Another Intel Linux Graphics Driver Release

Intel has released a new open-source X.Org driver for their Intel graphics since it was only just discovered that the Ivy Bridge GT1 "HD 2500" graphics were busted.

Just days after releasing xf86-video-intel 2.20.1, which came just a week after the big 2.20 release, Chris Wilson has released a third update. The xf86-video-intel 2.20.2 driver takes care of a critical Intel Ivy Bridge issue while also packing more SNA acceleration architecture improvements.

The Ivy Bridge issue comes down to the fact that it was just realized the wrong thread count for the pixel shader was set for Ivy Bridge HD 2500 (GT1) hardware within their open-source X.Org driver. The invalid number of threads for the pixel shader in turn caused this lower-end Ivy Bridge hardware to hang. The 2.20.2 update fixes this for Intel HD 2500 system owners.

The higher-end Intel Ivy Bridge processors like the Intel Core i7 3770K are using Intel HD 4000 graphics that are unaffected by this issue. (Speaking of the HD 2500 graphics, Intel did send over an Intel Ivy Bridge processor sample to me a few weeks ago for running HD 2500 Linux testing, but it was evidently lost by the UPS courier in transit, so now there's more waiting before having HD 2500 IVB Linux benchmarks.)

Aside from the Ivy Bridge GT1 fix for Linux users, there's also more than two dozen other SNA-related bug-fixes by Chris Wilson -- he continues to dominate this driver.

Other extra changes include supporting the GMUX backlight controller on Apple laptops with Intel graphics and fixing X -configure for only recognizing Intel VGA devices.

The xf86-video-intel 2.20.2 release announcement and links to the packaged source code can be found on the intel-gfx mailing list.