what are the driver options for integrated Intel graphics?

GNUser · 2018-04-19 18:06:41

I'm on a T400 with integrated Intel graphics. Are there any other graphics drivers for this hardware other than i915 and VESA? My searches so far have been futile. The problem with i915 is that it gives me some occasional and unsightly artifacts, while VESA lakcs gamma ramps and therefore breaks one of my favorite applications (redshift).

This is my hardware:

bruno@thinkpad:~$ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)

devuser · 2018-05-01 09:17:03

I wonder about that too. I am on X220 and i am not even sure X uses the Intel driver. glxinfo comes up with lots of Mesa this Mesa that but then says it's accelerated and glxgears runs at 60 fps with zero load on the CPU so i guess it's not software rendering. On the other hand messing with the X config to explicitly have a display device that uses driver intel results in kernel messages about "something switch something time out" and basically made my system lock up. Might investigate further at some point but wouldn't mind someone with more experience describe what's considerd an usual setup here either.

yeti · 2018-05-01 09:27:33

I had problems with my Intel graphics on a T510 (that one still runs Debian9).
Sometimes the screen just turned black...
Since installing kernel-4.15 from backports, that didn't happen again.

(yeti@kumari:14)~$ date ; uptime
Di 1. Mai 09:25:17 UTC 2018
 09:25:17 up 15 days, 22:09, 22 users,  load average: 0,30, 0,48, 0,59

And that box occasionally dropped WiFi which didn't happen again after installing kernel-4.15 too.

devuser · 2018-05-01 09:39:38

yeti wrote:

I had problems with my Intel graphics on a T510 (that one still runs Debian9).
Sometimes the screen just turned black...
Since installing kernel-4.15 from backports, that didn't happen again.

Interesting. Actually i wanted to see how long i could go without backports but i guess it makes sense to at least try a recent kernel when investigating if this is what fixed things for you.

yeti · 2018-05-01 09:45:54

I think the kernel (maybe plus some dependencies) is the only stretch-backport I installed.

Last edited by yeti (2018-05-01 09:55:15)

GNUser · 2018-05-01 12:27:38

devuser wrote:

I am on X220 and i am not even sure X uses the Intel driver.

Yep, when I was knee-deep in troubleshooting graphics issues on my T400 (graphics-related issues were by far the most painful part of upgrading from Devuan Jessie to Devuan Ascii for me) I tried uninstalling xserver-xorg-video-intel to see what would happen. Removing it had no effect on my system.

I am on Devuan Ascii and had tried the same kernel (3.16.something) I was using when I was running Devuan Jessie on this machine. Surprisingly, I had no issues on Jessie, but Ascii had occasional graphics-related lockups during boot (see this). Therefore, since identical hardware+kernel gave me no issues on Jessie but graphics-related boot lockups on Ascii, my guess is that from Jessie to Ascii there has been a change in Xorg that is problematic for my hardware (T400 with libreboot and integrated Intel graphics).

I considered lunario's idea of downgrading X to the version in Jessie (see post #9 here), but ultimately decided to keep Ascii's X version and try my luck with different kernels. I don't know if that was wise because I ended up trying 24 different kernels from 3.14.12 to 4.16.5 and not a single one was completely trouble-free for me.

At this point, I've done more troubleshooting than I can stomach. My current setup is quite tolerable: Devuan Ascii with its default Xorg, using linux-libre 4.16.2 (and its i915 module). With this setup, my only remaining issue is a lid-related graphics bug which I can avoid by disabling the lid switch (see this).

Last edited by GNUser (2018-05-01 12:48:42)

devuser · 2018-05-01 13:07:38

Good idea about removing xserver-xorg-video-intel to see if it is actually used. All i know right now is i915 module being loaded according to lsmod and even if i don't have any obvious problems i'd really like some clarity here (even if just to rule out X choosing a wrong driver might be related to my xserver-xorg-legacy woes).

Sorry, i can't contribute much to the actual lid problem beyond saying works for me on stock kernel (no elogind, just icewm with a homebrew display manager, tlp and needs_root_rights=yes to make X work). T400 and X220 seem to be a little different hardware wise besides libreboot not being available for X220 yet so that might be a factor also.

Last edited by devuser (2018-05-01 13:09:58)

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#1 2018-04-19 18:06:41

what are the driver options for integrated Intel graphics?

#2 2018-05-01 09:17:03

Re: what are the driver options for integrated Intel graphics?

#3 2018-05-01 09:27:33

Re: what are the driver options for integrated Intel graphics?

#4 2018-05-01 09:39:38

Re: what are the driver options for integrated Intel graphics?

#5 2018-05-01 09:45:54

Re: what are the driver options for integrated Intel graphics?

#6 2018-05-01 12:27:38

Re: what are the driver options for integrated Intel graphics?

#7 2018-05-01 13:07:38

Re: what are the driver options for integrated Intel graphics?

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