Intel Updates Its Linux Graphics Installer For Ubuntu 14.04 & Fedora 20

This week Intel updated its Linux Graphics Installer for Fedora 20 and Ubuntu 14.04, but as usual, it's really nothing too special and doesn't earn my high recommendation as there's better ways for users to be running the latest open-source graphics code.

The Intel Linux Graphics Installer 1.0.7 release makes it easy to deploy their "2014Q3 Linux Graphics Stack" on the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Fedora 20 and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. The 2014Q3 stack is defined as the Linux 3.16.2 kernel, Mesa 10.3, xf86-video-intel 2.99.911, libdrm 2.4.56, libva 1.4.0, and X.Org Server 1.16.0. These software components have been talked about for a long while already on Phoronix.

Those wishing to try the Intel Linux Graphics Installer on Fedora/Ubuntu can visit Intel's 01.org. However, rather than using their static quarterly updates, I'd recommend using other PPAs on Ubuntu and Copr repositories for Fedora. Using the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA any Ubuntu user can easily download a newer kernel release -- depending upon your comfort level, either the latest stable release or if desired a release candidate or daily snapshot of the in-development kernel. With the Oibaf PPA, Xorg Edgers, or a number of other Launchpad Personal Package Archives out there, it's also possible to get Mesa Git snapshots along with all of the X.Org DDX drivers -- just not the Intel user-space code.

The code via these alternative approaches is newer and generally very stable across the board with Mesa Git doing better these days with regard to minimizing regressions. There's similar repositories also available to Fedora users via Copr. Fedora 20 is also more liberal with regard to sending down updated Mesa and Linux kernel packages as stable release updates. These methods will also put you in good shape even if you're an AMD Radeon or Nouveau user too. At the end of the day it's usually very worthwhile for open-source graphics driver users to run on the latest code given the continuous updates that betters the OpenGL support, performance, power management, and other functionality. My recent tests show the Intel Linux graphics driver still trailing Windows.