power consumption while reducing memory bandwidth needed for screen refreshes.
To enable FBC, use
Note: Framebuffer compression may be unreliable or unavailable on Intel GPU generations before Sandy Bridge (generation 6). This results in messages logged to the system journal similar to this one:i915.enable_fbc=1
as kernel parameter or set in /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
:Enabling frame buffer compression on pre-Sandy Bridge CPUs results in endless error messages:
The solution is to disable frame buffer compression which will imperceptibly increase power consumption (around 0.06 W). In order to disable it add i915.enable_fbc=0
to the kernel line parameters. More information on the results of disabled compression can be found here.Fastboot
The goal of Intel Fastboot is to preserve the frame-buffer as setup by the BIOS or bootloader to avoid any flickering until Xorg has started [3].
To enable fastboot, set
i915.fastboot=1
as kernel parameter or set in /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
:Warning: This parameter is not enabled by default and may cause issues on some older (pre-Skylake) systems.[4]
Intel GVT-g graphics virtualization support
![Gentoo intel media driver Gentoo intel media driver](http://www.securitronlinux.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/root.jpeg)
See Intel GVT-g for details.
Tips and tricks
Setting scaling mode
This can be useful for some full screen applications:
where
param
can be:center
: resolution will be kept exactly as defined, no scaling will be made,full
: scale the resolution so it uses the entire screen orfull_aspect
: scale the resolution to the maximum possible but keep the aspect ratio.
If it does not work, try:
where
param
is one of 'Full'
, 'Center'
or 'Full aspect'
.Note: This option currently does not work for external displays (e.g. VGA, DVI, HDMI, DP). [5]
Hardware accelerated H.264 decoding on GMA 4500
The libva-intel-driver package only provides hardware accelerated MPEG-2 decoding for GMA 4500 series GPUs. The H.264 decoding support is maintained in a separated g45-h264 branch, which can be used by installing libva-intel-driver-g45-h264AUR package. Note however that this support is experimental and its development has been abandoned. Using the VA-API with this driver on a GMA 4500 series GPU will offload the CPU but may not result in as smooth a playback as non-accelerated playback. Tests using mplayer showed that using vaapi to play back an H.264 encoded 1080p video halved the CPU load (compared to the XV overlay) but resulted in very choppy playback, while 720p worked reasonably well [6]. This is echoed by other experiences [7].Setting the preallocated video ram size higher in bios results in much better hardware decoded playback. Even 1080p h264 works well if this is done.Smooth playback (1080p/720p) works also with mpv-gitAUR in combination with ffmpeg-gitAUR and libva-intel-driver-g45-h264AUR. With MPV and the Firefox plugin 'Watch with MPV'[8] it is possible to watch hardware accelerated YouTube videos.
Alternative OpenGL Driver (Iris)
As of Mesa 19.2, a new OpenGL driver, Iris, is available for testing. Certain applications run faster with it. You may experimentally enable it by setting the
MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=iris
environment variable before starting any OpenGL application. This setting does not affect Vulkan applications.Warning: Iris is still experimental - applications might crash or render incorrectly. Use with care and report found bugs/regressions.
Overriding reported OpenGL version
The
MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE
environment variable can be used to override the reported OpenGL version to any application. For example, setting MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5
will report OpenGL 4.5.Warning: You can use this variable to report any known OpenGL version, even if it is not supported by the GPU. Some applications might no longer crash, some may start crashing - you probably do not want to set this variable globally.
Setting brightness and gamma
See Backlight.
Troubleshooting
Tearing
The SNA acceleration method causes tearing on some machines. To fix this, enable the
'TearFree'
option in the driver by adding the following line to your configuration file:See the original bug report for more info.
Note:- This option may not work when
SwapbuffersWait
isfalse
. - This option may increase memory allocation considerably and reduce performance. [9]
- This option is problematic for applications that are very picky about vsync timing, like Super Meat Boy.
- This option does not work with UXA acceleration method, only with SNA.
Disable Vertical Synchronization (VSYNC)
Useful when:
- Chomium/Chrome has lags and slow performance due to GPU and runs smoothly with --disable-gpu switch
- glxgears test does not show desired performance
The intel-driver uses Triple Buffering for vertical synchronization, this allows for full performance and avoids tearing. To turn vertical synchronization off (e.g. for benchmarking) use this
.drirc
in your home directory:Note: Do not use driconfAUR to create this file. It is buggy and will set the wrong driver.
SNA issues
SNA is the default acceleration method in xf86-video-intel. If you experience issues with SNA (e.g. pixelated graphics, corrupt text, etc.), try using UXA instead, which can be done by adding the following line to your configuration file:
See intel(4) under
Option 'AccelMethod'
.DRI3 issues
DRI3 is the default DRI version in xf86-video-intel. On some systems this can cause issues such as this. To switch back to DRI2 add the following line to your configuration file:
For the
modesetting
driver, this method of disabling DRI3 does not work. Instead, one can set the environment variable LIBGL_DRI3_DISABLE=1
.Font and screen corruption in GTK applications (missing glyphs after suspend/resume)
Should you experience missing font glyphs in GTK applications, the following workaround might help. Edit
/etc/environment
to add the following line:See also FreeDesktop bug 88584.
Blank screen during boot, when 'Loading modules'
If using 'late start' KMS and the screen goes blank when 'Loading modules', it may help to add
i915
and intel_agp
to the initramfs. See Kernel mode setting#Early KMS start section.Alternatively, appending the following kernel parameter seems to work as well:
If you need to output to VGA then try this:
X freeze/crash with intel driver
Some issues with X crashing, GPU hanging, or problems with X freezing, can be fixed by disabling the GPU usage with the
NoAccel
option - add the following lines to your configuration file:Alternatively, try to disable the 3D acceleration only with the
DRI
option:Baytrail complete freeze
If you are using kernel > 3.16 on Baytrail architecture and randomly encounter total system freezes, the following kernel option is a workaround until this bug is fixed in the linux kernel.
This is originally an Intel CPU bug that can be triggered by certain c-state transitions. It can also happen with Linux kernel 3.16 or Windows, though apparently much more rarely.The kernel option will prevent the freeze by avoiding c-state transitions but will also increase power consumption.
Adding undetected resolutions
This issue is covered on the Xrandr page.
Backlight is not adjustable
If after resuming from suspend, the hotkeys for changing the screen brightness do not take effect, check your configuration against the Backlight article.
If the problem persists, try one of the following kernel parameters:
Also make sure you are not using fastboot mode (i915.fastboot kernel parameter), it is known for breaking backlight controls.
Corruption/Unresponsiveness in Chromium and Firefox
If you experience corruption, unresponsiveness, lags or slow performance in Chromium and/or Firefox:
Kernel crashing w/kernels 4.0+ on Broadwell/Core-M chips
A few seconds after X/Wayland loads the machine will freeze and journalctl will log a kernel crash referencing the Intel graphics as below:
This can be fixed by disabling execlist support which was changed to default on with kernel 4.0. Add the following kernel parameter:
This is known to be broken to at least kernel 4.0.5.
Lag in Windows guests
The video output of a Windows guest in VirtualBox sometimes hangs until the host forces a screen update (e.g. by moving the mouse cursor). Removing the
enable_fbc=1
option fixes this issue.Screen flickering
Panel Self Refresh (PSR), a power saving feature used by Intel iGPUs is known to cause flickering in some instances FS#49628FS#49371FS#50605. A temporary solution is to disable this feature using the kernel parameter
i915.enable_psr=0
.OpenGL 2.1 with i915 driver
The update of mesa from version 13.x to 17 may break support for OpenGL 2.1 on third gen Intel GPUs (GMA3100, see here), as described in this article, reverting it back to OpenGL 1.4. However this could be restored manually by setting
/etc/drirc
or ~/.drirc
options like:Note: the reason of this step back was Chromium and other apps bad experience. If needed, you might edit the drirc file in a 'app-specific' style, see here, to disable gl2.1 on executable chromium for instance.
KMS Issue: console is limited to small area
One of the low-resolution video ports may be enabled on boot which is causing the terminal to utilize a small area of the screen. To fix, explicitly disable the port with an i915 module setting with
video=SVIDEO-1:d
in the kernel command line parameter in the bootloader. See Kernel parameters for more info.If that does not work, try disabling TV1 or VGA1 instead of SVIDEO-1. Video port names can be listed with xrandr.
Weathered colors (color range problems)
The 'Broadcast RGB' property in the Intel driver defines the color range which can be used by the display - either 'Limited 16:235' (which limits the color range for some displays that can't properly display all colors) and 'Full'. Since kernel 3.9, the new default property 'Automatic' tries to determine whenever the display supports the full color range, and if it doesn't/detection fails, color range falls back to 'Limited 16:235'. This results in weathered colors and grey blacks. On some displays/connectors, despite the full color range being supported properly, automatic detection fails and falls back to the limited color range (upstream bug report, kernels 4.18-4.20).
You can forcefully set the desired color range by running
xrandr --output <OUT> --set 'Broadcast RGB' 'Full'
(replace <OUT>
with the appropriate output device, listed by running xrandr
). There is no way to persist this setting in xorg.conf
.See also
- https://01.org/linuxgraphics/documentation (includes a list of supported hardware)
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