Linux 5.20 Looks To Be Primed For Usable DG2/Alchemist Desktop Graphics & ATS-M Support
Over the past number of kernel cycles a lot of DG2/Alchemist graphics code has been merged into the i915 kernel Direct Rendering Manage driver. Especially for the current Linux 5.19 cycle, a lot of code landed: Linux 5.19 exposes the compute user-space ABI support for DG2 class hardware. Linux 5.19 also added PCI IDs for some DG2 parts that turned out to be for some of the notebook Arc Graphics. And there's been a lot of other DG2 material that made it into Linux 5.19 from workarounds to feature work.
With the Intel graphics changes so far to DRM-Next for Linux 5.20, there is early enablement work working towards Ponte Vecchio Xe HPC support but there is also the initial "small BAR" bits.
It looks like getting the small BAR support ready was the last of the low-level enablement needed before Intel engineers were ready to add in the desktop GPU PCI IDs and Arctic Sound M adapter as well. On Friday this patch was submitted that adds in the PCI IDs for add-in card designs of DG2 and Arctic Sound M.
Small BAR support has now landed, which allows us to add the PCI IDs that correspond to add-in card designs of DG2 and ATS-M. There's also one additional MB-down PCI ID that recently appeared (0x5698) so we add it too.
The Intel Alchemist G10 IDs added include 0x56A0, 0x56A1, and 0x56A2. The Alchemist G11 IDs added are 0x5698, 0x56A5, 0x56A6, and 0x56B1. There is also Alchemist G12 parts of 0x56A3, 0x56A4, and 0x56B3 for rounding out these now-enabled DG2/Alchemist desktop graphics cards and Arctic Sound M.
Intel Arc Graphics
This patch has been queued for drm-intel-gt-next, which in turn in the next week or two should be sent to the DRM-Next tree for then debuting with the Linux 5.20 kernel later this year... The Linux 5.20 merge window will open later this month while the Linux 5.20 stable release won't be out until the end of September. Unfortunately, Ubuntu 22.10 is more likely to ship with Linux 5.19 than 5.20 due to that timing, but at least Fedora Workstation sees new kernel releases, Arch Linux keeps on rolling, etc. We'll see if/what sort of extra packaging options (DKMS modules, any PPAs, etc) Intel may provide as well for Arc Graphics desktop graphics card customers for Linux when these products launch later this year for easing the Linux driver support stack for those on older kernels. But now with these PCI IDs added, Linux 5.20 will be the base upstream kernel that has these add-in card IDs and ATS-M in place. Mesa 22.2 or possibly the current stable 22.1 will be around the sweet spot on the OpenGL/Vulkan driver side. But as with all new graphics processors, generally sticking to the newest kernel and Mesa as possible will yield the best features and performance.
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