Intel Xe Graphics Driver Squeezes In More Changes Ahead Of Linux 6.11

The Intel kernel graphics driver code being queued for the Linux 6.11 kernel already has added the initial Intel Battlemage PCI IDs, Battlemage display support, eDP Panel Replay support, Hardware Replay to help with hang debugging, SR-IOV preparations, and more Lunar Lake / Xe2 enablement. Today another unexpected last minute pull request was submitted of a bit more Xe driver code.

Intel maintainer Rodrigo Vivi sent out this "drm-xe-next" pull today with some fixes and other last minute items like extending a Lunar Lake workaround to also take affect on Battlemage GPUs and continued SR-IOV preparations.

The Intel Xe driver highlights this pull include:

- Fix in migration code
- Simplification in HWMon related code
- Fix in forcewake logic
- Fix engine utilization information
- Clean up on MOCS related code
- Fix on multicast register
- Fix TLB invalidation timeout
- More SRIOV preparation
- Fix out-of-bounds array access)
- Fixes around some mutex utilization
- Expand LNL workaround to BMG

See this pull request for all the details.

The Intel driver developers are busy getting Xe into shape for Lunar Lake and Battlemage where it will be the first to default to this modern successor to the i915 driver. For existing Intel Tigerlake graphics and newer, the Xe driver is optionally used over i915 but not by default. As of Linux 6.11 it's looking like the Lunar Lake and Battlemage support will remain disabled by default / hidden behind the module "force_probe" parameter... We'll see if that changes after the merge window for Linux 6.11 or if it won't be until 6.12+ where these Xe2 integrated and discrete GPUs are officially considered supported.

The Linux 6.11 merge window opens up mid-July while the stable kernel won't be out until mid to late September. With Lunar Lake laptops expected in Q3, it will be interesting to see how the hardware support stacks up with Linux 6.11. Lunar Lake's Linux support overall appears to be in shape but it's around the Xe2 graphics that still appears to be settling.